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OPINION AND ANALYSIS

OPINION: Berlin needs more understanding for people who can’t wear face masks

It's easy to jump to conclusions when we see people breaking the mask-wearing rule. But with some medical conditions making wearing face-coverings almost unbearable, it's high time that Berlin took a more understanding approach, writes David Matthews.

BVG mask sign
A sign for the Berlin transport network BVG informs people of the 3G and mask-wearing rules on-board. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Carsten Koall

Germany is breathing a cautious but audible sigh of relief. Omicron appears to have peaked without overwhelming hospitals with patients, and at the state and federal level, politicians are now discussing which restrictions should be lifted first. 

Of all the pandemic precautions we’ve gotten used to these past two years, masks are likely to be the last to go. That’s if we ever take them off – it’s possible parts of Europe might follow Japan and make them a social norm on public transport, even after the pandemic has long since faded away.  

During most of the pandemic, I thought of mask-wearing as a no-brainer. I could see why closing restaurants and bars or restricting travel was controversial, but masks? What’s the big deal? They seem to be such a simple, cost-free way of reducing infection, which is why occasional mask-refuseniks on the U-Bahn come across as bafflingly stubborn and anti-social to the rest of us.  

READ ALSO: OPINION: Germany is stuck in Covid Groundhog Day – it’s time to move on

But last December, my eyes were opened to the hidden costs of a masked society when a friend of mine, Hannah Bestley Burt, an artist from London, came to visit Berlin for a long weekend. 

Hannah is autistic, and for her at least, wearing a mask is far from simple – it’s practically impossible. She has problems with sensory processing, and so finds certain clothes, like jeans or items with high necklines, labels or seams, unbearably irritating to wear.

When coronavirus struck, she tried to find a comfortable kind of mask, but they triggered panic attacks. “It’s like having a bright and hot light shone directly in your face, or someone yelling numbers at you while you try to do maths,” says Hannah, whose art deals with her autism. “At best it’s distracting, at worst it is intolerable, it makes me angry, panicked, afraid, I can’t think about anything but its presence on my face.”  

A world of judgement

In London where she lives, this hasn’t been such a problem. There, mask compliance is pretty patchy, and there are regular reminders on public transport that some people are medically incapable of masking up.  

But arriving in Berlin unmasked, Hannah experienced a world of judgement and rejection as she tried to enjoy the city. This was despite bringing a letter from her therapist explaining her autism, and a digital exemption badge from the UK government. 

In one incident, a café initially tried to turn her away, despite having empty tables. In another, she was forced to wear a mask when getting a Covid test in a shopping centre. And when she tried to go to the spa Vabali she was flatly refused entry. I asked Vabali about this, and they simply referred me to their website FAQs, which bluntly says: “face coverings are required”. 

It wasn’t just being turned away that was painful for Hannah; it was the seeming lack of understanding or sympathy in Berlin about her condition. I don’t think the language barrier can be used as an excuse: she was either turned away from these places in English or was accompanied by a fluent German speaker.   

Things weren’t much better on public transport. Generally she tried to avoid it, but when she had to take the U-Bahn, people sometimes tutted, stared and spoke about her.

It don’t want to give the impression the trip was all bad: we managed to go to Christmas markets, bars, restaurants and a nightclub where staff were understanding. 

Public shaming 

But this doesn’t remove the anxiety that in the next café or U-Bahn, you’ll be publicly shamed for not wearing a mask. “I’m an artist and had been considering moving to Berlin, it could be a wonderful move for my practice,” Hannah told me afterwards. “But I realised that I couldn’t live there, I couldn’t have a full life there.”  

How many autistic people are there in Berlin like Hannah, excluded from public spaces through official rules or the glares of strangers? 

It’s impossible to know for sure, but Germany’s Federal Office for the Environment estimates that 0.6 – 1% of people globally have the condition. That would equate to tens of thousands in Berlin alone. 

Of course, many autistic people are able to wear masks without a problem, Bärbel Wohlleben, vice chair of Autism Germany, told me. But the organisation also knows of sufferers who like Hannah simply cannot mask up. “There is not a lot of tolerance,” she said. 

People sit on the Berlin U-Bahn wearing masks

People sit on the Berlin U-Bahn wearing masks. Local transport is often a hotspot for public shaming of perceived ‘mask avoiders’. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Christoph Soeder

How could Berlin become a little more tolerant? Transport for London regularly reminds passengers that it may not be obvious why someone cannot wear a mask, and sends free exemption badges to passengers who want them, no questions asked. 

