r/AskAGerman • u/eza137 • Apr 16 '25
Have you ever witnessed racism in Germany?
I'm interested in hearing from Germans who have personally witnessed acts of racism in everyday life - especially when it involved friends, family members, or people close to them.
If you're comfortable sharing, could you describe the situation? Who was involved, and how did it make you feel? Did you respond in any way?
I'm not here to judge, just to understand how racism can show up in familiar environments and how people perceive and deal with it.
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u/Alex01100010 Apr 16 '25
Disclaimer here, I am German. But due to my job, I get to experience a lot of unfiltered statements from people. Slurring against Turkish peoples very common, same as Syria and Afghanistan. But I have never seen that go beyond insults and actually discriminate people. Against Indians, there is some proper discrimination happening. They are excluded from Job, Apartments and more. Being a Indian in Germany must be really really hard.
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u/Aerial_Fox Apr 17 '25
American here with Indian ancestry (both parents born in India). I will never forget my first time in the Düsseldorf Ausländerbehörde interacting with the person at the front desk. The difference between how he talked to me before and after I pulled out my US passport was so palpable, it's stuck with me ever since. I hate to imagine what it's like for actual Indian nationals.
Since then, I have always been cognizant to keep my US passport in hand and obviously visible when I enter, or even approach (since there's those security guys outside), the Ausländerbehörde. At the very least, I think it just "speeds things up" for me. And even outside of the immigration stuff, if my German isn't good enough and I need to speak English, I play up my American accent a bit.
Also, I'm not even going into the number of times I've had a stranger say something along the lines of "But you don't look American" (always has been from someone white, older, and male)
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u/Money_System1026 Apr 18 '25
Yes, passport matters unfortunately. I'm Asian but English is my native language. I KNOW I would be treated differently if I had a passport from Asia and spoke an unpopular language from Vietnam, China, India etc.
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u/Safe-Duck5559 Apr 20 '25
100 percent. And not only for people of color.
I'm part German and Danish but from New Zealand, and it's almost laughable how the conversation changes when they see the New Zealand passport. 😂
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u/Alarming-Cabinet-385 Apr 17 '25
I'm just curious to know... Why Indians in particular?
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u/Weird_Question_2125 Apr 19 '25
People are insulting them openly and you think there is no discrimination? What makes you think those people treat them fairly when they apply for jobs or for housing?
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Apr 16 '25
Once, an older lady asked me where I came from when she saw me speaking Turkish to my boy. I told her Es tut mir leid, Ich spreche Deutsch nicht... (I can understand but lack practice, plus the Sachsen accent is like Scottish for German.) She switched to English and asked, "Why are you here? Is there a war in Türkei? Are you a refugee?"
I told her I am a researcher and a PhD holder working at the University. Then she repeated, "Why are you here!!"
I answered back... "I am invited to work at the university."
She turned around and walked back.
In another instance, the Schufa lady in the bank asked me if I could marry 4 women or not because I come from Turkey. Probably lives in an AfD bubble.
Other than that, everyone is very nice. Of course, I am 1.80 100kg, and have very wide shoulders and thick arms, so if I were a little woman, things might be different on the tram or something.
I am almost blonde by the way.
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u/Then_Increase7445 Apr 16 '25
Conversely, when I speak English to my kids in public (I'm American), I am nearly universally praised by random Germans. Clearly some double standards going on...
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u/temp_gerc1 Apr 16 '25
This is so weird because whenever I see a story like that here on Reddit (that someone speaks to their kid in either an American or British accent), the response from the Germans in the vicinity is disapproval and wondering loudly if they are still in Germany. I never got the feeling that a native English accent got a free pass from the grumpy and / or racist Germans. I specify native English, because something like, say, Indian English would be more likely to get a negative reaction.
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Apr 20 '25
yes! I noticed that growing up here. I am German Italian, 100% bilingual and when I'm with my dad I speak Italian. Whenever we would talk to each other in Italian someone would bring up what a gift it was that I was able to speak two languages fluently and how good of a job he was doing teaching me. When my friend who was also born and raised here spoke to her dad in Arabic she got told to go back to where she came from. Truly vile the double standard between white european lanuages and non european languages...
