Antiminority Riots in Unified Germany: Cultural Conflicts and Mischanneled Political Participation

Abstract

Two large antiforeigner riots in eastern Germany, at Hoyerswerda in September 1991 and at Rostock in August 1992, created a political sensation. They attracted far more attention, outcry, and veiled approval from political leaders than two thousand smaller assaults on foreigners that took place across unified Germany during those two years. Explanations of the riots in unified Germany and also much of the theoretical work on antiminority riots in other democratic systems have focused on three sets of causes: ethnonationalism, insecure ethnic identities, and racism; poverty, inequality, and competition between ethnic groups for scarce resources; and political elites' agitation of enmity to mobilize groups along ethnic lines.1 These analyses are flawed in two ways. First, they often treat riots as simply the most extreme manifestation of ethnic conflict and violence rather than as a qualitatitively different phenomenon. Because of their nature and their political significance, antiminority riots should be analyzed separately from other forms of ethnic conflict.2 Of course, violence is distinct from other forms of conflict in that it requires risky behavior, usually involves some confrontation with police, and has terrible consequences for its targets. Moreover, antiminority riots are a quite distinct form of ethnic violence. By antiminority riots, I mean sustained physical attacks on members of a subordinate ethnic minority group by large numbers of people who belong to the dominant ethnic group, are motivated by ethnic or racial animosity, and are not agents of the state.3 Hence antiminority riots differ from commodity riots by minority group members against property and police (often called race riots) and from hitand-run assaults by small groups against minority group members (racist violence). Moreover, antiminority riots in democratic settings have unusual political significance. Such riots often attract large numbers of approving adult spectators who are not evidently members of extreme nationalist or racist organizations. Hence politicians and news media may interpret the riots as indicators of widespread and salient ethnic antagonisms. Therefore, political reactions to antiminority riots can lead to major policy shifts, such as immigration restrictions and limitations on minority rights. Furthermore, because of the scale of the mobilization other perpetrators may try to imitate the attacks. At Hoyerswerda and Rostock crowds of many hundreds or several thousands of adults