Tag: Bundesbank

Bundesbank official: all Jews have the same genes

A senior German central bank official has triggered a storm of protest after an extract of his new book was released in which he said Jews all have the same genes and Muslim immigrants cannot integrate.

Thilo Sarrazin, a member of the six-man board at the influential Bundesbank

Thilo Sarrazin, a member of the six-man board at the influential Bundesbank, has been condemned by German government officials and immigrant leaders after excerpts from his new book, ‘Germany does away with itself’ said “all Jews share the same gene”.

In the extracts, published by the Welt am Sonntag, Mr Sarrazin writes: “Jews share a particular gene, Basques share particular genes, that differentiate them from others.

“The cultural peculiarities of the people is no myth, but determines the reality of Europe.”

Regarding Muslim immigrants, he continues: “I don’t want the country of my grandchildren and forefathers to be in broad swathes Muslim, where Turkish and Arabic is widely spoken, where women wear headscarves and where the daily rhythm of life is set by the call of the muezzins.

“If I want to experience that, I can just take a vacation in the Orient.”

He theorises that if the fertility rate of German “autochthons” remains at the same level it has been for the past 40 years, then population figures will drop to 20 million, while the Muslim population “could grow by 2100 to 35 million”.

Mr Sarrazin, 65, who says his comments are not racist, argues that immigrants from countries such as Turkey depend on the state and bring down the country’s education level.

Senior German politicians have demanded that Mr Sarrazin step down from his Bundesbank post and resign his party membership of the left-leaning Social Democrats.

Guido Westerwelle, Germany’s foreign minister, said that “remarks that feed racism or even anti-Semitism have no place in our political discourse,” while Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, the defence minister, said Mr Sarrazin had “overstepped the borders of provocation.”

Leaders of Germany’s Jewish and Muslim communities also condemned the banker’s remarks.

Stephan Kramer of the Central Council of Jews in Germany said: “Whoever tries to identify Jews by their genetic makeup succumbs to racism”, while Kenan Kolat, a leading member of Germany’s Turkish community, called on the Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, to expel Mr Sarrazin from his Bundesbank post.

Mr Sarrazin sparked controversy in October when he said Turks were “conquering Germany in exactly the same way the Kosovars conquered Kosovo: with a higher birth rate.”

He added: “A large number of Arabs and Turks in this city (Berlin) have no productive function other than selling fruit and vegetable.” He later apologised for the remarks

A government survey in 2009 found that the Muslim population in Germany likely is between 3.8 million and 4.3 million – meaning Muslims make up between 4.6 and 5.2 per cent of the population. The overall number of Germans with immigrant roots, including Muslim and non-Muslim immigrants, stands at more than 16 million, nearly one in five of the country’s 82 million inhabitants.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/7970518/Bundesbank-official-all-Jews-have-the-same-genes.html, 29 Aug 2010

August 29, 2010
German central banker criticised for remarks on Jews

German government leaders condemned a central bank executive on Sunday for making anti-Semitic remarks before the publication of his book on Monday that takes a critical look at Turk and Arab immigrants.

Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle and Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said Thilo Sarrazin was out of line for comments about Jews, remarks that were also criticised by Jewish leaders in the country responsible for the Holocaust.

“All Jews share a particular gene, Basques share a certain gene that sets them apart,” Sarrazin told Welt am Sonntag newspaper ahead of the release of his book “Deutschland schafft sich ab” (Germany does away with itself).

Sarrazin, a Bundesbank board member, denied he was stirring racism. He has faced heavy criticism for making disparaging comments about Muslim immigrants. Sarrazin has repeatedly created uproar for criticising Turks and Arabs in Germany.

“There’s no room in the political debate for remarks that whip up racism or anti-Semitism,” Westerwelle said.

“There are limits to every provocation and Bundesbank board member Sarrazin has clearly gone out of bounds with this mistaken and inappropriate comment,” Guttenberg added.

Stephan Kramer and Michel Friedman, leaders in Germany’s Jewish community, also criticised Sarrazin, 65, a member of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and former finance minister in the city-state of Berlin.

“Someone who tries to define Jews by a genetic make-up is consumed by a racist mania,” Kramer said.

“Enough already!” Friedman wrote in Bild am Sonntag newspaper. “No more tolerance for this intolerance. It’s okay to provoke thought but enough of this baiting and defamation. We don’t need any hate preachers, especially in the Bundesbank.”

EMBARRASSMENT FOR BUNDESBANK

Almost 3 million people of Turkish origin and an estimated 280,000 of Arab extraction live in Germany.

Leaders in Sarrazin’s SPD have called for him to quit the party and resign from the Bundesbank.

