As part of a collaboration with the Weizenbaum Institute, Dr Farina Rühs, Dr Anne-Kathrin Kreft and Anna Hahnemann contributed to the recently published Weizenbaum Report. The collaboration focused in particular on examining how perceptions of violence against politicians are linked to citizens’ political engagement.
The results provide an initial insight into the issue:
– 81% consider violence against politicians to be very or fairly widespread.
– 69% believe that democracy is very or fairly threatened by violence against politicians.
– There are correlations between perceptions of the prevalence of violence against politicians and the threat it poses to democracy, on the one hand, and political engagement, on the other.
For more details, see the Weizenbaum Report 2026: https://www.weizenbaum-institut.de/news/detail/sorge-um-das-politische-klima-in-deutschland/
