Prevention of Right-Wing Extremism, Xenophobia and Racism in ...

cooperation with other social institutions (e.g. families, the police, schools, and businesses),
and occasions for the the exchange of experiences and networking. Existing projects often lack
these conditions. When youth work fails due to these shortcomings it fuels the reproach that
youth work promotes rather than prevents right-wing extremism. The result is exited and con-
troversial discussions not only among experts but also throughout the general German public.
The last few years saw a change in the pedagogical efforts in this fi eld: instead of working
with young people whose problematic behaviour attracted attention, attention turned to pro-
moting the ideals of civil society and democracy, and the youth who embodied them, as well
as supporting the victims. In 2001 the German government started the “Youth for tolerance
and democracy – against right-wing extremism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism” program. This
program consists of three parts entitled “Civitas”, “Entimon” and “Xenos”. “Civitas” focuses
on developing a democratic and civil culture in the former East German states by supporting
mobile advisory teams, services for victims of politically motivated violence, and small local
initiatives. “Entimon” supports projects of political education, intercultural learning, and net-
works countering right-wing extremist tendencies in all parts of Germany. “Xenos” supports
projects that counter ethnic and religious discrimination in vocational training and the work
place. In addition there are various programs organized by individual German states or private
foundations (Möller, 2002; Rieker, 2002).
With the support of these federal, state, and privately funded programs, and stimulated
by the experiences of other countries, various approaches to prevent right-wing extremisms,
xenophobia, and anti-Semitism in youngsters by way of political education and training have
been developed. One type of projects concentrate on preventing violence, others focus on
intercultural or historical learning and on political participation. New approaches were devel-
oped on various fi elds:
Social work with right-wing extremist youth: Protagonists who originally emphasised an ap- ap-
proach that accepts young people with extremist opinions on a personal level (as described
above), have recently developed new approaches that concentrate on “justice” as a core-concept
(Krafeld, 2000), aiming to thereby generating opportunities for critical refl ection on at-
titudes and activities that promote inequality and repression. Training programs that integrate
elements of confrontation were also developed for youngsters already affected by right-wing
extremist ideologies ideologies and organisations (Osborg, 2004). Reports show that such training pro-
grams can stimulate reorientations in young participants. Nevertheless, youth work programs
based on voluntary participation have to keep in mind that youngsters might leave when con-
fronted with opposing positions advocating democratic values (Pingel & Rieker, 2002).
Community orientated social work: Approaches focussing on community related aspects try
to analyse the needs and movements of the various groups in a social fi eld. These analyses analyses
enable social workers to support xenophobic youngsters, democratic groups, and victims of
right-wing extremist violence coping with their disperate problems. The challenge of these
approaches is to maintain a balance between the confl icting needs of the various groups. To
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