It was the autumn of 1989. With the fall of the Berlin Wall, East Germans were fighting for their first chance to live in a democracy, after more than half a century of dictatorship, first Nazi then Soviet. There was a touch of magic in this new beginning; the possibility of redemption, confidence, happiness. People wanted to be part of the world again: to be free, to get going again, to do their own thing.
Now, 35 years later, support for the far right in eastern Germany is growing steadily – and its rise seems unstoppable. How did this happen to a society of apparently newly optimistic go-getters?
