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Racism in Germany

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Racism in German history is inextricably linked to the Herero and Namaqua genocide in colonial times. Racism reached its peak during the Nazi regime which eventually led to a program of systematic state-sponsored murder known as The Holocaust. According to reports by the European Commission, milder forms of racism are still present in parts of German society. Currently the racism has been mainly directed towards Asian and African countries[1] by both the state and through the citizens which includes being impolite and trying to interfere in internal matters of African countries by the diplomats.[2][3]

19th and early 20th centuries

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Herero people chained up in 1904

When Germany struggled to become a belated colonial power in the 19th century, several atrocities were committed, most notably the Herero and Namaqua Genocide in what is now Namibia. The German authorities forced the survivors of the genocide into concentration camps.

Eugen Fischer, a German professor of medicine, anthropology and eugenics conducted "medical experiments on race" in these camps, including sterilizations and injections of smallpox, typhus and tuberculosis. He advocated the genocide of alleged "inferior races" stating that "whoever thinks thoroughly about the notion of race, cannot arrive at a different conclusion".[4]

The Herero genocide has commanded the attention of historians who study complex issues of continuity between this event and the Nazi Holocaust.[5] According to Clarence Lusane, an Associate Professor of Political Science at the American University School of International Service, Fischer's experiments can be seen as testing ground for later medical procedures used during the Nazi Holocaust.[4]

Against the Polish population

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The Germanization policies against the Polish population in Germany were largely concentrated in territories conquered from Poland during the Partitions of Poland, but they were also enforced in Silesia, Pomerania and Masuria. They were motivated by racism.[6]

The Third Reich

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Corpses at the Buchenwald concentration camp

After the Nazis came to power in 1933, racism became a part of the official state ideology.[7]

Shortly after the Nazis came to power, they passed the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service which expelled all civil servants who were of "non-Aryan" origin, with a few exceptions.[8]

The Nazis passed the Nuremberg Laws in 1935. The first law known as the "Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour" forbade sexual relations and marriages between people of "German blood" and Jews.[9] Shortly afterwards, the Nazis extended this law to include "Gypsies, negroes or their bastards".[10]

Although the Nazis preached racial supremacy, in several books and pamphlets they stated that they were preaching racial consciousness rather than supremacy such as:

The fundamental reason for excluding foreign-race groups from a people’s body is not discrimination or contempt, but rather the realization of otherness. Only through such thinking will it be possible for the peoples to again become healthy and able to respect each other.[11]

The Nazis believed that race determined everything and they told the Germans to be racially conscious.[11]

In the 1930s and 1940s, Nazi Germany's military conquest of Europe in the Second World War was followed by countless acts of racially motivated murder and genocide.

In its broad definition, the term Holocaust refers to an industrially run programme of state-sponsored murder by Nazi Germany, a genocide of different groups and the murder of individuals, whom the German authorities at this time defined as belonging to an "inferior race", as having "life unworthy of life" or advocating beliefs that were disturbing to their politics. The affected cultures use their own expressions such as: The Shoah (Hebrew: השואה, HaShoah, "catastrophe"; Yiddish: חורבן, Churben or Hurban,[12] in the Jewish context, the Porajmos [ˌpɔʁmɔs] (also Porrajmos or Pharrajimos, literally "devouring" or "destruction" in some dialects of the Romani language) used by Romani people, or the Polish word "Zagłada" (literally meaning "annihilation", or "extinction") often used by Poles as a synonym of the word Holocaust.[13]

The Holocaust was one of many outbreaks of antisemitism, a term coined in the late 19th century in Germany as a more scientific-sounding term for Judenhass ("Jew-hatred"). Scientific theories on antisemitism are divided into what degree it can be subsumed under racism and to what degree it can be subsumed under other causes and mechanisms.

