BERLIN (dpa) – Demands by German conservatives that resident foreigners
– especially Moslems – should conform to a defining German culture have
sparked fierce debate over the limits of tolerance and nationalism in a
nation still troubled by its past.
The opposition Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) – which put forward the idea
of “Leitkultur” (leading German culture) – calls it a normal expression
of national pride and says foreigners living here should adjust their behaviour
so as not to offend Germans.
“It is imperative that (foreigners) learn German and accept our customs,
practices and habits,” says CDU parliamentary leader, Friedrich Merz, who
coined the expression Leitkultur.
But Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s Social Democrats (SPD) and their Greens
coalition partner have slammed Leitkultur as an idea harking back to the
Nazis.
“The last time German conservatism gave in to the seductions of nationalism
Social Democrats suffered and died fighting the fascists,” said an angry
Schroeder in a recent speech to parliament.
An even harsher attack came from Paul Spiegel, leader of Germany’s 85,000-member
Jewish community, in a speech marking the November 9, 1938 Nazi “night
of broken glass” attacks on Jews.
“What’s all this talk about the Leitkultur. Is it perhaps German Leitkultur
to hunt down foreigners, set fire to synagogues and kill the homeless?”
said Spiegel, adding: “Ladies and gentlemen of the political class: think
about what you are saying and stop setting things ablaze with words!”
Spiegel made his remarks amid rising neo-Nazi violence in Germany during
the past year.
It is the buzz-word Leitkultur – which sounds far harsher in German than
in English translation – that has drawn the real outrage.
Part of what the CDU/CSU means by Leitkultur is innocuous enough: respect
for the constitution, the rule of law and learning the German language.
This is what Schroeder himself has said he expects of foreigners.
But the way conservatives are waving the Leitkultur flag breaks post-war
taboos which had kept German national pride securely buttoned down.
“What’s wrong with standing by your Vaterland (fatherland)?” insists CDU
leader Angela Merkel: “This has nothing to do with spiked helmets.”
Other CDU leaders have used the expression “I’m proud to be a German.”
This also may sound harmless, but the problem is that it’s also a rallying
cry for neo-Nazis.
What’s more, Leitkultur declarations make clear the policy is less a reaction
to the 7.1 million foreigners living in Germany – some nine per cent of
the total population – and far more aimed at the estimated three million
Moslems in the country.
Mainly Moslem Turks, who arrived as “guest workers” beginning in the 1950s,
now number over two million and are by far the country’s biggest minority.
In major cities such as Berlin there are districts like Kreuzberg which
are strongly Turkish.
This trend angers Leitkultur backers who grumble that as a German one doesn’t
feel “at ease” in places like Kreuzberg.
“In the United States there are Chinatowns and Italian districts which
have no relation to each other. But I don’t want to imagine such things
in Germany 10 years down the road,” says the CSU Interior Minister of Bavaria
state, Guenther Beckstein.
Beckstein says imposing German Leitkultur means not allowing Mosques to
be built near German churches and barring any loud public calling of Moslems
to prayer.
Leitkultur founder Merz says he wants to prevent Islamic religious instruction
from taking place at private Koran schools and only allow it at state-run
institutions under German supervision, according the news magazine Der
Spiegel.
Merz also wants to forbid Moslem women teachers from wearing head scarves
in schools.
A further issue of concern for German Leitkultur is the “gruesome slaughtering
of animals” in connection with Islam, said Merz as quoted by Der Spiegel.
CDU boss Merkel has gone public with unhappiness that she bowed to protocol
demands not to wear a short skirt and not to shake hands with Iranian President
Mohammad Khatami at a meeting during his visit to Germany last summer.
“I don’t have a problem conforming if I go to Iran. Such things are a part
of their Leitkultur,” said Merkel, adding: “But our German Leitkultur says
that men and women are equals and that such things are not acceptable.”
The conservative’s Leitkultur campaign is, of course, closely tied to party
politics.
Chancellor Schroeder has just wraped up a successful year crowned by his
tax cut package and falling unemployment. He has a firm opinion poll lead
over the CDU/CSU with next general elections due in 2002.
Adding to its woes the CDU – the main part of the conservative bloc – has
been engulfed by an illegal donations scandal.
Thus, Leitkultur can also be seen as the merely the latest in a series
of conservative bids to recover through policies aimed at reaping resentment
felt by some Germans over foreigners.
Earlier last year the CDU made “Kinder statt Inder” (children instead of
Indians) a regional election slogan aimed at trashing Schroeder’s plans
to issue 20,000 work permits to mainly Indian computer experts. German
business has been crying out for such experts and the CDU went down in
defeat at the polls. Schroeder issued his visas.
Last year the conservaties fought elections in Hesse state by attacking
Schroeder’s plan to grant dual-citizenship to foreigners. The CDU won this
poll thus forcing Schroeder to dump the dual nationality idea.
But defying CDU/CSU opposition, the government still pushed through a major
reform of the nation’s pre-World-War-I citizenship law which had defined
being German by bloodlines.
Pondering the Leitkultur wars, Maerkische Allgemeine newspaper publisher
Alexander Gauland comes up with a novel view, saying, in effect, that debate
is so bitter because there is hardly any real “German” Leitkultur to fight
over.
Germany, he notes, unified only in 1871 and regional influences of places
like Bavaria, Baden and Berlin remain powerful.
After searching for defining German culture, Gauland concludes: “In the
end there’s just the language, the constitution and cultural folklore of
the regions.”
