Peace Psychology in Germany

A Special Issue of Peace and Conflict

Klaus Boehnke, Daniel Fuss, Angela Kindervater

• Publisher: Psychology Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9780805894097
• eBook ISBN:
  9781135067281
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Social Psychology
• Index: Psychology

First published in 2005. This is a special issue of Peace and Conflict, the Journal of Peace Psychology, Volume II, number 3 looks at Peace Psychology in Germany. The papers include old and new antisemitic attitudes, human rights, attitudes towards War, refugees, and results from a German Six-Wave, twenty-year study.

Old and New Anti-Semitic Attitudes in the Context of Authoritarianism and Social Dominance Orientation—Two Studies in Germany

Wolfgang Frindte
Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany

Susan Wettig
University of Erfurt, Germany

Dorit Wammetsberger
Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany

On the basis of a new heuristic model of anti-Semitism, researchers are able to distinguish between new and old aspects of anti-Semitic attitudes. The results of two studies suggest that anti-Semitism in Germany contains very different aspects and the data fit the new theoretical model. Both traditional aspects, like "manifest anti-Semitism," as well as new forms of anti-Semitic attitudes, like "latent anti-Semitism," "rejection of responsibility for Jews," "anti-Israeli attitudes," and "anti-Zionism," were found. Furthermore, we identified various anti-Semitic attitudes with different predictive elements. Individuals with extreme anti-Semitic attitudes differ significantly from those without anti-Semitic attitudes with regard to the extent of authoritarianism, readiness for violence, approval of the repetition of National Socialism, and political orientation. The comparison between the two general concepts, authoritarianism and social dominance orientation, demonstrated that authoritarianism has greater utility in explaining separate aspects of old and new anti-Semitic attitudes. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Almost 60 years after the end of World War II and the National Socialist genocide of European Jews, the relationship between Germans and Jews is still characterized by tension. A new public debate about Germany's history, the Holocaust, and responsibility is emerging. Paul Spiegel, the leader of Germany's Jewish community, said, "What changed, however, is the openness in respect to the expression of anti-Semitism today .... Many anti-Semites considered it to be inopportune to expose their anti-Semitism 10 years ago. Today, they express it" (Die Zeit, 2001, p. 25).

There are only 100,000 Jews living in Germany today, compared to 80 million non-Jews. The treatment of Jewish citizens in Germany can be seen as an indicator of group relations between minorities and majorities within German society. This implies that not only do conflicts between Germans and Jews represent the way minorities are generally treated in Germany but also that the underlying causes of such conflicts, as well as the solutions proposed to remedy such conflicts, are typical. Hence, conflict between Jews and non-Jews in Germany qualifies as a relevant issue for peace research.

Theoretical Background

Anti-Semitism in Germany—Change in Social Attitudes

According to Henryk M. Broder, "there is anti-Semitism not despite, but because of Auschwitz, because the perpetrators and their inheritors are permanently reminded of their atrocities and of their failure at the same time. Each living and surviving Jew is a witness and reproach at the same time" (Broder, 1986, S. 11). The Holocaust stands as a model for the prevailing majority's way of dealing with "foreign" minorities. As Dahmer (1993) stated, dealing with "foreign" people in Europe was first practiced when interacting with the Jews.

Anti-Semitism reflects the negative stereotypes by which non-Jews try to defame the Jews as Jews (Frindte, Funke & Jacob, 1999; Horkheimer & Adorno, 1944). The forms of such defamation have changed since the end of Nazism (e.g., Bergmann & Erb, 2000; Eisinga, Konig & Scheepers, 1995; Gibson & Duch, 1992; Raden, 1993; T. W. Smith, 1993). The purpose of this article is to illustrate some of these changes from a psychological perspective.

Anti-Semitism in Germany has caused problems both within society and with regards to the examination of its underlying causal factors, its development, and its impact since the end of the Third Reich. The difficulty and complexity of the scientific analysis of this phenomenon is caused by events that occurred during the period of National Socialism and the effects of these events into the present.

Scientific research on anti-Semitism in Germany observes the emergence of a "secondary anti-Semitism," which distances itself from the Holocaust and considers the past closed. This modern hostility against Jews is linked to a public taboo regarding the past. That interaction may bring about new forms of anti-Semitic attitudes and the possible destabilization of German society. The prior research on anti-Semitic attitudes has established the necessity of a differentiated view of the phenomenon of anti-Semitism, including a consideration of its links to relevant historical, social, and individual elements. Bergmann & Erb (2000) referred to the fact that the large number of investigations conducted in Germany since 1986 have all discovered an association between anti-Semitic attitudes and a particular demographic group, in that persons expressing negative attitudes towards Jews belong to the generation that experienced National Socialism, have a low educational level, and regard themselves as both right-wing politically and as nationalists. This pattern appears to have changed and to have become more complex since the middle of the 1990s.

It is assumed that anti-Jewish attitudes are linked to a specific perception of history and current political changes. First, Sturzbecher & Freytag (2000) reached the conclusion that there are particular characteristics that distinguish anti-Semitic attitudes from "ordinary" prejudices. Anti-Jewish attitudes involve a special historical continuity, even though their contents have changed over centuries and have adapted to the respective "Zeitgeist." Furthermore, compared to prejudices against other minorities, the contents of resentments against Jews are usually strongly related to one another. In the special discourse of German anti-Semitism research, the phenomenon is generally regarded as an independent attitude complex with a distinct motive structure mainly determined by National Socialism (e.g., Bergmann & Erb, 1991; Frindte, Funke & Jacob, 1997; Frindte, Wammetsberger & Wettig, 2003; Heitmeyer,...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• A Welcome Exposure to Peace Psychology in Germany
• Introduction: Peace Psychology in Germany
• Old and New Anti-Semitic Attitudes in the Context of Authoritarianism and Social Dominance Orientation—Two Studies in Germany
• The Cognitive Representation of Human Rights: Knowledge, Importance, and Commitment
• Personal Values and Attitudes Toward War
• Social Identity in Times of International Conflict
• Once a Peacenik—Always a Peacenik? Results From a German Six-Wave, Twenty-Year Longitudinal Study
• Refugees in Church Asylum: Intervention Between Political Conflict and Individual Suffering