From the late 20th century to the present day

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Incidents in reunified Germany

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More than 130 people were killed in racist street violence in Germany, in the years between 1990 and 2010, according to the German newspaper Die Zeit.[14] Only some of the most publicly noted cases are listed below. In particular, after German reunification in the 1990s a wave of racist street violence claimed numerous lives, with notable incidents including the arson attack in Mölln and the Riot of Rostock-Lichtenhagen in 1992, the Solingen arson attack of 1993, and the attack on Noël Martin in 1996.

In 2006, a black German citizen of Ethiopian descent named as Ermyas M., an engineer was beaten into a coma by two unknown assailants who called him "nigger" in an unprovoked attack that has reawakened concern about racist violence in eastern Germany.[15] He was waiting for a tram in Potsdam, near Berlin, when two people approached him shouting "nigger". When he objected, they attacked him with a bottle and beat him to the ground.[16]

Also in 2006, German-Turkish politician Giyasettin Sayan, a member of Berlin's regional assembly, was attacked by two men who called him a "dirty foreigner". Sayan, who represents the Left party, suffered head injuries and bruising after his attackers struck him with a bottle in a street in his Lichtenberg ward in the East of the city.[17]

In August 2007, a mob consisting of about 50 Germans attacked 8 Indian street vendors during a town festival in the town of Muegeln near Leipzig.[18][19] The victims found shelter in a pizzeria owned by Kulvir Singh, one of those being chased, but the mob broke through the doors and destroyed Singh's car. All eight were injured and it took 70 police to quell the violence[20]

There is evidence that, in 2015, Professor Annette Beck-Sickinger at the University of Leipzig in Germany rejected Indian candidates on the basis of racism and stereotyping. The incidents were so severe - amid shock that they were perpetrated by an apparently 'educated' woman - that Germany's ambassador to India wrote a strongly worded letter condemning the professor, stating: "Your oversimplifying and discriminating generalization is an offense ... to millions of law-abiding, tolerant, open-minded and hard-working Indians," he wrote. "Let's be clear: India is not a country of rapists."[21] [22]

General reports

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The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) noted in 2001, in its second report on the situation of the approximately 9% non- citizen population after German reunification:

(…) that, in spite of the considerable number of non-citizens who have been living in Germany for a long time or even from birth, there was a reluctance by Germany to consider itself as a country of immigration.” Persons of immigrant origin, including those who are second or third generation born in Germany, tended to remain 'foreigners' in German statistics and public discourse.[23]

Civil rights activist Ika Hügel-Marshall has complained that she and others found it difficult to be regarded as German due to their ethnic background. She co-founded the Afro-Deutsch movement in the 1980s to raise awareness of Germans with African ancestry. The movement was designed "to resist marginalization and discrimination, to gain social acceptance, and to construct a cultural identity for themselves."[24]

According to the United Nations, people with a migrant background also "are under-represented in important institutions, including the political system, the police and the courts".[25]

Public debate

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Critics say that a lingering xenophobia in parts of German society is being ignored. A representative from the country's Jewish Council argued that Germany is lacking a coordinated "nationwide action plan" when it comes to right-wing extremism.[26]

A former government spokesman Uwe-Karsten Heye said that dark-skinned visitors to Germany should consider avoiding the eastern part of the country where racism runs high. "There are small and medium-sized towns in Brandenburg, as well as elsewhere, which I would advise a visitor of another skin color to avoid going to.[27] It is also reported that German police 'routinely ignore racist attacks'.[28] Former SPD politician Sebastian Edathy said "People with dark skin have a much higher risk of being a victim of an attack in eastern Germany than in western Germany." He also accused municipalities in the east of not investing enough in the prevention of right-wing extremism."[29]

Undercover journalist Günter Wallraff traveled across Germany for more than a year wearing a dark-haired curly wig and his white skin painted black, in a documentary film titled Black on White.[30] He said that "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, unfortunately I was wrong."[30][31]

According to a 2019 report presented by the German Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency, the number of cases of racial discrimination reported in Germany rose by almost 10% to 1,176 since 2015.[32]

Germany has an "ongoing problem with racial discrimination and does not give enough consistent legal support to victims," says Bernhard Franke, the acting head of the German anti-discrimination agency. According to him, the feeling of being left alone with injustice has "dire consequences in the long run that endanger social cohesion."[33]

