Fighting antisemitism, right-wing extremism and racism

While global crises trigger strong energies and changes, antisemitism, right-wing extremist violence and racially motivated ideologies of inequality are increasingly threatening peaceful coexistence and social cohesion. The proliferation of these attitudes in the public communication space, reaching far into the political centre, is an indication of the threat to Western democracies, as is the new dimension of willingness to use violence. The aggressive tone is reflected in text, images and words. For Germany in particular, the danger from right-wing extremist and racially motivated crimes is to be considered high: According to the Centre for Research on Right-Wing Extremism at the University of Oslo, no other Western European country experienced as much right-wing extremist violence in 2019 as Germany. This is exacerbated by parliamentary activities of the extreme right as well as new paths of transnational online radicalisation and networking of right-wing extremist criminals, which found expression in prejudice-led attacks in recent years.

DLR Projektträger networks stakeholders from science, industry and politics

The Federal Government attaches central political importance to combating antisemitism, right-wing extremism and racism as a task for society as a whole and established the Cabinet Committee on Combating Right-Wing Extremism and Racism for this purpose in March 2020. It is intended to help politics and society to meet these challenges appropriately on the basis of scientific findings.

Among other things, the Cabinet Committee concluded that in view of the massive potential for threats and violence related to group-based hostility towards people, research at universities on these topics should be strengthened. Against this background, two funding guidelines were issued by the BMBF: the "Guideline for the Funding of Junior Research Groups in the Context of Research on Right-Wing Extremism and Racism" and the Guideline for the Funding of Projects on the Subject of "Current and Historical Dynamics of Right-Wing Extremism and Racism".

Recommendations for politics and society

As part of the project management for the implementation of the framework programme "Understanding Society – Shaping the Future", DLR Projektträger coordinates the establishment of institutional structures for the Federal Government and advises project managers who, in addition to researching the causes and consequences of right-wing extremism and racism, also develop recommendations for action and measures for politics and society. DLR Projektträger employees support this work with their own scientific expertise and network scientists with actors from politics and business as well as with researchers from other disciplines.

The aim is to address existing knowledge gaps on the individual research topics. Connecting research actors should help to underpin the knowledge base on antisemitism, right-wing extremism and racism in society and anchor these fields more firmly in the science system. This also includes the supervision of knowledge networks by DLR Projektträger which flank the research projects. They are intended to make the research topics visible in the research landscapes, bring the projects into contact with each other and create new communication spaces for research.

Sustainable impulses to combat ideologies of inequality

The sum of these activities can generate concrete and sustainable impulses to combat antisemitism, right-wing extremism, racism and other ideologies of inequality. In this way, DLR Projektträger contributes to politics and society being able to effectively oppose corresponding words and deeds – as a clear signal for a sustainable society.