They go for strolls against the »islamification of the Occident«, chant »we are the people« and rail against the »liar-press«: the Pegida protests of 2014/15 rocked the whole of Germany. Tens of thousands were mobilized, not just (though above all) in Dresden, where Pegida had its beginnings. The media and political system were puzzled: what is Pegida? Where does the movement come from? What defines it, and what drives its participants?
This book delivers the first findings. The authorial team from Göttingen has observed Pegida protesters and carried out interviews, group discussions and online surveys. This has allowed them to gain a deeper insight into the beliefs and convictions of the Pegida milieu. The counter-protesters from NoPegida were also investigated by the Göttingen Institute for Democracy Studies: in what way are the two camps different? This has generated a multifaceted study, which provides the first data about Pegida, and about the constitution of German society as a whole in 2015.