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 

Sentence in Racist Attack Slammed for Leniency - 11/27/2007

The attack on eight Indian men by a mob of Germans last August has resulted in the first conviction. An 18-year-old man has been ordered to pay €600 for shouting xenophobic abuse. A representative of the victims says the sentence is too lenient.

An 18-year-old German man has been ordered to pay €600 ($890) to a charity in the first conviction resulting from an attack on eight Indian menin August by a group of around 50 Germans, some of whom were chanting "Foreigners out!"

 Indian attack victims Gurminder Singh (L) and Kulvir Singh pose for media at market in Doebeln August 22, 2007. German police say a mob who attacked eight Indians in eastern Germany on Saturday night could have had far-right racist motives. Three of the Indians required hospital treatment after 50 people attacked the visitors at a town fair and then besieged them in a pizzeria until rescued. Seventy police were required to disperse the mob. Photo Credit: Reuters/Hannibal Hanschke

 

Indian attack victim Gurminder Singh pose for media at market in Doebeln August 22, 2007. German police say a mob who attacked eight Indians in eastern Germany on Saturday night could have had far-right racist motives. Three of the Indians required hospital treatment after 50 people attacked the visitors at a town fair and then besieged them in a pizzeria until rescued. Seventy police were required to disperse the mob.  REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke

 The man had admitted shouting xenophobic comments during the attack in the eastern town of Mügeln, the Leipzig state prosecutor's office said. Prosecutors had demanded he pay €1,800 and may appeal against the sentencing, handed down by a court in the town of Oschatz.

The case made nationwide headlines and highlighted the problem of racism and far-right attacks on minorities in eastern Germany.

A 23-year-old man is expected to go on trial next week charged with smashing the window of the pizza restaurant where the Indian men sought refuge after getting into a fight during a street festival.

The court ruling against the 18-year-old was criticized by a representative of the Indian men. Marianne Thum, who works for a group that helps the victims of racist attacks, said: "This really makes me angry."

She said the €600 fine which the man has been ordered to pay to a children's charity was far too lenient, and she complained that the victims had not been informed that the court case was taking place.

She said the fine should have at least been paid to an organisation that combats right-wing extremism. "That might have caused the defendants some pain," she said.

Source: Spiegel 

Racism On the Rise in Germany

The European Union has published a new report on racism in Europe. Germany comes in for criticism on several fronts, including violent crimes and discrimination against foreigners in the job and housing markets.

Racism has become a front-page issue in Germany in recent days after an apparently xenophobic attack on eight Indians in the eastern German town of Mügeln. Now a new European Union report on racism reveals the full extent of the problem -- and shows that everyday racism in the general population is just as much an issue as right-wing extremism.

 Gurminder Singh was one of the victims of the recent attack in Mügeln. Just how big a problem is racism in Germany?

The "Report on Racism and Xenophobia in the Member States of the EU" was published Tuesday by the Vienna-based European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) -- an agency which was created on Mar. 1, 2007 to replace the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia.

The report shows that violent racism appears to be on the increase in Germany, with reported incidents of racist violence and crime increasing by 14 percent between 2005 and 2006, going up from 15,914 incidents in 2005 to 18,142 in 2006. However the report did say that the figures for reported crimes "should be interpreted with caution," as an apparent increase can reflect better data collection as well as real increases.

Crime with an extremist right-wing motive also showed an increase, going up from 15,361 incidents in 2005 to 17,597 incidents in 2006, a 14.6 percent increase. "The observation of this apparent upward trend in extremist activity in Germany is supported by reports of increased right-wing attacks noted by victim support organizations in eastern parts of the country," the report's authors write.

However the incidence of anti-Semitic crime in Germany remained fairly constant, with 1,662 incidents in 2006 compared to 1,682 in 2005.

The report also criticized several EU members including Germany for "lagging behind" in the implementation of the EU's Racial Equality Directive. The directive was introduced in 2000 and is the main EU legislation in the area of combating racism and xenophobia. Germany only implemented the legisation in 2006 and the bodies set up to combat discrimination were not fully operational by the end of 2006. Germany also failed to apply "a single sanction" or award compensation in cases of racial discrimination, "even though laws and procedures were in place."

"In Germany, skepticism towards legal anti-discrimination regulations remains high," commented racism expert Nicole Bosch from the European Forum for Migration Studies, which contributed to the FRA report, in an interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE.

One of the areas where discrimination can be seen is laws regarding the wearing of religious symbols. The report gives the example of the decision by a court in Bavaria to upheld a ban on female teachers wearing Islamic headscarves in schools while allowing nuns to wear habits.

Discrimination in Jobs, Education and Housing

Discrimination is also seen in the job market. The report quotes research on second-generation Turkish-Germans carried out in 2006, which showed that "gatekeepers" such as personnel managers are "not only guided by relevant factors like education, qualification and work experience, but also by certain cultural stereotypes and prejudices towards Turkish migrants."

The report also said that significant discrimination in the housing market had been found in studies in Cologne, Hanover, Munich and Berlin.

