29 January, 2016
In recent days the German press landscape has been rocked by two widely reported rumours pertaining to migration issues, both of which turned out to be false. The first set of allegations was centred on the 30-hour-long disappearance of a 13-year-old girl from the Marzahn-Hellersdorf district on the Eastern outskirts of Berlin on January 11. After her reappearance, the girl initially claimed to have been kidnapped and raped by a group of men ‘of southern appearance’. After inconsistencies in the girl’s story emerged, it was subsequently discovered that the girl had hidden at the house of an (ethnically German) 19-year-old acquaintance, to escape problems she was experiencing at school.
Nevertheless, the girl’s initial claims struck a raw nerve in the tense atmosphere after the string of sexual assaults in Cologne and other German cities on New Year’s Eve. In this context, distrust of the mainstream media has reached new heights: after more than a year of attacks on the part of far-right groups against what they perceive to be the ‘liar’s press’ (Lügenpresse) controlled by a leftist dictatorship of political correctness, the events in Cologne were followed by embittered allegations of a media cartel of silence shutting down unwelcome questions surrounding immigration and immigrants.
The disappearance of the Berlin girl added another, international dimension to this: in a press conference, Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov criticised German media and government for sweeping under the carpet problems linked to immigration. Lavrov as well as Russian state media have been extremely vocal in their defence of the girl, due to her Volga German background. Incited by propaganda on Russian state TV, the past days witnessed a number of demonstrations – including one in front of the Federal Chancellery – by members of the Volga German community on behalf of the allegedly raped girl from their midst. To them, Pegida leader Tatjana Festerling recent accusation that Muslim immigrants are conducting a “sex jihad […] against blonde, white women” rang true. Russia’s propaganda effort in immigration matters also highlights the potential for an intertwining of the complex geopolitical challenges Germany and Europe are facing at the moment.
A second rumour surfaced shortly after the girl’s story had hit national headlines. In Berlin, a volunteer of the migrant aid association ‘Moabit hilft’ asserted that a 24-year-old Syrian refugee had died after prolonged exposure to the cold at the Berlin Health and Social Affairs Office (LaGeSo). LaGeSo had been in the spotlight for months, since newly arriving asylum seekers have often been forced to wait for weeks in LaGeSo’s unsheltered dirt courtyard for registration and an initial interview with an overworked bureaucrat inside. After an investigation involving police, firefighters, hospitals as well as other officials, it was announced, however, that the story was false and that there was “no dead refugee”.
The aid collective ‘Moabit hilft’, which had unquestioningly accepted and disseminated the claims made by one of its volunteers, issued an apology. At the same time, the organisation was fearful of a dip in donations, fewer supporters, and more antagonism on the part of right-wing groups.
Links:
On the alleged disappearance of the 13-year-old girl:
On the alleged death of a Syrian refugee:
http://www.thelocal.de/20160127/refugee-dies-after-days-waiting-in-berlin-cold-volunteers
http://www.thelocal.de/20160128/no-dead-refugee-berlin-police
