A school in southern Brandenburg has a Nazi problem, and young people in Berlin are allegedly being threatened with racism in a holiday camp. Are the “baseball bat years” back in Brandenburg?
“I would like to speak up, but there are no questions. My colleagues are not open to you. I have a very uneasy feeling when I go to work at the moment.” This is how the teacher Laura Nickel describes the reactions after she and her colleague Max Teske made it public that they both wrote an initially anonymous “incendiary letter”. In the letter, the two reports on Hitler salutes in the schoolyard, swastika daubs, and racist and homophobic chats among students, some of which also contain National Socialist content.
keep quiet and look away:
There is a feeling of powerlessness and forced silence, the text says. Many colleagues also looked the other way given these incidents at the “Mina Witkojc” primary and secondary school in Burg, Brandenburg.
The reports of the two young teachers shocked the public and attracted media attention nationwide. Only after the incidents became known did the school management report them and the police and state security began to investigate.
State politicians reacted with surprise and dismay to the call for help. The SPD Minister of Education, Steffen Freiberg, who was still designated at the time, spoke in an interview with the RBB about an oppressive feeling when one has to read such words.
Debate about right-wing extremism among youngsters:
When, at the beginning of May, just a few days later, it was also reported that in a holiday camp near Königs Wusterhausen, Berlin tenth graders – mostly with a migration background – were being racially insulted and threatened by local young people, it triggered a nationwide debate. How widespread are right-wing extremism, racism, and homophobia among young people, how do such structures become entrenched? Comparisons were made with the 1990s when Brandenburg was a focus of right-wing extremist and racist violence.
Brandenburg’s Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke sharply condemned the racist hostilities against the young people in Berlin and said that such acts would not be relativized and tolerated and that everything would be done to put right-wing extremism and racism in their place.
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser pointed out that right-wing extremism is the greatest threat to our democracy. This is also shown by the number of right-wing extremist crimes. According to the SPD politician, 23,500 such offenses were registered in 2022, seven percent more than in the previous year.
“We must not allow racism and right-wing structures to shape the everyday life of young people,” said Federal Family Minister Lisa Paus of the “Bild” newspaper. Public confessions to right-wing extremist ideas by young people and especially children are particularly disturbing. You can’t just accept that, said the Green politician.
Enlightenment has begun, but only hesitantly:
Meanwhile, the Brandenburg Ministry of Education said that the examination and processing of the incidents with anti-constitutional symbols and statements at the elementary and high school in Burg had begun. “The staff should better understand each other – also with the help of coaching – about a uniform and open handling of extremist and misanthropic statements,” says a press release from the Ministry of Education. “The school will intensify the examination of extremist ideas among individual students due to the current criticism.”
The two teachers who made the conditions at their school public have their doubts. Nickel is 34, has been teaching for almost ten years, and says she has never had anything to do with such right-wing structures at any school. Her colleague, 31-year-old Teske, is a trained educator and came to the school in Burg four years ago as a career changer.
They still lack a clear signal from the school management, they say. Management only reacts to what comes from the outside. You have some sympathizers among your colleagues, but the majority remain silent – and those who spoke out feared damage to the image of the school, says Nickel. The parents of the students in his class made similar statements, Teske adds: After the publication, they feared being put in the right corner. There is now an opportunity to change something, but people are afraid of the consequences, Teske sums up.
Worry about the image:
Worrying about one’s image is a typical pattern and widespread after right-wing incidents became known, says Joschka Fröschner from the Victims’ Perspective Association, which has been taking care of victims of right-wing violence in Brandenburg for 25 years. This is not just limited to schools.
Fröschner is currently also in discussion with affected schoolchildren in Burg. The pressure that is being built up, why they made what happened publicly instead of solving it internally, unsettles those affected. “From the point of view of the ‘victims’ perspective, we would first like to see great concern for those affected,” adds Anne Brügmann, the association’s project coordinator.
What the correct use of space means for the students concerned is the central question, emphasizes Brügmann. You can’t just carry on as before. Young people should be able to feel safe that they will not be exposed to right-wing violence.
Are the “Baseball Bat Years” return?
In comparison with the situation in the 1990s, the years now known as the “baseball bat years” in Brandenburg, Brügmann says that right-wing violence has never gone away. Her association registered 138 cases of right-wing violence last year. And that is only a fraction of what happened since many crimes are not reported.
One difference compared to 30 years ago, however, is that attacks are less likely to be carried out by organized Nazi structures and that cases are brought to the public attention more often so that they are noticed more than they were then. In the meantime, there are also civil society structures that work against right-wing violence, racism, and xenophobia, says Brügmann.
Brandenburg society has also become more “migrant” over the past ten years, adds her colleague Fröschner. But it is still the case, Brügmann emphasizes, that incidents like those at the school in Burg and in the holiday camp near Königs Wusterhausen are part of the daily work of her association. The incidents did not surprise you and are not limited to Brandenburg.
Make a mark every day:
Nickel and Teske, the teachers from Burg, want to continue working at their school – even if they now expect to be threatened or attacked. So far, there have only been a few shy looks, says Nickel.
The two have started to set up a network in southern Brandenburg for exchange with teachers, parents, and students. They have already made contact with schools in Cottbus, Spremberg, and Forst. “I think you can take a stand against right-wing extremism every day,” says Teske.