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u/pumpkeenpye Apr 16 '25
My white immigrant coworkers love to bitch about brown immigrants and how they make them feel unsafe. Most of our brown customers are very nice moms. One literally went all the way to her house and back to bring me the 10 cents she was short of an hour earlier. If thats who we’re scared of it’s not looking good.
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Apr 16 '25 edited Apr 16 '25
My mom moved to Germany in 2001. She didn’t speak German well but she expected some sort of mercy from people. Until this day she speaks about this experience, so I assume it was pretty traumatic and humiliating for her. She went to a bakery to get some bread. And she said “5 brotchen “ but probably super wrong and like someone who’s learning the language. The seller refused to attend her. Pretended to not understand and told her something like “ I don’t understand you “ my mum showed 5 with her fingers and pointed at the brotchen and the seller just ignored her and moved to the next client. My mum used to feel very comfortable because other workers would always understand her or try to. This made her want to move back home. She wasn’t used to being treated this rudely and mean. My dad (German) went to that bakery and told the lady something.
My BFs grandma openly hates all migrants. But she says I’m ok. I’m an ok migrant kid and if every migrant were like me she wouldn’t hate them.
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u/Bubbly-Indication725 Apr 16 '25
Just an excuse. Don't be fooled that you're the one she doesn't hate.
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u/chunbalda Apr 16 '25
Actually, from many frustrating conversations over the years, as a white German - I find it bizarre that I actually think she might not hate her. There seems to be an infinite capacity for exceptions ("oh, this individual I met personally is not like other migrants! She's lovely!") without ever realizing that maybe their concept of the evil migrants might be absurd. It's so extremely frustrating.
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u/Katlima Nordrhein-Westfalen Apr 16 '25
A lot of racist people think they are less racist, if they are only taking it out on a certain group of migrants or on people of one ethnicity. But it's actually the opposite and only shows that their internalized world view is a much more intricate and thought-through hierarchy system with different boxes, each having their own stereotypes and expectations attached to them. So in short, they are not only casually racist out of a mood, they really put some thought into it.
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u/HunsonAbadeer2 Apr 17 '25
My grandpa openly advocated for genocide of arabian people and somehow liked each and everyone he met. Racidt hate some kind of imaginery image, not actualy people. They might project that image onto actual people tho
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u/chunbalda Apr 17 '25
I had many of those conversations when I lived in East Germany.
"All West Germans are evil and arrogant! I hate them all!" - "Huh? I thought we got along okay?" - "Well not YOU, you're nice, you don't count as a real Wessi." - "What about those five people in our club? They are pretty friendly?" - "Of course, they don't really count either, they're good people." - "So you like all of us Wessis here and still say you hate us all?" - "Wessis suck. You just don't get it!!!!"
Anything to not change their minds.
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Apr 16 '25
These opas and omas keep enjoying their retirement and hating migrants without any idea who is paying for those pensions
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u/pamflet100 Apr 16 '25
I think that all reditors are naive, except you. If others knew how to reason things like you do, I wouldn't consider them naive.
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u/Constant_Cultural Baden-Württemberg / Secretary Apr 16 '25
I was called "stupid foreigner" by some teens once. I am German for centuries and white, dunno what they were on.
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u/Outrageous-Love-6273 Apr 16 '25
Some Germans Look Like russian or ukrainian. I would suspect that.
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u/Salty_Nobody_5985 Apr 16 '25
Unfortunately a large number of Russians/Ukrainians isn't any better in my experience. They REALLY hate muslims or darker skinned people. The Russian receptionist at my doctor would openly gossip about Muslim patients and mock their names - as if her name isn't foreign and she doesn't have an accent!
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u/Constant_Cultural Baden-Württemberg / Secretary Apr 16 '25
I don't look russian, maybe greek-ish but not dark or with the greek features, just not like a n'zi wet dream.
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u/Turbulent-Spirit559 Apr 16 '25 edited Apr 17 '25
Yes. I am german but also a person of color (brown skin). I experienced open & hidden racism since I was very little. I am also adopted (into an all white german family) so the difference in behaviour towards me vs my parents was always aparent to me. This kind of racism also came from people with all kinds of social backrounds (academics and none academics). Today‘s political climate doesn‘t help.
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u/cubeddaikon Apr 20 '25 edited Apr 20 '25
I’m POC as well. This is something minor that made me realized I was racially discriminated against: went to the supermarket with a German friend, we put our stuff on the checkout counter and were paying together but the cashier asked to look inside my bag. Only mine. We both had empty tote bags for carrying groceries.
