'New facet of violence' in Germany

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http://www.dw.com/en/new-facet-of-violence-in-germany/a-18791153

A knife attack on a local politician, mock gallows for the German chancellor at an anti-migrant march, continued attacks on refugee shelters - the mood is changing, a psychologist warns.

'New facet of violence' in Germany
Interview: Dagmar Breitenbach
19.10.2015

Anti-immigrant sentiments in Germany are on the rise, and taking on harsher forms. DW spoke to Professor Andreas Zick, an expert on violence and conflict, as the anti-migrant Pegida movement gets ready to celebrate its first anniversary in the group's eastern stronghold of Dresden.

DW: A man who was active in the far-right scene in the past on Saturday stabbed the Cologne mayoral candidate responsible for refugees in the city. Germany's interior minister said the attack underlines growing concerns over hatred and violence amid the refugee crisis. Is this in fact a new "quality" of violence? Are people losing their inhibitions?

Professor Andreas Zick: Yes, we're seeing a new facet of violence. In Germany, we've had 179 right-wing extremist killings since 1990, there have been more than 500 hate crimes against asylum housing, and now, there's the same phenomenon of "lone-wolf" terrorism that we observe in the Islamist terrorist scene.

Is the mood in Germany changing?

Dramatically. A year ago, when Pegida started these marches in Dresden, we already argued that from the perspective of extremism research, the symbols and the communications via the Internet were very aggressive - it was violence-oriented from the beginning. We know the right-wing extremist milieus tried to be in the streets and also on the Internet, where they discussed what to do. Over the last few months, the idea in the radicalized milieu of not only communicating and shouting out the hate, but of acting and controlling the streets has gained momentum.