#182: AfD, AI paperwork app, Erdogan fans
Down by the River Festival returns!
Dear 20 Percent,
That grabbag of odious right-wing characters known as the AfD is experiencing a worrying bounce in the surveys. According to pollsters Insa, 18% of Germans say they would vote for them, just 2 percentage points below Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats. The AfD have blown past the Greens, who come in at 13% and have suffered partly thanks to Green Economy Minister Robert Habeck’s overly complicated and expensive plan to replace everyone’s oil and gas heating systems with heat pumps.
More worrying is another poll suggesting that just 54%, a slim majority, say they would never vote for the extreme right party. Back in 2020, 75% shared that conviction. It appears that the AfD has quickly gained acceptance amongst large swathes of the German citizenry.
Part of this can be explained by the fact that the AfD has become the party of protest in the Federal Republic of Germany, a role once reserved for the Greens and lefty Die Linke, a party whose support has withered to around 4%.
None of this bodes well for Germany. A rise to power by the AfD could lead to increased hostility towards immigrants and minorities. And would make the country even less attractive for the well-educated foreigners German industry wants and needs to attract as the workforce gradually shrinks thanks to demographic change. Then there's the AfD's parroting of Kremlin talking points about the war in Ukraine.
A lot hinges on the conservative CDU/CSU (polling at 28%) and whether or not they cave into pressure and some day begin to enter into coalitions with the AfD on local, state and, eventually, federal level. It would be a dark day for Germany if a party that counts actual fascists like Björn Höcke in its senior ranks assumes leadership. We’re not there yet, but the wind is not blowing in the right direction.
More news below.
Maurice
Please visit our fun new sponsor, Quiz, please! More info below!
Berlin choses Erdogan
Berlin is home to 101,000 Turkish passport holders - and 51% of those who voted in this weekend’s second-round presidential election cast their ballot for Erdogan. Germany-wide, that number was 67%. Erdogan supporters celebrated with a motorcade of 200-plus vehicles on Ku'damm and Tauentzienstraße in Charlottenburg.
Transport tragedy
Early Sunday passengers spotted the dead body of a 19-year-old man on the roof of an S-Bahn train in Zehlendorf. The cops believe he had been “surfing” on the train and was hit in the head by an object above the track. In a separate incident late Sunday night, a train on the U8 U-Bahn line broke down between Moritzplatz and Kottbusser Tor. Several passengers opened the door and walked down the tunnel. According to tabloid BZ, a 25-year-old man was electrocuted and subsequently brought to hospital after he accidentally touched the third rail.
AI vs. Berlin bureaucrats
Ukrainian entrepreneur Dmitry Zvyagilsky is about to launch an app based on OpenAI’s GPT technology to help refugees and expats to cope with German paperwork. Zvyagilsky told Tagesspiegel he collected 12kg of paper documents when he moved to Germany 9 years ago so it’s no surprise that he called his start-up Ridocu (short for “Rid of Documents”). The app will work in English, German, Ukrainian and Russian. According to Ridocu’s LinkedIn page, the software will “facilitate communication and correspondence management for expats and refugees who have frequent communication with officials or other authorities.” Sounds promising. We’ll keep you posted.
Roger in hot water
Berlin police is investigating Roger Waters of Pink Floyd fame for a costume he wore on stage at concerts in the Mercedes-Benz-Arena May 17 and 18. At some point in the show he put on a fascist-looking trench coat embossed with two crossed hammers. Wearing stuff that resemble Nazi symbols is, of course, illegal in Germany — except in an artistic context. Pink Floyd has been using the double hammer symbol since The Wall — and Waters says he’s anti-authorianism. Whatever you think about Waters’ vocal opining about Israel and Palestine, or his pro-Putin outbursts, this investigation is just dumb, IMHO. Meanwhile, on Sunday, a protester waving an Israeli flag stormed onto the stage at Waters’ Frankfurt concert.
Down by the River Festival
Now, some music from this century! On Saturday, About Blank hosts the 12th edition of this charming little one-day open-air, two-stage fest — after a five-year break. Very indie. Lots of local talent. Like the crowd-pleasing Brass Riot, for example. Looks fun. Line-up and ticket info on this dodgy-looking Wix site: https://sgmbs1.wixsite.com/dbtrfestival
Factoid
Together, Berlin and the suburban-rural donut enveloping it known as Brandenburg are home to 3,000 lakes. As we ease into summer swimming season, I offer to you Visit Berlin’s handy guide to the “Top 11 lakes” in the city and beyond.