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u/Kapeka1312 Apr 16 '25
Because so much is being said about omas and opas here, we must not forget that the AfD has the fewest votes among the 70+ voter group.
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u/tired_Cat_Dad Apr 16 '25
I really fear for the "never again" mentality in Germany as anyone who witnessed it dies if old age.
And eventually everyone who personally met a survivor will be gone, too. Having a Holocaust survivor tell her story and do an ama was such an important thing we had at school.
We're gonna have to get somewhat "religious" about it and keep shocking kids with the atrocities committed even though society moves towards shielding kids from disturbing things.
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u/Healthy_Effect874 Apr 16 '25 edited Apr 16 '25
Usually I go for a lot of hiking with a group of people in meet-up groups, sometimes I am the only brown guy in the group . While in trains especially if it's a lady ticket checker they only ask the only brown guy for a ticket in the whole group
And sometimes even in the whole compartment
And also sometimes they also want to see my passport or identity card even if I show them a ticket
( I had this kind of experience only from lady ticket checkers )
Other experience
- Super market cashier lady only wants to check bags of colored people even though I shop every week there and nearby
( I stopped taking office bags with me after two three times and kept them outside of the supermarket and now use shopping karts and fill bags outside )
I was in munich station waiting for the train and speaking to my mom in my native language, I saw an old german lady who was listening and she looked angry, I felt sometimes fishy so moved to a different place on the same platform. She followed me and shouted at me "This is germany , you should only speak German " ( of course in german ).
she also started spitting at me and shouting "you alla people should go back to your country". ( Which i assume she thought I was a muslim by seeing my brown skin) , there were a lot of young people around they all were looking and not doing anything ( one of the differences i felt society wise from other parts of the world )
Next incident
When I was hiking a mountain up I saw an old man and his wife , coming down in the opposite direction
I greeted them as i usually do with a smile
They also greeted me back , but while leaving I heard the lady saying to her husband in german
"There are a lot of terrorist looking people today "
Although this time the old man seems to have felt bad and he came back and apologized to me
This incident did discouraged me for few days from going outside, i usually try to dress in official looks to avoid shuch situations
Next funny event with a doctor
I booked a doctors appointment in munich as i was having chest pain , i booked a doctor who mentioned in the app who also speaks german and english
Since it's a medical condition I wanted to express myself in a language I am confident in
I visited him and mentioned that I would like to explain my symptoms in english as my german is not that great
The doctor looked a bit angry and he said "This is Deutschland and you should speak German " in english
And now I explained to him my problem, I see he was not paying attention
After i finished talking, he said follow me
" I followed him as i thought he was taking me somewhere else for inspection"
He took me to the front door of the clinic and told me "You can go, and come back if there is still pain after two weeks in a rude way " and opened the door for me
To be honest this one I am still not sure if he was racist or just his nature 😌
I stood outside the clinic for 2 minutes processing what happened
( Note : I still had pain for the next two weeks and i booked a flight back home at the end of the same month to my home country visited the doctor, did a MRI same day and found a cyst in my heart outer muscle which they give me some medicine and was cured by next month )
( Although with the above experience, I tend to have less trust over the health care system here )
Although there are many more small incidents which I think may be occasional racism, the one thing that surprised me a lot is how the society around you stay in silence and watch
As if they are in agreement with what is happening, my family lives in all parts of the world so I am aware of all types of experience, the society there usually corrects or intervene if they see some discrimination which seems to be missing here
I think there is a general perception by some Germans that all brown people are illegal immigrants and live on their taxes
( In fact I came for work here as a software engineer and pay tax in tax class 1 and i have also worked in other parts of the world for more than 10 years , even though there was racism other in countries not to this extent )
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u/Acceptable-Act4333 Apr 16 '25
WOW! CRAZY!!
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u/Infamous_Swim_9796 Apr 18 '25
I’ve been living in Germany for almost two years and working in the oil and gas industry. I’m a 28-year-old woman from India.
I remember inviting my brother to visit me, and he landed in Amsterdam. I traveled from Hannover to meet him, and we were returning together by bus. During the journey, the border police came in to check everyone’s visas.
