Study: Racism in Germany Increasingly Mainstream

The report presented in Berlin this week was the second part of a study begun in 2006, which questioned 5,000 Germans over 14 about their views of right-wing extremism and concluded that one in four Germans holds xenophobic opinions.

Drawing on interviews with 60 of the initial participants, the survey aimed to establish the roots of prejudice by examining attitudes among people of various ages, social background and profession.

"We were interested in finding out what determines an individual's political opinions, be they far-right or democratic," said project coordinator Dietmar Molthagen.

"For this reason, we set out to examine the interviewees' opinions in the context of their lives," said researcher Oliver Decker.

Mainstream prejudice

He and Elmar Braehler from Leipzig University's Institute for Clinical Psychology and Sociology said their work revealed that racism in Germany is increasingly mainstream: in both eastern and western Germany and across the generations, the public has little compunction about expressing far-right beliefs.

Their conclusion is that the problem lies at the very center of society, undermining the theory that the breeding grounds for right-wing extremism are the parts of the country struck by unemployment and social decay.

37 percent of the population maintain that immigrants come to Germany "to exploit the welfare state," 39 percent think Germany "is dangerously over-run with foreigners," and 26 percent would like "a single, strong party that represents the German community."

The main targets of German prejudice are Turks and Russians, who are seen as parasitical and grasping.

Creature comforts

However, researchers also identified the emergence of what they call "cultural racism" -- prejudices against marginal groups such as the jobless and the socially disadvantaged. This, the study suggested, reflected a strong pressure to conform to a perceived social norm and a condemnation of those who failed to do so.

With most of the participants saying they felt powerless to help define politics, the study also revealed a widespread disillusionment with democracy and democratic principles.

The findings suggested that most people supported democracy to the extent that it guaranteed personal prosperity, but in its absence, turned immediately to intolerance.

The researchers cited similar attitudes in the 1950s, when the economic miracle proved an obstacle to coming to terms with the past.

"The rapid accumulation of wealth in West Germany [in the post-war years] left no scope for reflection and shame," said researcher Oliver Decker.

Source: DW-World 

'Awareness of Ethnic Discrimination Is Low in Germany' - 08/29/2007

SPIEGEL ONLINE talks to racism expert Nicole Bosch about xenophobia in Germany and what can be done to combat right-wing extremism.

A new report on racism in Europe by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) has revealed that racist violence is on the rise in Germany and that discrimination is commonplace. SPIEGEL ONLINE spoke to racism expert Nicole Bosch from the European Forum for Migration Studies in Bamberg -- which supplied the information about Germany for the FRA report -- about the new findings and how racism can be fought.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: In general, is the problem of racism in Germany getting better or worse?

Bosch: In 2006, the police registered the highest number of politically motivated right-wing crimes since 2001. In contrast to previous years, the 2006 figures also indicate a rise in the number of xenophobic crimes. (In previous years the increase was mainly due to rising propaganda crime figures). In 2006, 484 of the right-wing extremist crimes were registered as xenophobic and violent, compared to 355 cases in 2005.

However, the preliminary figures for the first half of 2007 indicate a strong decrease in xenophobic right-wing crime compared to the preliminary figures for the same period in 2006. Among the 723 xenophobic criminal acts in the first half year of 2007, 148 incidents were violent crimes.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: According to the FRA report, racist crimes increased in Germany in 2006. Does this mean that racism is becoming more of a problem, or does it reflect better reporting of crimes?

Bosch: The drastic increase, especially in violent crimes with a xenophobic background, cannot be explained by better reporting of crimes. The official criminal registration and definition system, the “Criminal Investigation Registration Service -- Politically Motivated Criminality,” (which keeps statistics on political crimes committed across the whole of Germany) had already been introduced as long ago as 2001.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Is racism a particular problem in certain parts of Germany?

Bosch: Concerning the number of right-wing extremist violent crimes, the figures show that eastern Germany tends to be more affected by such crimes than western Germany. In 2005, the highest numbers of such crimes in relation to the total population were recorded in Saxony-Anhalt, where there were 4.29 crimes per 100,000 inhabitants, and Brandenburg (3.78 crimes per 100,000 inhabitants), which are both in eastern Germany. In contrast, the western German states of Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate displayed the lowest figures, with 0.41 and 0.59 crimes per 100,000 inhabitants, respectively. However, these figures cannot simply be interpreted as meaning there is more or less racism in eastern or western Germany.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: How does Germany compare to other European Union members in terms of racism?

