Zones of Fear

The debate on No-Go areas in East Germany has demonstrated that the Germans are by no means as enlightened and purified of counter-civilizational tendencies as some anti-Muslim cultural warriors would claim. By Eberhard Seidel

Rear view of a skinhead (photo: dpa) — The violence among young immigrants and that of right-wing gangs have more in common than many people would like to think, says Eberhard Seidel

Parallel societies, national liberated zones, honor killings, the Rütli School, Neo-Nazis, macho Muslim juveniles – every week new horror stories emerge from the depths of the German Republic. Just as the public is beginning to understand and accept that Arab and Turkish macho youth are the raised middle fingers of the nation, that they are threatening our civil society, now this: No-Go areas in Germany!

The claim made by former government spokesman Uwe-Karsten Heye that there are places in Germany people who might look like foreigners are best off avoiding, "because they might not get out alive," is certain to raise the hackles of many.

You can just hear them: Here Germany goes again with its self-castigation, dredging up the old German guilt complex, demonizing racism, which is no worse here after all than with our neighbors.

What's the phone number of the nearest police station?

You almost want to ask: What's all the excitement about? Heye is only expressing what the potential victims of racist violence have long internalized.

And nary a Berlin school class with an intercultural mix of pupils would dare take a trip into the surrounding Brandenburg countryside without first answering the following questions: How safe is the hostel? Is there a right-wing scene there? What's the phone number of the nearest police station? This is the way things have been for the past sixteen years. Nothing special – just another day in Germany.

It feels good that after months of putting up with the annoying background drone of caustically culturalistic Muslim bashing, the vista has now broadened for a moment to let everyone in again: We, the Germans, are by no means as enlightened and purified of counter-civilizational tendencies as some anti-Muslim cultural warriors would claim.

But activists on the anti-racism front, some of whom have been eagerly rubbing their hands for days now because as far as they're concerned Heye put the right issue, framed in the right words, on the agenda, should stop to think for a moment. Because the situation is much more explosive than the former government spokesman suggests.

German Jews in immigrant districts

Zones of fear are out there in force – not only in the eastern part of the Republic, and not all of them are occupied by right-wing extremists. This could and must be a warning for guests to Germany: Jews with skullcap and earlocks who openly sport a Star of David should think twice before trying to move about freely in immigrant districts with a high ratio of Muslim youth.

And gays already know that it is not advisable to publicly display their sexual orientation in the right-wing strongholds of East Germany or on certain inner-city streets in the West.

What are frequently discussed as being opposite problems are actually two sides of the same coin. The fear zones in Berlin-Neukölln, Berlin-Wedding or in East Germany have more in common than people like to think. For the past twenty years, at the latest since the wall fell in 1989, entire city quarters and regions have been shut off from the production of wealth and thus from the joys of consumption.

Anyone looking for prospects of advancement, whether immigrant or German, gets out as fast as possible and tries to gain a foothold in more prosperous, consumption-friendly climes.

Unemployment rates of under 30 percent

What's left behind are social milieus that have little connection with the material standards and cultural codes of the trendsetting middle classes. In none of the zones that made it into the headlines in the past few months is the current unemployment rate lower than 30 to 40 percent.

People have already known for a long time what no politician dares to admit in public: Society no longer has any use for the majority of the inhabitants of these fear zones. There is no room for them in the economy. Not today and not tomorrow either – not even in the army. The era of construction helpers, assembly line workers, steelworkers and infantrymen is history.

Naturally, this is no excuse for right-wing radicals, anti-Semitism, gay bashing, hostility against Germans, racism or Islamism. Nor has an automatism been set in motion that can be justified by saying: That's what you get. And in fact, most of the victims – particularly women and older people – silently accept their misery.

Limited scope of equality promise

On the other hand, it must be acknowledged that it is mostly young men who are trying here to remain in control of their own destinies – all too often using unsuitable means. And one rule in educationally disadvantaged, organizationally weak and resource-poor milieus that are reached neither by trade unions nor by a democratic left-wing with its promises of equality is: Whoever has nothing quickly relies on what seems to be his birthright – that is, religion, ethnic identity, blood, heterosexuality.

In these zones of fear young men can gain the most attention with behavior that's outside the norm and frequently violence-oriented. In a certain sense, their actions can thus be regarded as rational. They have learned that funds for youth centers, for school equipment and for job-creation schemes flow more freely when the number of racist attacks, violent acts or votes for radical right-wing parties have exceeded a critical mass.

But the bourgeois classes have little to offer these milieus. No desire to redistribute jobs, no ideas for a society that is running out of work.

Ethnic idiosyncrasies, Islamic characteristics

A way out of this dilemma is sought in culturalistic debates. People no longer look for social causes behind the aberrant behavior of migrant youth, but instead for ethnic idiosyncrasies, Islamic characteristics and pre-modern thinking.

The same strategy is used in East Germany. There, people still like to attribute conditions solely to the legacy of the GDR. This conveniently overlooks the fact that most of the troublemakers were socialized in the united Germany.

There is a great temptation to define the country's problems as geographically and historically imported. This gives the (West German) majority society a feeling of moral superiority and saves them the trouble of taking a closer look at the rot spreading through their own foundations. With this kind of perspective, it's easy to create a certain mood, but not a sustainable state.

For the fact is that this country cannot rid itself of either its conspicuously non-conforming eastern youth, or its uncouth young migrants, as much as some wish it could or others even demand in the case of "foreigners."

Eberhard Seidel

Translated from the German by Jennifer Taylor-Gaida

Qantara.de

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