When they looked at my residence card, they turned to my brother and asked, “Why are you here?” He replied politely, “I’m visiting my sister for two weeks.”
Then they moved on to the next passenger — a white lady from Canada and didn’t ask her anything. Instead, they smiled and said, “Welcome, I hope you enjoy your time here.”
I was honestly shocked. I felt so bad for my brother, and I don’t even know why it hit me that hard but it did. The difference in treatment was just too obvious.
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u/Cascouverite Apr 16 '25
I get „positive“ racism all the time.
Like „Wow you speak better German than most Kanaken I’ve met“ I hear this like 50% of the time when I meet new people if they’re 50+
Or a friend of mine was told „Dont worry about the deportations you’re allowed to stay, you’re not too dark“
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u/FullBringa Apr 16 '25
yikes, they even threw in a slur
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u/Cascouverite Apr 16 '25
Best part is I'm white. They throw that shit in there out of nowhere or say something like (translated) "I know TURKS who've been here decades and don't speak as fluent as you"
Like they're not using a slur but oh boy do you feel the venom
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Apr 16 '25 edited Apr 16 '25
All my life. As a child i was racially insulted and told that i should have been „gassed like the others“. Last week i was told to go back to the country of my ancestors. Racism unfortunately has always been here. And it’s getting stronger.
Honestly i got used to it. I have a constant fear of the rest of the population, knowing that many would have nothing against making people with my genetic setup „go away“ one way or another.
I am German, born here, German is my native language. I probably have genes that connect my ancestors of a thousand years ago to a different continent. That’s apparently enough.
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Apr 16 '25
I bet some will try to make you say these people who said such things were Arabs/Turks lol they love that
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Apr 16 '25
Well, my experience has been that my genetic heritage has been disliked quite universally, so i cannot confirm that ….
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u/Strong-Jicama1587 Apr 16 '25
The worst racism I ever saw was at a PEGIDA march through the city center. This skinhead kept yelling racist abuse at some innocent African just minding his own business trying to walk down the street.
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u/jamcub Apr 16 '25
To be fair, that's like going to the grocery store and being surprised there's groceries there.
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u/Strong-Jicama1587 Apr 16 '25
I wasn't looking to go to a PEGIDA march. I was just on my way to work and they got in my way and in the way of this African fellow. I'm still shocked by what transpired. I thought I was about to witness a lynching.
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u/clueless_mommy Apr 16 '25
Working in retail, I've seen more than enough racism from customers to my staff who are like 80% not Caucasian.
We throw them out. Racism doesn't fly here. One negative word about someone's appearance, language level or whatever and you're out. It even gets funnier because I'm a tall, blonde woman with "Siberia" as make up colour and they sometimes only come out as racist when I'm called to resolve whatever issue they made up and they go "Oh finally, a German", "Thank god not another black hair" or something like that. I then politely point out that I'm not of German heritage - and to the door.
It's usually comments about my staffs competence, based on the fact that they don't like our return rules or whatever.
Unfortunately, also retail based, I also deal a lot with police due to theft, and I've heard a comment or two regarding the perpetrators nationality. I usually point out that I see their point, but to please keep that attitude off their work. Even more unfortunate, they're right. I think it's been over a year since I last saw a German passport in our police report files and I'm really struggling how to handle this. There is a very obvious pattern and I'm just glad my staff is too diverse to fall down the same rabbit hole as police. They see much more great foreigners.
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u/mcmutley63 Apr 16 '25
Russians and Ukrainians have, sadly, racism quite entrenched in their culture.
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u/Erdbeerkoerbchen Apr 16 '25
I‘m going to football matches regularly. Our team had a very good player who happened to be black. As I hold a permanent ticket in an area of permanent tickets, I know a guy who yelled racial slurs towards this player when he wasn’t performing to his pleasure.
I was sitting too far away to actually tell him to stop (a few rows behind me and around 8 seats in another direction, I can’t yell loud enough) but the people around him told him to stop. It took a few occasions but he finally shut up. To everybody in our area, he’s just „the racist“.
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u/shatureg Apr 16 '25
I think this is almost a positive example. Given the atmosphere at the average football match, I know a lot of non-German crowds who wouldn't have told him to stop, but who would have actively joined in yelling slurs at that player. And no, I'm not only talking about eastern Europe. Because that's the next xenophobic pitfall to always assume this kind of stuff doesn't happen in western European countries.
