A TELEVISION IMAGE from the reunified Germany of 1992–93: a long-haired, bearded man, beer can in hand, wearing a cowboy hat and a black leather jacket with fringes, repeats “They have to go, they have to go, they don’t have our German culture, they have to go.” In the background, a building burns; it is a dormitory for immigrants seeking asylum in Germany.

This image—the neo-Nazi cowboy, obviously impressed with “American” culture—was perhaps the most monstrous in the series of images that have been broadcast, with increasing frequency, from eastern Germany since the attack on the Rostock