Die Darstellung Der Ausländerfeindlichkeit Im Nachrichten Magazin Der Spiegel Nach Der

Abstract

In the 1990s, many Germans celebrated the reunification of Germany. It came to a sense of national pride and positive patriotism. The “Wende” (German term for the unification of Germany) strengthened the feeling of nationalism, but at the same time stirred up resentment against “the others”. The question the role the media (represented here by the news magazine “Der Spiegel”) played during that period is the focal point of my Master’s thesis. The use of relevant terms such as “xenophobia” in the magazine Spiegel was of particular interest in this thesis. The display of xenophobia in the news magazine Der Spiegel after the unification of Germany has been studied from the perspective of cultural studies. The key questions were: In what contexts does the term xenophobia arise? How and what forms of xenophobia were represented in the news magazine « Der Spiegel » in the period between 1990 and 1995? How were the attacks in Hoyerswerda and Rostock reported on? How can we address the problem of xenophobia in a German classroom without running the risk of falling into stereotypes? My analyses were based on the critical discourse analysis (CDA) and on the approaches of Claus Altmayer and Uwe Koreik. The reports and comments (print version and the online version) were considered in the thesis. The methodology used to attain the goals are content analysis and the critical discourse analysis.