Racism in the New Germany and the Reaction of White Women

Racism in the New Germany and the Reaction of White Women Dagmar Schultz My subject is not a pleasant one. Racism and antisemitism in the new Germany are a frightening and shameful specter, and I wish I had better news to bring to this country. We find ourselves living in times that demand an ever-intensified straggle against negative powers on many levels—the government, an internationally linked Right-wing movement propelled by violence, stupidity, and inhumanity, and a large part of the population that is at best unconcerned, and at worst condones or supports destructive forces. I want to begin by giving some information about my own development as a white Christian woman in Germany. When I talk of "white Christian," this is to distinguish between Christian and Jewish and does not pertain to religious practice. I will then present some information about the white women's movement in Germany, focusing on its relationship or lack thereof to concerns dealing with racism and antisemitism. Finally I will address the present situation in Germany. I was born in 1941 in Berlin. In 1943, my father had in vain applied for a release from the army and reinstatement in his civilian job. When refused, he returned belatedly to Russia, where he was sentenced for desertion and ostensibly committed suicide. I grew up with my grandmother , my mother, and my sister and was able to finish high school. My school years took place during the 1950s, the era of the Cold War during which the "economic miracle" of the western part of Germany was constructed with the help of the Marshall Plan. Twice we went through world history and twice our teachers stopped at the year 1930. I learned almost nothing about the political movements of the time, for example, the movement against the remilitarization of Germany. This meant that I was part of the post-war generation that was not taught about the past. We had to acquire the knowledge on our own and figure out for ourselves how to deal with the guilt of our parents and grandparents. When the German Left began to evolve in the early 1960s, I left Germany to study in the United States. In Ann Arbor, Michigan and later in Mississippi, Puerto Rico, Madison, Wisconsin, and Chicago I worked in the civil rights movement. This is where and how I received my Women in German Yearbook 9 (1993) 242Racism in the New Germany political education. I had the opportunity to learn from the straggles of Black people, which, in the United States, form the basis for all other progressive political movements, including the women's movement. In the course of my political activities and my personal friendships, I learned about differences and commonalities between my interests as a white middle-class woman and those of women of other class and ethnic backgrounds . Once I returned to Germany in 1973, translating these experiences to activism in the German situation turned out to be difficult. The more I recognized, however, that the absence of these "other" women in the movement was not accidental, but formed an integral part of white women's identification and of their political work, the more uneasy I felt. The Development of the White Women's Movement in Germany and its Relation to Racism and Antisemitism As in other countries, the white women's movement emerged in the early 1970s by drawing its strength from a consciousness of women as victims. As important as this collective self-analysis may have been initially, it also contributed to the blurring of differences between the realities and power relations of women of varying backgrounds. Viewing oneself as victim also fulfilled the function of not having to deal with the role white women played and are playing in supporting the patriarchal system. A first breakthrough of this perspective was the concept of women's complicity in the white man's patriarchy developed by Christina Thürmer-Rohr and presented in her book Vagabundinnen, published in English translation as Vagabonding: Feminist Thinking Cut Loose (1991). Only during the 1980s did women begin to confront themselves with the historical and present role of white Christian women as perpetrators during...