Germans without a migrant history are considerably more afraid of right-wing extremism than migrants and foreigners living in the country.
This is the main result of a study released on December 6 by conservative think-tank Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) for which 3,000 people were polled.
One third of the respondents were “ethnic” Germans and another third Germans with a migrant background. The last third consisted of foreigners living in Germany.
Almost three out of four ethnic Germans said they were “afraid of right-wing extremism in Germany” with 46 per cent saying they were very afraid and 28 per cent rather afraid.
Conversely, only 66 per cent of Germans with a migrant background and 55 per cent of foreigners said they were afraid of right-wing extremism.
People with Turkish and Russian roots were more likely to worry about right-wing extremism while people of Polish descendancy were much less likely.
The study also showed that foreigners and migrants are much more likely to be prejudiced against Jews or homosexuals. with about a quarter of non-ethnic Germans exhibiting anti-Semitic or homophobic views, compared to only 4 per cent to 7 per cent of ethnic Germans.
The study was conducted between October 2024 and January 2025.
Commentators trace the difference in opinion of right-wing extremism to ethnic Germans’ much higher consumption of German mainstream media, which regularly covers the supposed rise of the extreme right-wing.
The media and political focus on the supposed dangers of right-wing extremism may even affect Germany’s domestic security, according to the German Police Trade Union (DPolG).
Speaking with newspaper Welt yesterday, DPolG chairman Manuel Ostermann accused German politicians of setting the wrong security priorities: “Those who believe right-wing extremism is the biggest threat to our free and democratic basic order are greatly mistaken. Because that threat is Islamism.”
Ostermann added that even right-wing extremism itself was not being addressed decisively as politicians failed to speak about “the biggest hard-right group in Germany”, the Turkish nationalist organisation Grey Wolves.
“Here I only see yawning silence. Politics is unable to address the problem sensibly because political correctness clearly takes precedence over everything else,” Ostermann said.