Bosch: Due to different laws, different criminal justice traditions and procedures, it is currently impossible to compare official criminal justice data on racist violence between EU member states. According to the FRA report, criminal justice data on racist violence and crime from a national source is only available in 11 member states. Germany belongs to the majority -- eight out of 11 member states -- which experienced a general upward trend in racist crime during the last five or six years.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Is the average German sensitive to racism as a problem?

Bosch: Attitudes -- especially in an international comparative perspective -- are difficult to assess. For the German context, there are two much-discussed studies which examined xenophobic attitudes in Germany. According to the latest round of the longitudinal (i.e. long-term) Group-Focused Enmity Syndrome (GMF) survey conducted by Bielefeld University's Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence, the extent of xenophobic attitudes in 2006 remained at the level of the previous year -- after a constant increase between 2002 and 2005.

In November 2006, the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation released the results of a representative survey on right-wing extremist attitudes among Germans. That study categorized 26.7 percent of the around 5,000 people interviewed as xenophobic. The authors concluded that the phenomenon of right-wing extremism constitutes a political problem not only at the margins, but also in the center of German society.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Would a ban on the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) help to combat racism?

Bosch: By banning the NPD, the state would show that official institutions are fighting right-wing and xenophobic attitudes with all the means it has at its disposal. In this sense, a ban on the NPD could be one state measure to fight these tendencies.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: What is the bigger problem: right-wing extremism and violence, or "everyday" racism (discrimination in employment, housing etc)?

Bosch: Right-wing extremism and violence are substantially threatening our societies. However these phenomena can not be seen without discrimination -- people suffering in different social fields. This is why FRA does not only monitor racist and xenophobic violence and crimes but also discrimination in the fields of education, employment, housing and health.

But the level of awareness of ethnic discrimination is low in German society. This lack of awareness is also due to the lack of information on the extent of discrimination in Germany. Systematic monitoring or data collection mechanisms on discrimination are not in place in Germany -- neither in the education system, nor in housing, nor in the sphere of employment. Although proxy data clearly show the disadvantaged position of foreigners in various social spheres, these statistics are hardly suitable for unveiling the “real” extent of ethnic discrimination.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Why is Germany "lagging behind" (to quote the FRA report) in implementing the EU Racial Equality Directive?

Bosch: The General Equal Treatment Act (AGG) which was passed in Germany to implement the four EU equality directives (including the Racial Equality Directive) came into force on August 18, 2006 -- more than three years after the July 2003 deadline for the implementation of the EU Racial Directive. Germany's new specialised body for the promotion of equal treatment, the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency, which is part of the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, was only recently fully staffed. On the occasion of the first anniversary of the AGG, the heated debate about the act has started up again. In Germany, skepticism towards legal anti-discrimination regulations remains high.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: What can be done to fight racism in Germany?

Bosch: The significant decrease of right-wing and xenophobic tendencies between 2000 and 2003 indicates that the effectiveness of the struggle against extreme right-wing, xenophobic and anti-Semitic developments depends on a combination of immediate state measures (e.g. law enforcement) and the long-term development of social control mechanisms in the society (e.g. awareness raising). It is essential that police authorities enforce the law by consistently registering and forcefully combating such incidents and that the perpetrators are punished adequately.

Furthermore, strong public condemnation of these phenomena by official figures, such as leading politicians and other opinion leaders, affects the perception of racism and xenophobia in the media and in society in general. In addition, the fight against xenophobia and anti-Semitism depends on the commitment and active involvement of civil society, particularly through local initiatives (e.g. round tables), projects and other activities (e.g. demonstrations against xenophobia and educational programs). These civil society activities strengthen mechanisms of social control and condemnation of right-wing violence, xenophobia and anti-Semitism.

In order to ensure the sustainability of the struggle against xenophobia and anti-Semitism -- and this seems to be a shortcoming in Germany -- respective good practice initiatives and projects (e.g. victims' support organisation) must be supported on a long-term basis and continuously institutionalised.

