The German literary scholar Klaus-Michael Bogdal was awarded the German Book Prize for European Understanding for his work “Europe invents the Gypsies” (Delius 2013). Bogdal researched the handing down of mainly derogatory stereotypes on Rroma in literature and oral traditions, which are persisting to this day in the minds of many people. Bogdal researched since 1992 for this book, which appeared in 2011 and the award comes at a time where there is a fierce polemic in Germany about the foreign Roma and their role, and where exactly the very same images that Bogdal deconstructs and condemns are being used.

Bogdal (Ebbinghaus 2013) sees clear parallels between the story of European Rroma exclusion and the current debate in Germany. Even hundreds of years ago, there was resentment against people coming from the East to Western Europe, people who were seen as Turkish spies and endowed with numerous other stereotypes. They were deemed to have a low level of civilization and seen nas the last Wild people of Europe.

One of the problems in the current debate is the fact that many of those involved are trying to find clear answers to causes of the glaring poverty of many Roma and thereby, while speculating about the Roma identity, reproduce the standard stereotypes. As a result, the game is repeated with the external and self-ascription of identity, whereby in the case of Roma foreign attribution dominates. It seems, as Bogdal notes, as if one denies the Rroma the right to state their own identity. In his work on the representation of the Roma in the European literature, he sees not only a blatant distortion of the representation of the Roma, but also a disfigured awareness of reality itself, which is to be criticized and changed. He also criticizes the use of negative terms and images that in itself are vague and contradictory, such as the terminology “antiziganism”. On the relationship between anti-Semitism and anti-gypsy attitudes, he notes that European society found too few common points with Rroma that could be openly defamed, and therefore created the image of the “foreign, non-European” to discriminate against them deem them outside of the law. Particularly shocking to Bogdal, is to forget that the uncritical use of traditional prejudices on Rroma was key at major turning points in history, for example during  their systematic persecution and extermination under the Nazis. When asked what kind of picture of the Rroma he has today, he notes pluralistically:

Today I don’t have one anymore. The image has been dissolved in a variety of images of European Gypsies. It’s a good feeling to see a Finnish Kalderash – this is a very traditional group – and it’s as good a feeling not to be able to determine a lawyer with Sinti background, who has dropped his traditional traits (Ebbinghaus 2013) 

In an interview with The Time (Staas 2013), he emphasizes a hand down of prejudices against Rroma, which ideologically legitimises the use of force against them. Rroma a lower position within the ranking of Nations: While amongst nations, “territorial, economic and cultural domination” is key, the Rroma take the place of the undefined stranger who remains in the country, but is neither friend nor foe, a homeless “faceless embodiment of the Other”. In relation to the development of prejudice, he states:

In the Middle Ages the “Gypsy” was considered sinful per se, during the enlightenment as a primitive intelligence, and in the industrial age as a natural being. Always seen as a threat, Rroma were assigned to the lowest social status. […] In the early modern period, this happens in the context of contemporary peoples and nations genealogies. In the Enlightenment, science rearranges mankind anew. One discovers that the Rroma have their own language which belongs to the Sanskrit family. At the same time one explains them to be the descendants of the lowest and most despised Indian caste the pariahs. For the 20th century racism, Rroma are nothing but a “inferior” race. New knowledge – or perceived knowledge – always has the same result: the exclusion of Rroma (Staas 2013).

This desire for knowledge on the Roma always culminates in new findings on Rroma to is imposed upon them. Their poverty is criminalized and becomes a stigma. They are perceived as a danger, as people in need of discipline. Not much has changed at these views, which already existed centuries ago.

Quellen:

• Delius, Mara (2013) „Die Zigeuner“, ein imaginäres Kollektiv Europas? In: Die Welt vom 14.3.2013.
• Ebbinghaus, Uwe (2013) Europa erfindet die Zigeuner, um sie zu verachten. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung vom 13.3.2013.
• Staats, Christian (2013) Kitsch und Hass. In: Die Zeit vom 28.2.2013.