Germany was also one of the countries singled out as having an educational system "that lead to a high concentration of disadvantaged and/or discriminated pupils in the lowest educational tracks." One reason for discrimination in education, the report says, is resistance to educating immigrant children in their native language. The report gives the example of the city of Dietzenbach in the state of Hesse which decreed German to be the single language in the 12 city nursery schools.

However the report did also single out a number of initiatives which were promising. A campaign in Berlin was introduced to encourage young migrants to apply for vocational training in the administration, police and fire services, while the state government in North Rhine-Westphalia has introduced an action plan to encourage young people with an immigration background to become teachers.

Large companies were also leading the fight against discrimination. In December 2006 the companies Deutsche Bank, DaimlerChrysler, Deutsche BP and Deutsche Telekom jointly signed a "diversity charter," where they commit themselves to promoting diversity in their companies.

As part of efforts to promote diversity, the German bank Commerzbank has set up a "silence room" in Frankfurt which can be used as a place of prayer for Muslim employees, while Deutsche Bank is establishing private worship and meditation rooms for employees of all religious beliefs.

New film uncovers racism in Germany

Is Germany a racist country? That is what a new documentary, Black on White, is trying to find out. Its findings are shocking. But, as Damien McGuinness reports, the filmmaker himself has been criticized by black Germans for his methods.

For more than a year, journalist Gunter Wallraff travelled across Germany wearing a dark-haired curly wig and with his white skin painted black.

Equipped with a secret camera, and calling himself Kwami Ogonno, he went to predominantly white areas to see how a black man with a foreign accent is treated.

The experience, he said, was even more depressing that he had expected.

"I hadn't known what we would discover, and had thought maybe the story will be, what a tolerant and accepting country we have become," said Mr Wallraff after a screening of the film Black on White in Berlin. "Unfortunately I was wrong." 

Günter Wallraff was almost beaten up by Neo-Nazis after a football match in eastern Germany. Outside a small-town nightclub was told by a skinhead: "Europe for whites, Africa for apes."

But the film's most disturbing aspect is not the well-known racism of right-wing extremists, but rather the secretly-filmed reactions of everyday people - the landlady who says she could not possibly rent out a flat to a black person, or the shop owner who will not let "Kwami" try on an expensive watch, but willingly hands over the same watch to the next customer who is white.

Everyday abuse

For black people in certain parts of Germany such experiences are commonplace, believes Sven Mekarides, general secretary of the Africa Council in Berlin.

Mr Mekarides left his native Cameroon in 1991 and came to study in a small town in eastern Germany.

He says he and his fellow African students experienced racist attacks and abuse every day.

They were spat at, shouted at and beer bottles were thrown at them.

The worst attack took place in the eastern Berlin district of Lichtenberg in 2004, when Mr Mekarides and his girlfriend were surrounded by seven young men armed with knives.

"We soon realized that it was dangerous to travel in groups of less than three people. And we would never let any of the women go anywhere without accompanying them," he said in a Berlin cafe.

Since then, he said, the situation has not got much better.

According to the Amadeu Antonio foundation there have been 138 racially-motivated murders in Germany since 1990. And last year police registered 140 race attacks in Berlin.

"Those are only the most extreme cases the police know about," said Mr Mekarides.

"Every day we get calls from black people who have been falsely accused of stealing something or insulted on the street."

Clown in a carnival?

Although Mr Mekarides welcomes the discussion about racism the film has sparked off, he believes the filmmaker's exaggerated disguise confirms Europeans' worst stereotypes of an African.

"He just doesn't look like an African," said Mr Mekarides. "The wig, the make-up and the brightly-coloured shirt are all so over the top, he looks like he's a clown in a carnival.

"After he has washed his skin, he can forget the problem. But black people have this problem every day."

Some German newspaper commentators have accused the filmmaker himself of racism for acting out such a negative stereotype of a black person. The character of Kwami speaks broken German and is childlike in his ignorance of dangerous situations.

Anti-racism pressure groups, meanwhile, have complained that the filmmaker is paternally speaking for black people, rather than with them. Why did he not simply film the experiences of real black people?

"It was crucial that I take on these dangers myself," countered Mr Wallraff. "There's no way that I could delegate this role to someone else.

"I've been accused of being racist. But just imagine if I'd sent a black person into situations that I wasn't prepared to go into myself."

Torture and prison

With a celebrated 40-year career of unearthing social injustice, it is impossible to doubt Gunter Wallraff's motivations.

In one assignment he went undercover as an anti-government protestor in 1970s Greece and was tortured and imprisoned.

The film has won praise for starting a debate about racism in Germany. After a Q&A session with Mr Wallraff in a Berlin cinema, one young black woman said the film was "interesting, helpful and needed for Germany".

She said: "I've lived here all my life, and this is the first time I've ever seen an audience like this discussing this issue."

Racism is viewed as unacceptable by mainstream German society, and many urban areas pride themselves on a multi-cultural tolerant atmosphere.

But there do still exist so-called "no-go areas" - particularly in rural eastern Germany - which anti-racism activists advise non-white people to avoid.

Gunter Wallraff's film has already done a lot to spark discussion about racism. With an ageing population, Germany is now having to come to terms with being a country of immigration.

Clearly the debate is just beginning.

Source: BBC News