After the Nazi Racial State: Difference and Democracy in Germany and Europe

Introduction: What’s Race Got to Do With It? Postwar German History in Context

Introduction What’s Race Got to Do With It? Postwar German History in Context Rita Chin and Heide Fehrenbach In June 2006, just prior to the start of the World Cup in Germany, the New York Times ran a front-page story on a “surge in racist mood” among Germans attending soccer events and anxious of‹cials’ efforts to discourage public displays of racism before a global audience. The article led with the recent experience of Nigerian forward Adebowale Ogungbure, who, after playing a match in the eastern German city of Halle, was “spat upon, jeered with racial remarks, and mocked with monkey noises” as he tried to exit the ‹eld. “In rebuke, he placed two ‹ngers under his nose to simulate a Hitler mustache and thrust his arm in a Nazi salute.”1 Although the press report suggested the contrary, the racist behavior directed at Ogungbure was hardly resurgent or unique. Spitting, slurs, and offensive stereotypes have a long tradition in the German—and broader Euro-American—racist repertoire. Ogungbure’s wordless gesture, moreover , gave the lie to racism as a worrisome product of the New Europe or even the new Germany. Rather, his mimicry ef‹ciently suggested continuity with a longer legacy of racist brutality reaching back to the Third Reich. In effect, his response to the antiblack bigotry of German soccer fans was accusatory and genealogically precise: it screamed “Nazi!”and labeled their actions recidivist holdovers from a fanatical fascist past. Ironically , since his Hitler mustache was accompanied by the raised arm of a Nazi salute—a gesture banned in Germany—Ogungbure was brie›y investigated by German authorities. His tormenters, it appears, melted into the crowd and evaded legal action. The incident on this German playing ‹eld, of course, was far from unique. Distasteful taunting and outright racist insults are part and parcel of soccer culture in Europe. The problem has been acknowledged in the sport since at least 1993, when Great Britain established “Kick It Out,” an organization to ‹ght racism in football throughout the country. In 1999, Football Against Racism in Europe was founded as a European forum to combat racism in all aspects of the sport. But the impending World Cup generated more attention than usual to “friendly” matches leading up to the tournament and exposed the routine and continuing abuse heaped on black players in pro stadiums across the Continent. These events prompted Thierry Henry, at the time a professional player for the London club Arsenal and key member of the French national team, to initiate a highly publicized campaign urging fans to reject racism in football with the help of his corporate sponsor Nike. FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football) recognized the issue as urgent enough to make “No to racism” an of‹cial slogan of the 2006 World Cup. Given the public hand-wringing by German politicians and FIFA of‹cials, Germany’s ability to avoid major incidents of outright racism during the monthlong event was a cause for celebration. The achievement served to con‹rm that the nation had indeed overcome its previous racist tendencies. Ironically, this self-congratulatory posture came at a moment when Islamic xenophobia and, to a lesser degree, antisemitism have gained increasing currency in Europe. Acknowledging the prevalence of racism in European soccer and the more recent emergence of a racialized discourse around Muslim immigrants on the Continent as a whole, we would also like to suggest that the Ogungbure incident and its aftermath are particularly emblematic for Germany in the ways they invoke and transgress postwar taboos surrounding “race” and the term’s association with the Third Reich. If the “surge” of racist behavior in public was portrayed as Germany’s shameful secret, it was also linked to the post–Cold War challenges confronting the uni‹ed German state. Contemporary German racism, in other words, is routinely described as perpetrated by hooligans inhabiting a speci‹c geography— namely, the provinces of the former East Germany.2 It is characterized as a recidivist impulse from the German margins: the persistent psychological and behavioral residue of economic stagnation, unemployment, and a population insuf‹ciently socialized in democratic forms. Despite its often neofascist fashioning, contemporary German racism has been interpreted as the ugly legacy of the repressive state politics of socialism and the uncomfortable adjustment to capitalist democracy: somehow not-yet modern , not-yet Western, not-yet democratic or socially progressive. Centered 2 After the Nazi Racial State [3.142.12.240] Project MUSE (2024-04...