Germany has been shocked by two vicious attacks on campaigning politicians, both in the past few weeks and both in the federal state of Saxony in East Germany. Is Germany reaching new heights of violence in the public sphere, or is this just another case of pure hypocrisy in a country gone insane?
The sight of the injured face is ghastly: Matthias Ecke, candidate for the SPD in the upcoming EU election, was savagely beaten by three assailants while putting up election posters on May 3rd. Ecke was hospitalized and had to undergo surgery, though he is now on the mend. Even more shocking perhaps is the fact that the alleged attackers were 17-year-old boys suspected to have perpetrated a similar crime on members of the Green Party a few days prior.
The ever present Zivilgesellschaft (civil society)—entirely made up of the elites from the political, educational, and cultural sector—is up in arms over this violent escalation and has taken to the streets once again—although the turnout for a major demonstration in Berlin was rather underwhelming this time, with only about 1,000 participants. What is strangely missing from the breathless reporting on the case is the political affiliation of the perpetrators. Is it because the often villainized “right” could not be blamed this time?
What is strangely missing from the breathless reporting on the Ecke case is the political affiliation of the perpetrators. Is it because the often villainized “right” could not be blamed this time?
Of course, political violence of any kind has no place in a democracy. Political violence is a mainstay of authoritarian regimes, as Germans should know. There is just one problem with the current discourse: violence against politicians is nothing new. It has been gaining an increasingly solid grip on the political process in the past few years. Attacks on right-leaning politicians, such as members of the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), have become almost taken for granted, and are usually not considered to be the biggest of deals, while serious threats of violence are considered negligible and might even be “understandable”. Parliamentary factions publicly calling for the killing of “Nazis” is hardly seen as a scandal.
Parliamentary factions publicly calling for the killing of “Nazis” is hardly seen as a scandal.
And yet, one doesn’t have to particularly favor the AfD to concede that most politically motivated assaults target members or representatives of this party. Violence against those considered to be on the political right also goes beyond targeting card-carrying members of the AfD or their sympathizers. The horrifying attacks of left-wing terrorists like the “Hammerbande” (the “Hammer gang” of Leipzig) had been well reported on. This “gang” enacted extreme violence, torturing people they deemed to be “fascist” with hammers, breaking their bones, or throwing acid on them. Yet their sentences were surprisingly lenient, while prominent members of left party Die Linke declared their solidarity with the assaulters.
The actions of the much-glorified climate activists likewise often veer towards the sabotage of public infrastructure, as seen in attacks on the Brandenburger Tor, museums, and the building of the German Federal Chancellery. Political violence has been alive and well in this country for a long time.
Political violence has been alive and well in Germany for a long time.
Sadly, this is only part of a bigger, even more unsettling picture: Germany is now a way more violent country than it was roughly a decade ago. The vicious murder of 19-year-old Maria Ladenburger in 2016 was only the beginning, followed by a streak of murders, rapes and assaults on young women and children. The murder of a 14-year-old girl on her way to school by a refugee from Eritrea in early 2023 shocked the nation. Just last April, a 4-year-old girl was stabbed whilst shopping with her mother in a supermarket in the town of Wangen. The assailant was a mentally disturbed man from Syria. A very recent tragedy is the murder of a 30-year-old customer in a convenience store at the hands of an 18-year-old Tunisian and 17-year-old Moroccan.
The violence dealt out by migrants, whether assault, rape, or murder, since the factual end of any border control in 2015, is an open, and yet dark secret. While many of the assailants are mentally ill and/or traumatized by their own experience, it is a cynical idea of “open border” politicians to make German citizens, and often children and young people, pay the price. Of all violent assaults against German citizens, more than 40% were committed by migrants and refugees—an increase of 18% compared to 2023—while they only represent 15% of the total population.
While many of the migrant assailants are mentally ill and/or traumatized by their own experience, it is a cynical idea of “open border” politicians to make German citizens, and often children and young people, pay the price.
While the more complex reasons for the steep rise of migrant violence cannot be discussed here, we must face the fact that violence and a broader brutalization of German society had already taken place before a piece of the action reached members of the political establishment itself. Already the rhetoric is shifting to decrying attacks on “our democracy”, but some voters might ask whose democracy is referred to exactly.
Of course, Germans are being told that now is the time for “defense” against these violent attacks. Given the depressing fact that the German government is eagerly infringing on the civil rights of its own people for the sake of “Democracy and the Fight against the Right”, this should greatly unsettle the more cognizant parts of the “sovereign” citizenry.
The harsh truth is that matters could get even worse. The possibilities for more surveillance and control, as well as a biased justice system, should terrify everyone with a respect for civil liberties. The flippant expression of a “GDRization of Germany” has lost its ironic innocence, since the inland intelligence service, the Verfassungsschutz, has set its sights on all those mocking the government—and it won’t just stop there.
Yet, there is still another cause for alarm: What if the Plebs revolt? With all due respect and sympathy for the victims: how long will the pressure build until the bubble bursts? The chasm between rulers and those ruled over is growing rapidly. The sheer arrogance displayed towards taxpayers is baffling, and the nonchalance with which the erosion of living standards and of long-standing agreements about the relationship between power and the people is taken in stride adds fuel to an already raging fire.
Some commentators have predicted desperate citizens resorting to violence to somehow make their “voices heard”. This, however, could play into the hands of a more and more authoritarian state. There is potential for a vicious circle, in which the continued state of violence as a means of policy breeds even harsher state regulations – which in turn breed more senseless violence from an increasingly frustrated public.
There is potential for a vicious circle, in which the continued state of violence as a means of policy breeds even harsher state regulations—which in turn breed more senseless violence from an increasingly frustrated public.
Thomas Hobbes once grimly pictured the natural state of men as a perpetual war of all against all, where it took the idea and construction of a “state” to bring about an armistice. This equation will not work if said state is refusing to carry out its duties and is transforming into a decadent members-only club, leeching off the people it was meant to serve. It is an insult to call this a “democracy”—and it might even be absurd to use the term “state”.