Interview conducted via e-mail by David Gordon Smith

Source: Spiegel

Mügeln Mayor Slammed for Trivializing Racist Attack - 08/31/2007

Two weeks after eight Indians were attacked by a mob in the Eastern German town of Mügeln, its mayor can't see what all the fuss is about. Leading politicians are shocked that he continues to downplay the incident and there are calls for his resignation.

The reverberations following the racist attack on eight Indians in the Eastern German town of Mügeln two weeks ago are still being felt in Germany. Politicians from across the spectrum reacted with anger after Mügeln Mayor Gotthard Deuse complained that a media campaign had been whipped up against the town and criticized leading politicians for their "malicious" comments. His own party, the business friendly Free Democrats, is distancing itself from him and there are calls for him to resign.

Mügeln Mayor Gotthard Deuse feels his town is the victim of a poisonous media campaign. As far as he is concerned there's no right-wing extremism in the town.

There was widespread revulsion in Germany and beyond after eight Indian men were chased through the streets of Mügeln by a mob of 50 people on Aug. 19. The men took refuge in a pizzeria as the crowd chanted "Foreigners Out!" and "Germany for Germans," before breaking in and beating up the men inside.

In a classic example of pouring oil onto the fire Deuse, in an interview given to the right-wing Young Freedom newspaper, complained about the rush to judge his town in what he called a "media campaign." He completely denied that there was a problem with right-wing extremism in the town and accused politicians like Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee -- who is also responsible for overseeing development in former East Germany, of making uninformed "populist" comments about the attacks.

Tiefensee had already warned against belittling the events in Mügeln and he hit back at Deuse on Friday, telling the Rheinische Post that "citizens and groups had to be courageous in tackling extreme-right tendencies. Looking away and downplaying the problem is exactly the wrong thing to do."

Tiefensee pointed out that the radical right was stronger in the former East Germany than it was in the West. "There is an historic lack of exposure to immigration and cultural diversity," he said, while admitting that the difficult job market plays a role in radicalization. But the Social Democrat politician insisted that this didn’t justify "threats and acts of violence against foreigners or anyone else."

Deuse, who has been mayor of Mügeln for the past 17 years, had already insisted that there was no far-right scene in the town. In his interview he complained about the "poisonous" attacks on the town and accused some politicians of not knowing what they were talking about and of being either ignorant or "deliberately malicious." He regretted that Germans were not allowed show their own national pride and said "I am proud to be a German."

Leading politicians from the Social Democrats (SPD) and Green Party have demanded Deuse resign as mayor, while his party has tried to distance itself from the mayor and his remarks.

SPD member Sebastian Edathy, who is chairman of the parliamentary domestic affairs committee told the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung "Mr. Deuse should ask himself whether he can be of any more use in his position. I have my doubts." Green Party parliamentary leader Renate Künast declared: "The mayor of Mügeln has to go!" The Left Party's deputy parliamentary leader Bodo Ramelow said that he had the impression that the mayor was "xenophobic deep down."

As for the FDP, General Secretary Dirk Niebel said Deuse is responsible for his own words and insisted: "There can be no relativization when it comes to acts of violence and xenophobic attitudes. That is the basis of an open-minded and tolerant society for all democrats."

Source: Spiegel

German Xenophobia - Spiegel Readers views - 01/22/2008

A SPIEGEL ONLINE opinion piece on xenophobia in Germany has elicited strong reactions among foreigners living here. Although some say racism is not a problem, many have experienced xenophobia in their daily lives.

Immigration has -- once again -- become a hot political topic in Germany after Hesse Governor Roland Koch called for a crackdown on "criminal young foreigners" as part of his campaign for re-election. Immigrant groups have criticized his rhetoric for being xenophobic, but Koch's populist stance did strike a chord with many voters.

In a recent opinion piece, SPIEGEL ONLINE editor David Crossland wrote that Germany is doing a bad job of integrating its immigrants. "Maybe it's the Germans' romantic yearning for purity and cleanliness, for a 'Heile Welt,' a 'Perfect World,' that renders them prone to a collective xenophobia," he wrote. "This nation of dog lovers goes for pure breeds."

