Anti-Semitism-Critical and Gender-Reflective Perspectives on the (Social)-Pedagogical Interaction With Right-Wing Youths in the 1990s

• In Event: Youth and Education: Intersections of Identity, Resistance, and Engagement in the 20th Century

Abstract

In the 1990s East-Germany faced increasing juvenile violence by right-wing youth in many major cities and the landscape. Far-right youth cultures were spreading rapidly. Teachers and social work practitioners from Germany were discussing this omnipresence controversially. This paper reconstructs (social-)pedagogy’s approach from a gender-informed point of view and from anti-Semitism-critical perspectives. Based on an interview sequence with a professional from East-Berlin who worked with right-wing youth the social-pedagogical conduct and policies pursued at the time are considered. The paper demonstrates how the lack of gender-reflective and anti-semitism-critical perspectives has led to a depoliticization of right-wing youth and how this affected the prevalence of ideologies of inequality within this right-wing scene.

Authors

• Esther Lehnert, Alice-Salomon University of Applied Sciences

• Lucia Bruns, Alice-Salomon University of Applied Sciences