'We are the firewall!'
Another demonstration against the far-right set for Saturday, February 3
Last weekend, more than a million Germans in cities and towns across the country took to the streets in protest against a resurgence of right-wing extremism.
According to the Berlin police, more than 100,000 people - organizers claim the total was closer to 350,000 - gathered on Sunday in front of the Bundestag, the home of the national parliament. Officials in Munich said 200,000 people turned out for the demonstration there, with 35,000 counted in Frankfurt.
Large gatherings were not limited to the major cities, either. Over the course of the whole weekend, crowds numbering in the tens of thousands turned up in cities and towns all over the country. According to DW:
On Friday, a massive rally in Hamburg had to be stopped early as far more people than expected turned out. The largest protest of its sort so far, police said there were 50,000 people and organizers put the number 80,000, pointing out that the rally was called to a close before many were able to reach it.
Police estimates of crowd sizes at other protests included: 12,000 in Kassel, 7,000 each in Dortmund and Wuppertal, 20,000 in Karlsruhe, at least 10,000 in Nuremberg, about 16,000 in Halle/Saale, 5,000 in Koblenz and several thousand in Erfurt.
There were 50,000 people in Bremen at the demo Laut Gegen Rechts (‘Loud Against the Right’).
“For a city of 500,000 people, 50,000 is a lot,” my sister-in-law wrote me in a text after the protest. “People were streaming in through every side street and passage, both main squares together couldn’t hold everyone. We couldn’t get into either place without pushing through, so we ended up in a large gathering on an adjacent street. … Really proud of Bremen today.”
The demonstrations were in reaction to the discovery of a meeting between members of the right-wing political party, Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) and some Austrian and German anti-immigration activists to allegedly discuss developing a “master plan” to deport millions of people, potentially even some naturalized German citizens.
Correctiv reported that Sellner put forward a "masterplan" on a "remigration" scheme that would involve identifying people he believed were a burden on society and encouraging them to leave Germany or deporting them. According to Correctiv, this could include naturalized German citizens.
This last point is noteworthy for two reasons: Germany's AfD has spoken about "remigration" plans, often a euphemism for forcing people to leave the country, of its own in the past but had said it was out of the question for people with German citizenship. Furthermore, given German citizenship rules, the vast majority of naturalized citizens will have given up their other passport to get a German one, meaning that revoking German citizenship would effectively render them stateless.
Although, the rise in popularity of the AfD has been a concern for some time, some things about this meeting struck a major nerve throughout the rest of Germany.
The President of the Central Council of Jews, Josef Schuster, described the demonstrations as an “important signal.” “I’m really pleased that the middle of society is standing up,” Schuster told the “Augsburger Allgemeine”. "I've always had the feeling that you see the AfD's forecasts and election results, but that doesn't lure anyone out from behind the stove," said Schuster. That worried him. "That's why I'm pleased when people take to the streets now and express their dissatisfaction."
I took particular notice when, British immigrant and German citizen, Andrew Bossom, who runs the popular YouTube channel, Rewboss, and has lived in Germany for more than 30 years, posted a video expressing his concern.
The presence at the meeting of Martin Sellner, a leader of the far-right Austrian Identitarian movement - which holds that cultures must be kept separate in order to be preserved and opposes immigration as damaging to European culture - is a red flag, Bossom explained.
“Given that Sellner was at that meeting, we have to assume that within the AfD there are some very powerful factions who want to take things in that direction,” he said. “So we have some influential politicians who are actively considering some kind of cultural purification of Germany. … And it is a very, very short distance from cultural purity to ethnic purity and from there to ideological purity.”
There is another demonstration scheduled in Berlin for Saturday, February 3. Organized by the Hand in Hand Alliance, supported by more than 500 organizations, and called “Wir Sind die Brandmauer!” (We are the Firewall!), participants are called to meet and form a human chain, linking hand-in-hand, surrounding the Reichstag building in a symbolic protection of the Bundestag.
But what role, if any, should we - as immigrants - play in these demonstrations? I had this discussion with my sister-in-law when she asked if we were going.
As a non-citizen, I’m not sure it’s my role to demonstrate either in favor of immigration or in criticism of German society, I said. For her, it’s different. She has lived and worked here for eight years and has legal permanent residency in Germany. We are here just under two years.
“Yes, it is something that voters have to stand up for - a message from citizens,” she acknowledged. “But as a permanent resident, I am feeling more and more that I should participate in such things. I have a stake in this society and intend to stay, and specifically on this issue because my place here could be so easily taken away - no matter how ‘integrated’ I might be.”
There’s also the issue of solidarity and standing with others to show they are not alone, or so few in number.
“Just after finishing our masters’ degrees, there were demos in support of the EU [European Union], immediately post Brexit,” she added. “At the time, the fear was that other countries would follow the UK. Thankfully, that didn’t happen.”
She and her husband traveled to Berlin with their sign, marching with others to the Brandenburg Gate to add to the numbers that would be reported in the media. “So people could see that a lot of other people thought the EU was worth staying in.”
It’s important for other citizens to see that people are opposed to what the far-right is advocating, she says, and it’s important for other immigrants to know that many people do welcome them in Germany.
Up Next
In Monday’s issue, I’ll share my thoughts on the end (we hope!) of the six-day train drivers’ strike. Then on Friday, a look at moving to Berlin with older kids.
What I’m Reading
Here are some of the most interesting reads I’ve found on the web this week.
Kreuzberged - Berlin Companion: On This Day in Berlin: The Death of Luxemburg and Liebknecht
Zeitgeist: Meet East Germany’s hippies
The Local: 7 Unmissable Events Taking Place in Germany in February
ExBerliner: Movimiento will Stay! Germany’s Oldest Cinema Saved from Developers