Germany: New Germany, new racism
01 January 1991
Germany: New Germany, new racism
artdoc August=1992
With Europe 1992 around the corner, it is becoming
increasingly important that anti-racists around Europe link
up. In April, two members of CARF visited Berlin.
The anniversary of Hitler's birthday, 20 April, is a time for
the far Right in Germany to flex its muscles. Throughout the
course of the day, rumours were rife in anti-fascist circles.
Would the fascists rally in Dresden, where two weeks ago a
Mozambican worker was murdered, or would they try to attack
the Kreuzberg, the focal point of Turkish life in west Berlin?
In the event, the fascists had their main rally in Dresden,
but some were also spotted in Lichtenberg, east Berlin. In the
new Germany, old hatreds are re-emerging. According to the
"Antifascbistes Info Blatt", Dresden is becoming of symbolic
importance to the far Right. Since April 1990, attacks on
alternative centres, punks and Third World workers have become
commonplace, and on 20 October, 500 neo-nazis, led by Michael
Kuhnen (now deceased) and the Austrian Gottfried Kuessell,
marched there.
A number of neo-nazi street forces, giving themselves names
such as the Association of Saxonian Werewolves, the Young
Tempest, Security Squad East and National Resistance Germany,
have also been formed. Antifascists are also concerned about
the formation of a `Defence Support Group', modelled on the
SS.
The Anti-Racist Initiative, a group comprising mainly German
women active in anti-deportation campaigns since 1986, used
the occasion of Hitler's birthday to rally progressive forces
in Berlin to form a new united grassroots initiative against
racism and fascism. Over 30 Berlin groups attended the
meeting. But making contact with people in the former GDR,
CARF learned, is a slow process. In fact, the only participant
from east Berlin to attend the meeting was ANC representative
Bert Senaje, now helping to run east Berlin's Third World
Centre.
Bert told CARF that the living conditions of contract workers
from Mozambique, Angola, Cuba and Vietnam in the former
Communist regime had been appalling: `It was something like
the hostel system in South Africa, but more modernised. Third
World workers had no rights. But, after the so-called
`peaceful revolution', the situation has changed even for the
worse. Third World workers have left in their thousands. Three
weeks ago, Vietnamese workers were attacked in their hostels.
It's difficult to go out in the evenings because you can't
differentiate between who's a fascist and who is not, as it
has become a kind of fashion to be a skinhead.'
On Easter Monday, the violence came to a head when a
28-year-old Mozambican, Jorge Gomondai, was killed by a group
of skinheads, who attacked him in a cable car before throwing
him out of the moving train. Fascists also attempted to attack
a service in his memory, although young anti-fascists managed
to beat them off. The situation of Third World refugees in the
former GDR is of particular concern. Asylum law in Germany is
such that each federal state must take a quota of refugees.
After reunification, the five new federal states of the former
GDR were instructed to take their quotas, despite the fact
that facilities for the refugees there are non-existent.
indeed, they are housed in barracks - either the quarters of
former agricultural workers situated in the middle of nowhere,
or old military installations. Refugees have no access to
lawyers and are isolated socially, a member of Asylum, an
organisation of social workers and lawyers formed in 1983,
told CARF.
Street violence and the intensification of hatred is not
confined to the east. Hatred of all non-Germans (and even
Germans from the east, who are despised and considered
backward) is increasing throughout the Republic. Poles
visiting Frankfurt since visa restrictions were lifted in
April have been greeted by neo-nazis yelling `Germany for the
Germans' an