Baltenstein wrote:The New California Republic wrote:Wrong. You are thinking of the West. East Germany was far more strict about nazis being barred from re-entering public life.
On the other hand, Eastern Germany's idea of self-reflecting about the role German society and culture had played in making Nazism possible was to say that the entire population of the GDR had always been proper Communists from day one and everything the Nazis had been and done was stricty the business of Western Germany and its capitalist allies. Any sociopolitical analysis of how Nazi Germany (and other fascist regimes) had worked other than "It's all the capitalists' fault" was discouraged, not least because of the unwelcomed, let's say, resemblance to how their own state worked.
Which is one of the reasons why Neo-Nazism is more widespread in Eastern Germany today than it is in the West.
Or it could be the general dissatisfaction with the left amongst East German millennials.
Or it could be that the southern areas of former East Germany have been more affected by Merkel's policies.
Or it could be that the poor economic prospects for people are pushing them towards the far right.
Or it could be just a rubberband reaction after the far right was so heavily suppressed for so long.
Or...
Or...
etc.