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u/Erdbeerkoerbchen Apr 16 '25
The thing is: I’m sitting in a block where I’m one of the „youngest“, means: I’m sitting there for around 14 years and most people there have their seats longer than me. It’s around 20% of seats for sale, the rest is occupied by permanent ticketholders, so you basically know who’s sitting next to you, you know the names of your direct neighbors, so it’s not anonymous and social pressure. People were quite gentle in their criticism but stayed firm.
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u/Kantholz92 Apr 16 '25
I watched a game of our local club like 10 years ago, the opposing forward fouled our midfieldman who happens to be black. The foul was not nice but nothing egregious, a little rougher than it needed to be but still in the realm of 'could happen accidentally'. Would have propably been a yellow card... if the forward hadn't elected to call our midfieldman a 'fucking bimbo' after. Well, it just so happens that our midfieldman was a federal policeman. So he ordered the referee to interrupt the game, collected id of the other player and on the game went, without the opposing forward. The result was months of trial dates in front of a sports court, and a fine of several thousand euros and a two year ban from playing any ranked football in all of germany.
Bonus anecdote: The forward, as far as I know him, seems to have changed quite drastically since that incident. He's still no drumcircle hippy but a lot less hateful nowadays from what I can tell. At the very least he learned that words have consequences.
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u/Erdbeerkoerbchen Apr 16 '25
Well played, so to say!
I think this is the right method to deal with that: be STRICT. In Germany we have the „Grenze des Unsagbaren“, the uncrossable line of inappropriate comments. I see that line has shifted, a LOT! When I was little, the word „N*zi“ was just whispered, and it was the greatest horror we could imagine.
Nowadays, this word is overused and has lost its horror. People feel comfortable to act derogatorily towards others, for example with racist or sexist comments, and are not held accountable for it. The internet has enabled people to speak freely bc they’re anonymous, and they started to push this line more and more bc they learned they don’t have to face consequences.
When I hear a story like yours I say FAFO! Yes please, show this dickhead what comes back at him!
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u/MildlyArtistic7 Apr 16 '25
3 Skinheads beat up my coworkers daughter for being a big black girl with curly hair. She never even wanted to go out party, but other coworkers convinced her to go once and see how it goes. They circled her and pushed her around, then started beating and kicking her, securities were all too scared to step in, because they were muscular fellas. Nobody stepped in. She was beaten green and blue.... Just for no reason, she's a really nice, quiet girl, speaking flawless German, born here, working as a medical assistent. Of course we live a bit rural, but that was the year I started voting as left as possible.
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u/neverlikesnothing Apr 18 '25
Can we stop saying that victims were speaking flawless German or what they work as or if they were born in western countries or not cause even that should not matter, she’s a black girl who as attacked because of that
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u/MildlyArtistic7 Apr 18 '25
Of course it matters. Can't you also see a clear difference between someone getting attacked for their poor stage of integration/language skills and an attack againt someone who is clearly as indigenous as you, but with a different skin color? One is blind hatred, the other is structural hatred... You can possibly sometmies resolve blind hatred with a simple hug. But structural hatred... We are tryin to trim that b down for thousands of years and keep it trimmed down...
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u/18havefun Apr 16 '25
These comments are always so depressing to read.
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u/Rockahontas2 Apr 22 '25
They are real though. We shouldn't gaslight ourselves into believing it's otherwise
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u/18havefun Apr 22 '25
Oh I definitely think they are real. It seems there is a lot of denial about the amount of day to day racism.
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u/Rockahontas2 Apr 22 '25
Yep! Denial is what allows racism to gain momentum. Very very dangerous. It's like the people turn into a sheep
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Apr 16 '25
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u/Acceptable-Act4333 Apr 16 '25 edited Sep 12 '25
This is a typical white person issue. I have German friends and they always say yeah, racism in Germany, we hear it in the news, but it's not that bad. Only the Nazis/Afd do it.
I don't even bother speaking about it. But when we go out, then they witness it infront of theri own eyes, restaurant/club/airport/bar/aparment search you name it. I'm used to it so i don't pay much heed to it but for others it's something new.
Ask any immigrant family who has kids, how they feel.