I asked BVG if they had considered doing something similar. They told me that they make sure their staff know about Berlin’s mask exemption rules, which do allow you to go maskless if you have a medically certified health impairment, chronic illness or disability. 

Yet they decided not to broadcast public reminders “in order to minimise the risk of abuse” of the rules, a spokesman told me. Reminders would “not entirely solve” the problem of unmasked people getting dirty looks on the U-Bahn, he added. 

READ ALSO: OPINION: The pandemic has revealed Germany’s deep obsession with rules and compliance

A forgiving middle ground

The problem here, as BVG suggests, is that if we don’t tut and stare at unmasked people like Hannah, we also won’t challenge diehard mask refusers who are unmasked for political, not medical reasons. The whole system of social pressure risks collapsing. 

But surely there has to be a more forgiving middle ground where, if it bothers us, we politely ask someone on the U-Bahn why they aren’t wearing a mask, rather than assuming the worst of them. I’ve certainly done my bit of public shaming during the pandemic, staring at a maskless person on the train or tram without knowing their backstory. 

And every café, bar, and restaurant should make sure their staff know that mental health can be a perfectly valid reason not to wear a mask. 

For most of the last two years, I’ve counted my lucky stars that I live in near universally masked, rule-following Berlin, rather than what I thought of as selfish and maskless London. But as we edge back into normality, Hannah’s experience should remind us that for a small but significant minority, masks are far from a harmless measure – they amount to a semi-lockdown of the entire city.

Member comments

  1. “And every café, bar, and restaurant should make sure their staff know that mental health can be a perfectly valid reason not to wear a mask. ”

    I don’t disagree with your statement…but only after a diagnosis by a qualified mental health professional. Otherwise, this becomes a free ticket to not wearing a mask.

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POLITICS

ANALYSIS: What do Germany’s far-right gains in EU elections mean for foreigners?

Despite months of scandals, the far-right AfD made significant gains in both the EU and local elections at the start of June. What does this mean for foreigners in the country?

ANALYSIS: What do Germany's far-right gains in EU elections mean for foreigners?

For many years, as in many countries, the election of the European parliament was something of a non-event in Germany.

Between 1999 and 2014, a meagre 38-43 percent of the German electorate made it to the polling booth to vote for their EU representatives, despite the country’s reputation as a cornerstone of the European project.

Over the past five years, however, the mood has changed. According to analysts at the Konrad Adenauer Stifting, EU elections have become something of a temperature check in Germany, giving disgruntled voters a chance to air their views on the governing parties in between federal and state elections. 

This year, a record 64.8 percent of voters cast their ballot – and the message to the government was clear. All three of the traffic-light coalition parties – the Social Democrats (SPD), Greens and Free Democrats (FDP) – languished well below 15 percent, while the opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU) parties won the largest vote share at 30 percent. 

READ ALSO: Conservatives lead as Scholz’s coalition suffers defeat at EU polls in Germany

Most shocking, however, was the other clear winner of Germany’s EU elections: the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which landed in second place with 15.9 percent of the vote and increased their vote share by almost five percent, compared to the results of the last EU elections in 2019. 

In eastern states like Thuringia, Brandenburg and Saxony, the party gained the largest share of the votes, polling around 30 percent. 

Similar results were returned in the local elections that were held the same day. In the former GDR states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg Western-Pomerania, the AfD emerged as the clear victor in the vast majority of local communes. 

For many foreigners in Germany – especially those who were unable to vote themselves – the gains made by the far-right have been shocking.

The AfD is emerging as a serious contender in German politics, and appears to be moving from the fringes to the mainstream. 

READ ALSO: Germany’s far-right AfD sees strong gains in local eastern elections

Normalisation of the far-right

The election results made clear that for many AfD voters, there’s no longer a reason to have to hide. A recent study by the Scientific Centre for Social Research in Berlin confirmed this view, highlighting how far-right ideas on topics like migration and Islam had come to be more widely accepted among the general public, as well as shaping media discourse.

For more than six months now, the AfD has been buffeted by scandal after scandal: in Thuringia, AfD fraction leader Björn Höcke was recently found guilty of spouting banned nazi slogans in speeches, while in the run-up the EU elections, leading candidate Maxmilian Krah was rocked by accusations of corruption after an aide was arrested on suspicion of spying for China. Then he was banned from appearing in the election after he made comments downplaying the crimes of Nazi SS officers.

