I leave in the former DDR, not really in the East, rather almost exactly in the middle or heart of Germany, in Thuringia. The political climate here can only be truthfully described as extremely right-wing and this is nothing new.
Although at the centre of everything, H is a small village in Eichsfeld which seems to be only connected to the rest of the world by main roads. 608 people live here. Sure, we have TV and some kind of internet connection and almost a mobile telephone network, but little else in terms of civilization.
Recently they built new bus stops on the main road, rumoured to have cost almost half a million Euros. Wonderful. A local building firm, where our village major works as a manager, got a nice fat contract to build them. It took a few months, but they are wonderful, now even people in wheelchairs can get on and off buses. Three buses a day leave H which go to our ‘county’ town, one at 5:42 in the morning, the next at 5:58. The third is a school bus, and runs once a day but only during school time. To get back, there are three ‘buses on call’ (RufBus) – where you need to book it at least an hour before. Saturdays, just one RufBus. It leaves at 7:01 and heads back at 15:00. Sundays: forget it. The only other bus goes to a neighbouring village, and no other buses go to other towns which are nearer than our County town.
H is home to a collective administrative council (VG) which controls 14 villages, with a total population of 5615. Directly across the road from here are the VG’s offices, where about 10–15 people work. One department controls the registration of residents, voters and dogs etc. Another the buildings, roads etc. Probably the most important office is the one for ‘Safety and Order’ (Ordnungsamt), with duties and powers which merge with the police.
The Chairman of the VG is appointed by the 14 majors of the member villages and is fully employed (yes, each village also has its own mayoral office, normally with a weekly surgery).
Over the last twenty years or so the council workers in our village have adopted a policy of damaging our buildings in ‘subtle’ ways, by, for example, raising the public pathway next to our house above our damp-proof course, or by removing the pavement directly before our entrance so we step directly into the road when they resurfaced it.
Recently, when I tried to discuss again these problems with H’s mayor, he basically told me that I should move away and give our property to someone else.
Remigration is the policy of making migrants go back to where they came from, and the extreme-right has increasingly managed to create ‘migrant free zones’. To regain their Fatherland, they mob, attack and abuse people who were not born in Germany or have a ‘dodgy heritage’. Allegedly they have been quite successful over the last 20 years or so, extending the zone to a large area.
Over the last few decades, the windows of our buildings have been smashed many times and ‘mysterious events’ have occurred like our rubbish bin daubed with swastikas.
Many years ago the pub near us was run by a man from Greece, and he lived there with his family. Occasionally he organized gigs or discos which ran until late in the night. One Saturday we returned home late at about two o’clock from a birthday party and saw police and many people around the pub. The next day many of the neighbouring residents were standing around, and the police asked them what they had seen. One after one they explained to the police that they were in their houses asleep and saw nothing. The police gave up and drove off. I was then shocked to overhear the ensuing discussion. One said “did you see how they hit the Greek bloke with the baseball bats?”, another answered “yea, I thought he wouldn’t survive that”, and so on. For about an hour they discussed every gruesome detail of the attack before going back into their houses. Such things do not shock me any more.
Both my wife and I have been assaulted, even on our own property, not yet seriously. These attacks were well-documented. Each time the public prosecutor dropped the cases because they were ‘not in the public interest’. I could give many more examples. All cases which migrants make against ‘native white Germans’ are not pursued by the public prosecutor here, but complaints against migrants are, with the utmost rigour and distortion.
I installed a few basic video cameras on our house for our protection. In response, the Ordnungsamt implemented a lengthy full-blown investigation and initiated formal complaints with a threat of a fine of €50.000 against us because of the cameras. The case was set aside after a few years because, essentially, we had done nothing wrong.
We had hoped this situation would improve when a ‘Leftie’ government was elected in 2014, but sadly this government has achieved little. If anything, it has got much worse. The fascist AfD are now the biggest party in the opinion polls but they are not in the majority. The ‘democratic parties’, as they refer to themselves, try to maintain a firewall between themselves and the AfD, but this is sometimes impractical as one cannot stop elected representatives voting according to their conscience, as indeed they should. The ‘Lefties’ and the ‘Greens’ seem content to verbally profile themselves, take well-paid minister posts and pose. Little has changed in the rural areas in terms of social amenities or public transport. The ‘Lefties’ will probably whinge even more when they are booted out of government later this year.
Some well-meaning people ask me why do I stay here if it’s like this – why don’t I simply live somewhere else?
In answer, I try to explain that’s exactly what the Nazis say to me, but not so politely. I am a white North-European by both nationality and culture. I cannot really imagine how it is here for people who have a different background or skin colour. And, of course, most people here are decidedly anti-fascist. I just wish they would more actively improve the society directly, instead of simply demonstrating with the apparent expectation that somebody else should change things.