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4.2.1 Research Design
In order to identify and describe the work of NGOs active in monitoring and hate crime victim support, we conducted 24 longer face-to-face interviews and about 20 mostly shorter telephone inquiries with relevant institutions, organizations and actors. (10) Three interviews were with academic experts, two of whom were involved in the official evaluation of the CIVITAS program and one who works at the Moses Mendelssohn Center for European-Jewish Studies at the University of Potsdam. They provided a useful overview of the research concerning German hate crime policies and the landscape of non-governmental organizations active in the field. We also participated in various public meetings, parliamentary hearings and seminars to enhance our understanding of the recent developments in the field of hate crime policies and initiatives against right-wing extremism in Germany.
Because there are already well-established contacts to support organizations for victims of right-wing violence in Brandenburg and Berlin, we started our inquiry with interviewing a sample of the projects in Berlin and East Germany which were set up in 2001 with the help of the CIVITAS program by the federal government (in the following, these are sometimes referred to as the CIVITAS projects). At the end of each interview, we asked our contact partners to identify further NGOs that are doing similar work in their region with respect to other hate crime victim groups (for example members of the LGBT community) or to name organizations in other federal states with a comparable approach that combines either monitoring and victim assistance or focuses on at least at one of these activities. Thereby we learned, first of all, about the work of a couple of small-scale voluntary initiatives (for example, BOrG in Bernau and Strausberg), often started by young anti-racist and anti-Fascist activists in the new federal states, which have been involved to some extent in the support and counseling of hate crimes victims, mainly refugees/asylum-seekers and alternative, left-wing youth. Secondly, we learned that while the CIVITAS projects are very well connected to each other and to relevant local and regional actors and networks, they have no or limited knowledge of NGOs in the old federal states that offer comparable services to hate crimes victims or conduct professional monitoring.
We have tried to fill this overall information gap, which seemed particularly pronounced with respect to the lack of information about the situation in West Germany, by applying three strategies: The first one was to research NGOs online and contact some of the NGOs in West Germany that publish incidents of hate crimes on their websites. The second approach consisted of contacting the national and regional coordinating bodies/individuals in the newly established Consultation Networks Against Right-wing Extremism and asking them about monitoring and support activities in the old federal states. The third strategy was to also include some NGOs in our interview sample that do not consider supporting hate crimes victims as their primary objective but that do, however, have regular contact with potential victim groups, such as refugee councils and anti-discrimination offices and individuals and associations representing other »minority groups,« such as the LGBT community, the Jewish community, and Roma and Sinti. Nevertheless, the main geographic focus of our study lies in East Germany, due to its better established structures for assisting victims of right-wing violence and monitoring. About 70 percent of all our interview partners represent NGOs located either in Berlin or in the new federal states. With regard to West Germany, we decided to concentrate on two regions: North Rhine-Westphalia and states in the north (specifically, Lower Saxony, Hamburg and Bremen). This decision was based on official police statistics that suggest North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony are the western regions with the most severe problem regarding right-wing extremism and violent attacks. We selected Hamburg and Bremen, two city states, because they are well known for their established NGO infrastructure that reaches out to migrant and refugee communities. Unfortunately, time limits did not allow for a more comprehensive geographical approach.
Again, it must be emphasized that the focus area of our study — monitoring rightwing hate crimes and victim assistance by NGOs — is almost completely unexplored in West Germany. Apart from the study evaluations of the CIVITAS projects in the new federal states, we could not build on any other systematic empirical research projects or academic studies because they did not exist at the time of this study. Thus, when presenting our figures and main results in the following chapter, it has to be taken into account that our study has major restrictions and that the character of our research results should be considered preliminary and fragmentary. In order to obtain a more comprehensive overview and assessment of NGO activities in the respective field, especially in West Germany, further research will certainly be needed.
10. See Appendix for the list of interview partners.
(OPP)
