Not my Past? Relations Between Young German Adults’ Confrontation with the Time of National Socialism and Present-Day Attitudes Towards Discrimination and Social Outgroups

Papendick M, Rees J, Zick A. Not my Past? Relations Between Young German Adults’ Confrontation with the Time of National Socialism and Present-Day Attitudes Towards Discrimination and Social Outgroups. Presented at the EASP Meeting on Intergroup Communication, Bologna.Remembrance and communication of the time of National Socialism have become topics of political and societal discourse in Germany. We examine young German adults’ ways of access to Germany’s National Socialist past (e.g., via education, media and transgenerational narratives) and how this confrontation correlates with perceptions of discrimination in society and attitudes towards refugees today, using a subsample from a representative telephone survey (N = 1.000) that was conducted to map the current status of memory culture in Germany. Results show significantly positive links between confrontation with National Socialism and the perception of (r = .63) as well as the willingness to engage in actions against discrimination (r = .48) and positive attitudes towards refugees (r = .59). These, however, are moderated by participants’ national identity, with correlations dissolving for those highly identified with Germany. Results will be discussed in the theoretical context of collective memory and social identity theory