In Berlin, the dispute over the commemoration of the pogrom escalated night on the streets. Thousands of demonstrators opposed to the participants in a “funeral March”. As rights groups in history capers.
Many people oppose the “funeral March” by right of Alliance – “We for Germany”
Germany on 9. November. Chancellor Merkel intends to do in Germany’s biggest synagogue in Berlin’s rykestrasse of the victims of the pogrom night and warns of “alarming anti-Semitism” in Germany. At the same time stage members of the Association “We for Germany” a “funeral March” through the government district of the capital.
The Demonstration was approved at the last Minute by the administrative court of Berlin. The court lifted the inside of Senator Andreas hostage (SPD) against the club imposed a ban on demonstrations. The followers of the right-wing classified Association are not alone: a number of counter-demonstrations were the sovereignty of interpretation in dispute.
Berlin’s “funeral March” is not an isolated case: during the anniversary of the destruction of Dresden by the allies of the Second world war on 13. February is a meeting of rights groups regularly to a “memorial March”; on the death of the 35-year-old carpenter Daniel H., after a stabbing Right-wing reacted in Chemnitz with the “funeral marches”.
Xenophobic slogans instead of silent contemplation: Together, these marches is that they should be what is the problem actually, for your purposes of “reinterpretation”. The right-wing extremism researcher Florian Hartleb announced it. In Chemnitz were to see among the extreme-Right is not only dark suits and flowers, but also Germany flags and clenched fists.
Members of the Alliance’ “We for Germany” at the “funeral March for the dead of politics”
A day, multiple memory
The special feature of the 9. November is not that the day is only one, but several events, the day of the Jewish pogroms in 1938, as well as the Opening of the Berlin wall in 1989 or the proclamation of the Republic a hundred years ago. It is also the administrative court in Berlin had pointed out, as it lifted the ban of the “funeral March”.
The court not only the right to freedom of opinion and expression, in the field and looked through the March, no “clear direction” against the commemoration on 9. November. It also stressed that it was at 9. November “is not a specifically the memory of the injustice of national socialism and the Holocaust, devoted to a holiday”. Berlin’s interior Senator Andreas hostage looks completely different: “We must not tolerate open right-wing extremism under the guise of freedom of expression any longer,” he had justified his ban.
Burning Synagogue 1938
The Superposition of several memorial days, according to right-wing extremism researcher Florian Hartleb for the rights of groups of a strategic advantage. “Of the 9. November is particularly good, because you can choose the day of remembrance, of just fits”. Alone at the word “March,” said Hartleb, you have to think of the Reich pogrom night, but ignored deliberately. Even the word “funeral” was inappropriate, because “it is the mourning of what has caused”.
Opponents mobilize
The reinterpretation of Dresden in 1945, has a long Tradition. 13. February 1990 – the GDR still existed – was the British Holocaust denier David Irving in Dresden and spoke of an allied genocide. It is the start of the annual parade was Asses to this day. Initially, only a few hundred neo-Nazis appeared after the turn of the Millennium, there were always more. Highlights of the years 2005 and 2010, with more than 6000 participants.
Human chain on 13. February in Dresden
But in Dresden is also a counter-movement mobilized at the time. In 2010, just as many counter-demonstrators were blocking almost the Right way. Even more people, namely the 10,000, shielded in a huge human chain in the entire city. To this action, parties, churches, trade unions and business organisations are called. Since then it takes place every year on 13. February instead. The Right to avoid, therefore, in the meantime, the date.
The AfD with power
The rise of extreme right-wing movements does not seem to necessarily relate to the number of migrants living in Germany, as many have assumed-including the Chancellor, so far. Although the overall right trend: In the year of the greatest influx of 2015 had participated, according to the Federal government, around 60,000 right-wing extremists in demonstrations, after which this number fell sharply. Most recently, she has risen again significantly. So nearly 7,000 neo-Nazis went from July to September, 2018 to the right of the protest marches, demonstrations and commemorative events in the prior year period were less than half. And in the latest Figures from the marches of Chemnitz are not even listed.
Florian Hartleb looks at the party, Alternative for Germany, strong efforts to distort history. Party chief Alexander Gaulands of Expression, of the is a national social socialism only a “bird-shit” of German history, was such an attempt. Therefore, it is also wrong to consider the AfD, and the rights of groups “only from the present policy”.
As a reinterpretation of the history Hartleb also sees the action of a single AfD-politician in the Berlin house of representatives. Andreas Wild was wearing, of all things, at the local remembrance ceremony for Kristallnacht, the night of a blue cornflower in the lapel.
A Symbol is anything other than harmless: The blue cornflowers were used between 1933 and 1938 in Austria as a sign of recognition of the then-banned national socialists. At times also politicians of the right-wing populist Freedom party of Austria, which today is the party in government wore such a flower on the lapel.