SPIEGEL ONLINE International invited readers who have experience of living in Germany as a foreigner to write in to share their views. Here is a selection of their letters on being an Ausländer in Germany.

Dear Spiegel Online,

I am an Asian scientist working in Munich. I lived in China and Singapore before I moved to Germany. I was offered a pre-doctorate position in Singapore from a private research institution with full pay before I came to Germany. But I still decided to look for a position in Germany, because I wanted to live in Europe. The major motives for such a move were firstly, the freedom of expression that European countries offer; secondly, the superior infrastructure of the German research system; and thirdly, the European values of tolerance and integration.

I was not disappointed at all when it comes to freedom of expression and the infrastructure in Germany. But I was utterly shocked when it comes to integration and tolerance. I never suffered explicit racist attacks like those which happened in eastern Germany. But I was exposed to a subtle yet stubborn kind of racism on a daily basis. This mostly takes the form of social exclusion -- I always felt that I am not and will never be allowed to become a normal member of society, despite holding a promising academic record and decent linguistic skills.

In the beginning, I regarded social rejection as a result of linguistic insufficiency. Therefore I spent a large amount of time improving my German. At the moment my spoken German is close to fluency. But I was completely disappointed about the results of my effort. Instead of feeling more integrated in the society, I actually discovered even more xenophobia around me, because now I understand what is written in newspapers and on street placards. Also, I became aware that people throw me angry looks when I mispronounce German, or give me suspicious looks on the U-Bahn. It is a constant battle on my side to handle such things. I am determined to move to another country once I finish my studies. It is hard to leave such a good working environment behind, but I see no hope for real integration here.

I have spoken with other colleagues of mine, who are either foreigners or have a foreign background. Many of them suffer the same kind of social rejection. There are very few things we can do except opting to leave the country when we finish our training. But it is detrimental to the intellectual progress and economic growth of Germany when even people of higher education fail to integrate into the society.

I am not saying that there should be any kind of favoritism towards intellectual foreigners, or that there should be immediate and absolute equality among Germans and foreigners. What I hope to see is more cultural sensitivity and inter-cultural communication. People should start to understand that foreigners are assets, not threats. And the only ones who can push for cultural sensitivity and exchange on a large scale are the mass media and the government.

-- Name withheld

'Germany Is not Where I Want my Kids to Grow Up'

Dear Spiegel Online,

As an Asian, I felt so much discrimination in all aspects of life, especially in school. I came to Germany at age 16 and was hoping to go to university. Almost all the high schools we went to rejected me solely for the fact that my German wasn't good enough. German relatives kept telling me that I should do an apprenticeship instead because attending a Gymnasium (university-track high school -- Ed.) is hard and that I might not be able to handle it.

People thought I was dumb just because my German was elementary. I never got encouragement from anyone because it was always made clear to me that either my German was not good enough or I was not good enough, without even knowing that I graduated in the top percent of my class. Due to my own and my family's persistence I went to an all-girl Gymnasium in Freiburg and eventually attended university in Tübingen.

Everyday I am reminded to my face that I am an Ausländer. No matter how I try to explain to people that I have nothing left in my home country and my new life is here, they always treat me as if I am exotic and that everything in German life is still new and novel to me. I have a German name, I have a German passport, but I look Asian, and therefore am a foreigner.

I immigrated to the US now and am attending university here. Here, I am not treated as a foreigner but as a person and my skin color doesn't matter as much as in Germany. I have a lot of opportunities that weren't possible in Germany as a foreigner.

I have lived in three different continents. For all the historical charm and romance of Germany, it is for me now only a place I will regularly visit but not a place where I want my kids to grow up in.

-- Veronica

 'There Were Times When I Feared for my Life'

I am an ex-British soldier, my wife is German and I have lived in Germany for over 20 years. I am a truck driver in a big German firm. About 80 percent of the drivers are German-Russian, the rest are German and British. I am sick to death of hearing how the Russians should go home and how they are all criminals.

I don't care where people come from, there is good and bad in every race. I myself suffer name calling and intolerance. I have lost count of the times I have been called an "island monkey" (German slang for British people -- Ed.) and told I should go home. There were a couple of times in eastern Germany when I feared for my life -- and I don't scare easily.

