Germany’s political climate has fueled far-right attacks like Hanau

Never before has Chancellor Angela Merkel said in such explicit terms that Germany has a racism problem. “Hate is a poison and is responsible for too many crimes in this country,” she said after a gunman shot dead nine people in the city of Hanau in a racially motivated killing. The perpetrator had a “deeply racist attitude,” the federal prosecutor later said.

For the third time in the past nine months, a right-wing extremist has carried out an attack in Germany. The others were the shooting dead of politician Walter Lübcke in June, and the Halle synagogue shooting in October where a killed two passersby during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. If that wasn’t enough, last week, police arrested a group of 12 men as part of a far-right group suspected of planning attacks on politicians, asylum-seekers and Muslims.

AfD’s role in far-right resurgence?

Where does this hate — this “poison” the Chancellor speaks of — come from? What is the breeding ground for racist violence in Germany? Xenophobia in the country is nothing new. Studies show that 15 to 20% of the population hold such views — but nobody is born a racist.

Read more: What drives the far-right AfD’s success in eastern Germany?

After the murders in Hanau, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has again come under scrutiny. “We are experiencing how the social climate has for a long time been poisoned by the AfD, how hate has been fomented, how society has been divided,” said Social Democratic Party (SPD) General Secretary Lars Klingbeil, who has called the AfD the “political wing of the extreme right.”

Normalizing racist ideology

The AfD not only downplays National Socialism. The party is also attempting to make racist ideology, which is based on ethnic descent, socially acceptable again. People whose appearance or names suggest that their parents or grandparents have a history of migration are verbally attacked and maligned. “Seeing people as adversaries and yourself as something better, making fellow citizens into foreigners — that is a poison that is penetrating our society more and more and can ultimately lead to these acts,” said Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, leader of Chancellor Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

Read more: Could Angela Merkel’s CDU make a turn to the right?

The Free Democratic Party (FDP) leader Christian Lindner has also lamented a social climate that encourages right-wing extremist violence. “This creates a climate of hate and hostility toward foreigners, but also, for example, against democrats, that is quite obviously able to influence individuals or groups to use violence.”

• Germany’s major political parties — What you need to know

  Christian Democratic Union (CDU)

  The CDU has traditionally been the main center-right party across Germany, but it shifted toward the center under Chancellor Angela Merkel. The party remains more fiscally and socially conservative compared to parties on the left. It supports membership of the EU and NATO, budgetary discipline at home and abroad and generally likes the status quo. It is the largest party in the Bundestag.

• Germany’s major political parties — What you need to know

  Christian Social Union (CSU)

  The CSU is the sister party of the CDU in Bavaria and the two act symbiotically at the national level (CDU/CSU). Despite their similarities, the CSU is generally more conservative than the CDU on social issues. The CSU leader and premier of Bavaria, Markus Söder, ordered crosses in every state building in 2018.

• Germany’s major political parties — What you need to know

  Social Democrats (SPD)

  The SPD is Germany’s oldest political party and the main center-left rival of the CDU/CSU. It shares the CDU/CSU support for the EU and NATO, but it takes a more progressive stance on social issues and welfare policies. It is currently in a coalition government with the CDU/CSU and is trying to win back support under interim leaders Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel, Manuela Schwesig and Malu Dreyer.

• Germany’s major political parties — What you need to know

  Alternative for Germany (AfD)

  The new kid on the block is the largest opposition party in the Bundestag. The far-right party was founded in 2013 and entered the Bundestag for the first time in 2017 under the stewardship of Alice Weidel and Alexander Gauland. It is largely united by opposition to Merkel’s immigration policy, euroscepticism, and belief in the alleged dangers posed by Germany’s Muslim population.

• Germany’s major political parties — What you need to know

  Free Democrats (FDP)

  The FDP has traditionally been the kingmaker of German politics. Although it has never received more than 15 percent of the vote, it has formed multiple coalition governments with both the CDU/CSU and SPD. The FDP, today led by Christian Lindner, supports less government spending and lower taxes, but takes a progressive stance on social issues such as gay marriage or religion.

• Germany’s major political parties — What you need to know

  The Greens

  The Greens, led today by Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck, emerged from the environmental movement in the 1980s. Unsuprisingly, it supports efforts to fight climate change and protect the environment. It is also progressive on social issues. But strong divisions have occasionally emerged on other topics. The party famously split in the late 1990s over whether to use military force in Kosovo.