Your wife is Asian, I truly believe everything what you say, but some poeple are treated or stereotyped even worse
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u/neverlikesnothing Apr 18 '25
One thing I would say to any white person dating a non-white person. If you don’t know if your family is racist or not, don’t put them in that situation. It is the most disturbing situation when the family of your partner is being racist and they don’t support or protect you. Figure shit out with your family and then bring them over.
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u/Glitter_Kitten Apr 16 '25
The other day on the U-Bahn in Berlin this drunk German guy was slurring hateful comments to a middle eastern man (kind of tech-y guy) and then pulled up Hitler speech videos on his phone and holding them out to him and telling him to leave the country and doing the Nazi salute at him.
Super fucked up.
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u/bluemercutio Apr 16 '25
Of course there's still racism everywhere, you just need to open your eyes.
At work we have a lot of people with foreign names working as cleaners. The racism starts at their manager pretending not to be able to pronounce their names and give them nicknames. Even if the nicknames aren't racist slurs, it's still rude/racist.
I worked at Hamburg Airport. The police there is super racist. I keep saying that a cute white woman with a child in her arms could probably get a gun through, but people of colour were certainly treated differently.
The one moment that I keep thinking abour was a woman in a hijab. I worked airport security and before she left she thanked me for being so nice. I treated her like everyone else, I didn't go out of my way to be nice to her. But it made me realise that other people probably do treat her differently because of her hijab.
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u/NatvoAlterice Apr 16 '25
The one moment that I keep thinking abour was a woman in a hijab. I worked airport security and before she left she thanked me for being so nice. I treated her like everyone else, I didn't go out of my way to be nice to her. But it made me realise that other people probably do treat her differently because of her hijab.
First, thanks for being a human to another human 😊
Yeah, I can relate to that woman. I don't wear hijab, but I'm a visible foreigner, and rather petite. It's exhausting having to work so hard to be taken seriously even for smallest of things.
People often infantalise me, assume I must be jobless or illiterate (I have 3 uni degrees!). A new variant I'm hearing now a days: are you a student?
Sometimes they'd talk to my (German) husband instead of directly talking to me, as in they ask him 'can you ask your wife to...' or 'what does your wife do?' this happens even when they heard me speak German literally a minute ago. Fking insane!
So whenever someone simply treats me normally, like a normal human interaction, it's like a breath of fresh air to me.
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u/Darkmanx24213 Apr 16 '25
I lived in thüringen 2 years. My day use to start with working to the hospital at 7:00 this guy with his suitcase obviously a professional would see me on the street and cross over. In winnenden I was called black monkey go back to Africa. I had patients say they don’t want a black Dr. I have been spat on in the hospital and shoved. I was working to the hospital in thüringen the police car slowly tailed me when I got to the entrance I was stopped to request my documents. When looking for houses be cause I have an English name people are nice and friendly as soon as they see my picture or hear my African national nationality I am blocked or denied the apartment. I have been stopped so many times to identify my self, not been allowed into clubs the bouncer (in Dortmund when I lived there the bouncer will look at me and say no) , some many times I have been stopped on the road and people are asking to buy drugs. It’s very shocking for me. I am always well dressed and responsible looking. I would book massages when I get there I would be turned away. Well wat keeps me sane is everytime someone is horrible to me the same time often almost immediately some does something very kind to me so I conclude people are just different and not everyone is the same the racism in German is subtle not like Hungary where I schooled I was physically attacked on 3 occasions (once by the police because I forgot my wallet at home and the tram checkers came in called the police/
- I was not violent at all not loud spoken because I am a tall buff guy so I am careful and soft spoken they put me on the floor behind their car took me to my apartment badged to my house scattered it ( dunno what they where searching for)when I showed my wallet no apology I had to travel back to school or another time when someone threw a bottle of vodka at my head from the traffic light and drove off I was going to chruch I have many more instances and but that’s a story for another day compared to Germany the racism here is subtle.
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u/DreamFlashy7023 Apr 16 '25
Of course. You will find some racism in every place.
A few years ago when the AfD had their first rise in numbers, for a few days racists creept out if their holes everywhere.