Unless we all learn to live together, I really do fear for the future of Germany. Even today when I speak German, I still sound British and, yes, people are funny in shops when they hear this. When I talk to a fellow Brit over the CB radio in my cab we are told to go home and that we are English pigs. Some even play Hitler tapes -- how sad is that? Still, this is a minority and I still love the country and I know some great Germans.

Even so, in some parts of Germany I would not like to have dark skin -- sad, don't you think?

-- Name withheld

'I'm Sorry, Are You Black?'

Dear Spiegel Online,

I am a German, married to a Polish woman. We met in the USA about 10 years ago and have now lived in Germany for about 9 years.

We lived in Heidelberg and Frankfurt and have had many international friends over the years. During these years, a lot of things have happened that have made me see my fellow countrymen in a different light. First of all, my wife speaks fluent German, but since that wasn't the case when we met, we of course talked English to each other and it has remained that way until today. So over the years we had to defend our speaking English to each other many times, even to close friends. People said: "Why aren't you talking German to each other? You live in Germany, you should speak German!"

Just after we got married, my wife was in charge of finding us a new apartment. Imagine our surprise when my wife called realtors and found there were no places available, but when I called, we were able to look at three apartments in a day. In one case where we went to look at the apartment, the owners clearly didn't want us to move in there because of my wife's foreign accent. I was flabbergasted by this and I thought I must have misunderstood, but at the same time there was a Polish NATO soldier looking at one of the apartments and they didn't want him either. In his case, they used an excuse that they do not take soldiers since they move too much (with us, the excuse was that a "nice academic couple" had apparently called dibs on the apartment).

In a related case, I had a South African friend who spoke fluent German. In a telephone conversation with a possible landlord, it somehow came up that he was from South Africa. He was promptly asked the question: "I'm sorry but I was wondering and I really need to ask -- are you black?"

When I was a 16-year-old kid living in the United States, my friends around me were surprised to learn that I didn't consider myself American. Some of them were first-generation Americans as well, born to foreign parents, but they never considered themselves not to be Americans, although of course they would proudly say "I'm German, Irish, Greek..." or whatever when it came to their heritage.

In Germany, I have friends who were born, lived, went to school and worked in Germany. Still, one of my friends frequently starts a conversation with a sentence like "the village where I am from in Croatia" even though she was born here and lived here all her life. Another friend, born in Germany to Turkish parents, was seriously discussing with me that she wasn't even sure how and if living in Germany has had any impact on her in terms of giving her a German identity.

The only chance I see for success is the integration of our society into a European society as a whole where immigration, cross-border movements and "foreignness" are considered to be assets for a functioning society.

-- York Weyers

Dear Spiegel Online,

I read Mr. Crossland's opinion piece and I do agree that Germany needs to change its attitude towards foreigners.

I am a student from India currently pursuing my Master's here. I have been living in Germany for two years now -- 11 months in Cottbus, and the rest in Berlin. While it is true that I have met some wonderful human beings in my two years here, it is also true that by and large we, the foreigners, are regarded way too suspiciously.

Fortunately for me, despite my dark skin, I have not faced any pushed-into-a-corner kind of incidents that I keep hearing about. That may be because I take things in my stride, go out of my way not to offend people or simply because I choose to ignore things most of the time. But I experienced a couple of incidents when the ugly face of racism was bared to one and all. And every time I am shocked anew before a helpless rage takes over me, which I need to glaze over with indifference for my own survival here.

Once in Cottbus, during a hip-hop night at a student bar, which of course attracted the black students from our university, someone threw a stink bomb inside the bar forcing all of us to run towards the exit, eyes hurting and throats constricting due to the nauseous gas. While we were waiting outside for the smell to diffuse, a man with his hood up ran up the stairs, screamed "Ausländer raus!" ("Foreigners out!") and ran away before we could react.

And the other time, a club in Prenzalauer Berg, the happening district of Berlin, denied us entrance because there were three black people amongst us (well, four if you count me). We were just told that they have the right to deny anyone they want and that the club was filled to its capacity. The funny part is they did not even try to wait for us to get out of sight before they let others in.

