August 31, 2026
Center for Right-Wing Studies graduate student Elena Amaya co-authored a new study in the American Sociological Review, "Pedagogy of Fear: Folklore and the Far-Right in Weimar Germany." The authors analyzed archives of "Kinderschreck" tales, oral stories German parents used to scare children into obedience ('don't go into the cornfield or the werewolf will get you'). In some regions, these bogeymen took on ethnic characteristics and were portrayed as Jews or Roma-Sinti–long before there was even a political party that could exploit them.