by Seymour Gris

September 10, 2012

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Just a few stories from Berlin in the past few weeks...

September 10: Racist attack in the U-Bahn at Alexanderplatz

September 9: Black man insulted with Hitler salute in Neukölln

September 8: A 10th grader in Steglitz presses charges against her teacher for calling her “nigger” in the classroom

September 5: Four Jewish schoolgirls subjected to anti-Semitic verbal abuse on the street in Charlottenburg

August 28: 53-year-old rabbi brutally assaulted in Friedenau

August 22: Woman sprays pepper spray into the face of a six-year-old boy waiting with his Lebanese mother at S-Bhf Neukölln while shouting xenophobic insults

These stories from Berlin – the oh-so-cosmopolitan capital of Germany – are surely the tip of the iceberg. Racist and anti-Semitic attacks in the rest of the country – from a pig's head being placed outside of a kosher restaurant to desecration of Jewish graves to just plain old beating and murder – are too frequent to list here.

Let's not forget the revelations to emerge over the past year about the brutal racist murders of the so-called National Socialist Underground. And a scary figure: there have been 180 racist killings in Germany since reunification in 1990.

***

Germany has a serious racism problem. Sure, the circumstances for each case are different. The victims are as diverse as the perpetrators, but that only tells us one thing – that xenophobia has a broad footing in Germany. The African and afrodeutsch Berliners we interviewed for our current Africa in Berlin issue said racist insults are a daily occurrence. And immigrant Berliners are regularly singled out by police for ID checks. The whole insane debate about circumcision shows how uncomfortable Germany still is with minority cultures in its midst. And the new poster campaign by the Interior Ministry which portrays young Middle-Eastern-looking people as “missing” is nothing less than a scandal.

And let's not forget: since its publication two years ago, millions of Germans have bought Thilo Sarrazin's anti-immigration book Deutschland schafft sich ab – the bestselling non-fiction book since Mein Kampf – unveiling a disturbing level of latent xenophobia, Islamophobia and racism among “mainstream” Germans.

So what's being done? President Joachim Gauck – speaking at the 20th anniversary of the mob arson attack on an asylum home in Rostock as thousands of ordinary citizens cheered the attackers on – said “We mustn't give in to the extreme right.” But Gauck, who called Sarrazin “courageous” for writing his book, missed the point: the undercurrents of racism inside each “normal” person are far more dangerous than some externalised “right-wing extremist” enemy. And if attitudes don't change they will simply be transferred to the next generation.

German leaders – led by Angela Merkel – should step up the plate and launch a broad anti-racist offensive. Schools, universities, companies, the police, institutions on all levels should be instructed to make zero tolerance of racist behaviour or speech of any kind and teaching and promotion of tolerance a top priority.

When Willy Brandt fell to his knees in 1970 in honour of those who died in the Warsaw Ghetto, he sent a surprising signal to the world that Germany was serious about taking responsibility for its crimes. It was a singular act of greatness that changed the course of the country and Europe forever.

We can't expect that sort of greatness from the likes of Merkel and Gauck. They're fine with Germany the way it is. After all, the occasional racist murder is nothing compared to the oppression they both experienced in East Germany, right? Both have spent their careers uniting “the Germans” – ignoring the fact that millions of other people also live here.

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by Seymour Gris

September 10, 2012

Latest Comments

  • Racism VS Mental people

    As the subject suggests, I think most of the times the origin of those episodes is the high percentage of mental people living in Berlin. And yes, ok, you can say a racist person is in fact mental, but I mean "officially" mental, the kind of people that social services should take care of. These people run free & happily drunk in the Ubahn instead.
    So in my opinion, before blaming racism, we should consider at least the percentage of the population affected by:
    Serious mental health issues
    Serious alcohol issues
    Anyway, notice how the second one can easily turn into Hitler apology when experienced between 1 and 5 AM by a bunch of male guys that in their ordinary life are single, repressed and pathologically shy.
    As a foreigner living in Berlin, I must say life here is not a problem. But I think for black people it's a lot tougher. The Germans are racists after all, like many other countries, the only difference is, because they're "The Germans" they're not allowed to say it.

    Posted by BorderReader September 23, 2012 21:12:36

  • racism

    Lol! Iknow also berliners who are in no way racist and themselves from mixed backgrounds ,.....they also have to put up with dumb remarks and racist comments from the the turkish and african people,I myself have also been insulted with "german whore ".Also when I interact with Brits I ma immedietly after put up with "all germans are nazis"and other such outdated cliches

    Posted by ama September 20, 2012 09:36:29

  • cosmopolitan

    I think of course people from New York or London have a hard time identifying with the whole Berlinis cosmopolitan stuff, but when you got to places in hardcore Germany, East or West, then you get what they mean. I think all these Nordic cultures are a bit clumsier with intercultural stuff than Anglo-Saxons, what about that weird Swedish clitoral cake? I think it's something to do with the part of your brain that finds Dinner for one funny.

    Posted by Jacinta September 15, 2012 08:11:40

  • Berlin is bullshit

    Berlin: overrated, desecrated, well-marketed-thus-illuminated. A mediocre "cosmopolitan" city with a fascist aesthetic and a guilt complex paving over the racism and judgement that bubbles hot and lively. The only decent thing about Berlin is Tegel, which will disappear...and perhaps alongside it, the arrogance deluding the city's residents.

    Posted by Chiquitita September 14, 2012 20:17:36

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