It would be easy to handle if it is only a certain bunch of people -- say the neo-Nazis -- out to get you. What makes it difficult is the fact that the average people that you meet have so many prejudices against you that everything you do, even before you do it, is written on the debit side of the balance sheet. If my friend, who is white, crosses a street when the light is red, she is in a hurry. And if I do the same, someone is waiting to say "schwarze Schlampe" ("black slut") or something similar.

And you would think that in a university, things might be different. But oh no! It gets worse there. You have to start battling prejudices from the word go. If you come here from the developing world, you are here to squander the precious resources of Germany, while all along you want to stay on in the country by hook or crook.

Don't get me wrong. I am not trying to say I have nothing but bad experiences in Germany. I have had times when the unexpected generosity and helpfulness of strangers reduced me almost to tears. To be fair, perhaps, things are not so different anywhere else.

I came here with an open mind and I see what I see. Tomorrow I will leave because I can afford to. But I see around me a lot of people who will hang on, despite racism, despite prejudices, despite everything. And if something is not done right now, I am afraid it may be too late. History already showed us what could happen if we let malcontent grow.

-- Name withheld

Source: Spiegel

Family Escapes Small Town Xenophobia - 04/05/2008

By Philipp Wittrock in Rudolstadt

Insulted, spat at and attacked -- by ordinary Germans. Unable to bear the daily racism, a pastor's family fled from a small town in eastern Germany back to the their former home in the west.

Sometime last year, Miriam Neuschäfer, who has dark skin because her mother is Indian, decided it was time to record the daily instances of racism she and her family were suffering. The 32-year-old mother of five and wife of a German clergyman wrote down her encounters with the citizens of Rudolstadt, a small town in the eastern German state of Thuringia.

"It helped me work through it," she says, "and some day I want the children to understand everything that happened to us."

A slight woman, Neuschäfer sits at her kitchen table, flipping through the yellow file. She constantly shakes her head. Ten pages filled with black writing. She has more just like it in a drawer -- perhaps 50, she estimates.

Reiner Neuschäfer with his five children. The mother, Miriam, is half Indian.

When she first started she would write in full sentences but ended up just jotting down bullet points. The files are a disturbing account of the events that drove the family out of Rudolstadt after spending almost eight years trying and failing to get on with the locals. They have moved back to western Germany, to the town of Erkelenz in the Rhineland where they are not subject to daily abuse.

She could no longer stand the racism, the hostile comments from everyday citizens, the feeling that she was hated in her own country. "It was an escape," she says. "It was a matter of survival."

Neuschäfer grew up in the Lower Rhine region of Germany, studied theology and speaks perfect German. Her husband, Reiner Andreas Neuschäfer, 40, is a pastor. In 2000, he was offered the position as schools administrator for the southern Thuringia region.

It was an attractive job, and the family had no qualms about moving east. The Neuschäfers and their two young children moved to Rudolstadt, a former royal retreat in a pretty valley near Erfurt. It's a small town with 25,000 residents. A family would find its footing and make new friends in a place like this, they thought.

But the Neuschäfers remained strangers in Thuringia.

From the beginning, says Reiner, the family sensed major "cultural differences." They found it hard to get to know people and the few friends they did make had also come from western Germany. They felt isolated. But they didn't lose heart. Perhaps, they thought, they had just misread the local character. After all, even native Thuringians admit they have a tendency to be grumpy and aren't the easiest people to please.

It will work out in the end, thought the Neuschäfers. But it didn't. In fact, things started to get worse.

The Neuschäfers began to sense something more profound than just cool distance. "We could sit here for hours, and I could just keep coming up with examples," says Miriam, as she browses through her accounts of hate and animosity.

"Your Skin Isn't Right"

The alarm bells first went off in 2002 during a conversation with the kindergarten teacher of Jannik, the oldest son, who is now 10 years old. The conversation suddenly turned to the issue of integration. "Your skin isn't right," the other children said to him. It got so bad that Jannik tried to scrub his skin white with a coarse brush.

