The University of Hamburg (UHH) is a project partner in the research network MOTRA (Monitoring System and Transfer Platform Radicalization), a joint project of civil security research in which, besides the UHH, seven other partner organizations from universities and research centres throughout Germany are involved. Two primary objectives are pursued in the MOTRA research network: First, MOTRA will establish a central information hub for the comprehensive transfer of knowledge regarding radicalization. Second, MOTRA is to continuously monitor and analyse radicalization events in Germany using multiple empirical studies.

The study ‘People in Germany’ (Menschen in Deutschland, MiD) is a central component of the regular monitoring conducted in the MOTRA research network. Its primary purpose is to investigate trends in the prevalence of religiously and politically motivated extremist attitudes, intolerance, and the acceptance of politically motivated violence in Germany. The study is an annually repeated, representative population survey that will be carried out in four waves, commencing in 2021, by the University of Hamburg.

The survey focuses on political extremist attitudes in the sense of a rejection of fundamental principles and key elements of the free democratic system in Germany. It examines negative attitudes toward central fundamental rights and freedoms as well as essentials of a free democratic state organization. The objective is to measure extremist attitudes independently of ideology. Additionally, the survey evaluates phenomenon-specific forms of political extremist views, with a particular emphasis on right-wing extremism and Islamism. Furthermore, the survey aims to identify relevant influencing factors and social contextual conditions that contribute to the development of politically extremist attitudes. In addition to exploring respondents’ own attitudes, the survey addresses their perceptions and evaluations of various manifestations of extremism within their immediate environment This approach aims to gain insights into the social contexts in which such phenomena play a role.

This report provides a description of the survey instrument, sample designs and the implementation of the first wave of the survey (MiD 2021). It also includes information on response rates and the demographic characteristics of the sample. The appendix contains the codebook for the dataset, which outlines the variables’ designation, content, and coding. This report is a summarized translation of the MOTRA Research Reports (“Forschungsberichte”) No. 1 and 2.