• Germany’s major political parties — What you need to know

  The Left

  The Left, led by Katja Kipping and Bernd Riexinger, is the most left-wing party in the Bundestag. It supports major redistribution of wealth at home and a pacifist stance abroad, including withdrawing Germany from NATO. It emerged from the successor party to the Socialist Unity Party (SED) that ruled communist East Germany until 1989. Today, it still enjoys most of its support in eastern Germany.

  Author: Alexander Pearson

Targeting shisha bars

The crime scenes in Hanau were two shisha bars that were frequented by young people of non-German descent. The AfD has long been campaigning against shisha bars, including in the state of Hesse, where Hanau is located. This links back to instances of police finding untaxed tobacco during inspections at a number of restaurants. The AfD then referenced these stories in their campaigns, in an apparent attempt to link shisha bars with criminal behavior.

Read more: Germany and right-wing extremism: The new dimension of terror

Parliamentarian Lorenz Gösta Beutin of the Left party says it’s not just the far-right AfD that is responsible for growing right-wing terrorism in Germany. It should not be forgotten, he said, that other politicians, such as Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, a member of the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party to the CDU, have previously stoked fear of foreigners, including during the refugee crisis. “It was people like him who were the intellectual arsonists who sowed the seeds of hate,” said Beutin. In 2011, for example, Seehofer said his party “would resist until the last bullet” to stop immigration into the social welfare system. In 2015, he dubbed migration the “mother of all problems.”

Council of Europe sounds the alarm

Does Germany have an extremist problem? For years the UN and the Council of Europe have said the German government must do more to tackle discrimination, xenophobia and racism in the country. After the attack in Hanau, Left party parliamentarian Jan Korte said the government had long been not only underestimated the growing issue of right-wing extremism in Germany. “If I may remind you how in recent years when victim organizations and other initiatives pointed to this terrorism, how that was dealt with, how mayors and local politicians were left alone, that is relativization.”

Read more: Germany’s migrants: Wooed and discriminated against

More than 200 people have been murdered by right-wing extremists since 1990. “This is about the basic substance of the democratic community and that has in fact not been recognized in recent years and decades,” said Korte. “People who highlighted what was growing there were laughed at.”

• Right-wing extremist terror attacks: A timeline

  Germany 2009: Stabbing of woman in Dresden court

  Marwa El-Sherbini, a pharmacist who lived with her husband and son in Dresden, was killed in Dresden’s district court on July 1, 2009. She was stabbed by a 28-year-old Russian-German man shortly after testifying against him in a verbal abuse case. He’d previously called her a “terrorist” and “Islamist.” El-Sherbini is considered to be the first murder victim of an Islamophobic attack in Germany.

• Right-wing extremist terror attacks: A timeline

  Norway 2011: Mass murderer Breivik carries out terror attacks

  Right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people in two lone-wolf terror attacks on July 22, 2011. He first set off a bomb in the government district in Oslo before killing young people attending a summer camp on the island of Utoya. Prior to the attack, Breivik published a manifesto where he decried multiculturalism and the “Islamization of Europe.”

• Right-wing extremist terror attacks: A timeline

  USA 2015: Chapel Hill shooting

  Three university students — Deah Barakat, his wife Yusor Abu-Salha, and her sister Razan Abu-Salha — were shot dead by their 46-year-old neighbor on February 10, 2015. The shooter described himself as an opponent of organized religion and reportedly repeatedly threatened and harassed the victims. The killings sparked outrage online, with millions of tweets using the hashtag #MuslimLivesMatter.

• Right-wing extremist terror attacks: A timeline

  USA 2015: Church massacre in Charleston

  On June 17, 2015, a white supremacist opened fire at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Nine African-American worshipers were killed, including a pastor at the church, which is one of the oldest black congregations in the United States. The 21-year-old suspect was convicted of a federal hate crime and sentenced to death.

• Right-wing extremist terror attacks: A timeline

  Germany 2016: Mass shooting in Munich

  A mass shooting at a shopping mall in Munich on July 22, 2016 wounded some 36 people and killed 10 — including the 18-year-old shooter. The perpetrator, a German of Iranian descent, made xenophobic and racist comments and idolized school shooters, according to police. He also suffered from depression, was frequently bullied and wanted to take revenge on people with immigrant backgrounds.

• Right-wing extremist terror attacks: A timeline

  UK 2017: Attack on Finsbury Park mosque

  On June 19, 2017, a 47-year-old man killed one person and wounded another 10 after driving a van into a group of pedestrians near the Finsbury Park mosque in north London. All of the victims were Muslims who were on their way to take part in special night prayers during Ramadan. The perpetrator later stated that he was motivated by a “hatred of Islam” and was sentenced to life in prison.

