TWO YEARS INTO REUNIFICATION and its huge economic problems, the Germans, who were already disillusioned and disappointed, were confronted with another issue: the rapidly increasing number of violent attacks on asylum seekers and foreigners. 1992 witnessed right-wing extremists riots on such an unprecedented scale that violence became a real problem, particularly in East Germany. As analyses have shown, the attacks in East and West rose from roughly 300 per month in 1990 to 961 in October 1991, and in September 1992 more than 1100 were registered. In June 1993 the number peaked at more than 1,400 attacks. These crimes included the desecration of Jewish graves, damage to property, bomb attacks, personal assaults, and manslaughter. The four most important riots took place on 17 September 1991 in Hoyerswerda; 22 August 1992 in Rostock; 22 November 1992 in Mölln; and 25 May 1993 in Solingen. The last attack in Solingen forms the background to John von Düffels' play Solingen (1995) which indirectly blames an inadequate educational system for the rise of right-wing crimes. Von Düffel presents us with two teachers who prove unable to react to the springing-up of neo-Nazi ideology in their classes, until, as in Solingen, Hoyerswerda and Rostock, the homes of asylum seekers are attacked with the aim of scaring off further applicants for asylum.

It took several days to bring the riots under control, and the news reports were confusing, for they contradicted each another.