The new right portrays herself as a victim

"Listen!" is the title of your current pamphlet. Have we forgotten how to listen to each other?
I have noted a widespread reluctance, the other side understand and want to compromise, to negotiate. There is a lack of openness and willingness to engage in dialogue, but also empathy and the ability to change of perspective. This lack of understanding leads to social disruption.

Who should listen to whom?
The appeal is to all of us, in the book I am referring to but on the inner-German conflict: the lack of understanding of the West Germans for the problems of the East German as well as on the communication weakness between the Governing and the Governed.

they criticize Angela Merkel.
Yes. Although she grew up in the GDR, the German Chancellor, so far, little ear for the Concerns of the East Germans. It was fatal, as the German head of government was understand the little people "out in the country", as in the case of the new year address for 2015 to happen, that their Fears and needs are in view of the problems of this world – the refugee crisis, or diseases such as Ebola unimportant.

How is the East for thirty years after the fall of the wall?
The East German feel in large part of insecure. The East threatens to become the Mezzogiorno of Germany. Depopulate the countryside. The large cities of Berlin, Leipzig and Dresden are an exception. The loss of population is enormous. The emigration from the East to the West since 1945. She comes slowly to a standstill. Back the Older and the Suspended. The social center that helps in every society to balance, breaks away.

the AfD, and not the CDU is today the strongest political force in Saxony.
The new right has understood it, to the disappointment of the society, a space. The AfD has the ability, the rage of the people, Fears to inflate and scapegoats. It is not just about isolated people and depopulated regions. The East Germany also experienced two serious de-industrialisation waves. In the 40 years East Germany was one of the most industrialized regions of Europe. After the war, Marshall was missing for the East but plan. Technical Know-how flowed to the West. After the turn of the second de-industrialisation wave. Apart from a few nuclei, the East of Germany today is largely a entindustrialisierte Zone. The impact – social, but even psycho-social, in the sense of an experience of the loss, the hurt and humiliation.

Were left, the Ostdeutschenim stitch?
In political and financial terms have been left to the East Germans by no means alone. According to state law, Germany is thirty years after the fall of the Berlin wall and the demise of the GDR, of course, also in the European context, Germany is perceived as a Whole. It has also invested in: Who is in the East, sees the renovated city centres, great highways, much of it is created and become beautiful.

But?
The policy has focused since the demise of the GDR, especially on the construction of a state structure. The cultural and psycho-social Dimension of this massive transition, she had neglected either not in view or to a considerable extent.

Here is the AfD jumped into the gap.
The AfD comes from two main sources: one is the social Suspended, where globalization and digitization are over drawn. The second source is the culture of identity, suffering from the deficit of the own identity and the National or Ethnic see go in a globalised uniformity under – and defend it. In the East, both sources of the AfD is particularly strong, because the people are suffering here, more than elsewhere, a sense of emptying.

what do you mean?
The East German ideological sense was-charged Entity. Marxism has not worked. He gave the people a spiritual home. Solidarity, compensation, a "heal the world" – all this was, of course, illusionary. You had a clear idea of where society should develop: socialism, communism. The Individual felt in the community revoked.

Then the turning came and with its individualism.
individualism, Western liberalism, and the accepted plurality of lifestyles fascinate. A sense of empty capitalism leads at the same time, but to massive dislocations. The solidarity and cohesion of the society is eroded. Here is a meaning vacuum is created, especially in the East of Germany, the knew to fill the new rights with three promises quickly: belonging, recognition and appreciation.

are not national, but universal, as well as Christian values.
Correctly. The Religion of the East Germans as a symbol of resource is hardly available. East Germany is the most secular Region of Europe. Therefore, the impact of neo-liberalism and nationalism are more visible than elsewhere. Perhaps the Religion in the West may still serve as a kind of Reserve in times of uncertainty. In the East of Germany orientation emergency.

What does this mean for the elections,which are due in 2019 in the three new German States?
I'm afraid that the AfD is also in the Landtag elections in Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg, the strongest force. And even more I'm afraid, especially in Saxony, then large parts of the CDU could flirt with the idea to make the AfD a common political cause.

does not correspond to your plea for listening and Integrating rather than a dialogue refusal?
of Course, the dialogue must be preserved, if possible, all upright. Democracy is a society and form of rule of Integration. Only through communication, the spiral of escalation can be stopped. Saxony tends to but at the moment, the principles of liberalism, pluralism and openness and to develop a place where authoritarian, nationalistic and völkisches ideas to win the upper hand. The CDU should not offer a Hand.

What have to worry about in the case of a black-blue coalition?
Not everything needs to be so bad, I fear it. I sympathize in my circle of friends some of that with the AfD and still is not racist to argue. Let us imagine, in a black-and-blue government, but a AfD-Minister of education in Saxony, new teaching plans, the rate, for example, the Holocaust is different. Let us imagine an AfD-the interior Minister of Saxony for asylum scammer wants to make the "most unattractive place in Germany" (quote from an AfD functionary). Our from the humanism culture could take a lot of damage.

How dangerous is the AfDfür Germany?
to speak Of a shift to the right, played down the danger. The new rights. The AfD can be dangerous if you are in crucial positions of power, because it has in its ranks of officials such as Björn Höcke, the politicize openly nationalist, and tend to be racist. The postulates of liberty, equality and fraternity are related according to this view, exclusively to the members of the German people.

"In the East of Germany,
a sense of vacuum,
to fill the new rights to
quickly with three promises
knew."Theologian Frank Richter

How to meet the new, Right?
The new right feels most comfortable, if we look at your work. The battle mode is your favorite mode. The new rights staged as victims of the democratic order, because they are derived from this victim narrative is a right of resistance.

't listen So go unddarauf?
We need to rename the dangers of the AfD and all the political and social issues, which the AfD has the sovereignty of interpretation obtained, and our own positions. Democracy means debate without fear of conflict. We must defend the democracy. The anger of the Disappointed in East Germany can also be a constructive force.

you were once a "Wutbürger".
In the GDR, we didn't know this word. But Yes, I, too, felt in front of the Peaceful Revolution of 1989 a rage in me. The question is, what makes the outrage. You should not turn into hatred. You will be channelled politically, it can, however, cause much. The Peaceful Revolution of 1989 is a Prime example of how peaceful and political intelligence story can write. I look back with great joy, how has this been achieved at that time in the GDR and other Eastern European countries.

And what are your feelings when you look in the future?
I'm not a pessimistic person. I feel however, like he did before the turn. Even today, the Dedicated, the society should consider how the community that make your country, and what forms of self-efficacy do you want to develop in the East of Germany.

(editing Tamedia)

Created: 02.03.2019, 07:27 PM