Dmeitry sedov
Last Saturday, over a thousand of neo-Nazi took to the streets to
protest against the policies of tolerance and multiculturalism. Neo-Nazi
youths hate blacks and other people of color, despise gays, and dream
of the purity of the Aryan race. They attribute Germany’s problems to
the US influence and their rallies should, upon scrutiny, be regarded as
anti-American. The left radicals sound alarm louder than others when
the neo-Nazi make public appearances, but for them opposing Nazism
clearly overshadows the task of defending multiculturalism. The Saturday
March in Hamburg ended with violence, acts of vandalism, and clashes
with police and though nobody was seriously hurt this time, according
to the city administration the damages totaled Euro 1.5m.
If you’re familiar with present-day Germany, you’re likely aware that
the Germans, a nation with a reputation for unsurpassed respect for law
and order, increasingly become prone to getting involved in public-space
conflicts. Actually, trade union rallies and student protests which
escalated into fighting with police occasionally took place in West
Germany in the Cold War era, and that discontent with the US domination
of German policies at one point took the form of terrorist attacks
launched by members of the notorious Red Army Faction. Consequently, it
is no news that Germany’s strategy of behaving as a minor partner of the
U.S. comes with considerable domestic costs.
The German society successfully met the key challenge which confronted
it in the XX century – the unification of East and West Germany, and
ever since Berlin, with its newly gained confidence, has remained a
symbol of trans-Atlantic solidarity. On the other hand, recently
Germans had to realize to what extent it was Washington’s fault that
they had to serially drag their EU peers out of recession. The global
financial crisis engineered by the U.S. echoed with a new round of
protests among the German population, especially its younger part,
against the government’s lack of independence in foreign and domestic
politics. As it typically happens with the young, a clear formulation of
the agenda behind the discontent is absent and the expressions of rage
easily spin out of control.
German police ministry’s reports reflected a surge in extremism in
2011. The phenomenon is ever more disquieting considering that the
German brand of extremism, once unleashed, is known to threaten the
nation’s political tradition from top down. Political extremism in
Germany always seems to go further than in any other European
country, as in the case of the Red Army Faction which rebelled against
“German imperialism” in the 1970ies. Respect for brute force and
readiness to act accordingly are, on a deep level, built into the German
mentality.
These days, extremism – left and right alike – is gaining ground in
Germany. Official statistics shows that the incidence of politically
motivated violence in the country grew by 18% in 2011 compared to 2010.
The figure is unprecedented in post-war Germany, and it must be noted
that the left are increasingly contributing to the trend. It is a
traditional perception that the German rights, particularly the
neo-Nazi, are responsible for the majority of terrorist attacks. German
interior minister Hans-Peter Friedrich said the right had killed 60
activists from the opposite edge of the spectrum, but human rights
groups estimate the number at 182, with only 38% of the cases solved by
law enforcement agencies. In comparison, the left appear to be less
aggressive, their record being mostly limited to acts of vandalism and
brawls with police and including no lethal attacks.
On the whole, the proliferation of political extremism revives memories
of the epoch when national socialists in Germany were inching towards
power. At the moment, swelling groups of critics of the German
government’s policies are ready to overstep the line which separates
political activism from violence.
Hate for foreigners is believed to be the most common cause of
politically motivated violence in Germany. In daily life, the hate
surfaces in fights between ethnic groups of young people or racial
slurs, but it also manifests itself on an organized level. For example,
over the 13 years of its existence National-Sozialistischer Untergrund, a
powerful extremist formation, has committed 10 murders, not to mention
countless offenses like beatings of foreigners.
Violence against foreigners and religious minorities in Germany was
reported 22,7 % more often in 2011 that in 2010. Commentators generally
call into question the extremists crime data supplied by police as it
frequently brackets violence stemming from political radicalism with
ordinary hooliganism or banditry, meaning that the death toll may
actually be higher.
Completely new motivations behind extremist violence became became a
part of the picture in 2011. The campaigning of extraordinary intensity
which accompanied the year's elections across Germany prompted a tide of
vandalism, the targets being political banners, etc. The heightened
incidence of this type of crime evidently correlated with brewing
tensions in the German society. The same conclusion was drawn from the
fact that the number of political rallies held in 2011 came out
unusually high and that they often involved fighting with opponents, the
devastation of public property, and conflicts with police. The latter,
it must be noted, constitute a particularly frightening syndrome. The
traditional German respect for law is evaporating, with the aggressive
inclinations of the young coming to the foreground. In 2011, the number
of attacks on policemen reached 1284, a level hitherto unthinkable in
the country. Overall, it is clear that the public status of the police
in Germany has plummeted.
The German government largely pretends to overlook the problem and
carefully avoids touching upon the root causes behind the protests. The
response to the demonstrations in Dresden commemorating the February,
1944 U.S.-British bombing of the city, which took over 100,000 lives of
civilians, exemplified the approach. Young people from all over Germany,
mostly aged around 18, attended the rally. For this generation, the
U.S. is not the country which authored the Marshall Plan and supplied
food to West Berlin by air, but the one continuously waging aggressive
wars worldwide. The memorial event which the German administration hoped
to conduct as a ceremony of reconciliation eventually evolved into an
outbreak of destructive rage. The young people evidently did not feel
like forgiving Berlin's strategic allies for the barbarian strikes and
expressed the attitude as they knew - in the form of a violent spree.
Fights and escapades targeting the police took place in the process.
The mourning day thus turned into a day of protests, and that happens
to be the scenario the German government fears most. In the foreseeable
future, the focus of the protests will continue to drift from loosely
defined subjects such as U.S. globalism and multiculturalism
specifically towards Germany's cooperation with the hyper-ambitious
Washington. It factors into the situation that the younger Germans are
hardest hit by the crisis which the U.S. financial policies inflicted on
the entire Europe.
A sense of aversion to their own government is getting
stronger among the new generation of Germans who are paying too high a
price for trans-Atlantic solidarity, and sparring with the police is
just one element of the reaction. Chances are that looking at Germany, a
country of law-abiding citizens where political conflicts nevertheless
translate into street chaos, gives a glimpse of the future awaiting the
whole Europe.
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