The Offences and Repudiation of Thilo Sarrazin. Are There Limits to Freedom of Political Opinion in Germany?

Abstract

Every few years a deep division is opened up in Germany between the politically correct view which is publicly represented by almost the entire political and social leadership and a large portion of the population and the view expressed only semi-publicly during discussions around the Stammtisch (informal, regular group gatherings around a table in a pub) by a strong minority or sometimes even the majority of the population. Thus, at the end of August 2010, Thilo Sarrazin expressed views that ran counter to the dominant standards of the “community of democrats” in a book and a few sentences during interviews, and for this reason is to be ejected from it. He was already ousted from the board of the German Central Bank at the beginning of September, and in the months that followed, he was due to be expelled from the SPD.

The deep division between the political class and the Stammtisch discussions could in the long term become dangerous for democracy in Germany, and shake up the existing party system. This rift could be mitigated by openly discussing the political fears and ideas of large parts of the population in the media, associations and political parties without the usual ritual formulae used to express condemnation (“racism”, “xenophobia”, “rabble-rousing”, “fascism”) and their respective misconceptions and erroneous ideas could be demonstrated in an objective manner, instead of recommending to a person such as Thilo Sarrazin that he join the NPD, the right-wing National Democratic Party of Germany, or found a new right-wing radical party in the dangerous and vain hope of thus rendering him politically insignificant. A convincing concept for the integration of Turkish and Arab Muslims and of lower social strata would be the only correct response to Sarrazin’s provocations. The exclusion of outsiders from the established institutions could in the long term be a disastrous course of action.

Aside from the appalling vilification of social and ethnic-religious groups, the book contains numerous important thought-provoking political impulses for a change of course in relation to immigration, social, education and integration policy. Germany has been a destination for immigrants for decades, and the proportion of the population that speaks German as its mother tongue will decrease dramatically in the future. “Linguistic integration” will yield only moderate successes in the process of Germanising members of naturalised ethnic groups who speak a different mother tongue. Voluntary linguistic assimilation and linguistic difference are legitimate in equal measure in a liberal society. However, the rate of migration is today far more rapid than the rate of assimilation. Ethnic Germans cannot expect that parents of another ethnicity will produce and educate German children. They themselves must put an end to their reluctance to have children if they do not want to become a minority in Germany.