Germany, we have a problem

‘Germany, we have a problem!’ is how the German tabloid BILD introduced its 50 point manifesto published on Sunday as a ‘guiding principle’ for cohesion in ‘our free society’.

I don’t normally pay attention to the BILD newspaper. But these are not normal times. And I feel rather strongly about what the manifesto communicates. So as someone whose Germanness never gets questioned: allow me to comment.

When BILD writes in principle 12 of their manifesto that ‘Many Germans eat pork’ it’s clear who is not included in their notion of ‘we’ (and to avoid any doubt, they add: ‘there are almost 10 million vegetarians and vegans among us’).

Anyone who doesn’t eat pork for reasons of their faith thus has been othered. If they’re German, their Germanness is called into question. If they are not German, it is their right to be here that is disputed. An entire group has now been placed under suspicion on whether or not they support the values of Germany as per this manifesto.

That is not okay.

Especially not in Germany. Especially because of ‘the backdrop of the darkest chapter of our history’ that is mentioned in principle 8.

This manifesto pretends that the issues that Germany has around antisemitism (and sexism/misogyny, which is also featured heavily) is a Muslim issue. It pretends that it is imported by people whose roots are not only in Germany but also reach elsewhere.

There is not a single statistic that I could find that supports this.

Instead, what we do know is that Germany has a problem with antisemitism, racism and discrimination, period. There have been attacks on synagogues in Germany long before the current Israel-Hamas war. The 2019 attack in Halle was committed by a White German. Only last week the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights published a report on ‘Being Black in the EU’. It found that of all the 13 EU states surveyed, Black people in Germany faced the most discrimination on the basis of their ethnicity over the last five years (p. 28). In 2022 hate crimes against queer people rose by 16% in comparison to 2021. A 2022 study found that every third man in Germany has a closed antifeminist or sexist worldview (p. 253).

The problem Germany has is created by people who hate, harass and discriminate against others. It’s created by those who single out and target groups on the basis of an attribute that seemingly makes them ‘other’.

If we want a truly free and just society in Germany (and elsewhere), it is those people we need to unite against. Let that be the definition of ‘we’ in Germany.