Germans Stand Up to Right-Wing Violence

On a day replete with memories of Germany’s worst terrors and wildest joys, hundreds of thousands took to the streets across the nation Thursday to condemn a wave of right-wing violence that has once again evoked the shameful specter of this country’s Nazi past.

In what political leaders called the “Uprising of the Upright,” ordinary Germans joined to take a stand against rightist thugs and to remember the 1938 Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass,” when Nazi troops smashed Jewish shops and set fire to synagogues in a pogrom that heralded the Holocaust.

But Nov. 9 is also the anniversary of the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall, and as more than 200,000 Berliners thronged the capital’s Unter den Linden promenade in a silent march against intolerance, there was also proud reflection on what good has been accomplished in this conflicted nation.

The huge show of support for the anti-rightist action called by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder reflected--and intensified--a bitter debate gripping Germany about the degree to which foreigners should be expected to embrace German culture to fully integrate.

Many of the banners carried by the marchers denounced recent attempts by the conservative Christian Democratic Union, the party of former Chancellor Helmut Kohl, to invoke the incendiary topic of immigration as an election-season theme, with politicians already posturing for the next federal vote in 2002.

CDU parliamentary leader Friedrich Merz ignited the controversy last month when he suggested that German language, customs and traditions should be the Leitkultur--the defining culture--to better assimilate those who come from elsewhere.

Against the backdrop of recent neo-Nazi beatings of dark-skinned foreigners and fire-bombings of synagogues, Merz’s appeal has been condemned as pandering to the base instincts of a violence-prone minority responsible for those hate crimes.

“Is it Germany’s defining culture to hunt down foreigners, to set fire to synagogues, to kill the homeless?” Paul Spiegel, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, demanded of the massive crowd filling Unter den Linden and the square around the Brandenburg Gate.

In a pointed reference to Merz, although he didn’t name him, Spiegel warned politicians against “playing with verbal fire” and drew thunderous applause from the marchers.

He also appealed to Germans to show civil courage in the face of injustice, arguing that responsibility doesn’t end with those who deliver the blows and insults.

“Only a few would have the courage to intervene when they see skinheads beating a defenseless man or defenseless woman, even at times defenseless children,” Spiegel said. “But everyone is in a position to take small steps against racial hatred and violence, as when sordid jokes are told about Jews or Turks or those of color or those who are gay. Our streets and gathering places shouldn’t be given over to fascist rabble.”

One young student of Turkish origin taking part in the protest said she fears being caught out alone in certain eastern parts of Berlin because of her dark hair and skin, although she is a naturalized citizen who speaks flawless German. “I wouldn’t dare go to parts of the city late in the day with public transportation,” said the 26-year-old, who would give only her first name, Ayse.

This year’s remembrance of the pogrom drew the powerful and the prominent because of the recent rash of attacks that have sullied the nation’s image. Among those who walked more than a mile from a service at the city’s main synagogue to the landmark gate were Schroeder and his Cabinet; leaders of all major parties; sports stars Steffi Graf, Katarina Witt and Boris Becker; and entertainers and artists from rock star Udo Lindenberg to Nobel literature laureate Gunter Grass.

Most of the marchers, however, were average citizens wanting to show that Germany is not dominated by a criminal fringe. Berlin’s gathering was by far the biggest, but similar memorials held in all major cities Thursday drew tens of thousands at each venue. In Bremerhaven, which has become known as a stronghold of the extreme-right German People’s Union, 30,000 residents showed their opposition by holding hands in a human chain that stretched eight miles.

In a related move to curb right-wing violence, Schroeder’s Cabinet on Wednesday endorsed a legislative appeal to ban the far-right National Democratic Party--a measure that will be voted on today in the upper house of Parliament and early next month in the lower house. The NPD, as the party is known in Germany, has become associated with skinheads and openly demands an end to immigration.

The NPD ban is expected to win approval in both houses, but it will ultimately be decided by the country’s Constitutional Court. Many fear it could be rejected for lack of solid evidence that the party has engaged in unconstitutional activity. And a failure to shut down the party, which has a mere 6,000 followers, would probably give it new legitimacy as well as public exposure.

Although many of the politicians taking part in Thursday’s demonstrations support a ban on the NPD, the broad-based participation in the marches showed that Germans recognize that more is needed than legislative action.

“We need to send a signal to the world that Germany does not equal fascism,” Britta Gross, a 34-year-old secretary, said of the right-wing incidents. “They are the minority. We are the majority, and we have to show this.”