Germany′s Russian community faces harassment and hostility

Roman Friedrich, a social employee, does community outreach in Cologne’s Chorweiler district. He is organizing assist for Ukrainian refugees arriving within the metropolis, however, on the similar time, he has concern for the Russian communities in Germany who’re being blamed for Vladimir Putin’s struggle.

“What shocked me the most was when a teacher in an elementary school asked a Russian child to stand up before the entire class and clearly take a stand and distance herself from Putin’s policies,” Friedrich stated.

Friedrich, who was born in Omsk, Russia, and whose grandmother is from Ukraine, has acquired many calls in current days with comparable tales of hostility. A Russian boy at a Cologne highschool was held down and overwhelmed up by his classmates. A Polish girl was mistaken for a Russian and harassed in a ironmongery store. Every day, individuals say they’re being hassled in workplaces, on public transport, within the schoolyard.

“This is not yet a widespread trend,” Friedrich stated, however the variety of circumstances is growing. And Russian propaganda shops are selecting up on such reviews and utilizing them for their very own narratives.

A brand new stigma

An estimated 6 million Russian-speaking individuals dwell in Germany. The majority of them are German nationals: ethnic Germans who got here from the previous Soviet Union — largely from Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan. They are the descendants of settlers from German-speaking Central Europe, who moved to numerous areas of the Russian Empire because the second half of the 18th century. Resettlement to West Germany began within the Fifties, however two million of them got here to Germany within the Nineties.

They have a tendency to carry conservative household values. In current years, the “Russian Germans” attracted media consideration when it emerged that a lot of them supported the far-right nationalist populists of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) occasion.

Before the struggle started, many Russians have been thought of AfD sympathizers, Friedrich stated; now they’re seen as Putin sympathizers. “The result is that they feel victimized and further isolate themselves,” he fears.

Friedrich speaks fluent Russian and Ukrainian. He says he was simply speaking to the proprietor of a grocery store who was looking for his recommendation. Following an assault on a Russian-Polish retailer within the metropolis of Oberhausen, the place home windows have been smashed in and the whole lot smeared with slanderous graffiti, many retailer homeowners are undecided whether or not they need to not higher take away their Russian merchandise from the cabinets.

In response to an inquiry from DW, Mix markets, a sequence with about 330 shops throughout Europe, introduced that it might not supply foodstuffs made in Russia: “Our pelmeni dumplings are produced in Nuremberg, tworog comes from Poland, the sweetened condensed milk sgushenka is produced in Holland, the milk product ryazhenka comes from Lithuania, the ‘Russian’ sausages are produced in Bavaria, beer comes from the Danish Carlsberg brewery or from Anheuser-Busch, and our pastries and sweets are produced in Ukraine.”

Friedrich has referred to as on German politicians to guard Russian communities because the temper heats up. “When there is incitement of violence, the prosecutor’s office needs to take swift action. It can not be that all Russians are held responsible for Moscow’s actions. The rule of law has to be applied, society must proactively and decisively fight against such developments.”

Targeting kids

Narina Karitzky based a Russian-language college within the close by metropolis of Bonn in 2011. In the start, it was a small undertaking to tutor Russian learners. Today, it serves 500 households and their kids, and its 25 academics additionally educate artwork, ballet, and even robotics.

“The other day my colleague got a call from a gentleman who lives somewhere near the school, who said we were a disgrace to the whole street. ‘You murderers,’ he yelled into the phone,” she stated.

Karitzky has additionally heard many tales of youngsters and younger individuals being harassed on the road. Of adults shouting at kids on the bus as a result of they’re speaking in Russian. Teachers who demand that their college students make a transparent stand towards Putin. And of many mother and father who, after the assault in Oberhausen, ask whether or not they may nonetheless ship their kids to the Russian college in any respect. “They are afraid that something will happen to their children,” she says.

Many of her college students will not be from Russia, however from different Russian-speaking international locations of the previous Soviet Union. When the struggle started, Karitzky, who’s Russian but in addition has Armenian roots, acquired an e-mail from a Ukrainian mom.

“She wrote to me that they are so happy to have their children enrolled here, but she asked: ‘What do you think about the invasion? Are you for it or against it?’” Karitzky stated. “For her, it was important how we felt about it. As a Russian speaker, you feel ashamed, even if you can’t help it.”

Karitzky condemned the invasion as a violation of worldwide regulation. She even wrote a letter to the mayor of Bonn.

So Karitzky was shocked to study {that a} efficiency by her college students scheduled for May at an area museum had been canceled.

“We are withdrawing the offer for political reasons” was the temporary message. That harm quite a bit, Karitzky stated.

The museum, which has cooperated with Karitzky’s college for years, has since modified its stance and supplied an apology. This is an excellent instance of what goes unsuitable between Germans, Russians, and individuals from the CIS international locations.

“People must distinguish between a war of aggression on the one hand and families who are living peacefully in Germany, who have nothing to do with it at all,” Karitzky stated. “This war is being waged in the name of the people, but we say very clearly: This is Putin’s war. What is happening right now is not Russia.”

This article was initially written in German.

While you are right here: Every Tuesday, DW editors spherical up what is occurring in German politics and society. You can enroll right here for the weekly e-mail e-newsletter Berlin Briefing.

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