This booklet was written on the basis of two visits to post-unification East Germany in 1991 and 1992. I interviewed a number of refugees, as well as members of political parties, journalists, writers, film directors and common people, in order to form an idea of the situation in Germany that was leading to virulent racism and a revival of Nazism. I also tried to study the historical roots of the phenomenon. German racism, too often identified with Hitlerite anti-sematic mania, is in reality something older and more complex. The writing was mostly completed in early 1993. I visited Germany, particularly the former East Germany again in September-October 1994, shortly before the general election. The situation was practically unchanged, except for the fact that most of the Cubans had left. The most visible group of foreigners were the Vietnamese. They could be seen in many metro stations and street corners in East Berlin, selling markets and the like. In 1995, many of these people were also repatriated, following a pact between the German and Vietnamese Governments. The neo-Nazis now have less targets than before, but their violence seems unabated.
The general election was significant, in many respects and throws light on the present situation, as regards racism. The Christian Democrats, the ruling party, has won by a hair's breadth. It was able to form a Government only because the Social Democrats refused the offered, unconditional support of the P.D.S. The P.D.S. or Party of Democratic Socialism, the 'reformed' heir of the old East Germen Communists, have done unexpectedly well in very difficult circumstances, winning about one-third of the total Berlin vote and almost twenty per cent of the East German vote. The neo-Fascist parties have fared badly. None of them has managed to get the five percent barrier necessary to enter the German Parliament.
Yet one should not conclude that racism has weakened.
Rather, the ruling party has stolen some of the clothes of the neo-Fascists, passing a tough anti-immigration law, turning a blind eye to race riots, arranging the return of the natives and so on. The German police today is permeated by racism at all levels. This policy somewhat resembles the plan of the Indian Prime Minister, Rao, of taking the wind out of the BJP sails through 'soft Hinduism'. As a leader of the P.D.S. commented, an exact replay of the rise of Hitler is unlikely. Rather, we are witnessing the 'creeping facism' of the German state, as the mainstream parties take over more and more of the neo-fascist programme.
In this context, the present booklet still seems relevant. The part alalysed here throws light on the present and might serve as a guide for the future.
Since the unification of the two Germanies, the new entity which has emerged, or been revived, has been riven by racial intolerance and violence. In 1992 alone, almost two thousand incidents of racist clashes were reported. At least sixteen or seventeen people lost their lives. The catalogue makes dreary reading. The incidents are gruesome enough an Angolan worker beaten to death, while a huge crowd watched and cheered; a hostel of Vietnamese workers set on fire, while the onlookers clapped and the police remained indifferent: an Angolan woman worker thrown out of the window; a Turkish woman an two small girls burnt alive and so on. It is more important to trace the underlying roots and causes.
Various explanations are offered for this sudden and unexpected turn of affairs. For four decades, East Germany was supposed to be a Communist state, poorer that the West, indeed, but not too unsuccessful by world standards. West Germany, after the ravages of the war, emerged as an economic superpower, the undisputed leader of Europe and the model of liberal capitalism, operating on the basis of peaceful consensus politics. While neo-Nazi groups existed in the West, their presence was not taken too seriously and only a few observers predicted that they might spell trouble in the future. Why, then, are the old ghosts so strong now? Has the fall of the Berlin Wall opened Hitler's grave and allowed him to rise again, vampire-like?
Several explanations are offered for this phenomenon. The most important ones might be listed as follows:
(1) The racists and neo-Nazis are only tiny groups, with little support among the populace. As a violent minority, their action has been given a publicity out of proportion with their real importance.
(2) Germans are basically racist and Nazism was the epitome of racism. Now they have returned to their old and tried ways.
(3) The former East German economy is in shambles and even the miraculous economy of West Germany does not look too robust. Swamped by unemployment, inflation. homelessness etc., on a scale unknown since the early thirties, many Germans are venting their frustration on 'outsiders'. (The German term, 'Auslander', is stronger and more significant than 'foreigner'.)
(4) The East Germans have enjoyed no democratic tradition for almost six decades, having passed straight from Nazism to Communism. The children of one totalitarianism naturally turn to another.
(5) The East Germans were, for decades, more or less insulated from foreigners. The sudden contact with other races and cultures has unsettled them and triggered an explosion of xenophobia.
All these explanations contain an element of truth, some more than others. Yet none of them seems wholly adequate. It is certainly true that the various explicitly Fascist groups-the Republican Party, the German Peoples' Party, the National Front, the German Alternative (the last two were banned in December 1992 but remain active) and many others-represent only a tiny fraction of the German people. None of them can claim more than a few thousand card carrying members. It is almost impossible that they should ever come to power, singly or collectively.
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