Thilo Sarrazin, a board-member of the Bundesbank, the German Central Bank, caused an uproar in Germany yesterday when his comments on the existence of a "Jewish gene" came to light.
Sarrazin, a veteran politician for the German Social-Democratic Party (SDP), said in an interview with Welt am Sonntag concerning his new book 'Deutschland Schafft Sich Ab' (Germany Abolishes Itself), amidst a stream of anti-Islamic rhetoric, that "all Jews share a certain gene [...] that makes them different from other people."
In the book, published yesterday and already a bestseller, Sarrazin claims, amongst others, that "Muslim immigration is connected more strongly with any other with welfare dependency and crime" and that Islamic boys are "taught to be violent". Sarrazin also writes that "We are, on average, becoming dumber in a natural way" due to immigration from Turkey, the Middle East and Africa.
In a country understandably sensitive about discussion of racial genetics given the history of that field in the Holocaust, public figures rushed to condemn Sarrazin's remarks. German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for his removal from his €230,000 a year Bundesbank-post, saying his comments on Jews and Muslims are "completely unacceptable" and "discriminatory. They show contempt towards entire groups of society". She added that Sarrazin is "hindering integration efforts" and that his manner is "divisive for society."
Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said the statements "feed racism or even anti-Semitism" and that they have "no place in our political discourse." Sigmar Gabriel, the party leader of the SPD, has started procedures to remove Sarrazin from the party, calling his comments "linguistically violent" and that they had "crossed a red line."
While polls show that a majority of the German population agrees with Sarrazin's sentiments, regarding the Muslim population of Germany at least, they are taking issue with the manner in which he discusses them. Speaking of the "German national identity" and the German "inborn intelligence", Sarrazin's remarks remind many of Nazi rhetoric during the Holocaust.
Sarrazin refused to back down from his statements today, saying he based his remark on a study by Gil Atzmon that appeared in the American Journal of Human Genetics that "reveals the genetic basis shared by European Jews". He called it a "statement of fact, not meant positively or negatively." Sarrazin continued by saying that he has no intention of stepping down from the Bundesbank or the SPD and that he is "not a racist".
Jewish leaders, however, don't agree. Stephan Kramer of the Central Council of Jews said that "Whoever tries to identify Jews by their genetic makeup succumbs to racism." Dieter Graumann, vice president of that same institution has called publicly for Sarrazin's sacking from his post, saying that Sarrazin is "causing massive damage to the Bundesbank. This can't go on."
The Bundesbank meanwhile distanced itself from Sarrazin's remarks, saying the statements have "damaged the image of the Bundesbank" and that "the Bundesbank is an institution that has no space for discrimination." Bundesbank president Axel Weber, the leading candidate to become the next head of the European Central Bank, called Sarrazin to appear before the board today to answer for his remarks.
It is, however, unclear whether Sarrazin will indeed be removed from his post. The power to do so lies not with Weber or indeed with Chancellor Merkel, but with German President Christian Wulff. The procedure to fire Sarrazin is complex and it is uncertain whether Wulff, a noted champion of free speech, will even commence it.
Sarrazin sees himself merely as a "numbers-man" and that his statements are purely based on statistics and research. "I invite everyone to find discrepancies in my theories," he said. "It's an uncomfortable discussion, but to solve problems we have to first recognize them." The interior minister of Berlin, Ehrhart Koerting, however, believes it is a case of highly selective research. "Thilo is currently drifting away," he said. "He always had a fondness for statistics. But in the integration debate he uses only those statistics that fit in with his image of the enemy."
Sarrazin was appointed to the six-member Bundesbank-board in 1999 after a seven-year spell as Finance Minister for the Berlin city-state. In the 35 years he has held various financial political positions, Sarrazin has been no stranger to controversy. While he has a history of speaking out against Muslim immigrants in Germany, Sarrazins is not known for his anti-Semitic remarks. In his book, he writes that "the Turks are taking over Germany exactly as the Kosovars took over Kosovo: via a higher birth rate. I wouldn't mind if it were Jews from Eastern Europe with a 15 percent higher IQ than the German population."