⭐⭐⭐Please visit our sponsor!⭐⭐⭐
Hey Berliner, ready for a fresh and thrilling way to spend your evening in the city?
Meet "Quiz, please!" — the next generation of pub quizzes sweeping across Europe!
Quiz, please! is a new intellectual and entertaining battle in English right here in Berlin. It's the perfect way to flex your mind muscles in a buzzing bar atmosphere, surrounded by the great company of your friends or colleagues!
Forget what you think you know about pub quizzes — we're reinventing the game with a blend of entertainment, challenge, and fun, unlike anything you've experienced before. Your host for the night will be a talented comedian from LA — Tyrone Stallone.
Assemble your team of friends or colleagues (it’s a great team event option, btw), and join us for the first game in Berlin on Tuesday, June 6th at the beautiful Belushi’s Alexanderplatz.
Follow Quiz, please! on Instagram for the latest updates and regular trivia challenges.
I’m a big fan of this newsletter, but I must say, I’m disappointed and hurt by this summary of the Roger Waters controversy.
In particular, referring to “Waters’ vocal opining about Israel and Palestine” is a dangerous and misleading framing. It is true that Roger Waters has provoked controversy with comments about I/P, and I understand your discomfort wading into the topic. But many of Waters’s most controversial comments are directed, not towards Israel, but towards Jews in the Diaspora.
This explainer give a solid summary: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/roger-waters-alleged-antisemitism-controversy/.
He has complained of an “extraordinarily powerful” American “Jewish lobby”. He has floated, in concert, a giant pig emblazoned with a prominent star of David: a Jewish sign, not merely an Israeli one (some churches in Germany are still decorated with the Judensau, a medieval anti-Jewish image depicting Jews as pigs). He has called the American Jewish donor Sheldon Adelson a “puppet master” over American politics who believes that “only Jewish people are completely human.” (Needless to say, Adelson’s politics were deplorable. But they were white supremacist, not Jewish supremacist. No-one can look at the modern Republican party with a clear eye and claim that they are pursuing an agenda of Jewish supremacy.) Then there is a slew of slurs against British Jewish community organizations, which Waters regularly condemns as an arm of the Israeli state.
At this point, the accusation of antisemitism is far from fringe. Ex-Floyd guitarist David Gilmour and his wife, Polly Sampson, have publicly called Waters "antisemitic to your rotten core.” Once again, this has nothing to do with Palestine or Israel; in fact, David Gilmour reunited with Waters as recently as 2016, to express mutual support for the pro-Palestinian Women’s Boat to Gaza.
Another notable incident, not included in the explainer: when Waters came into a dispute with the the British Baroness Deech in 2013, he referred to her as “Baroness Deech (nee Fraenkel).” This moniker served no purpose except to draw attention to Deech’s Jewish maiden name.
https://cst.org.uk/news/blog/2013/09/10/roger-waters-the-sickening-wall-of-silence-on-antisemitism
Here it is instructive to consider a key element of Nazi antisemitism: “Der Jude kann nur judisch denken” (The Jew can only think Jewishly). To the antisemite, Jews are a clannish people who only act in their collective self-interest, however assimilated they may seem. This belief is evident in Waters’ statements about Jews, precisely because he is incapable of distinguishing between Jews globally and the Israeli state. To claim that Waters's controversies regard Israel/Palestine, rather than Jews as a collective, is to participate in his antisemitic conflation. This is an unfortunately common mistake that perfectly well-meaning people make; it should serve as a reminder of how easy it is to fall into antisemitic patterns of thinking.
As for the fascist dress-up, I am skeptical of claims that it is ‘anti-fascist’ art. Waters works in a long tradition of Rock & Roll artists ‘playing’ with fascist aesthetics (also see: Manson, Bowie). At best, it is a ritual flirtation with the worst aspects of the human psyche. Given the above context, I see no reason to give Waters the benefit of the doubt. I am not familiar with German laws on the matter, but it seems rather obvious, why Jews in Germany feel uncomfortable with an open antisemite goosestepping around stage in shiny black-and-red uniform.
I’m concerned about the Ukrainian businessman trying to collect personal information and money. There are eastern Ukrainians who are targeted. And anyone who speaks criticisms.