Emmanuel Thomas, DPA, Friday, April 28, 2023
BERLIN – The head of the regional intelligence services in Germany’s Brandenburg state has warned of a normalisation of right-wing extremist ideas in the wake of a teachers’ letter on right-wing extremism at a school.
In their anonymous letter, teachers at a school in Burg, about 100 kilometres south-east of Berlin, wrote that they were confronted with right-wing extremism, sexism and homophobia on a daily basis.
“When right-wing extremists permanently influence society with events, but also with their language, it does something to the people around them,” Jörg Müller, the head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Brandenburg told the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Friday.
“The room for what can be said is widening.”
In their letter, the teachers complained of swastikas daubed on furniture, right-wing extremist music in class, and the chanting of anti-democratic slogans in the school corridors.
In addition, they wrote that they experience a “wall of silence” about the issue. There was a lack of support from school administrations, school boards and politicians.
Müller also warned about attempts by right-wing extremists to influence social work.
“One danger we see is that right-wing extremists are becoming active in the field of social work. We know of cases where they worked in projects with young people who are difficult to educate, for example,” he told the newspaper.