In 2015, Rhineland-Palatinate interior minister Roger Lewentz said the former communist states were "more susceptible" to "xenophobic radicalization" because former East Germany had not had the same exposure to foreign people and cultures over the decades that the people in the West of the country have had.[34]

A 2017 study found that the reason why East Germans were more prone to hold right-wing extreme and xenophobia views, was due to East Germany communist rule.[35][36][37]

Racial profiling

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This section is an excerpt from Racial profiling § Germany.[edit]

In February 2012, the first court ruling concerning racial profiling in German police policy, allowing police to use skin color and "non-German ethnic origin" to select persons who will be asked for identification in spot-checks for illegal immigrants.[38] Subsequently, it was decided legal for a person submitted to a spot-check to compare the policy to that of the SS in public.[39] A higher court later overruled the earlier decision declaring the racial profiling unlawful and in violation of anti-discrimination provisions in Art. 3 Basic Law and the General Equal Treatment Act of 2006.[40]

The civil rights organisation Büro zur Umsetzung von Gleichbehandlung (Office for the Implementation of Equal Treatment) makes a distinction between criminal profiling, which is legitimate in Germany, and ethnic profiling, which is not.[41]

According to a 2016 report by the Interior ministry in Germany, there had been an increase in hate crimes and violence against migrant groups in Germany.[42] The reports concluded that there were more than 10 attacks per day against migrants in Germany in 2016.[42] This report from Germany garnered the attention of the United Nations, which alleged that people of African descent face widespread discrimination in Germany.[43]

A 2017 statement by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Rights after a visit to Germany states: "While the Basic Law guarantees equality, prohibits racial discrimination, and states that human dignity is inviolable, it is not being enforced." and calls racial profiling by police officials endemic. Recommendations include legal reform, establishing an independent complaint system, training and continuing education for the police, and investigations to promote accountability and remedy.[44]

Racist organizations in Germany

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German white power skinhead

Despite widespread rejection of Nazi Germany in modern Germany, there have been Neo-Nazi activities and organizations in post-war Germany. At times these groups face legal issues. Hence the Volkssozialistische Bewegung Deutschlands/Partei der Arbeit, Action Front of National Socialists/National Activists, Free German Workers' Party, and the Nationalist Front were all banned. The National Democratic Party of Germany has been accused of Neo-Nazi or Neo-Fascist leanings [45][46][47][48] but historian Walter Laqueur writes that it cannot be classified that way.[49]

Anti-Palestinian racism

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This section is an excerpt from Anti-Palestinianism § Germany.[edit]

Mati Shemoelof in +972 Magazine said anti-Palestinian sentiment is common in Germany.[50] Palestinians in the country have described a "crackdown and criminalisation" of Palestinians which has included police violence at protests, racial profiling, censorship, and violations of their human rights.[51][52] Majed Abusalama, co-founder of Palestine Speaks in Germany, suggests German anti-Palestinianism is increasing.[53] The German left, particularly the Antideutsch movement, has been noted for anti-Palestinian sentiment. Many pro-Israel non-Jewish Zionists on the German left regard being anti-Palestinian as connected to their solidarity with Jews.[54]

In 2019, the Bundestag declared the BDS movement to be a form of antisemitism. In response, the BDS movement condemned the motion as anti-Palestinian. The Palestinian B.D.S. National Committee issued a statement declaring the motion an "anti-Palestinian...McCarthyite and unconstitutional resolution passed by the German Parliament."[55][56] British musician Brian Eno has argued that pro-Palestinian artists are subjected to "censorship and inquisitorial McCarthyism" due to the actions of the German government and anti-Palestinian groups.[57]

On 27 April 2023, ahead of the 75th anniversary of Israel's independence, or for Palestinians the 75th anniversary of the Nakba, prominent German politician and president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen referred to Israel as a "vibrant democracy" in the Middle East that "made the desert bloom" in remarks criticized by the foreign ministry of the Palestinian Authority as a "propagandist discourse" propagating an "anti-Palestinian racist trope" and a "whitewashing" of Israeli occupation.[58][59][60]

