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REFUGEE CRISIS

IMMIGRATION

Pro-refugee group push punk classic to no. 1

Under the banner of "Arsehole Action", activists campaigning against xenophobia and hatred of refugees have pushed a 1993 hit by punk band Die Ärzte mocking the far right to the top of Germany's charts.

Published: 11 September 2015 17:26 CEST
Pro-refugee group push punk classic to no. 1
Die Ärzte singer and drummer Bela B. with a DVD titled "not interested in Nazis" in 2009. Photo: DPA

“You're really thick as pigshit
That's why you feel fine
Hate is your attitude
Your blood is always boiling”

That's how punk legends Die Ärzte opened “Schrei Nach Liebe” (Cry Out For Love), their 1993 hit that would go on to become an anthem in the German anti-fascist movement.

Its chorus about their imagined Nazi's psychological issues – “Your violence is a cry for love, your combat boots long for tenderness” – builds up to the one-word gut-punch of “arsehole” and has been a staple of left-wing activists ever since.

“Unfortunately, since the 90s the song has never been so relevant as now. History is repeating itself, and we should stop it,” a group calling itself “Aktion Arschloch” (Arsehole Action) posted on September 1st.

Their campaign has pushed the song to number one in the singles charts, a week after it beat out mainstream club hits in the iTunes charts and 22 years after its fist release.

“Success of this kind is unprecedented in German chart history,” said Mathias Giloth, who runs GfK Entertainment, which publishes Germany's official music charts.

Austrians and Swiss have also backed the campaign, sending the song to Number 1 in Austria and Number 2 in Switzerland, Gfk Entertainment added.

“Die Ärzte think it's good and important that positions are being taken on the radio. This would be a cool action with any other anti-Nazi song. But of course we're happy to support it if it must be our song,” the band wrote in a statement on their website.

Meanwhile, the song hit number one in the iTunes singles chart on Thursday, prompting the organizers to announce that “the action has hit like a bomb!”.

They called on supporters to ask music sellers to donate their share of the profits from the sales and to petition Die Ärzte to re-release the single on CD.

And while the band were happy to see the song hit number one on the iTunes singles chart on Thursday, all their share proceeds will be going to refugee aid organization Pro Asyl.

“We wish all Nazis and their sympathisers a bad time,” they said.

Along with 20 other well-known German bands including Beatsteaks, Deichkind and Die Toten Hosen, Die Ärzte will be in Berlin on Friday morning to sign their names to a call to action against far-right attacks on refugees in Germany.

There have been increasing numbers of far-right attacks on refugees in Germany as numbers fleeing to Europe from conflict zones in Africa and the Middle East increase.

Last month the German government announced that it expects up to 800,000 asylum applications in 2015.

But large numbers of ordinary Germans have also joined in grass-roots movements to help the desperate people arriving in the country, while Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned racism and xenophobia in a press conference on Monday.

SEE ALSO: Five ways you can help refugees in Germany

CRIME

Germany mulls expulsions to Afghanistan after knife attack

Germany said Tuesday it was considering allowing deportations to Afghanistan, after an asylum seeker from the country injured five and killed a police officer in a knife attack.

Published: 4 June 2024 14:50 CEST
Germany mulls expulsions to Afghanistan after knife attack

Officials had been carrying out an “intensive review for several months… to allow the deportation of serious criminals and dangerous individuals to Afghanistan”, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told journalists.

“It is clear to me that people who pose a potential threat to Germany’s security must be deported quickly,” Faeser said.

“That is why we are doing everything possible to find ways to deport criminals and dangerous people to both Syria and Afghanistan,” she said.

Deportations to Afghanistan from Germany have been completely stopped since the Taliban retook power in 2021.

But a debate over resuming expulsions has resurged after a 25-year-old Afghan was accused of attacking people with a knife at an anti-Islam rally in the western city of Mannheim on Friday.

A police officer, 29, died on Sunday after being repeatedly stabbed as he tried to intervene in the attack.

Five people taking part in a rally organised by Pax Europa, a campaign group against radical Islam, were also wounded.

Friday’s brutal attack has inflamed a public debate over immigration in the run up to European elections and prompted calls to expand efforts to expel criminals.

READ ALSO: Tensions high in Mannheim after knife attack claims life of policeman

The suspect, named in the media as Sulaiman Ataee, came to Germany as a refugee in March 2013, according to reports.

Ataee, who arrived in the country with his brother at the age of only 14, was initially refused asylum but was not deported because of his age, according to German daily Bild.

Ataee subsequently went to school in Germany, and married a German woman of Turkish origin in 2019, with whom he has two children, according to the Spiegel weekly.

Per the reports, Ataee was not seen by authorities as a risk and did not appear to neighbours at his home in Heppenheim as an extremist.

Anti-terrorism prosecutors on Monday took over the investigation into the incident, as they looked to establish a motive.

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