Category Archives: Germany

Germany News Western Europe

75 years since the first deportations in Germany

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75 years since the first deportations in Germany

Throughout the German press, there have been articles commemorating the 75th anniversary of the first deportations of Rroma and Sinti on May 16th, 1940, to concentration camps. Writers, politicians, clerics, all reflected on this dark chapter of German history. Even darker when one considers that the persecution of Rroma and Sinti was not recognised as an ethnic one by the German state until 1982 (Date at which the German Government under Helmut Schmid recognised the racial nature of the perecution). Until then, Rroma and Sinti had been persecuted officially solely for being “asocial” Needless to say, reparations were also not really forthcoming, even after that date.

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We are Gypsies, and are not like Rroma

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We are Gypsies, and are not like Rroma

Reportage on French Gitans (Gitanos) in Montpellier facing off the new immigrants. As in Germany, one has a similar reaction: We are Gitanos, they are [foreign] Rroma. We are not like them … This is the same as the Sinti in the famous Sinti and Rroma … While this is perfectly understandable, this should not be taken as a “truth”. Gitanos, Manouches, Sinti, and about 40 different other groups are all Rroma.

Germany News Western Europe

Is one allowed to say “Gypsy” or “Zigeuner”?

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Is one allowed to say “Gypsy” or “Zigeuner”?

The Stern wrote an article on the usage of the word “Zigeuner” [Gypsy] and the controversy on that topic that arose in the last few weeks. They refer to the discussion the TV discussion panel “Hart aber Fair” [Hard but fair] on the topic burglaries. During that discussion, some of the participants used the terms of “Zigeunertrick” [Gypsy trick] or of “Zigeunerkönig” [Gypsy king] whereby a discussion followed on the use of the word Zigeuner. This is reminiscent of the discussion in the TAZ (see blog post on this topic) on that very same question. Here, the Stern states that the word is used by Rroma in many countries, and cites Rolf Bauerdick on that topic, and adds that the word is also fraught with shame. They also add with a somewhat twisted logic, that the term “Roma and Sinti” is false. Their main claim is that the new arrivals in Germany are certainly not Sinti. But they miss the point that Sinti, like all the other groups are also Rroma …

Germany News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

Rroma conference in Ulm

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Rroma conference in Ulm

More than 100 organisations from various countries around the Danube gathered in Ulm, Germany, to discuss the situation of Rroma in Europe. Consensus seems to be that the Rroma are the losers of the changes that followed the fall of communism, and that in spite of the Rroma decase that started in 2004, their situation has gotten worse.

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Germany deports refugees from Serbia and Macedonia

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Germany deports refugees from Serbia and Macedonia

The red-green coalition from Baden Württemberg will deport asylum seekers from Serbia and Macedonia, many of then Rroma, on the anniversary of the deportation of Rroma in that Region. This anniversary celebrated on the 24th of March commemorates the first train filled with Rroma and Sinti that departed from Offenburg.

What a date to choose …

Germany News Western Europe

Germany’s President of the Federal Tribunal ashamed at old practices

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Germany’s President of the Federal Tribunal ashamed at old practices

The current president of the federal tribunal, Ms. Bettina Limperg is ashamed at an old judgement from the tribunal referring to Rroma as a “plague”. Contrary to what one could think, this judgement was not made under the Nazis but in 1956, so eleven years after the end of the War.

This statement was alas by no mean an exception, as the Rroma Holocaust was not recognised as having been based on ethnicity until the 1970’s.

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15.02.2015 Kosovo Refugees – German Calls for Action

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Following the sharp increase of people fleeing Kosovo to escape poverty and, in the case of Rroma, discrimination and outright racism, there are calls in Germany to be more stringent on theses asylum applications. Various measures have been suggested by politicians (Tagesspeigel) going to extraditing refugees also in the winter, as asked by politicians from the CDU (LNOnline). Some even deny that there is an issue in the country.

Politicians should be maybe remember, especially in Germany, that they recognised the country but also implicitly if not explicitly recognised the ethnic cleansing of minorities from the Kosovo. Ethnic states have no place in the 21st century!

– Simantke, Elisa; Monath, Hans. Streit um schnellere Abschiebung. In Der Tagesspeigel. 13.02.2015. http://www.tagesspiegel.de/…/fluechtlinge-aus…/11360670.html
– Streit um Asylbewerber aus dem Kosovo: Nord-CDU macht Druck. In: LNOnline. 13.02.2015. http://www.ln-online.de/…/Streit-um-Asylbewerber-aus-dem-Ko…
– Kosov ist kein Krisenland. Beate Merk im Gespräch mit Thielko Grieß. In: Deutschlandrundfunk. 14.02.2015.