• Right-wing extremist terror attacks: A timeline

  USA 2017: Car attack during neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville

  One woman was killed and dozens were wounded when a white nationalist drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters in Charlottesville, Virginia on August 12, 2017. The counterprotesters had been demonstrating against the Unite the Right rally, a gathering of white supremacists, white nationalists and neo-Nazis. The suspect was sentenced to life in prison.

• Right-wing extremist terror attacks: A timeline

  Canada 2017: Attack on mosque in Quebec

  A gunman opened fire on worshipers at the Islamic Cultural Center in Quebec City in late January 2017, killing six people and wounding over a dozen. The shooting took place during evening prayers. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned the shooting as “a terrorist attack on Muslims in a center of worship and refuge.”

• Right-wing extremist terror attacks: A timeline

  USA 2018: Tree of Life Synagogue shooting

  On October 27, 2018, a 46-year-old gunman opened fire at a synagogue in the US city of Pittsburgh, killing 11 people and wounding seven. He reportedly shouted anti-Semitic slurs during the attack and previously posted conspiracy theories online. It was the deadliest attack on Jewish people in US history.

• Right-wing extremist terror attacks: A timeline

  Germany 2019: New Year’s attack in Bottrop and Essen

  Shortly after midnight as people were out celebrating, a 50-year-old man carried out targeted attacks on immigrants in the western German cities of Bottrop and Essen — injuring eight people, one seriously. He deliberately drove his car at two Syrian and Afghan families who were out celebrating with their children in Bottrop. German authorities said “he had a clear intent to kill foreigners.”

• Right-wing extremist terror attacks: A timeline

  New Zealand 2019: Twin terror attacks on mosques in Christchurch

  At least 50 people were killed and dozens others were injured in twin terror attacks at mosques in Christchurch. Officials called it a “right-wing extremist attack” and the deadliest shooting in New Zealand’s history. One of the gunmen livestreamed the attack and posted a racist manifesto online before the attack. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern called it “one of New Zealand’s darkest days.”

  Author: Rebecca Staudenmaier, Nermin Ismail

Germans must stand against xenophobia

However, the German government has in the recent past enacted a whole series of laws to combat right-wing hate, growing violence and right-wing terrorism. In the wake of the Hanau attack, police protection is to be increased. Politicians must ask themselves, however, whether these measures came too late. “We will protect the people in this country who feel threatened, who no longer feel safe,” vowed SPD General Secretary Klingbeil. “That is why it is so important that all democrats in this country stand up and no longer watch and make clear that we will no longer accept these breaches of taboo.”

• Vigils across Germany after Hanau shooting

  German president joins mourners

  German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (right) and his wife Elke Büdenbender, along with Hesse State Premier Volker Bouffier, laid wreaths near one the crime scenes in Hanau.

• Vigils across Germany after Hanau shooting

  Vigil in Hanau

  People in Hanau hold up photos of some of the victims of the shooting. Tobias R. is believed to have shot dead nine people, many of non-German background, after publishing a racist “manifesto” on the internet

• Vigils across Germany after Hanau shooting

  Mourning at the Brandenburg Gate

  Hundreds of people gathered at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin to light candles for the victims of the Hanau attack.

• Vigils across Germany after Hanau shooting

  Berlin Film Festival mourns

  Berlinale guests observed a minute’s silence at the opening gala on Thursday evening.

• Vigils across Germany after Hanau shooting

  Germany shows solidarity

  People in the southern German city of Stuttgart hold up anti-racism placards, reading “Racism is no alternative” and “Hate is not an opinion.” Many believe that the taboo against racism in Germany’s political debate has softened in recent years, thanks to the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).

• Vigils across Germany after Hanau shooting

  Mourning in Munich

  A man wears a Turkish flag at the vigil in Munich. Five of the victims of the Hanau attack were of Turkish origin.

• Vigils across Germany after Hanau shooting

  ‘Defending solidarity’

  People in central Hamburg hold up a banner reading “defending solidarity”.

  Author: Ben Knight

After the Hanau murders, people around the country gathered for impromptu demonstrations and vigils. President Frank-Walter Steinmeier drew spontaneous applause when he said in Hanau: “We stand together as a society, we won’t be intimidated, we don’t run from each other.” With those words, Steinmeier was speaking to those Germans who are neither xenophobic nor racist.

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