American studies have pointed to a dramatic increase in negativity on campaign websites. Thus far, however, it is unclear, whether this growth of virtual mudslinging reflects either a national trend due to the competitive and highly personalized voting system, or rather an international process in the ongoing professionalization of political communication. In order to explore this question, this paper compares the use of attacks on German party websites in two state elections, one national election, and one European parliamentary election with recent American evidence. The results show that online negativity has affected German e-campaigns on all levels of the political system, with patterns similar to those found in the United States. This includes the amount and frequency of the attacks as well as their differential usage by incumbents and challengers, their respective sources, and the subject dimensions of the assaults. Only with regard to the thematic context and the targets of the attacks did German and American e-campaigns vary in their style of online negativism. These findings support the notion of a global standardization effect in web campaign practices brought about by the professionalization process in politics. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]