Racism in Germany

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.

Contents
19th and early 20th centuries
Against the Polish population
The Third Reich
Incidents in reunified Germany
General reports
Public debate
Racist organizations in Germany
References
External links
Official reports
News items

19th and early 20th centuries

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" Herero people chained up in 1904
stating that "whoever thinks thoroughly about the notion of race,
cannot arrive at a different conclusion".[1]

The Herero genocide has commanded the attention of historians who study complex issues of continuity
between this event and the Nazi Holocaust.[2] 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.[1]

Against the Polish population

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.[3]

The Third Reich

After the Nazis came to power in 1933, racism became a part of the
official state ideology.[4]

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.[5]

The Nazis passed the Nuremberg Laws in 1935. The first law Corpses at the Buchenwald
known as the "Law for the Protection of German Blood and concentration camp
German Honour" forbade sexual relations and marriages between
people of "German blood" and Jews.[6] Shortly afterwards, the
Nazis extended this law to include "Gypsies, negroes or their bastards".[7]

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.[8]

The Nazis believed that race determined everything and they told the Germans to be racially conscious.[8]

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,[9]
in the Jewish context, the Porajmos [ˌpɔʁmɔs] (also Porrajmos or Pharrajimos, literally "devouring" or
"destruction" in some dialects of the Romani language) used by Gypsies, or the Polish word "Zagłada"
(literally meaning "annihilation", or "extinction") often used by Poles as a synonym of the word
Holocaust.[10]

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.

Incidents in reunified Germany

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.[11] 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.[12] 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.[13]

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.[14]

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.[15][16] 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[17]

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."[18]
[19]

General reports
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.[20]

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."[21]

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".[22]

Public debate
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.[23]

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.[24] It is also reported that German police 'routinely ignore racist attacks'.[25] 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."[26]

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.[27] 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."[27][28]

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.[29]

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."[30]

Racist organizations in Germany

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
[31][32][33][34] but historian
Walter Laqueur writes that it cannot be classified that way.[35]

References
1. Olusoga, David; Erichsen, Casper W. (2010). The
Kaiser's Holocaust. Germany's Forgotten Genocide and
the Colonial Roots of Nazism. London: Faber & Faber.
ISBN 978-0-571-23141-6. German white power skinhead

