The Return of the Ugly German?

Is the ugly German making a comeback only two years after unification? So it seems, at least from the almost daily reports of brutal mob attacks, arson, and beatings of foreigners in both parts of recently unified Germany. These assaults are committed largely by neo-Nazi youths, mostly skinheads, who are at the margins of society and not much beloved by the wider population. But there are indications that the number of those sympathizing with their “motives” is rising, and, more important, that xenophobia, racism, and even good old anti-Semitism are more prevalent than at any previous time in postwar German history. Police reaction has been uncharacteristically reserved, and shortly after the worst incident last September—a...