 

Germany News Western Europe

08.02.2015 Foreign in one’s own country: Sinti in Germany

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MiGazin speaks about Ricardo Laubinger, a Sinto from Hildesheim, a town where Rroma are documented since 1407. His family lived there since generations and travelled during the summer to earn a living as a trader or handyman. He clearly says “We are German” and says that after all, his forebears lived there for the last 600 years!

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25.01.2015 Remembrance for the liberation of Auschwitz 70 years ago

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The “Förderverein Roma” organises a march on January 27th in Frankfurt to mark the 79th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz Birkenau (Frankfurter Neue Presse). In that camp, with the special Rroma camp in Birkenau, countless Rroma from several countries were killed. The official number is fairly low, as is the case with Jews, as people that were gassed straight away were not registered. However, many Rroma from Czechoslovakia, Austria, Germany and other countries were murdered there.

The Bishop Conference of Germany, for that same commemoration of the liberation liberation of the camp, issued a lengthy statement acknowledging the murder of minorities and other in Auschwitz and appealing for tolerance and help towards others.

Germany News Western Europe

25.01.2015 Murder of Rroma and Sinti: Did we learn anything?

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Romani Rose, president of the Zentralrat der deutschen Sinti und Roma ponders about the aftermath and the collective conscience on the murder of Rroma and Sinti during the Holocaust. The fact that besides Jews, Rroma were singled out for racial reasons and murdered during the Holcaust is still not widely acknowledged or known. More work and more information is still required on this topic.

Germany News Western Europe

31.12.2014 Prejudices against Rroma

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Milan Jaeger interviewed the social worker Sonia Böttcher in Frankfurt and quizzed here on her work and on Rroma generally.  She stresses that there are common and long lasting prejudices against Rroma that portrays them as poor, uneducated, dirty, etc. She states that while there are certainly Rroma who fit the picture, the majority of the population is certainly not like this.

Meanwhile, the Süddeutsche Zeitung interviewed Andreas Zick, a researcher from the IKG, Institute for the interdisciplinary research on  conflict and violence of the University of Bielerfeld on the fears of the general population in the face of a perceived increased number of asylum seekers in Germany. This in spite of the fact that Germany is not really taking more refugees in proportion to its population as compared to neighbouring countries.

The NZZ reports on the march of the Pegida and their fear of foreigners, refugees and other migrants. One of the main often unmentioned fears are the potential hordes of Rroma who may invade Germany to benefit from a liberal social system. That these hordes never materialised in the years since all EU citizen are free to move and settle in all Eu Countries is never actually stated. There are very few Rroma, according to all official statistics who settled in Western Europe following the free travel agreements in the EU.

  1. Jaeger, Milan. Vorurteile gegen Sinti und Roma. In Frankfurter Rundschau. 28. Nov. 2014. http://www.fr-online.de/frankfurt/roma-vorurteile-gegen-sinti-und-roma,1472798,29187018.html
  2. Schulte von Drach, Markus C. Vom Vorurteil zur Fremdenfeindlichkeit. In Süddeutsche Zeitung, 10. December 2014. http://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/fluechtlinge-in-deutschland-vom-vorurteil-zur-fremdenfeindlichkeit-1.2251706
  3. Lahrtz, Stephanie. Verängstigte und unverstandene Mitläufer. In Neue Zürcher Zeitung. 16 December 2014. http://www.nzz.ch/international/deutschland-und-oesterreich/veraengstigte-und-unverstandene-mitlaeufer-1.18445463
Germany News Eastern Europe News Western Europe Serbia

31.12.2014 Serbia as Safe Country: Gall goes …

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Südwest Presse reports on the visit of Reinhold Gall, Interior Minister and SPD party member to Serbia following the declaration of Serbia as being a safe country. According to Gall, following his visit, no refugee is being sent back into the “void” as stated by critiques of this move.

During his visit, he spoke to Osman Balic, the president of the Liga Roma, a Roma NGO in Serbia. According to Balic, Rroma would go to Germany for economical reasons and Gall concludes that there are no real reasons for political asylum for Rroma from that country.

We would like to remind him that this is a bit like travelling to the Southern United States prior to the session war, and stating that no, there are really no reasons why black would want to leave. While not that extreme in Serbia, there is an extreme segregation that has increased a lot due to the nationalism of the Milosevic years. And while one cannot say that all Rrom from Serbia should get asylum, there is not yet a real good reason to declare that all are safe there.

