Germany's Long Road to Multiculturalism

Anetta Kahane, 51, is one of Germany's best-known anti-racism campaigners. She is the chairwoman of the Amadeu Antonio Foundation, which was named after an Angolan beaten to death by skinheads near Berlin only after a month after reunification in 1990. Raised in eastern Germany, Kahane's work on fighting racism in the east has focused largely on promoting democratic values in youth clubs and workshops. She was named a few years ago as one of Time magazine's "People to Watch" as part of its Europe special issue.

Anetta Kahane

Kahane (photo) spoke to DW-WORLD about a recent increase in xenophobia in Germany, the nagging problem of right-wing extremism in the country's former communist east and the danger it poses to democracy and how politicians need to take serious note of a more racially-mixed Germany as federal elections loom.

DW-WORLD: According to a new study conducted by the University of Leipzig, every fourth German subscribes to xenophobic views. Does that surprise you?

Anetta Kahane: Not in the least. The results correspond to the perceptions and attitudes that we (anti-racism campaigners) come across in our daily work in Germany. In fact, I think the study is relatively modest since it only describes what can be really verified. But, if you're talking about latent racism or xenophobic ideologies, then those figures would actually be much higher.

How do you explain the increasingly negative attitude towards foreigners in Germany at a time when statistics show that the number of foreigners in the country has actually decreased -- from 7.3 million in 2003 to 6.7 million in 2004?

Firstly, racism doesn't need any concrete occasions. It's an ideology that discriminates against groups of people, and for that you don't really need those concrete groups. You can see that very well in the case of anti-Semitism -- there are hardly any Jews in Germany but there are a lot of anti-Semites.

The Kreuzberg neighborhood of Berlin

In the case of Germany, particularly in western Germany, policies towards foreigners were always based on the assumption that they would one day go back to where they came from -- it was more an attitude of "we have to integrate them, rather than we want to." It was all regarded as a 'problem' and Germany's permanent denial mode of "we aren't a country of immigrants" has led to the fact that the image of Germans is largely determined by stereotypes and physical characteristics.

Efforts have been made to break that pattern of thinking by reforming citizenship laws. (Editor's note: The laws are now based on place of birth rather than descent.) But, in principle, the view that someone who doesn't correspond to a stereotypical image of the Germans -- a Turkish man, for instance, with a German passport -- still largely dominates in society and stands in sharp contrast to countries such as Britain or France. The policies of the past decades, however, were programmed to backfire -- after all you can't follow them for so many years and play with prejudices and then expect people to suddenly give up racist attitudes.

Also, Germany has no concept of political correctness, unlike the Anglo-Saxon world. There's absolutely no understanding in Germany of the concept of integration and coexistence of different cultures. Though the Germans say they're rational and have laws for everything, when it comes to socio-political things like respect, tolerance, etc, there the Germans think having rules is wrong.

The reasons for a negative attitude towards foreigners are different in eastern Germany. There, foreigners still hardly make up even one percent of the population in certain regions and cities, as opposed to western states such as North-Rhine Westphalia or even Bavaria. The history of racism in eastern Germany, however, has its roots in the former communist dictatorship. There is simply no tradition of democratic culture and tolerance in the east, and unfortunately there was a very hesitant attempt to build one after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The annual report by Germany's federal office for the protection of the constitution shows that crimes and violent acts by right-wing extremists, particularly in eastern Germany, are on the rise. Just how serious is the situation?

The explosive situation in eastern Germany in the early 90s after the fall of the Berlin Wall did establish a kind of social movement against foreigners, one that's become deeply entrenched over time. Though the situation today in eastern Germany isn't so palpable, what we're seeing today is definitely a result of the actions of right-wing extremists in the early 90s. The fact remains that right-wing extremists are becoming stronger in eastern Germany today and foreigners aren't interested in moving there for fear of being hounded or even attacked.

A demonstration by the far-right party, NPD