One of the least attractive legacies of the reunification of Germany has been a steady rise in violence by right-wing extremists in the former East Germany. The trouble began in November 1990, only a month after reunification, when skinheads in the town of Eberswalde northeast of Berlin beat to death an Angolan named Amadeu Antonio. Since then, another 122 foreigners have been killed. Countless others suffered beatings and verbal attacks. "The main problem is that there has been no democratic culture in east Germany for a long time," says Anetta Kahane.
A Jew raised in the east, the 46-year-old activist notes that communism moved in almost as soon as the long reign of the Nazis was crushed. One of a small number of Germans struggling to reverse the popularity of right-wing extremism in the states of the former east, Kahane works for three organizations aimed at instilling democratic values. One is a foundation named after Antonio, the first victim. "We have a very high level of racism in eastern Germany," says Kahane. She cites a recent poll indicating that 80% of the population of the former East German states admits to anti-Semitic beliefs, compared with barely 30% in the west.
Kahane's organizations try a variety of approaches to fight racism in the east, such as opening youth clubs where democratic values are taught alongside the fun and games. She has sponsored kindergartens, advised municipal administrations on how to be friendlier toward immigrants and even sent Wolfgang Thierse, the president of Germany's parliament and himself an easterner, to visit schools as an example of the triumph of the democratic process. One of the more innovative programs helps teenagers who are caught up with skinhead groups to break away from their influence. "Kids don't want to be different from their neighbors," Kahane says. "We have to show kids that respect for the individual is not only heavy and difficult," she says, but also rewarding.
|
|
|
|
Fresh Start
Encounters with the black marketeers, fishermen, border guards and tree farmers of Eastern Europe's fraying patchwork
Photo Gallery
Check out the photos from this leg of TIME's Fast Forward Europe voyage
Young and Restless
A Bosnian youth bravely copes with the aftermath of war and communism
New Frontier
A town divided by a river and history looks forward to the day E.U. expansion will heal the rift
Pack Leader
Once a student opposition activist, Viktor Orban is now Prime Minister of Hungary
New Worlds
Czech film director Jan Sverak on movies, imagination and the illusion of reality
Driver's Seat
Hungarian firms are using foreign investment to make buses to sell to the U.S.
Expanding Rapidly
Gunter Verheugen, the European Union's Commissioner for enlargement, keeps his cool
For Love and Money
An upstart German company has turned condom making into an art form — and a global enterprise
Investor Intelligentsia
Look out Yahoo! Finance. Here comes Neuermarkt.com!
Welcome to the Content Metropolis
How a venerable Hanseatic port shed its Old Economy image to become Germany's hottest city for digital media | profiles
A Fantastic Voyage
The engineers at microTEC think small is beautiful
Stanislaw Drzewiecki
The 13-year-old pianist has been called 'Poland's Mozart'
Anetta Kahane
TIME talks with Germany's anti-racist activist
The Persistence of Memory
TIME speaks with Joachim Russek, director of Poland's Judaica Foundation
People To Watch: Viktor & Rolf | Monika Fleischmann | Jan Suchan | Anaclet Kabengele Kalondji
|
