Yesterday's front-page New York Times article on Dresden (In Dresden, High Culture and Ugly Reality Clash) was both welcome and infuriating. Welcome, in that it made readers aware of the terrible murder of Marwa al-Sherbini nearly 6 weeks after the fact; infuriating, in that little context was offered. True, the reporter does spotlight the growing problem of right-wing violence and neo-Nazi activity in Saxony:
troublemaker on the German political scene with a tiny official
membership (some 7,000), is as strong in Saxony as it is anywhere.
Recent polls have routinely shown its support in the state as nearing
10 percent of the population; it claims 8 seats out of the 124 in the
state parliament in Dresden. On Tuesday the party issued a statement
calling for a black politician, Zeca Schall, working on regional
elections in Thuringia for the ruling Christian Democratic Union, “to
head home to Angola.” Thuringia should “remain German,” the statement
said. Mr. Schall, Angolan-born, has lived in Thuringia, another region
in the former East, since 1988.
But rather than examining the economic challenges and political alienation of the former GDR states, the reporter engages in useless speculation on the "civilizing" aspects of culture:
or at Antonello da Messina’s “St. Sebastian,” now beside a Congo fetish
sculpture in another room in the Gemäldegalerie; or at the shiny coffee
sets, clocks and cups made of coral and mother-of-pearl and coconuts
and diamonds culled from the four corners of the earth in the city’s
New Green Vault, which contains the spoils of the most cultivated Saxon
kings. But it won’t make sense of a senseless murder or help change the
mind of a violent bigot.
The fact is, violent crimes occur in every cultural center,
often blocks away from museums and artistic centers. In June, we saw a
terrible hate crime take place inside the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. So there is nothing unique about Dresden in that respect.
More insightful, in my view, is an interview in Der Spiegel with the psycho-therapist Hans-Joachim Maaz,
who sees the healing process in eastern Germany as incomplete, since
they entered into the "reunification" with false expectations:
wurde die eigene Naivität bewusst, das hat sie erneut frustriert und
bei vielen das Gefühl verstärkt, Verlierer zu sein. Dieser Prozess hat
sie paralysiert und den Osten als politische Kraft ausgeschaltet. Ich
sage es einmal so: Ich wollte etwas in Ordnung bringen, aber nicht von
anderen in Ordnung gebracht werden. (Several years after the
reunification we had a rude awakening. People began to understand their
own naivete, which lead to total frustration and for many intensified
the feeling that they were losers. This process paralyzed them and
basicallyeliminated the political power of the east. Let me put it this way: I wanted to put things in order, but not forced into order by others. )
Reading the readers' comments to this interview it is clear that
twenty years after the fall of the wall there is apparently still an unbridgeable psychic chasm between east and west in Germany.
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A little too busy right now but continuing to enjoy your postings on things German.
Just don’t believe these postings because the author really doesn’t have a clue what he’s writing about.
Rationalising that a racist murder is normal in “cultural centers” and stems from an “east german loser mentality” is such a typically perverted US-American opinion.
David, your own country murders dozens if not hundreds of Muslims in colonial wars of conquest every day.
Such violence as in Dresden is the result of a wave of racist propaganda that only rivals historic antisemitism, instigated by imperialist and zionist thugs mostly from the USA.
So a Russian national murders an Egyptian woman in Dresden and that is the result of “imperialist and zionist thugs mostly from the USA”.
Bushama, I thought you were just a Leninist loser, but now I see you are more of LaRouche cultist. Or perhaps a Scientologist.
I know what really is going on: it’s all the fault of the Jews. Or is it the gays? I get mixed up sometimes.
It is the gay jews, hattie, don`t wou get it?
Bushama Hussein, you`re either a troll, a madman or just fucking stupid. But in the end, it really doesn`t matter. If you want to piss everyone of, your job`s done. Congratulations, you been awarded the medal of total stupidy. So would you now just shut the fuck up!
Well said, Max!
It wasnt a “russian national” the guy was a naturalized German. As was the murdered woman. Damn you racists, but it’s the “American way” obviously.
And the current wave of Islamophobia that made him do it is the result of Zionist and US-American hate propaganda that utilises Nazi methods.
As to calling me “Leninist” or “Larouche” or “Scientologist” I’d recommend you racist und culturally ignorant people rather seek the splinter in your own eye, as thats nothing but a collection of ad hom bullshit.
Note from editor: Bushama, I’m tired of your hateful comments. You are too cowardly to even use your name. Don’t bother to comment here anymore as anything you write will be deleted.