2. A Historical Companion to Postcolonial Literatures -

Continental Europe and its Empires, page 240
Edinburgh University Press 2009
3. Nicola Piper (17 August 2018). Racism, Nationalism and
Citizenship: Ethnic Minorities in Britain and Germany (htt
ps://books.google.com/books?id=uKubDwAAQBAJ&pg=
PT122). Taylor & Francis. pp. 122–124. ISBN 978-0-429-
83087-7.
 4. Christian Geulen: Geschichte des Rassismus, C.H.
Beck, München 2007, 97f
5. 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
6. Michael Burleigh; Wolfgang Wippermann (7 November
1991). The Racial State: Germany 1933-1945 (https://arc
hive.org/details/racialstate00mich). Cambridge
University Press. p. 49 (https://archive.org/details/racialst
ate00mich/page/49). ISBN 978-0-521-39802-2.
7. Burleigh, p. 50
8. "Heredity and Racial Science for Elementary and
Secondary Schools" (http://research.calvin.edu/german-
propaganda-archive/erblehre.htm). 1937.
9. "Holocaust," Encyclop?dia Britannica, 2009 (http://www.
britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/269548/Holocaust):
"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 ..."
10. 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."
11. [1] (http://www.zeit.de/2010/38/Rechte-Gewalt) Die Zeit:
Rechte Gewalt
12. "Germany Shocked by Racist Attack: Ethopian-Born
Man Beaten Into Coma" (http://www.spiegel.de/internatio
nal/0,1518,411820,00.html). Der Spiegel. 2006-04-18.
Retrieved 2012-05-29.
13. "Racist Attacks Have Germany on Edge Ahead of World
Cup | Germany | DW.DE | null" (http://www.dw-world.de/
dw/article/0,,2030616,00.html). Dw-world.de. Retrieved
2012-05-29.
14. "German-Turkish Politician Injured in Racist Attack" (htt
p://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,2027025,00.html).
Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 2012-05-29.
15. "Racism Alive and Well: After Attack on Indians,
Germany Fears For its Reputation" (http://www.spiegel.d
e/international/germany/0,1518,501352,00.html). Der
Spiegel. Retrieved 2012-05-29.
16. "Mob Rule in Eastern Germany: Indians Attacked by
Crowd at Street Party" (http://www.spiegel.de/internation
al/germany/0,1518,500879,00.html). Der Spiegel.
Retrieved 2012-05-29.
17. " 'Shame, Shame, Shame!': Readers React to German
Racist Attack" (http://www.spiegel.de/international/germa
ny/0,1518,501654,00.html). Der Spiegel. Retrieved
2012-05-29.
18. "Second Indian rejected by German professor" (https://w
ww.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-31834228). March 11,
2015 – via www.bbc.com.
19. Harmeet Shah Singh, Kunal Sehgal and Greg Botelho.
"Professor apologizes for India rape comments" (https://
www.cnn.com/2015/03/10/asia/india-rape-german-profes
sor/index.html). CNN.
20. "Third report on Germany", European Commission
against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), Strasbourg:
Council of Europe, 2003, pp. 13, point 29
21. Janson, Deborah (2005). "The Subject in Black and
White: Afro-German Identity Formation in Ika Hügel-
Marshall's autobiography Daheim unterwegs: Ein
deutsches Leben". Women in German Yearbook.
University of Nebraska Press. 21: 62–84.
doi:10.1353/wgy.2005.0012 (https://doi.org/10.1353%2F
wgy.2005.0012). JSTOR 20688247 (https://www.jstor.or
g/stable/20688247). S2CID 145223259 (https://api.sema
nticscholar.org/CorpusID:145223259).
22. "UN says Germany needs to tackle racism" (http://www.t
helocal.de/national/20090702-20329.html). The Local.
1962-02-28. Retrieved 2012-05-29.
23. "World Blog - Mob attack in Germany sparks outrage" (ht
tps://web.archive.org/web/20100216140656/http://worldb
log.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/08/22/328255.aspx).
Worldblog.msnbc.msn.com. Archived from the original (h
ttps://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/08/22/328
255.aspx) on 2010-02-16. Retrieved 2012-05-29.
24. "Is Eastern Germany Safe for Foreigners?: Racism
Warning Has German Hackles Raised" (http://www.spieg
el.de/international/0,1518,416904,00.html). Der Spiegel.
2006-05-18. Retrieved 2012-05-29.
25. de Quetteville, Harry (December 5, 2007). "German
police 'routinely ignore racist attacks' " (https://www.teleg
raph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1571608/German-police-rou
tinely-ignore-racist-attacks.html). The Daily Telegraph.
London.
26. [2] (http://www.mut-gegen-rechte-gewalt.de/eng/news/ne
ws-in-english/muegeln/) Archived (https://web.archive.or
g/web/20100215144731/http://www.mut-gegen-rechte-g
ewalt.de/eng/news/news-in-english/muegeln/) February
15, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
27. "New film uncovers racism in Germany" (http://news.bbc.
co.uk/2/hi/8347040.stm). BBC News. November 6, 2009.
28. Pilaeczyk, Hannah (2009-10-23). "German Journalist
Criticized for Film on Racism" (https://abcnews.go.com/I
nternational/german-journalist-criticized-film-racism/stor
y?id=8897384). ABC News. Retrieved 2012-05-29.
29. "Equal rights, equal opportunities. Annual Report of the
Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency" (https://www.antidis
kriminierungsstelle.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/publi
kationen/Jahresberichte/2019_englisch.pdf?__blob=pub
licationFile&v=4) (PDF).
www.antidiskriminierungsstelle.de. Retrieved
2021-04-17.
30. Welle (www.dw.com), Deutsche, Racism on the rise in
Germany | DW | 09.06.2020 (https://www.dw.com/en/raci
sm-on-the-rise-in-germany/a-53735536), retrieved
2021-04-17
31. "Neo-Nazi NPD party takes hold in municipal vote in
Saxony" (http://www.thelocal.de/politics/20080609-1238
1.html). 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."
32. "Poll shows majority of Germany believe NPD to be non-
democratic and damaging to Germany's image" (http://w
ww.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/0,1518,438528,00.htm
l). Der Spiegel. 22 Sep 2006. Retrieved July 21, 2009.
33. "Neonazis in der NPD auf dem Vormarsch" (http://www.s
ueddeutsche.de/politik/550/469109/text/). Süddeutsche
Zeitung. 19 May 2009. Retrieved August 23, 2009. "Das
neonazistische Spektrum hat seinen Einfluss innerhalb
der NPD ausgebaut."
34. Verfassungsschutzbericht 2008 (http://www.verfassungs
schutz.de/de/publikationen/verfassungsschutzbericht/).
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."
35. Laqueur, Walter, Fascism: Past, Present, Future, p.110

External links

Official reports
Report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary forms of racism, racial
discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance on his visit to Germany (http://www2.ohc
hr.org/english/issues/racism/rapporteur/docs/A_HRC_14_43_Add.2.pdf), 2010
European Commission against Racism and Intolerance — 4thj report on Germany (https://w
eb.archive.org/web/20110722013106/http://hudoc.ecri.coe.int/XMLEcri/ENGLISH/Cycle_04/
04_CbC_eng/DEU-CbC-IV-2009-019-ENG.pdf)
 CERD concluding observations on Germany (http://www.bayefsky.com/pdf/germany_t4_cerd
_73.pdf), 2008
Racism in Germany and its impact on the Turkish minority (http://dergiler.ankara.edu.tr/dergil
er/44/681/8663.pdf)
Germany: freedom to speak on racism under threat (http://www.irr.org.uk/2010/february/ha00
0033.html)
"Germany's 'Brown Babies' Must Be Helped! Will You?": U.S. Adoption Plans for Afro-
German Children, 1950-1955 (http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/callaloo/v026/26.2lemke.html)

News items
German racist attacks soar (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1159888.stm)
Germany Needs to Do More Against Racism, UN Body Says (http://www.dw-world.de/dw/arti
cle/0,,3568646,00.html)
How racist is Germany? (https://web.archive.org/web/20091115135111/http://blogs.telegrap
h.co.uk/news/harrydequetteville/3694391/How_racist_is_Germany/)
Racism in Germany: Double-Talk by Political Parties (https://www.jstor.org/stable/4410422)
Study: Racism in Germany Increasingly Mainstream (http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,34
27199,00.html)
"A deep-rooted racism in Germany" - International press review after the racist attack in
Muegeln (https://web.archive.org/web/20100215144731/http://www.mut-gegen-rechte-gewal
t.de/eng/news/news-in-english/muegeln/)

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