At first glance, this looks like a pleasingly low number: within a year, a contact point set up specifically for this purpose at the city’s Department for Democracy registered only 55 reports of discriminatory, misanthropic and/or right-wing extremist incidents at Munich schools – that doesn’t seem like much in a year A metropolis like Munich with around 160,000 children and young people in 350 schools. If you take a closer look at the report that the head of the department, Miriam Heigl, presented to the city council’s personnel and administration committee on Wednesday, the whole thing is of course put into perspective. The 55 falls are probably just the top of a mountain, most of which is covered in fog.
Only municipal schools were recorded, not state schools as well, and the contact point is still so new that many potentially affected people probably do not know that they can go there. The city council decided on the contact point in December 2020, and the basis for its activities was worked out at the beginning of 2022. The first report now refers to the period from February 19, 2022 to February 18, 2023. It is noticeable that the reports after the summer holidays increased. At the time, a campaign was launched to draw the attention of schoolchildren in particular to the contact point and the various ways of leaving confidential information there – by telephone, e-mail or an online form from the city.
This is how the 55 reports came in, with 31 complaints of discrimination and 27 of misanthropic statements, some with a right-wing background. Sometimes both came together – which explains that there were more cases than reports. “For various reasons, a much larger number of unreported cases can be assumed,” says the 30-page report entitled “Discrimination and right-wing hatred in Munich schools”. The city councilors praised the fact that the work at least sheds some light on the matter.
For Miriam Heigl, the number of reports was large enough to prove “that right-wing, racist, anti-Semitic and other misanthropic incidents at Munich schools are not supposedly isolated cases”. It’s not just about criminal relevance – only a third of the cases were classified accordingly. But for those affected, the actions and statements are “a massive burden”, for the school family “a great challenge”. City school board member Florian Kraus therefore considers the report to be an “important step towards raising awareness of racism and all forms of discrimination in Munich schools”. Heigl says: “The documentation of the incidents helps us to counteract this problem in a structured way.”
Racist incidents were reported most frequently to the contact point, 34 in total or 62 percent, followed by right-wing (18 cases), sexist and homophobic (seven each) and anti-Semitic (six). Three quarters of the victims were schoolchildren, as were half of the perpetrators. A quarter of the perpetrators of racist or discriminatory statements, some of which were directed at school staff, were teachers. “Our goal is to protect those affected and to strengthen the school staff in dealing with these issues sensitively,” explained City School Inspector Kraus.
Incidentally, all types of schools were affected by the incidents, most frequently junior high schools and high schools (29 and 27 percent of all reports, respectively). The report concludes that the desired clarification of the dark field depends on the willingness to report. So far, most of the tips have come from school staff, which is not surprising because the management of municipal schools has a corresponding obligation to report. However, only seven incidents were reported by students, which the report attributes to a hierarchy and power imbalance that still exists. Because students are dependent on teachers for the assignment of grades, it can be assumed that they “will not readily complain about any misconduct by school staff out of concern about negative consequences”.