Black people fear the election could increase racism in Germany

In the German state of Thuringia, polls show the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is the favorite to win Sunday's election. Black people, who say they have suffered for years from a hostile environment, fear that the changes in power will only make the situation worse.

It was a quiet summer night in 2020, shortly after Germany's first lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic was lifted, and Omar Diallo and two friends from his native Guinea wanted to celebrate Eid al-Adha.

"We were enjoying life, making music, walking around the city at night, we just wanted to be together again and have a good time," Diallo, 22, told The Associated Press in the city of Erfurt, in the state of Thuringia.

He was not prepared for how the day would end. Suddenly Diallo and his friends were confronted by three white men dressed in black.

"They shouted: What do you want here, damned foreigners, get out!", Diallo recalled their words. 
"At first there were three, then five, seven... they surrounded us from all sides. We couldn't run away and then they started following us", he continued.

At one point, Diallo managed to call the police, and when officials finally arrived, the attackers ran away. One of his friends was beaten so badly that he had to be hospitalized.

"I just tried to survive. I had done nothing wrong. Everything happened only because of the color of my skin", he said while recounting the difficult moments.

Being black in Germany has always meant exposure to racism, to daily humiliations, and even deadly attacks. In East Germany, the risk may be even greater.

After World War II, West Germany became a democratic, diverse society, but in East Germany – which was ruled by a communist dictatorship until the end of 1989 – residents had almost no contact with people of different ethnicities and were not allowed to to travel freely abroad.

Experts have said that in Thuringia specifically, radical far-right forces have created an environment hostile to minorities, including people of color.

Increasing concern

Now, with the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, black Germans and African immigrants like Diallo are growing increasingly worried.

Thuringia, which has a population of 2.1 million, holds state elections on September 1 (today) and the AfD, which is known as a hard-line anti-immigration party, is leading the polls with 30%.

In 2023, the non-governmental organization Ezra, which helps victims of far-right, racist and anti-Semitic violence, documented 85 racist attacks in Thuringia, only slightly less than the 88 reported in 2022, which “ Ezra" described as "an all-time high of racist violence" in the state.

"In recent years, a far-right movement has formed in Thuringia. It has contributed to the apparent ideological radicalism of its followers. Politically, the 'Alternative for Germany' party is the main beneficiary", wrote in the annual report "Ezra" and a consortium of organizations that report racism.

The AfD branch in Thuringia is particularly radical and was placed under official surveillance by the local intelligence service four years ago as a "proven right-wing extremist" group.
"The authoritarian and populist forces, which are becoming very strong here now, pose a great danger in Thuringia," said Doreen Denstaedt, Thuringia's minister for Migration, Justice and Consumer Protection.

Denstaedt, the daughter of a black Tanzanian father and a white German mother, was born and raised in Thuringia. The 46-year-old member of the Green Party has said that growing up in communist East Germany, she was "always the only black child". As a teenager, she was never allowed to go home alone due to the risk of racist attacks and often suffered racist slurs at her school.

"Actually, I experienced people calling me a foreigner. This surprised me at first because I was born in Saalfeld in Thuringia", said Denstaedt.

She fears that in the current political climate, racist narratives will become acceptable in society.

"My biggest concern is that people don't question these prejudices, especially if they aren't affected themselves," she said.

History of gender discrimination

It is not exactly clear how many black people live in Germany today, as different ethnicities are not documented in official statistics, but estimates put the number of people of African descent at 1.27 million. More than 70% of them were born in Germany, according to Mediandienst Integration, which researches migration issues in the country.

The history of racial discrimination in Germany begins long before the Nazis began excluding, deporting, and eventually killing black people in the 1930s and 1940s.

The German Empire maintained numerous colonies in Africa from 1884 until the end of World War I. These included territories in present-day Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Namibia, Cameroon, Togo and Ghana.

The German government has only recently begun to address the injustices committed during that period.
In 2021, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier called on Germans to confront the country's brutal colonial past, and in 2023, he apologized for colonial-era killings in Tanzania over a century ago.

Daniel Egbe, a 58-year-old chemist from Cameroon who went to Thuringia in 1994 to study, has said he is shocked at how little Germans know about their colonial history. He stated that this ignorance can also cause the unequal treatment of black people.

"I taught at school. I tell them a little about myself and especially about the fact that Cameroon was a German colony. Many students do not know anything about Africa or about the German past and this should be put on the map", said Egbe. 

Egbe, who obtained German citizenship in 2003, founded AMAH, an organization that helps university students and migrants from Africa who are victims of discrimination, in the city of Jena.

He is worried about the rise of the AfD, but has no intention of leaving.

"We will not leave, we will do our part to change this society. People are mostly afraid of what and who they do not know. We must change things through education", said Egbe.

Diallo, the Guinean who was attacked in Erfurt four years ago, has also pledged to help improve the situation for black people in Germany.

Although the attack has traumatized her, it has also empowered her to fight for justice. A year ago, he enrolled at the university in Munich to study law, but still frequently visits Erfurt, where he supports Youth Without Borders, a network of young immigrants.

"I don't know yet exactly how it will change Germany, but I know it will," he said.