Sarrazin’s comments have also embarrassed Bundesbank President Axel Weber, who some German leaders have backed to succeed Jean-Claude Trichet as president of the European Central Bank next year.

The Bundesbank has tried to distance itself from his remarks, saying they are his personal opinions and not linked to his role at the bank. The central bank requires evidence of “serious misconduct” to bring about Sarrazin’s dismissal.

The central bank last year stripped Sarrazin of some of his duties. If the central bank’s board voted to remove Sarrazin, the move would then need the approval of the president.

In the book, Sarrazin argues that Muslims undermine German society, marry “imported brides” and have a bad attitude. He said young Muslim men were aggressive due to sexual frustration.

“Sadly, the huge potential for aggression in this group is obvious. The Arab boys can’t get at their Arab girls,” he said.

“In the end, they use the German girls from the underclass who are easier to get, and then they hold them in contempt because they’re so readily available.”

(Editing by Charles Dick)

, 29 August 2010

August 29, 2010
Turkish leader calls on Berlin to sack central bank official over racism

Kolat called on the government to act to remove Sarrazin

A leader of Germany’s Turkish community has urged Chancellor Angela Merkel to fire the Bundesbank’s controversial board member Thilo Sarrazin over comments that Muslims are undermining German society.

Chairman of Germany’s Turkish Federation, Kenan Kolat, called for central bank board member Thilo Sarrazin to be removed from his post after fresh comments criticizing Muslims in Germany.

“I am calling upon the government to begin a procedure to remove Thilo Sarrazin from the board of the central bank,” Kolat told the German daily newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau on Saturday, August 28.

In his book “Deutschland schafft sich ab” (“Germany does away with itself”), Sarrazin claims that members of Germany’s Muslim community pose a danger to German society.

Sarrazin, a member of the Social Democrats (SPD) and Berlin’s former finance chief, was reported in June as saying that members of the Turkish and Arab community were making Germany “more stupid.” With his book, Kolat said, Sarrazin had overstepped a boundary.

“It is the climax of a new intellectual racism and it damages Germany’s reputation abroad,” Kolat said.

High birth-rates

Sarrazin says that his book is addressing cultural division

In a serialization of the forthcoming book in the German popular daily newspaper Bild, Sarrazin said that Germany’s Muslim community had profited from social welfare payments far more than they contributed, and that higher birth-rates among immigrants could lead to the Muslim population overtaking the “indigenous” one in terms of numbers.

Merkel’s chief spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Wednesday that many people would find the remarks “offensive” and “defamatory,” adding that the chancellor was concerned.

Members of the SPD have distanced themselves from Sarrazin’s comments, while Germany’s Green and Left parties have called for his removal from the central bank’s board.

A Bundesbank spokesman said that Sarrazin’s latest remarks were personal opinions, unconnected with his role on the board.

Blanket generalizations

Germany's first female Muslim minister said the comments lacked respect

Lower Saxony’s minister of social affairs, Ayguel Oezkan, Germany’s first-ever female Muslim minister, accused Sarrazin of doing damage to the Muslim community with blanket generalizations.

“There are a vast number of hard-working immigrants,” she told the weekly German newspaper Bild am Sonntag ahead of its publication on Sunday. “They deserve respect, not malice.”

“All of those who are involved in society, those who encourage their children, who learn German, who work and pay taxes and those who, as entrepreneurs, provide jobs – all of them deserve respect.”

In June, 65-year-old Sarrazin was reported as saying that Germany was “becoming on average more stupid” because immigrants were poorly educated.

‘Distorted image, half-truths’

Maria Boehmer, the government’s commissioner for integration, accused Sarrazin of giving “a distorted image of integration in Germany” that did not bear up to academic scrutiny.

“In his comments, he states only half truths,” she told Bild am Sonntag. “It is indisputable that, in education, there are currently a lot of immigrants with a lot of catching up to do. It does not take Sarrazin’s comments to establish that.”

In a lengthy interview with weekly newspaper Die Zeit, Sarrazin defended himself against the charge he was encouraging racism.

“I am not a racist,” he told the newspaper. “The book addresses cultural divisions, not ethnic ones.”

Last year, Sarrazin caused a storm by claiming that most of Berlin’s Arab and Turkish immigrants had no useful function “apart from fruit and vegetable trading.” As a result, the central bank stripped Sarrazin of some of his duties.

Author: Richard Connor (Reuters/dpa/AFP)
Editor: Toma Tasovac

https://www.dw.com/en/turkish-leader-calls-on-berlin-to-sack-central-bank-official-over-racism/a-5951829, 28.08.2010

August 28, 2010