Germany's relationship with Palestine has been described as "complex". At present, Germany's political class exhibits a "zealous identification with Israel" that is "often explained in terms of the country's past". Alternative readings, however, view this trend as a "qualitatively new phenomenon in Germany largely unrelated to moral considerations pertaining to the Nazi era".[61] Hannah C. Tzuberi argues that German manifestations of "anti-antisemitism" (which has been described as "a defining marker of post-war German identity")[62] can go beyond the identification of Germans with Jews, sometimes leading to the identification of German gentiles as Jews, and the identification of Germany as Israel.[63]

In 2020, scholars and artists began accusing Germany of a "witch hunt" against those who express pro-Palestinian solidarity.[64] The European Legal Support Center (ELSC) has also accused Germany of human rights violations for laws which it says amount to suppression of pro-Palestinian activism, which it says particularly affects Jews and Palestinians.[65] Artists for Palestine says Germany has censured a number of artists for expressing pro-Palestinian sentiment, include Kamila Shamsie,[66] Kae Tempest, Young Fathers, Talib Kwelli, Walid Raad and Nirit Sommerfeld.[57][67][64]

In 2024, Liz Fekete described systemic anti-Palestinian racism in German politics, media and police, including the criminalization and stigmatization of pro-Palestinian demonstrations, and the treatment of any criticism of Israel's colonialist politics as antisemitic and blasphemous. She adds: ″this cannot be explained away simply by alluding to Germany’s desire to atone for the Holocaust.″[68]