AfD politician Maximilian Krah

Maximilian Krah, AfD top candidate for the European elections, makes a press statement after the meeting with the AfD parliamentary group leadership on Wednesday. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Michael Kappeler

Back in November, an investigation by Correctiv revealed that prominent members of the AfD had attended a secret meeting in which they discussed the concept of ‘remigration’: sending unwanted foreigners, including those with a migration background, back to their supposed home countries. 

But despite the media frenzy around these revelations, the far-right party still made significant gains on polling day, though admittedly not as well as earlier polls suggested.

“The strong turnout of the AfD, especially in the east German states, shows that the party increasingly establishes itself in Germany’s party system,” York Albrecht, researcher at the Institute for European Politics in Berlin, told Al Jazeera.

This increasing normalisation of extreme parties and positions could make it hard to reverse the gains that the AfD has made and may push other more parties even further to the right. 

Influence on German politics 

With all of Germany’s major parties refusing to govern alongside the AfD, it’s highly unlikely that the party will ever get a chance to enact their own policies – but their growing influence in Germany means that others may well deliver them on their behalf. 

Nowhere is this more prominent than in the backlash against widespread migration, with even centre-left parties in government taking a tougher and more populist line on the treatment of refugees, for example by restricting access to social benefits.

Though the CDU/CSU parties emerged as the winner of the EU elections, there are some questions about why they failed to capitalise fully on the disastrous polling numbers of the three ruling parties. 

While the SPD, Greens and FDP lost a total of 21 points collectively, the Union picked up just six of these, while the AfD made gains across the board. This fact could lead the centre-right parties to conclude that a further move to the right is required, such as calling for stricter migration controls, the scrapping of green policies or the restrictions of certain rights for foreigners.

This is a trend we’ve already seen in recent months from the CDU. When the party released its party programme back in May, the concept of Leitkultur took centre-stage. As opposed to multiculturism, Leitkultur involves migrants integrating fully into the dominant culture of Germany, adopting its language, culture, customs and way of life. 

READ ALSO: How the CDU wants to change Germany

Meanwhile, the poor results for the traffic-light coalition will put Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) under increased pressure to change course as the parties sit down for budget negotiations this month and next.  

Outside of the realm of parliamentary politics, it seems like fears about foreigners and the impact of migration are also on the rise.

In a 2023 survey ranking the fears of the Germans, the proportion of people who feared that Germany and its institutions could be overwhelmed by refugees rose by 11 points to 53 percent, while the proportion of people who feared migration could lead to a breakdown of German society increased by 10 point to 47 percent. 

This sense of fear and hostility may not have yet convinced the governing traffic-light coalition to change course on its plans to boost skilled migration, but the feeling of being unwelcome could have a tangible effect on foreigners’ lives.

Furthermore, if the EU elections can function as a predictor of what’s to come when the federal elections roll around in September next year, the CDU/CSU may well be in the driving seat, along with migration and social policies that echo those of the far-right. 

The wider EU picture

When it comes to the European parliament itself, the picture is slightly more nuanced.

Though the far-right European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and Identity and Democracy (ID) groups made gains, the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), led by European President Ursula von der Leyen, remains the largest bloc. 

At present, it also appears that the extreme right is starting to fragment, especially after the AfD were kicked out of ID – in reaction to the aforementioned comments by Maximilian Krah that not all Nazi SS soldiers were criminals. 

READ ALSO: What the EU election results say about the state of politics in Germany

That said, experts agree that the latest round of parliamentary elections represents a drastic lurch to the right in European politics and could make it easier for right-wing and far-right parties to set the agenda over the next five years.

European parliament

A person holds an EU flag at the European Parliament building, during an election evening in Strasbourg, on June 9th, 2024, after the vote for the European Parliament election. Photo by: SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP

In concrete terms, that could mean torpedoing climate initiatives like the European Green Deal and plans to phase out combustion engines over the coming years.

READ ALSO: INTERVIEW – ‘Failed climate policies are fuelling far-right politics in Germany’

On the migration policy side, the European parliament could move towards implementing tougher rules for migrants and refugees and permitting the erosion of some civil rights for foreigners. 

However, experts say a key outcome of the current parliamentary constellation is that it will simply be harder to get anything done.

“Under this parliament, it will be hard to read a clear strategic agenda other than some of the core principles around security and the economy,” Susi Dennison, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), told Al Jazeera this week.

“What we will see emerging is deal-by-deal policymaking.”

In this situation, the far-right are bound to “play hard” to enforce their policies over the next five years, Dennison added. 

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