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Last week Germany foreign minister Heiko Maas, told his fellow countrymen “We have to get off the couch and open the mouth,” in an interview with weekly Bild am Sonntag. “Our generation was given freedom, rule of law and democracy as a present. We didn’t have to fight for it; (now) we’re taking it too much for granted.” The context of his remarks were the anti-immigrant marches, demonstrations, and violence which has been targeting immigrants in eastern-Germany.
The violence, fueled by non-stop and often erroneous claims served to be the gasoline to bring the populace from their flats and homes to the street.
CHEMNITZ, Germany — It didn’t take long for the rumors to spread.
Just hours after a man was stabbed in a small east German city last weekend, thousands of people began sharing accounts on social media that he had been killed by immigrants involved in a rape attempt. Within no time, it was being said there were two dead. Pictures were shared of a group of women said to have been beaten by immigrants.
It didn’t matter that there was no attempted rape, or that much of the rest of these accounts wasn’t true. The anger soon transferred to the real world. Over the next few days, Chemnitz, a town of around 250,000 people in the state of Saxony, would become the center of anti-immigrant protests that produced shocking images of people raising Hitler salutes, and mobs chasing people through the streets.
Then Monday, 03 September 2018, saw a benefit concert, free, in Chemnitz, to specifically to protest against racism. According to the BBC, approximately 65,000 attended. Their slogan, “There are more of us.”
Travelers to eastern-Germany, specifically Chemnitz, should factor in the heightened state of affairs with respect to pro- and anti-immigrant groups protests which may erupt at anytime.
Switzerland’s foreign ministry has noted in their advisory re eastern Germany, “there may be demonstrations in big cities” and cautioning that “rioting is possible.”
