Germany's Merkel Multicultural Faux Pas

by John M. Curtis
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Copyright October 17, 2010
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            German Chancellor Angela Merkel should take a history lesson from the U.S. that multiculturalism doesn’t occur over night.  Multiculturalism has “utterly failed,” said Merkel., as Germany deals with the millions of so-called foreigners since the end of World War II.  Unlike the Old Country, the U.S. stands as the world’s biggest experiment in immigration and multiculturalism, where it’s taken over four hundred years to redeem the Founding Fathers’ commitment to equal rights under the law.  German’s experiment in mulitculturalism accelerated in the ash heap of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Third Reich, where  racism launched world’s most notorious genocide, Hitler’s attempted  extermination of European Jews.  What’s beyond ironic, as Merkel begins to recalibrate her message, is that one-thousand years of seamless Jewish assimilation in Germany resulted in Hitler’s Final Solution.

            In the ruins of WW II, the new German government under U.N. control encouraged Turkish immigration, by far the largest foreign population in Germany.  “This multicultural approach, saying that we simply live side-by-side and live happily with each other has failed, Utterly failed,” said Merkel, responding to the collective frustrations of Germans dealing with a worldwide recession and problems inside the Euro Zone.  Talking to young members of her conservative Democratic Union, Merkel encouraged foreigners to learn the language and accept Germany’s cultural norms and traditions, something U.S. immigrants learned well during the heaviest waves of immigration from Europe around the turn of 20th century.  Unlike Germany’s experience, European immigrants, including Jews, assimilated quickly into U.S. culture, learning the language and embracing traditions.

            While Merkel deals with Skinheads and neo-Nazi groups, her insensitive words reverberated inside and outside Germany.  Gaining applause from a narrow white constituency, doesn’t give her license to insult the many ethnic groups that make up today’s German society, including the return of thousands of Jews at the government’s request.  Merkel’s disappointment with multiculturalism mirrors the same problems today inside the U.S. where it’s old assimilation model has been replaced with more politically correct multiculturalism.  Because most the current immigration in the U.S. comes from Spanish-speaking south-of-the-border, the U.S. has become increasingly Balkanized, where ethnic divisions retain separate identities and communities.  Today’s U.S. Latino community has become more autonomous, more insulated and less inclined toward adopting U.S. language and culture..

              Unlike in the U.S. with Latino immigration, Germany’s Turkish immigrants also brought their own religion, namely, Islam.  With threats of terrorism running high, Europeans with growing Islamic communities face more resistance from native Germans and other Christian groups.  “I think her statement is very black-and-white and does not reflect honestly the lifestyle of people are living here,” said Daniela Jonas, a native German setting up a flea market in Berlin’s ethnically diverse Kreuzberg district, where minorities and Germans live together.  Of Germany’s 50 million residents, some 5 million or 10% are Muslim, largely emigrating from Turkey and other North African and Mideast countries.  Like the U.S. Latino immigrant population, the Turkish minoity doesn’t learn its own language, nor do they bring to Germany the kind of skilled labor pool needed for the economy.

            Before Hitler purged German society of its Jewish population, it contained the highest percentage of technical labor in Europe.  Following WW II, the brain-drain left Germany bereft of its skilled labor market needed to ramp up various industries. Unskilled immigration from North Africa and the Middle East left Germany with a less skilled labor ready to man the factories but not innovate and develop new industries.  “Germany needs more qualified immigration to maintain its economic advantage and deal with the demographic developments,” said Volker Beck, a lawmaker with the opposition Greens party.  After losing sizable percentage of its male population in WW II, Germany had no choice but to open its doors of foreigners.  Merkel’s recent remarks offend anyone working to repair Germany’s reputation as a racist society following the collapse of the Third Reich.

            Merkel needs to go back to the drawing board and revise her recent comments about how Germany has “utterly failed” in its multicultural experiment.  What’s failed is not Germany’s attempt at diversity but Merkel’s leadership, especially her lack of a long-range vision and plan.  Conservatives, like Merkel, face the same problem of conceptualizing Germany as primarily a white ethnically pure society.  Hitler forever removed Germany’s right to a single bloodline, something ended with the Holocaust.  Merkel must work more closely with opposition parties in the German Bundestag to help reduce ethnic strife and find ways to help minorities become more successful.  Turkish President Abdullah Gul urged Merkel to help Turks learn better German in kindergarten.  Instead of getting frustrated, Merkel should redouble her efforts to help Germany’s minorities achieve a better life.

About the Author 

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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