Between beer blessedness and everyday life
For the eighth time the "International Beer Festival" takes place on the Karl-Marx-Avenue in Friedrichshain this year from 6 to 8 August. As the initiator of the celebration, the Praesenta GmbH, announced in this year also approximately 700,000 visitors are enticed to devote themselves to an unrestrained consumption of alcohol. Traditionally it gets around in having violent encroachments during this mass advertising event.
Neo-Nazis on the "Beer mile"
While in the preceding years the "longest bar of the world" the Beer Festival of Berlin was completed by the "Odin Trunk" (Odin Drink), the meeting point of the Neo-Nazis, in 2004 the operators are officially enjoined from having a participation of the stand. At the "Odin Trunk", that represents a firm meeting point for the organized and disorganized Nazis scene of Berlin-Brandenburg for at least three years, beside the mandatory barley juice also devotional objects with Germanic reference were sold. In 2002 there have been brawls between the right-wing extremists visitors and the police at the by continuously about one hundred Neo-Nazis well-visited stand, afterwards the organizers could not avoid to enjoin "Odin Trunk" having their bar in 2003. However in vain. The operator of the stand, the Neubrandenburg beekeeping Schwassmann, which knew about the popularity of the Nazi meeting place, remained persistent. Obviously the organizer of the festival was not all too serious about their prohibition - the stand was not evicted.
By the publicly announced prohibition of this year the organizers obviously
hope for a no longer all too remarkable presence of organized Neo-Nazis. But
even if the fixed point "Odin Trunk" would be omitted and the right-wing
extremists could not be localized any longer - the problem of violent encroaches
and aggressive abuses remains. The official statement of the managing director
of the Praesenta GmbH, Lothar Grasnick, shows that the organizers are far away
from taking an explicit position against the right-wing assaults. Grasnick said
one is "not in the least interested in political contents whether left
or right.
This is unwanted on the festival." In such a "tolerant" atmosphere
beyond political borders it is not amazing if there is a beer blessed consent
at the longest bar of the world. John Q. Public gets drunk without shyness together
with the brown comrades.
Right positions are not only reserved to Neo-Nazis
Those few hundred obvious neo-Nazis who will visit the celebration are part of a larger context: racism, anti-Semitism and sexism are deeply embodied in the society. Neo-Nazis and their acts of violence are only the extreme expression of what a lot of people think anyway and gladly speak out on occasions like the "Beer mile". Right-wing positions are not at all on the fringes of society but are just represented from the middle of the society. This for example shows up in the debate about the Zuwanderungsgesetz (immigration law) that is clearly racist shaped. The usability of migrants for the German economy is decisive for the grant of the residence permit while the precarious situation of most refugees as reason for immigration is pushed in the background. Thus it does not surprise that the German state collaborates invariably with "torture states" like Togo or China; the escape from poverty or the for Germans completely understood search for a better life is denunciated as "Wirtschaftsflucht" (economy refuge) for refugees from poorer countries. As this is not enough there is an always further increasing internment system on the outskirts of the cities and in many rural areas by which humans who fled to Germany are punished, locked up, psychologically broken and finally deported.
Also in the multi-cultural consent alleged differences between "German" and "stranger" are stressed. In popular mass events like the "Carnival of Cultures" positive racism is expressed that falls back to traditional stereotypes as well - the conditioning of the stands of Black African offerers for example does not only satisfy the desire of exotic, but reproduces the image of the primitive reed hut inhabitant. As non-German classified persons are attributed attitudes because of their assumed origin or because of their appearance due to those they become discriminated. Similarly friendly the "Beer mile" praises its cosmopolitan character. As special attraction exotic beers are considered like the Thai-beer from Southeast Asia. Humans that are assigned to the same region due to their appearance should avoid an attendance of the "Beer mile" since they have to be afraid being constituted a potential goal for right-wing attacks.
Encroachments come also from "normal" citizens In this year again
mandatory "accompaniment" of the Beer Festival will be a set of violent
encroachments, which are not rarely politically motivated. On these days again
thus Friedrichshain which is in other respects considered as "alternative"
urban district will become the danger zone for all those which offer the appropriate
reasons for attack. The threshold lowered by increased consumption of alcohol
led with as "normally" regarded citizens to more strengthened "openness"
- permanent expressions of right and sexist positions have been the result.
The tongues of Germans who feel hard-pressed become loose by the beer exhalation
and - the later the evening - increase their fists.
Concerned of attacks and abuses are usually as "non-German" classified
one, alternative young people, homosexuals, homeless people and women. Openly
arising Nazi cliques merge in the mass of men which dominates the "Beer
mile" and creates by sexist sayings, aggressive attempts for chatting someone
up and devaluing jokes a misogynic and hostile climate. The presence of neo-Nazis,
right behaviours and thought patterns are supported and/or tolerated by the
majority of the public of the "Beer mile". The available police which
is to avoid the escalation of the celebration, as well does not contribute to
the calming. In the opposite. Two years ago officials themselves became strange-hostile
aggressors, by insulting, violently attacking and hurting a black African on
the fringes of the beer celebration.
In order to prevent that it also in this year again encroachments repeat, a
manifestation takes place on 7 August starting from 16 o'clock in direct proximity
to the "Beer mile". Therewith we want to express our protest against
the ignorance and denial of these conditions, which so far have not been perceptible
for the broad public, but only for the potential groups of victims.