According to the German president Johannes Rau, political education must now also take place using new media, and above all through the Internet, with its opportunities for interactive communication.

In a conversation with the president of the German Federal Center for Political Education, Thomas Kr|ger, on Tuesday in Berlin, Rau said that the appropriate focus groups must be reached in this new way. "In order to have a living democracy, we need politically mature citizens," emphasized Rau. At the meeting, which was also attended by the heads of the regional centers for political education, Rau said that some people in the new German states have a rather reserved attitude towards political education because in the former GDR, such education took the form of indoctrination. Rau believes it is important that the work of the centers for political education also reaches young people in the new states. In the new states in particular, right-wing extremism has a lot of young followers. Anti-Semitic and anti-foreigner crimes are being reported constantly. "We must confront such thoughts and deeds - not only with, but rather especially with, the means of political education," Rau explained.