Does Frankfurt (if Not Germany) Have a Racism Problem?

I just read a very good article in The Guardian, by John Kampfner entitled Germany’s murderous history should give it clarity about the Middle East. Instead, it is paralysed.

It is an interesting take on what is going on in Germany right now and on many points, I agree, sadly on many of his points, and indeed will go a bit further, with some shocking examples.

What I want to add up front however, is that Germany can be a highly racist country, and often in some mind-blowingly obvious shocking ways. Starting with the tendency of government agencies to allow anonymous reporting about appalling events, but an unbelievably obscure passageway to not only complain but get any action.

It does not matter if someone is Jewish or Arabic. Being foreign is enough to face abuse at the hands of government workers who are almost impossible to fire, even for the worst kinds of transgressions. And that is the government. When discrimination occurs in the private sector or in civil life, it is of course, that much harder to report if not get any action on as a result.

What am I saying? After almost 11 years here, I can say, with authority, as much as I love living here, that Germany can be unbelievably racist, and unbelievably anti Auslander (foreigner).

Indeed, as I just wrote to the city authority that supposedly takes action on cases of government discrimination via city agencies, I have been discriminated against by every single German agency I have had to deal with. And that is not counting other kinds of crappy behaviour encountered in the “private sector.” It has taken me nine years of begging to even get this email contact. And I still don’t know if I am at the right place.

Here is a small list of government agencies who have obviously discriminated against me, and just as obviously have policies that are what in the US at least are called facially discriminatory. This means, beyond the legal mumbo jumbo that such practices are so illegal on the face of what they do, that they should be immediately struck down and changed precisely because they are broadly applied as official policies.

What I am describing below, by the way, is illegal even under German law. It is also illegal under EU and in some cases, international human rights law. Here is a brief, if shocking list that is even beginning, hopefully, to wake some Germans up.

A.??? The Interior Department. According to Article 116 (2) of the Grund Gesetz, or German Constitution, put in place after WWII, survivors of and descendants of the survivors of the Shoah are supposed to be granted German citizenship automatically and within 90 days. I had to take my application all the way to the German Supreme Court. This took 7 years. See 2BvR 2628/18. I paid for that delay in tears, sweat and blood, but it shouldn’t have been this hard. In fact, most Jews had been banned from returning to Germany for 80 years until my case was decided. Nobody at the city level even tried to help me get my certification after the court case was decided, leaving me without paperwork (and any kind of help) in the middle of a global pandemic. As a result of this delay, I also still do not have proper healthcare, and am fighting both my health insurer and yet another government agency on what should be easy to process issues, still delayed four years after citizenship. None of this is OK.

B.???Auslander Behorde . This is the immigration department. It is managed on a city and state level. I have had interactions with two of them, so far. Dortmund, where I first lived for two years, and Frankfurt. Of the two, Frankfurt has been worse, and by a factor that is not even calculable. Indeed, unfortunately, it has become apparent to me that despite all of its many benefits, Frankfurt has a really big, and seriously problematic, racism problem that has put me through worse experiences than I have ever had to face in my life, anywhere on the planet. For example, during the period I was fighting my case, Auslander Behorde Frankfurt first refused to give me even a residence visa (as an American citizen and one with a German graduate degree at that point). Then they tried to deport me, twice, in 2020. Once a week before the world shut down for Covid, and once after I won my case. ?In the middle of all of this, I experienced one of the most illegal government procedures I have ever encountered, everywhere. Namely, not just a violation of German or even EU law, but an international human rights violation. It occurred in early 2019 when I sought a meeting with the office in an increasingly fraught situation as they continued to refuse to give me a residence visa, even though they were also informed of the status of my legal case. And it was obvious to me at the time that the policies I was facing were in fact directed at any foreigner who was not white and male. It was during this period of time, in fact, that I learned (through my lawyer) that the only way to snag a meeting with a regular employee who processed applications was to show up the night BEFORE a meeting was requested, PLUS be one of the first ten in line. These instructions are not written down anywhere, as they are supposed to be, by law. This is a government service, and further the only place that foreigners can obtain the same, many of whom are paying taxes via their banking, or other, jobs. The only way to get one of these spots is to show up as soon as the office closes for the day. By 6.30pm, on both days I queued, the first day unsuccessfully, there were already ten people in line. Then you have to wait until midnight, at which point, everyone in line, not just the first ten, is required to register, with their name and current ID documents. You then have to wait, in the room, until 3am, before you are allowed to leave. And are required to return by 7am the next morning if you want to make your appointment. Basically, you have to stay up all night to get an appointment, and then you are still not guaranteed that they will do anything to help you. A year later, they tried to deport me in the middle of the Pandemic. Twice. Once even after I finally got my German citizenship papers. The decision in my case by the way means that my citizenship has been retroactive. Not a single agency, anywhere, yet, has recognized this logic. Much less done something about it.

C.??? The Jobs Center. The fact that I am even at the Jobs Center at all is another issue, considering I paid a huge amount of money for an Executive MBA rather recently, but that is another topic. Regardless, I have not been able to get a single class approved in four years (I am apparently in the running for my first approval now, fingers crossed). However, the abuse I have had to go through at this agency is grotesque including being told for four years that people who are at the Jobs Center do not qualify for C1 and C2 German. They don’t care about my court case, unsurprisingly, because nobody in any other responsible agency has made sure that they do.

D.??? The police. For various reasons, I am not going to give a list of issues I have encountered with them, but generally they seem to be uneducated on what constitutes an antisemitic or even racist or anti female crime. Or that they are required to report crimes against people even if they are foreigners, or not white men.

I am writing about this here because I am doing some other writing that may or may not make it into a longer piece about my own journey back to my family’s historical homeland. But I was certainly triggered by The Guardian piece. And agree that the best way to deal with all of these issues is more conversation, not less.

The supposed “German sensitivity” about discussing many issues about the Holocaust if not racism beyond that triggered by non-white skin, a foreign name or background, and certainly a religious affiliation that is not Christian is nothing more than an excuse. Such “sensitivity” is in fact, shockingly, far too often, just because such delicate souls are in fact holding on to highly racist, antisemitic beliefs. Or justifying appallingly racist actions.

One of those is the apparent lack of understanding that you are not allowed to hold elections or tests on Jewish religious holidays, even if you are a school. Or that if you put up Christian religious symbols, with taxpayer money, you are required to do the same for all religions, even if you haven’t created a tax class for them yet. See public displays of Ramadan celebratory symbols.

Germans, generally, seem not to understand these arguments in a way that certainly has been shocking to me – someone who has lived and worked in three countries, and had both a Jewish family and a highly racist Southern one in the US.

?I have felt, many times in the last 11 years, like I am back in the 1950’s if not 1980’s US South. And in many surprising and deeply unsettling ways.

It is time, overdue, that Germany has a real discussion about multiculturalism, gender equality, and beyond it all, a deep seated, and highly unfortunate national habit that needs to have the bright light of shame shone brightly, and significantly, on it.

It is called discrimination and racism.

Germany needs a national upgrade on some basic civil rights issues and attitudes about the same. But that said, it took both the US and the UK a really long time to deal with similar problems (even if on the “right” side in WWII). Indeed, it is obvious to see that enduring racism on the winning side actually helped enshrine fascist laws and ideology for decades after the war. See my case as Exhibit A, but there are many other examples.

Now is not the time to be silent.