"Xenophobia, right-wing extremism and intolerance is a big threat for social, but also economic development of the new states," the Federal Economic Ministry’s report stressed.
Iris Gleicke, federal commissioner for the new states who presented the report in Berlin, said that attacks on refugee shelters could taint the region for business.
"The majority of eastern Germans are neither xenophobes nor right-wing extremists," she said at the presentation, less than two weeks before Germany celebrates the Unity Day.
"The community must not look away when people are attacked or refugee facilities are set on fire. There is a lot at stake for eastern Germany," Gleicke underscored.
The report cited statistics collected by the federal intelligence agency which showed that the average rate of right-wing attacks in eastern Germany in 2015 per million people exceeded that in the west.
The highest rate was in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania (58.7) and the lowest in Thuringia (33.9). Berlin had the average of 37.9 cases of right-wing violence per million inhabitants, compared to 10.5 cases in the western states.
