Violent right-wing groups have emerged in the German youth scene since reunification in 1990. By the early 1990's, many groups of people have had to face racist violence and harassment as a threatening part of everyday life. With the social, political, economic, demographical and ideological changes which have taken place across Europe, especially since the fall of the Communist systems in Eastern Europe, it becomes essential to consider their impact on individuals. A psychosocial approach to the subject of right-wing youth violence in Germany is adopted and will reveal that the concepts of identity formation have undergone changes not unlike the progressive changes of social structures after the second World War. Key sources for this thesis are works by Alfred Adler, Theodor W. Adorno, Bruno Bettelheim, Erik Erikson, Sigmund Freud, Erich Fromm, Stuart Hall, Dick Hebdige, Kenneth Kenniston, David Riesman and others. This approach will support the argument that youth violence is a side effect of developmental capitalism, the root causes of which emanate not from cultural contexts but rather from a variety of factors which lie within social structures. Subcultures absorb individuals who cannot function amid the dynamic social changes of capitalist development. Youth anger and anxiety is expressed as racist violence as young people seek someone to blame for their isolation from mainstream society. An analysis such as this one inevitably leads to larger issues regarding Germany's historical past, right-wing extremism in Europe and the International Nazi Cooperation network, which to some extent has also triggered and supported racist and right-wing youth violence. / Graduation date: 1997