Germany: The Fires of Hatred

By DANIEL BENJAMIN/DRESDEN

Germany celebrated the first anniversary of unification last week, but the day will be remembered more for the fires that burned across the country than for the holiday fireworks. On the Baltic island of Rugen, right-wing extremists razed a center for asylum seekers. In the northern city of Bremen, a hostel for foreigners was firebombed. Shelters were also torched in Karlsruhe in the southwest and in Dusseldorf in the northwest, where two Lebanese children were severely burned. Altogether there were at least 16 attacks on foreigners within a 24-hour span, rounding off a three-week reign of terror.

It was the worst spasm of nativist violence since the days of Adolf Hitler, bringing the number of attacks to nearly 400 since the beginning of the year. With a record 220,000 asylum seekers expected by year's end, even more clashes seem likely. While the latest wave of xenophobic incidents originated in the formerly communist east, anti-foreigner sentiment is being demonstrated throughout the country.

Last week the issue weighed heavily in state elections in Bremen: in a contest that was widely considered a referendum on immigration, the Social Democrats, long identified with liberal asylum policies, saw their total plunge from 51% to 39%, while two right-wing extremist parties culled a hefty 8% of the vote.

For several reasons, animosity against foreigners should be declining -- especially in eastern Germany. Not only are the east's living standards higher than ever, and rising, but there are fewer foreigners there now than before unification. Despite the influx of people seeking asylum, the east has seen the departure of most of the roughly 191,000 guest workers and students from the communist bloc and the Third World, and the number of foreigners in the region has fallen below 30,000. Nonetheless, with unemployment and underemployment at 28% in the east, food costs multiplying and rents more than quadrupling, many Germans see asylum seekers as a threat to economic security.

The most recent spate of attacks appears to have been prompted by a skinhead victory over the authorities: two weeks ago in the Saxon town of Hoyerswerda, 25 miles from the Polish border, the state government relocated 230 foreigners whose building had been subjected to a six-day barrage of stones and Molotov cocktails. The possibility of similar victories elsewhere has emboldened neo- Nazis and skinheads throughout Germany.

Bonn's reaction has not helped much. Chancellor Helmut Kohl's Christian Democrats seized on the attacks to push for a constitutional amendment curbing Germany's liberal provisions for asylum. But some critics say that by harping on the constitution instead of cracking down on the attacks, the CDU has encouraged the skinheads. Others complain that the CDU's arguments implicitly blame the victims by suggesting more foreigners mean more violence. However deserved the criticism was, the debate was not making Germany safer for foreigners.

With reporting by Rhea Schoenthal/Bonn