In every society, there are moments when identity becomes unsettled—when the ground beneath belonging begins to shift. In those moments, some search for connection. Others reach for control.
In her haunting and insightful chapter, Christiane Fenner investigates a rising right-wing culture among German youth—not through slogans or stereotypes, but through the subtle architecture of identity, context, and social transformation. Her work doesn’t seek to excuse, but to understand—how some young people, facing rapid change and social dislocation, are drawn to ideologies that promise certainty, power, and place.
This isn’t only about Germany. It’s a lens into what happens when development—psychological, social, cultural—is interrupted, distorted, or weaponized.
When Social Worlds Crumble
After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany, an entire generation of youth in the former East found themselves in a whirlwind. Familiar institutions collapsed. Social norms fractured. Family structures strained under economic and cultural pressure.
Young people—especially those from working-class or rural areas—grew up watching their parents lose jobs, their teachers lose status, their communities lose coherence.
In this vacuum, identity became vulnerable.
And when a person’s world becomes unrecognizable, there is a deep human instinct to restore order—to reattach to something solid, even if that “something” is exclusionary, aggressive, or extreme.
The Search for Identity and Belonging
Fenner reminds us that adolescence is not only a time of rebellion—it is a time of construction. Young people are building a sense of self, testing values, forming loyalties. They are asking the timeless questions: Who am I? Where do I belong? What matters?
In the absence of stable cultural anchors, many German youth turned to peer groups for identity. And in some cases, those peer groups were steeped in nationalist imagery, hypermasculinity, and xenophobic ideology.
Why? Because these subcultures offer more than ideas. They offer rituals. Music. Style. Structure. They offer a space where young people feel seen—where they can trade uncertainty for clarity, and isolation for community.
This isn’t about ignorance. It’s about need.
Context Is the Curriculum
One of Fenner’s most important insights is that right-wing youth culture cannot be understood outside of context—economic, historical, cultural.
- In areas where social mobility is low and opportunity scarce, ideologies of dominance and purity can gain traction.
- In societies where multiculturalism is new, rapid, or uneven, backlash can take root in the cracks.
- When political discourse becomes dismissive or polarized, the pull of extremist narratives grows stronger—not because they are true, but because they feel personal.
Developmental psychology must face this reality: identity does not form in a vacuum. It forms in context. And when that context is marked by rupture, loss, and fear, the identity that emerges can be defensive, even dangerous.
What Can Be Done?
Fenner is not fatalistic. She believes that if culture can wound, it can also heal. But only if we intervene at the level of meaning.
This means:
- Creating spaces where youth can process change, not just perform resilience.
- Teaching history not as blame, but as dialogue.
- Supporting identity exploration that values pluralism over purity.
- Engaging with youth cultures instead of pathologizing them.
Most of all, it means listening—to the unspoken grief beneath the anger, to the need for direction beneath the posture of certainty.
Because prevention does not begin with punishment. It begins with presence.
A Final Reflection: The Politics of Becoming
Every young person is a story unfolding. And every society helps write that story.
When we see youth turning toward extremism, we must ask not only what they believe—but what they have been offered. What meaning. What direction. What solidarity. What future.
Christiane Fenner’s work is not a warning about youth. It is a warning about abandonment.
Because when development is not supported, identity becomes brittle.
When culture does not welcome, community hardens into tribe.
And when belonging is denied, some will seek it in the language of exclusion.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
If we can offer young people something better—something true—they will rise to meet it.
Not because they are problems to fix. But because they are possibilities waiting to be named.