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05.12.2014 Prosecutor of Paris: criminal court not competent to judge Manuel Valls

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Libération (2014) reports on a recent decision of the Paris prosecutor. The investigation covers statements by Prime Minister Manuel Valls, in which he claimed that Rroma had the inclination to stay in Romania or to return there, and they had a very different lifestyle than the French, which was inevitably in confrontation with the French one. The Paris prosecutor’s office now judged on December the second that the criminal court was not competent to judge the statements made by Manuel Valls. The criminal chamber will pronounce its verdict in this regard on December the 19th. However, the plaintiff against Valls, the organisation “La Voix des Roms”, wants that his statements are not judged independently of his function as the then Interior Minister, but are recognised as demagoguery: “For the lawyer of Manuel Valls, Mr. Georges Holleaux, the statements of his client are adjacent to “his ministerial competence”. In his view, the facts thus reverse the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR), the only institution empowered to judge members of the government, for deeds which they have committed in the function of their office. Moreover, he pointed out that that Mrap (Mouvement contre le racisme et pour l’amitié entre les peuples) had filed a lawsuit against Manuel Valls at the the Court of Justice of the Republic in September 2013, which was dropped it without further consequences.” Manuel Valls is not an isolated case with his racist remarks against the Rroma. In recent years, numerous French mayors and politicians have gained public attention with racist remarks about Rroma. Some were sentenced to mild fines, others were completely acquitted, referring to the freedom of expression. In the French public, Rroma are equated with 15,000 to 20,000 Rroma who live in illegal settlements. The 100,000 to 500,000 Rroma who are integrated in France since generations, are continuously ignored. The Rroma are also repeatedly exploited by various parties for political purposes and blamed for social ills that have their origins in society as a whole, and not in a single minority. Unfortunately, this scapegoat policy finds approval among a shocking number of people (compare L’Yonne Républicaine 2014).

Germany News Western Europe

05.12.2014 “German champion”: a novel about the boxing Sinto Max Trollmann

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König (2014) reports on the latest book by the writer Stephanie Bart. Her novel tells the life story of the German Sinto Max Trollmann, who foughts as a boxer in the 1930s against the rise of Nazism, but then himself becomes a victim of the inhuman machinery. Due to his Rroma origins, he was discredited by Nazi functionaries: “Stephanie Beard tells of the rise of this clever young boxer – and in parallel of the rise of the Nazis in Germany. Relentlessly, the author shows how unjust, how ruthless, blinded and inhuman one dealt with opposition members and with those who did not correspond to the “Aryan” race. […] Trollmann is the German champion for only eight days. After that, he is denied the title because he is Sinto. […] The boxing federation deliberately reduces the size of the boxing ring to the disadvantage of Trollmann. He cannot, as usual, box at a distance. Trollmann knows that he will lose. He appears with dyed blond hair and a white powdered face, dressed up as a model Aryan. I’ll see them further first – his statement goes, which is a political one.” – In Auschwitz-Birkenau alone, 30,000 Rroma were murdered. Researchers emanate from at least half a million casualties among the Rroma. The genocide of the Rroma is much less known compared to the mass murder of the Jews. For a long time in the post-war period, Rroma were discredited and marginalized. West Germany did not recognize the genocide of the Rroma until 1982, many of the survivors were already dead by then.

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05.12.2014 Halle: persistent aggressions towards Rroma

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Neues Deutschland (2014) reports on ongoing pogroms and incitement against Rroma in Halle. In the recent months, repeated assaults against Rroma occurred in the quarter of Silberhöhe. Moreover, xenophobic Facebook groups called for violence against the minority. Silberhöhe is a poor district, which is characterised by industrialised apartment blocks: “The attackers were between 10 and 13 years old. In mid-September, a young Roma woman and her two-year old son were attacked by adolescents in Silberhöhe, an industrialised building quarter in Halle. […] The instigators however, are adults. They operate Internet sites such as “hallemax.de”, where in hard tone and partly with multiple entries a day, one speaks about “alienation” and against Rroma. […] The focus of their aggression is a group of 40 families, belonging to the Roma minority, who immigrated from Romania and Spain – in the context of the EU-wide freedom of movement. From the beginning, the newcomers were faced with dislike, aggression and hatred. Especially the children reported bullying on the street or in the supermarket, the mobile victim counselling of Halle states. Later, a so-called “vigilante group” was founded, who was supposed to ensure “peace and order” with patrols in Silberhöhe.” In response to the xenophobic actions, a group against anti-Semitism was founded. The alliance “Hall against right-wing extremism” organised counter-demonstrations to the hostile actions against Rroma, in order to express their solidarity with the minority and to stand up against anti-Semitism. In addition, a meeting was organised to counter the prejudices against immigrants with facts and  knowledge. In Germany, there are an estimated 110,000 to 130,000 Rroma, many of them for generations. They are integrated, go to work, speak German and send their children to school.

