Last Friday evening, two guests in a bar on the festival grounds of the Erlanger Bergkirchweih are said to have chanted xenophobic slogans. According to the police, the two men, aged 21 and 26, shouted “Foreigners out” while the song “L’Amour Toujours” by Gigi D’Agostino According to the police, the incident occurred in the restaurant “Altstädter Schießhaus”. It is the next low point after the racism scandal in Sylt.
State security investigates two men
Two police officers from Essen, who were present as guests in their free time, notified the security service, who took the men’s personal details and asked them to leave the restaurant. The State Security Department of the Erlangen Criminal Investigation Department has begun the investigation in cooperation with the Nuremberg-Fürth public prosecutor’s office. The suspects were also banned from entering the Erlangen Bergkirchweih. The police are looking for witnesses who observed the incident or took pictures and videos of it.
The managers of the affected beer garden on the grounds of the Bergkirchweih distanced themselves from the racist slogans in a statement. “We condemn every form of xenophobia, racism and intolerance in the strongest possible terms,” they said. The song “L’Amour Toujours” will no longer be played there in the future.
Racism scandal in Sylt restaurant
A similar incident occurred a few days ago on the North Sea island of Sylt and caused a stir nationwide: Since Thursday evening, a short video has been circulating on social media countless times, where party guests can be seen and heardwho shout racist slogans to the tune of the more than 20-year-old party hit “L’Amour Toujours” – Some of them are said to come from the Munich areaChancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), among others, subsequently condemned the incident. Several people allegedly involved in the chants have since been fired by their employers.
The number of cases of open racism is increasing: On Friday it was announced that a similar case had occurred in Lower Saxony at Pentecost. Racist slogans were also shouted at the shooting festival in Löningen, also to the tune of “L’Amour Toujours”. Witnesses who filmed what happened reported the incident to the police. State security is now investigating there too.
Expert sees normalization of right-wing extremist content in Sylt video
From the point of view of expert Pia Lamberty, the Sylt video shows a normalization of right-wing extremist content in society. “People can express extreme slogans in public without hesitation,” says the co-director of the Center for Monitoring, Analysis and Strategy (Cemas), which investigates radicalization tendencies and conspiracy theories on the Internet. The song “L’Amour Toujours” is now increasingly linked to the racist slogans. “That also does something to the brain.” In this way, right-wing extremists have managed to gain acceptance of such slogans in society at large, emphasizes Lamberty.
Breaking taboos that can be punishable
“Young people may not even recognize the seriousness,” says Rupert Grübl, head of the Bavarian State Office for Political Education. And that is also a tactic of the right, “to say: it’s not all that serious, it was just a joke. But with such things you naturally establish ideas in society through the spoken word. And you use the power of the word to break such taboos.”
These are taboo violations that can be punishable. After all, this is about the initial suspicion of incitement to hatred. These are taboo violations that seem to happen by chance and are probably part of a strategy of the new right. “Unfortunately, you have to say: They do it very cleverly in a way that often goes beyond criminal relevance,” says Rupert Grübl. And yet they manage to confront young people with such ideas in this way. “We hope that education, that media education can counteract this. And that young people will recognize such songs for what they are, namely right-wing Nazi propaganda.”
Violent attack in Eichstätt on two Iranian women
Another incident of racism in Bavaria is currently keeping the authorities busy: Last Monday, two Iranian women were stopped in Eichstätt by a 40-year-old man and insulted with xenophobic slogans, according to the police. He then punched both women in the face. One woman’s nose was broken, the other suffered cuts to her face. The 40-year-old German citizen is facing criminal proceedings for assault and incitement.
With information from dpa