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RACISM

German president warns of radical threat on riot anniversary

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Thursday warned of new extremist threats to German society as he marked 30 years since the country's worst post-war racist violence.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier marks the 30th anniversary of the racist riots in the Lichtenhagen district in Rostock.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier marks the 30th anniversary of the racist riots in the Lichtenhagen district in Rostock. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Jens Büttner

Steinmeier travelled to the northern city of Rostock to commemorate the 1992 rampage when thousands of bystanders applauded as a marauding mob flung stones and petrol bombs at a housing block for asylum seekers.

He said Germany had failed to snuff out hatred and radicalism in the intervening years, as political leaders warn of potential militancy this winter linked to high energy prices, inflation and resumed pandemic measures.

“The risk that the trail of violence hasn’t ended is high,” Steinmeier told the ceremony.

“Particularly now at a time that puts us to the test like nothing in the last decades — a time that demands a lot of us, in which what’s normal is thrown into doubt and restrictions loom.”

READ ALSO: ‘Racism the problem’ – 20 years after Rostock

He said Germany had seen successive “waves” of right-wing extremism, some of it deadly, in the last three decades, noting that opposition to the 2015 refugee influx and coronavirus measures had been harnessed by radical groups.

As the country faces a winter of soaring energy bills due to the Ukraine war along with an anticipated sixth wave of the pandemic, far-right as well as extreme-left activists have announced anti-government protests.

‘Disgrace’

In Rostock in 1992, the targetted building was occupied by Vietnamese migrant workers who had to be evacuated from the burning edifice amid shocking scenes in a country still in the throes of reunifying.

Days of violence in the Lichtenhagen district saw several thousand people chanting “Germany for Germans, Foreigners Out!” in ugly images not seen in Germany since the Nazi era.

Steinmeier called the riot a national “disgrace”, saying it was a “miracle” no one was killed in the five-day siege.

Surrounded by survivors of the riot and community leaders, Steinmeier said the scenes were “seared” on the national memory.

“But we can only guess your mortal fear, your sense of abandonment in those hours,” he said.

Steinmeier acknowledged multiple failings including ill-equipped police and a complacent political class that refused to see mounting radicalism in the depressed ex-communist east.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is greeted by residents after his visit to a Buddhist-Vietnamese temple in the Lichtenhagen district of Rostock.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is greeted by local residents after his visit to a Buddhist-Vietnamese temple in the Lichtenhagen district of Rostock. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Jens Büttner

“The violence from back then, that trail of far-right terror, is unfortunately still with us,” he said.

The commemorations were marred earlier when a 13-year-old boy allegedly flashed the outlawed straight-armed Hitler salute behind a reporter while he was on camera. Police said they had identified the juvenile suspect.

There were some 33,900 people in the right-wing extremist spectrum in Germany in 2021, according to a report presented by the BfV federal domestic intelligence agency in June — up from 33,300 in 2020.

Interior Minister Nancy Fäser has said her top security priority is tackling the country’s “biggest threat: right-wing extremism”.

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ANTI-SEMITISM

Germany sees sharp rise in anti-Semitic acts

Anti-Semitic acts rose sharply in Germany last year, especially after war broke out between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in October, according to new figures released on Tuesday.

Germany sees sharp rise in anti-Semitic acts

The Federal Association of Research and Information Centres on Anti-Semitism (RIAS) documented 4,782 anti-Semitic “incidents” in 2023 – an increase of more than 80 per cent on the previous year.

More than half of the incidents – which included threats, physical attacks and vandalism – were registered after Palestinian militant group Hamas’s unprecedented October 7th attack on Israel, RIAS said.

Germany’s domestic intelligence agency last week also published figures showing a new record in anti-Semitic crimes in 2023.

A total of 5,164 crimes were recorded during the year, the agency said, compared with 2,641 in 2022.

Anti-Semitic crimes with a “religious-ideological motivation” jumped to 492 from just 33 the previous year, with the vast majority committed after October 7.

Felix Klein, the government’s commissioner for the fight against anti-Semitism, said the RIAS figures were “absolutely catastrophic”.

The Hamas attack had acted as an “accelerant” for anti-Semitism in Germany, he told a press conference in Berlin.

“Jewish life in Germany is under greater threat than it has ever been since the Federal Republic of Germany was founded,” he said.

The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 37,600 people, also mostly civilians, Gaza’s health ministry said.

Islamophobic incidents also increased dramatically in Germany last year, according to a separate report published on Monday.

The CLAIM alliance against Islamophobia said it had registered 1,926 attacks on Muslims in 2023, compared with just under 900 in 2023.

These included verbal abuse, discrimination, physical violence and damage to property.

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