This paper uses data on collective violence against immigrants from contemporary Germany to explore the link between violence and the public discourse. We argue that media attention for radical right violence, as well as public reactions by third-party actors to radical-right violence may encourage or discourage violent acts in a number of ways. Using a crosssectional and time-series design that analyzes event counts, we find that differential public visibility, resonance, and legitimacy of right-wing violence amplify the rate of some types of violence, while diminishing the rate of other types of violence. Although this study concerns the role of public discourse on rates of anti-foreigner activity in Germany specifically, we argue that substantial benefits might result from extending this type of analysis on the impact of public discourse to collective action and social movements in other settings and time periods.