References

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  1. ^ "'Outrageously racist': Indians slam German magazine for cartoon on India's population overtaking China". Business Today (in Hindi). 2023-04-24. Retrieved 2023-04-25.
  2. ^ "German ambassador expelled from Chad over 'impolite attitude'". Hindustan Times. 2023-04-09. Retrieved 2023-04-25.
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  5. ^ A Historical Companion to Postcolonial Literatures - Continental Europe and its Empires, page 240 Edinburgh University Press 2009
  6. ^ Nicola Piper (17 August 2018). Racism, Nationalism and Citizenship: Ethnic Minorities in Britain and Germany. Taylor & Francis. pp. 122–124. ISBN 978-0-429-83087-7.
  7. ^ Christian Geulen: Geschichte des Rassismus, C.H. Beck, München 2007, 97f
  8. ^ The Nazi Germany Sourcebook: An Anthology of Texts, ed Roderick Stackelberg, Sally A. Winkle, Routledge, Article 3.12b First Regulation for Administration of the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service
  9. ^ Michael Burleigh; Wolfgang Wippermann (7 November 1991). The Racial State: Germany 1933-1945. Cambridge University Press. p. 49. ISBN 978-0-521-39802-2.
  10. ^ Burleigh, p. 50
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  12. ^ "Holocaust," Encyclop?dia Britannica, 2009: "the systematic state-sponsored killing of six million Jewish men, women and children, and millions of others by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II. The Nazis called this "the final solution to the Jewish question ..."
  13. ^ Niewyk, Donald L. The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust, Columbia University Press, 2000, p.45: "The Holocaust is commonly defined as the murder of more than 5,000,000 Jews by the Germans in World War II."
  14. ^ [1] Die Zeit: Rechte Gewalt
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  40. ^ Rath, Christian (2012-10-30). "Urteil zu Kontrollen nach Hautfarbe: Gericht verbietet Polizei-Rassismus" [Judgment on checks on skin color: Court bans police racism]. Die Tageszeitung: taz (in German). ISSN 0931-9085. Retrieved 2019-01-08.
  41. ^ "What is ethnic profiling?". www.bug-ev.org. Archived from the original on 2018-10-17. Retrieved 2019-01-08.
  42. ^ a b "Germany hate crime: Nearly 10 attacks a day on migrants in 2016". BBC News. 2017-02-26. Retrieved 2017-03-06.
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  44. ^ "Statement to the media by the United Nations' Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, on the conclusion of its official visit to Germany, 20-27 February 2017". Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. 27 February 2017. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
  45. ^ "Neo-Nazi NPD party takes hold in municipal vote in Saxony". The Local. 9 Jun 2008. Retrieved June 10, 2009. The neo-Nazi NPD party has representatives in every county council in the eastern German state of Saxony after it increased its share of the vote in municipal elections on Sunday.
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  47. ^ "Neonazis in der NPD auf dem Vormarsch". Süddeutsche Zeitung. 19 May 2009. Retrieved August 23, 2009. Das neonazistische Spektrum hat seinen Einfluss innerhalb der NPD ausgebaut.
  48. ^ Verfassungsschutzbericht 2008. Verfassungsschutz. May 2009. p. 51. Retrieved August 23, 2009. Auch 2008 ist es in der Kooperation zwischen der NPD und der Neonazi-Szene zu erheblichen Spannungen gekommen.
  49. ^ Laqueur, Walter (1996). Fascism, Past, Present, Future. Oxford University Press. p. 110.
  50. ^ Konrad, Edo (2021-07-21). "The Israelis challenging the German left's anti-Palestinian politics". +972 Magazine. Retrieved 2024-11-06.
  51. ^ Sharma, Gouri. "'Complete censorship': Germany's Palestinian diaspora fights crackdown". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 2024-11-06.
  52. ^ Jegić, Denijal. "Why is Germany so viciously anti-Palestinian?". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 2024-11-06.
  53. ^ Abusalama, Majed. "Germany's anti-Palestinianism is escalating". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 2024-11-06.
  54. ^ Shemoelof 2021.
  55. ^ Nasr & Alkousaa 2019.
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  57. ^ a b Eno 2021.
  58. ^ "EU's 'Israeli independence' message rebuked in Palestine". Al Jazeera. 27 April 2023.
  59. ^ Knell, Yolande (27 April 2023). "Palestinians condemn EU's von der Leyen for 'racist trope'". BBC.
  60. ^ Lynch, Suzanne (27 April 2023). "Von der Leyen's Israel comments provoke Palestinian ire". Politico.
  61. ^ Fischer, L. (2019). "Deciphering Germany's Pro-Israel Consensus". Journal of Palestine Studies. 48 (2): 26–42. doi:10.1525/jps.2019.48.2.26. S2CID 159195502.
  62. ^ Judith Gruber (2021). "At the Intersection of Racial and Religious Othering: Theologies of Interreligious Dialogue as a Performance of White Christian Innocence?". Answerable for our Beliefs. Peeters. ISBN 978-9-0429-4742-9.
  63. ^ Tzuberi, Hannah C. (2020). ""The Sun Does Not Shine, It Radiates": On National(ist) Mergings in German Philosemitic Imagery of Tel Aviv". In Reuveni, Gideon; Franklin, Diana (eds.). The Future of the German-Jewish Past: Memory and the Question of Antisemitism. Purdue University Press. hdl:20.500.12657/49467.
  64. ^ a b Mashiach, Itay (2020-12-10). "In Germany, a Witch Hunt Is Raging Against Critics of Israel. Cultural Leaders Have Had Enough". Haaretz. Retrieved 2024-11-06.
  65. ^ "BREAKING-New Report Reveals Human Rights Violations Resulting from IHRA Definition of Antisemitism". European Legal Support Center. 2023-06-06. Retrieved 2024-11-06.
  66. ^ Flood, Alison (2019-09-23). "Hundreds of authors protest after Kamila Shamsie's book award is revoked". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-11-06.
  67. ^ "Brian Eno: Artists must call out Germany's anti-Palestinian witch-hunt". Artists for Palestine UK. 2021-02-08. Retrieved 2024-11-06.
  68. ^ Fekete, Liz (2024-05-24). "Anti-Palestinian racism and the criminalisation of international solidarity in Europe". Race & Class. doi:10.1177/03063968241253708. ISSN 0306-3968.

Sources

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Official reports

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News items

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