The German Times: "It’s not just about foreigners"

Von: By Annette Jensen

The "School Without Racism" network is making tolerance a theme in everyday life.

Foto: Peter Bennett

The Pushkin High School in Hennigsdorf, Berlin, has declared itself a racist-free zone. And the network, "School Without Racism," is making discrimination a central issue, fighting it in every form.

The sign "School Without Racism – School With Courage" is displayed above the main entrance. The Pushkin High School in Hennigsdorf has had this distinction for the last nine months and it’s the reason why there are so many young people gathered here this afternoon. Two girls from the 10th grade have organized an anti-racism sports day. They have invited children and young people from the local asylum-seekers center to the event.

"We went there and at first we just put up a list, but no one had signed up for it," explains 16-year-old Romy. The two girls returned to the isolated house and this time, they knocked on all the doors. Now, a pair of Albanian girls and their mother are standing shyly at the door to the gym. They look at the mixed groups playing volleyball and then leave without explanation.

Romy is disappointed. But outside, five foreign boys have joined in with the school kids on the soccer field and are shooting one goal after the other. "Our mayor said that Hennigsdorf doesn’t have a problem with racism and neo-Nazis," says Maria. "We shouldn’t produce a problem by talking about it." But she and her fellow campaigners from this Berlin district, which has 26,000 inhabitants, have had different experiences.

Directly opposite the police station, a well-known store with branches across the country is selling imperial war flags and T-shirts with slogans like "Hatecore – Crush the Weak" or "Warning: No-Go Area Germany." Four years ago, far-right extremists attacked a kebab stand with Molotov cocktails. Swastikas are constantly being daubed on walls and monuments.

"My friend was beaten up by right-wingers a while ago and he has a bruised ear," says Florian, who has his hair gelled to a point and a safety pin in his ear. He has often been accosted on the street and called a "roach."

The school’s physical education teacher Birgit Ochendalski thinks the kids are exaggerating the dangers somewhat. "I’ve never noticed anything here in Hennigsdorf or on the local train," she says. And not every teenager in a bomber jacket and Doc Marten’s is actually a right-wing extremist, she notes, adding that some who walk around looking like Florian might seem provocative to others. But she thinks today’s student initiative is worth supporting – and that’s why she is at the gym this afternoon. It was a civics teacher who first suggested that the school join the German anti-racism school network. Schools that want to carry this title – "School without Racism – School with Courage" – have to get at least 70 percent of pupils, teachers and other staff to sign a declaration, whereby they publicly promise to fight racism and discrimination and to promote these issues in the school, as well as to regularly organize projects on the issues of racism and discrimination.

Maria and some other campaigners spent months making their way through the classrooms. "Lots of kids were afraid that it meant extra work," she recalls. "But once they realized that they didn’t necessarily have to do anything themselves, they signed up." About 20 pupils now represent the organization at Hennigsdorf. They organize films, discussions and concerts and meet with colleagues from other schools. "It’s not just about foreigners, but about tolerance in general," Maria emphasizes.

The activities at this particular school seem to be working. Everyone agrees that the Vietnamese kids at Pushkin High School are so well integrated that no one thinks of them as foreigners anymore. There are no obvious neo-Nazis at the school – even if one guy in the ninth grade says that he agrees with the extreme right’s positions on Turkish people and Russians. And at a mock election, 7 percent of the students at the school gave the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) their vote. But when one kid showed up for physical education wearing a T-shirt with SS emblazoned on it, Mathias Wellmer, the teacher, kicked him out of class immediately. "We won’t have that kind of thing here."

A movement throughout Europe

"School Without Racism" is a European youth movement that was founded in Belgium in the 1980s. The alliance, "AktionCourage," brought the idea to Germany in 1995. This was a response to an increase in xenophobic and far-right violence. The group believes that children and young people should be given the opportunity to actively campaign for a democratic way of life in their surroundings.

The "School Without Racism – School With Courage" network now includes 328 schools throughout Germany. Its aim is to reach the 1,000 mark in five years, which will mean that it will have reached about 10 percent of all children and teenagers in the country. The pupils are the ones who decide what happens in concrete terms. Teachers, sponsors and other adults are there to help coordinate projects and activities.

The German Times May 2007
Annette Jensen is a freelance journalist in Berlin.