But study after study, survey after survey has shown that most of the voter block of the AfD are not "outright fascists" but people disillusioned by the establishment parties who then fall prey to the the less extremist public messaging the AfD likes to do. These people aren't fascists', they aren't nazis, and constantly calling them names will certainly not help, but drive them even more towards the AfD.
So please, I implore you to tone down your hyperbole. Where this kind of "basket of deplorables" rhetoric eventually leads we can all watch with horror.
In particular in German discourse on fascism there's always been the observation that this is precisely its most dangerous form, a popular term used to be Extremismus der Mitte (literally, extremism of the middle).
In its most serious form fascism is an extremism of the middle-class, the small merchants, the bureaucracy, the policeman, the lawyer, the doctor and so forth. The meathead with the swastika tattoo on his arm looks scary but nobody takes him seriously. One of the strongest backbones of the NSDAP, which people tend to forget, were women.(https://scroll.in/article/959951/why-i-became-a-nazi-essays-...)
I agree that a lot of the voters have fallen prey to the populist hate mongering, but still: anyone who votes for the AfD in its current state, designated as a politically extremist party by the authorities to a degree that state servants ("Beamte") have to actually fear consequences for their membership [0], can be called at least a supporter of a fascist party.
[0] https://www.derstandard.de/story/2000133952136/afd-alsverdac...
West germany sucked dry East germany of their young and ambitious and used them for cheap labor. Well it was not really that unexpected.
You cant expect people to develop in all aspects as they have vastly different experiences and probably had different upbringing than you.
Btw east germans are way less racist and xenophobic towards their fellow Europeans from East Europe compared to West Germans.
Anecdotal evidence but i have seen it too many times to dismiss it.
> It is definitely not a punishment to live, work or study here.
It might indeed be not a punishment if you're white, but you might be embarrassed about the political beliefs of your neighbors.
Eastern Germany has a lot of very nice places, but hell no I'd never ever move there, especially not if you're a foreigner. The risk of everyday violence against anything the far-right percieves as "immigrant" is just too high.
[0] https://www.br.de/nachricht/pegida-schadet-dresden-100.html