Germany News Western Europe

05.12.2014 Integrated Rroma in Germany

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Jaeger (2014) spoke with Sonja Böttcher, a German social worker and Rromni. The 43-year-old is the daughter of Hans-Georg Böttcher, one of the founders the Roma Union. Böttcher talks about persistent prejudices against the minority, Rroma living integrated and the importance of being able to accept ones’ identity in spite of prejudices: “There are deeply rooted prejudices against Roma. That they are dirty and mostly homeless, depraved. However, most people do not even know Roma.Changes and positive examples are not perceived. Many Roma are indeed born here and have respected professions. […] But we live in a time, where the origin does actually not matter anymore. Therefore, I would like to see a stronger voice in the community. This may help to eliminate clichés. For a long time, I have denied my origins and told that I am from India […]. And based on my experience, I can say today that there is no reason to deny oneself. I actually think that it is time that we should go into the offensive.” In Germany, according to assessments of the Rroma Foundation, there are an estimated 110,000 to 130,000 Rroma. The majority of them is integrated, works, speaks German and sends their children to school. They are proof that integration is possible. Rroma belong to all social strata and professions. On the occasion of the debate about the so-called “poverty immigrants”, a highly biased notion of the minority was spread which discredits the majority of integrated Rroma. In an article of December 2nd, Jaeger (2014/II) himself points out to the problems of overcrowded house, into which Rroma families moved. The inhabitants of the overcrowded apartments will be allocated alternative accommodation. Nevertheless, the one-sided coverage of Rroma is not discussed (compare Jaeger 2014/III).  

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05.12.2014 “Roma does not equal poverty migration”

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Selke (2014) spoke with Prof. Max Matter, a Swiss folklorist, about his new publication “Nowhere Desired: Poverty migration from Central and Eastern Europe into the countries of the EU-15, with particular reference to members of the Roma minority”. In his book, Matter addresses the mixing of prejudices with ethnic ascriptions and political viewpoints. Many politicians and journalists used the term “poverty migration” as a synonym for the migration of poor Rroma to Western Europe. With the expansion of the free movement of persons to Romania and Bulgaria, one increasingly spoke about well educated Romanians and Bulgarians, who also migrate to Western Europe. However, opponents saw this argument as trivialising the real situation. In his publication, Matter tries to deconstruct reductionist ascriptions that portray Rroma as poor travelling beggars: Rroma are not a homogeneous mass, are mostly sedentary since centuries and have no kings. In addition, many other ethnic groups also migrate to Western Europe. The assertion of a “mass immigration into the German welfare system” is not supported by the facts: “According to the Institute for Employment Research, there are just over 500,000 people from Bulgaria and Romania in Germany. As I said, some have very good school and vocational qualifications. Many of them work. All of them counted together, they just constitute six per mil of the German population. Therefore, one can hardly speak of a mass immigration into the welfare system.” Matter also refers to the majority of well-integrated Rroma that have been living integrated in Western Europe since generation and speak the local languages. At a meeting of scientists and politicians on December the fist in Berlin, the majority of those present demanded a de-dramatization and objectification the debate on “poverty migration”: There is no widespread welfare fraud. The existing social problems are not the result of immigration, but problems already existing before. In addition, one should be cautious with the use of ethnic attributions (compare Bade 2014 MiGAZIN 2014).

