The OP is long-winded, extremely convoluted, and completely unscientific. It is best described as an opinion piece based upon qualitative insights drawn from a

The OP is long-winded, extremely convoluted, and completely unscientific. It is best described as an opinion piece based upon qualitative insights drawn from a tiny number of unrepresentative samples. Nonetheless, I found it a worthwhile read. Its conclusions, in particular, struck a chord with me: > ... antidemocratic, racist, and antisemitic sentiments did not vanish when Germany was defeated in 1945 nor when it was refounded as a democratic state in 1949. Instead, they drifted, and acquired new representations they could attach themselves to. In the self-image of passivity and privacy, the analyzed group ... could cling to old antidemocratic, antisemitic, and racist stereotypes without violating the new discursive rules of the Bonn republic. It may have been that this private self-image was eventually conducive for the stabilization of democracy in West Germany. But the question remains as to what it did to its foundations.