Anti-immigrant sentiment is fueling violence and arson. What's the matter with Deutschland?
By Sumi Somaskanda
FOREIGN POLICY - August 7, 2015
REICHERTSHOFEN, Germany — It was just before 3 a.m. on July 16 when
firefighters arrived to find part of the former Däuber inn in flames.
The white, three-story guest house on Winden am Aign’s main drag had
long been empty. Now, smoke was billowing out of the brown-trimmed
windows and onto a street lined with tidy Bavarian homes and tomato
plants.
It didn’t take long to put out the flames eating through the back
annex and locate the cause: Fire accelerant was found by two rear doors.
The blaze was started on purpose.
Dozens of asylum-seekers from Syria, Iraq, and other countries had
been scheduled to move into the building in September. Winden has just
830 residents and many of them protested plans to house 130
asylum-seekers in their town, saying the number was too many for such a
small town. They negotiated with officials and settled on 67, instead.
Michael Franken, the mayor of Reichertshofen, the larger town that
incorporates Winden, had lobbied to turn the vacant building into a home
for the growing number of asylum-seekers arriving in his district.
Before the fire, he’d thought the fight was over. “Only eight residents
showed up to the last meeting we had, which shows how much the debate
had died down,” he said. “So we were even more surprised and incensed
when the fire happened.”
Nobody was injured, and the front wing of the building — where
asylum-seekers will live next month — was undamaged. But the reaction
has been strong and swift. District officials have redoubled efforts to
clean up the damage and welcome the new residents on schedule. And a
50-person police commission is working to find out who was behind the
arson.
“If the person who started the fire really wanted the building to
burn down they would have done it differently,” Franken said. “This
seems to be more of a signal.”
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