Authoritarianism study 2025: brutalization in numbers

Study director Oliver Decker speaks of a “new national pride and more hatred of others” in the federal press conference conference center. Next to him, a Powerpoint slide reads “Democracy under pressure.” The social psychologist and director of the Else Frenkel Brunswik Institute at the University of Leipzig reports alarming results from the latest authoritarianism study: chauvinistic-nationalist attitudes reached almost 20 percent in 2026, a high since the surveys began.

At the same time, satisfaction with democracy fell to an all-time low - only a third of those surveyed are satisfied with the democracy they experience in everyday life. In contrast, more and more people are idealizing the past (33.5 percent “regressive nostalgia”) and longing for “something radical so that the current situation can change” (30.4 percent), 14.7 percent even want a full apocalypse and say: “Everything has to break so that something new can emerge again.”

While basic support for democracy as an idea in East and West has so far been reliably above 90 percent, it has now fallen below that for the first time since the series began, to 89.3 percent. Particularly dramatic in the east: in 2024, 94.6 percent fundamentally agreed with democracy. Two years later it is only 85.7 percent.

The heart of the study is an anonymous survey of a representative cross-section of the entire German population (2,507 people) using a questionnaire. Various dimensions of authoritarian attitudes are queried such as “neo-NS ideology”, “ethnocentrism”, “chauvinism”, “Social Darwinism”, “anti-Semitism” and “xenophobia”. Increases have been recorded in almost all areas.

There are five possible answers to ethnic statements such as “What Germany now needs is a single strong party that embodies the national community as a whole”: “Completely reject” and “Mostly reject” are considered manifest rejection, “Partly, partly” is considered latent agreement, “Mostly agree” and “Completely agree” are considered manifest agreement.

In Germany, 23.2 percent now clearly agree with the demand for a strong party that should embody the national community as a whole - an increase of 5 percentage points in two years. In addition, there were another 24.3 percent who latently, i.e. partially, agreed with this. When it comes to racism, it is even more blatant: 34.9 percent clearly agree that the Federal Republic is “infested with foreigners to a dangerous extent due to the large number of foreigners,” while 24.4 percent see it “partly, partly” that way. Only a minority rejects this racist statement.

The situation is similar with chauvinistic statements, with around 28.5 percent manifestly calling for tough and energetic enforcement of German interests against foreign countries and 25.8 percent latently.

11.3 percent obviously support a leader and 18.7 percent latently support it. 5.8 percent manifestly support a dictatorship and 16.8 percent latently support it. In the east the values ​​are around 10 percentage points higher. “The high approval ratings in all parts of the country must be alarming,” says the study. In turn, 6.9 percent have a closed right-wing extremist worldview (2024: 4.5 percent).

“Hoste sexism” was also recorded for the first time: According to this, 31.7 percent are of the opinion that women are “offended too easily” and 24.7 percent think that women “get special advantages through equal rights”.

The long-term study conducted by the University of Leipzig every two years since 2002 measures, in a sense, the attitudes behind the rise of the extreme right-wing AfD. Over time, it can be seen that authoritarian attitudes have now found a party-political home with the AfD, and that in the wake of crises, the AfD's narrative of decline is particularly entrenched. The study speaks of a “temporary climax of an extreme right-wing and authoritarian agitation against democracy that has been growing for ten years”.

When asked at the federal press conference whether society is currently at a social tipping point, Decker said: We are at a “neuralgic point”, but it is by no means inevitable that it will actually tip. However, urgent action is required. That's why "The Resistible Rise of the Authoritarian" was chosen as the title of the study, says Decker.

The title alludes to Bertolt Brecht's play “The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui,” which he wrote in exile in 1941. In the play, Brecht draws analogies between organized crime in the USA and the rise of the National Socialists. In an economic crisis, cauliflower traders make a pact with the gang boss Arturo Ui and help him to rise - just as capital helped fascism in the Weimar Republic. The play, which was also performed in Germany after the end of the war, was intended to show that the rise and success of fascism were not “unstoppable,” they could and should have been prevented. It ends with the warning: “The womb from which it crawled is still fertile!”

Which brings us back to 2026: Decker said that the AfD cannot be equated with the NSDAP. But it is driven by a “destructive desire” that threatens social and democratic achievements. This is not abstract and can lead to tipping points. Even a single AfD legislative period in a state government is specifically directed against people in many situations.

What helps? Decker advised democratic parties to offer alternatives to the alternative, so to speak. In “late neoliberalism,” people have lived for the last 20 or 30 years in a society that was shaped by Margaret Thatcher’s “TINA” – that is, “There is no alternative” and its linguistic German counterpart, Merkel’s “lack of alternative.”

Decker calls the formula “a limitation on democratic ability to act” and calls on politicians to “show more alternatives that move within the democratic spectrum.” Democracy is not a state, but a process that needs to be worked on.

There are certainly options for action that would give democracy more legitimacy, said Decker: “In part, we are now seeing different answers to the housing shortage in Berlin.” There is a democratic debate about alternatives taking place. Such debates made it clear: “There are democratic answers to the challenges of our time.” Conservatives could, for example, rely on solidarity with weaker people, which is anchored in the Christian worldview. This is a strength of popular parties.

Co-author Ayline Heller from the Gesis Institute for Social Sciences also pointed out that the attitude values ​​are also subject to fluctuations. “Our data also shows that it is possible to achieve a trend reversal,” says Heller. In 2022, for example, with a quick reaction and Scholz's double whammy to Russia's attack on Ukraine, lower values ​​of authoritarian attitudes were measured - until the heating law fell through the traffic lights later in the year.

There was also a great willingness to show solidarity in certain areas. In addition, a solidarity norm was raised for the first time, says Heller: “The approval here was very high because there is a willingness across the board to look at the poorer people and to understand people as a community.”