According to the parents, when Jannik went to grade school later, the teasing continued. "Mom, what's a nigger?" the young boy asked at home. His classmates had taunted him, saying: "You are this brown because you rubbed shit all over yourself." One day, nine school mates reportedly beat Jannik up on the playground so badly that Reiner called the police. The school administration scolded the small boys who had roughed him up.

The second-oldest daughter, Fenja, who is now eight, also came home with stories of being bullied. And the mother, Miriam, had her own harassment experiences, too. She recalls how an elderly gentleman in a supermarket said: "Amazing the kind of people they let shop here" as she and her children walked past. "Go back to the jungle!" she remembers another man yelling at her once. She was in a parking lot and hadn't closed her car door fast enough for his liking as he tried to pull his car into the adjacent spot.

Less Than Helpful Authorities

It wasn't long before just being stared at by people started to get to Miriam. "I just kept my eyes on the ground and counted the paving stones, she says. It wasn't long before she stopped venturing out of her house on her own.

Even when she was accompanied with her large and powerfully built husband or with the few friends they had, Miriam and the children sensed people's animosity. Whenever the family showed up at a busy playground, it would empty out abruptly. "In glorious sunshine," according to the mother. One day a teenager spat at her as she walked through a park with an acquaintance, she says.

"Spat at? I can't imagine that," says Georg Eger, the deputy mayor, vigorously shaking his head in his office on the second floor of the Rudolstadt town hall. He raises his finger and continues: "I even rule that out." City spokesman Michael Wagner tries to soften that categoric statement a little. Of course, one can't vouch for every single citizen, he says.

There's a whole lot of head shaking in Rudolstadt's town hall these days. "We've been steamrolled," Eger says. Steamrolled by reports about the Neuschäfers' flight from the xenophobia of some of Rudolstadt's inhabitants.

Crisis management is what is called for now, says the spokesman. He adds that he is drafting a public statement by the city in response to the matter. Every sentence counts. The example of Mügeln made that clear. In that small town in Saxony, in August 2007, a drunken mob attacked a group of Indian men after a confrontation at a street festival. The group shouted racist taunts, but Mügeln's mayor played down the problem and blamed the violence on visitors from out of town.

Fear of the Mügeln Effect

Like Mügeln, Rudolstadt is worried about its reputation. In recent years the city has fought an uphill battle to improve its image. In 1992, after 2,000 neo-Nazis marched here in memory of Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess, the town was labelled a bastion of the far right. Today, Rudolstadt's inhabitants proudly point out that the town is home to Germany's largest world music festival, which draws 10,000 people from all over the world each year.

Now the town's administration fears its reputation is slipping again. The mayor's office has received hundreds of hate e-mails. Their message: "We won't be returning to Rudolstadt."

The town has to walk a fine line. It has to fight against the blanket judgment that it is a nest of xenophobia, but it must also avoid publicly dismissing the Neuschäfers' claims as being made-up stories. At times, the latter is particularly hard. The deputy mayor speaks of "schoolyard scuffles." The mayor intends to meet Reiner Neuschäfer soon to clear up the matter as soon as possible. Until then, he'll ask around about something that he never cared to hear about before. He'll talk to the police, who confirm the Neuschäfers filed two legal complaints. And he'll talk with the school, which is currently defending itself against the accusation that it didn't do enough to help.

The Neuschäfers say they aren't bitter, that this is not about stigmatizing eastern Germany or Rudolstadt. They did not seek out the publicity. The story of their flight from Thuringia leaked out gradually, reaching the press by coincidence.

Miriam and her children finally moved to Erkelenz last October. At first it was just intended as a vacation, as rest and recuperation. But it became an "act of liberation". They found they couldn't bring themselves to return to Rudolstadt.

Miriam and her children Jannik, Fenja, Ronja, Jarrit and Jannis Neuschäfer are enjoying life in their former home. Their father is still looking for a job back in the Rhineland. For now, every weekend he drives the 430 kilometers (267 miles) between Erkelenz, where he spends time with his family, and Rudolstadt, where he sleeps during the week on a mattress in their empty flat.

At the moment, he is on vacation. Next Tuesday, he will drive back to Thuringia for the first time since the accusations of racism were made public. He has "mixed feelings" about the looming trip, he says. He knows "it could be a gauntlet."

Source: Spiegel