Germany News Western Europe

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The Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung (2014) spoke with Rainer Wendt, the German federal president of the German police union. Wendt was invited by Central Council of German Sinti and Rroma to talk about the possibilities of intercultural training of police personnel and the dismantling of prejudices. In the interview, Wendt points out that it is important to develop and professionalise policemen, so they develope an understanding of the social contexts of minorities: “Prejudices are all around us in society. Police officers are, of course, not free of them. We use the professionalisation of police work against it. This requires that policemen know accurately the social context in which they work, in order to not give rise to prejudices and on the other side to be able to handle prejudices that exist in society. […] Not only among the police, but in our society as a whole, one must communicated that Rroma do not come from somewhere to Germany to establish themselves as a foreign body, but that they have been part of our country for centuries. They are not Sinti and Roma, who just come like that to Germany. They are German Sinti and Roma, or European citizens, who have a right to come, and we as Germans have the duty to integrate them. Of course they themselves have the obligation to contribute.” Wendt’s reference to the European history of the Rroma is important. Only through the understanding that Rroma are resident and integrated in Europe for centuries, and form a transnational ethnic minority, one can reduce prejudice against them. Them anti-social behaviour sometimes attributed to them than is rather the result of their exclusion than the outcome of a lacking will to integrate. Rroma belong to all professional groups and social classes. In Germany, there are an estimated 110,000 to 130,000 Rroma today. Before the genocide by the Nazis, there were many more.

Germany News Western Europe

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The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (2014) reports on the publication of a new study on right-wing extremism in Germany. According to the study commissioned by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, prejudices against minorities like the Rroma remain strong in Germany: “The Foundation publishes the study every two years and examines the extent to which right-wing extremist viewpoints are common among the population. This year, 2,000 citizens were interviewed between June and August. Explicitly right-wing extremist viewpoints have thus become much less common in recent years and are at a new low. […] Nonetheless, still ten percent of the population thinks that National Socialism had its good points – and that Germany would need a “leader” who “rules the country with a strong hand for the benefit of all.” […] The authors of the study warned that there was no cause for complacency. It may be possible that some citizens are simply afraid to express their right-wing viewpoints openly because of the NSU affair. […] Zick [one of the authors] said that there was a ruthless “market-shaped extremism” in Germany, which follows distinct efficiency thinking. People who do not perform enough for society, but rather generate costs, are rejected in this way of thinking. [….] Also other groups – as Muslims or Sinti and Roma – are faced with widespread prejudices in Germany, the study states. Approximately 38 percent of the population thinks that Sinti and Roma are prone to crime.” Due to the genocide of 500,000 to one and a half million Rroma, Germany has a historical responsibility towards the minority. However, the Federal Republic met this responsibly only very slowly: the genocide of the Rroma was not recognised until 1982. Before that, the Holocaust was trivialized with the remark that there had been persecution because of the “anti-social behaviour” of the “Gypsies”, but not due to an eugenically motivated racial fanaticism. An official memorial in honour of the murdered Rroma was not inaugurated until 2012. – For the study of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, 2,000 citizens were surveyed from June to August 2014 (compare Käfer 2014).

Germany News Western Europe

28.11.2014 Hostile remarks at meeting of the AfD (Alternative for Germany)

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Meyer (2014) reports on a party meeting of Jörn Kruse, Hamburg chairman of the nationalist Alternative for Germany (AFD). On the occasion of the forthcoming parliamentary elections in Hamburg, Kruse spoke about his political program: this is characterised by strong nationalist tendencies, even if Kruse often presented his viewpoints in a negative form and left the conclusions to the audience: “The state leader of his party is a clever and a practiced orator. He speaks critically about immigration and “asylum seekers”, but in between always expresses understanding for war refugees, which one has to help. […] But it soon becomes clear: Kruse is a verbal border crosser. Again and again in his speech, he approaches almost casually taboos, just to stop right before them. Therewith, he avoids the charge of right-wing propaganda, but offers his listeners what they want to hear. Kruse sounds like this: “I do not want to be quoted saying, in Germany that foreigners are responsible for crime.” Pause. “Well, who else?”, it comes from the audience. […] Or like this: „I don’t want to comment the thesis that more migration leads to more criminality. […] Nodding, agreement. An older gentleman asks what could be done against the “gypsies” and adds: “I’ve always said Gypsy, not Roma.” Kruse says that the Roma unfortunately could not be deported because of the European free movement of persons. And then: “We cannot prevent them from coming here, they have culturally induced problems of integration, we also know that many of them come here, because our child benefit are higher here than what they can earn at home.”” With this remarks, Kruse reproduces several stereotypical prejudices about the minority. The 110’000 to 130’000 Rroma who are integrated in Germany since generations are denied existence. Instead, he stylizes them – in the very spirit of one-sided debate about “poverty migration” – to economic migrants, who would exploit the German social security system. The integration problems ascribed to them have to be seen in the context of a growing xenophobia. Integration always works on two sides: by the efforts of the migrants themselves, and by the willingness of the recipient country to include the migrants. This aspect is completely ignored by Kruse and his party in their representation of the issue.

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