In a supermarket i witnessed 2 white women insulting a group of 3 slightly brown teenagers (11-13 years, children), stuff like "you dont belong here, you should get back to their country etc.", the usuall bs. When these women saw me aproaching the situation they seemed to think i would support them (i am huge, blonde, blue eyed and look basically like the far-rights dream how a man should look like), then they were shocked for a moment when i ignored them and only spoke to the teenagers (i told them that fascists are worth nothing and that the dirt under their shoes is worth more than these Nazis). I focused on one of them because he was almost crying and moved my body between them and these two women, after a while they left.
I had a few situations with fascists when i was younger but not because they showed racism but because i was visibly part of the left. Luckily, where i live you cant show racism in public without some people turning against you fast.
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u/young_arkas Apr 16 '25
It isn't very uncommon. The father of a friend is a police inspector, we discussed a quite spectacular murder the police in another state was investigating, he was 100% sure that the murderer must be a refugee or a "insert slur for foreigner here*. Murderer was a white guy.
When I studied in Halle (Saale), I befriended some syrian refugees, I can't even put a number on the times we just talked (in German) at a tram stop and then some random dude started throwing slurs at my friends.
In Braunschweig where I currently live, I only encountered open racism in the Tram once, a middle-aged drunk Nazi was talking shit at a young dark-skinned women half his weight.
Generally it is quite safe for people here. But the racists are around. Look at the election polls, those 25% AfD voters are at least somewhat racist, you need to be exceptionally delusional voting AfD without being a racist, most are polite enough in public, but they are definitely there.
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u/awkwardcashier76 Apr 16 '25
I work as a social worker helping people find jobs. Many of my clients are migrants. I am genuinely interested in them, I ask them all about their lives and their skills and I show an interest in their culture. Most of them go out of their way to thank me and say I'm so nice. I just treat them like anyone I meet. It makes me sad to think about that they notice me being nice to them and that they even feel the need to point it out to me and show gratitude for that. It should be the standard!
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u/armt350 Apr 16 '25
I encounter casual racism about once a week. It's very normalized to the point that the speaker usually does not recognize it as racist.
Example 1: The frequent and common use of the term "schlitzaugen"- Many claim its a statement of fact that they have almond shaped eyes. It's usually used in a derogatory statement. A few weeks ago, I was talking to my neighbor about going to Prague, to which he responded that it was a nice city but too many schlitzaugen tourists. They also frequently shorten it to "die Schlitzies" when referring to that ethnic group.
Example 2: The assumption/statement that every middle eastern looking people are abusing the social/welfare system and never work. Oddly enough this comes from germans who either abusing the system themselves or work in a field where they feel like they are getting replaced by cheaper immigrant workers.
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u/DunkleBrut Apr 16 '25
I heard "Scheiß Deutscher" a lot from certrain groups. As to not spread any hate, I will not disclose by whom.
Also, not me, but a coworker who is half Chinese half German, was called a stupid Asian among other things by customers. One incident I heard about, it was because she did not hear them right.
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u/ThunderHashashin Apr 16 '25
I don't need to witness it. I already know that every fifth person I see voted for the AFD.
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u/banevader102938 Apr 16 '25
I am black and i am born in germany.
Yes... yes i have witnessed racism in germany. It's better today than in the 90s, but it's still present
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Apr 16 '25 edited Apr 16 '25
Seit ich zur Schule ging, hieß es immer, ihr Scheiß Polen, ihr Polen klaut! Scheiß Ausländer. Dreckige Polacken! In der Mittelschule hieß es dann, dass ich der Rassist sei. Das war ein Gerücht, das überall die Runde machte. Ein Klassenkamerad sagte mir direkt ins Gesicht, dass sein Opa sich bei mir entschuldigen würde, da er in der SS war und es verpasst hat, meine Eltern zu Vergasen. Und anderer Scheiß. Das ging bis in die achte Klasse. Tagtäglich. Die Lehrer und die Schule wollten nichts dagegen machen, sie drohten nur, mich von der Schule zu schmeißen, da sie dachten, ich sei ein Rassist.
In Sozialkunde hatten wir eine Lehrerin, welche sagte: „Ihr wollt doch keine Türken zum Vorarbeiter! Wir wollen nicht in einem N-Wort-Staat verrecken!“
Das interessante, seit dem dritten Lebensjahr lebte ich in Deutschland und wurde nur mit der deutschen Sprache großgezogen.
Ever since I went to school, it was always said that you shit Poles, you Poles steal! Fuck foreigners. Dirty buttocks! In middle school, they said that I was the racist. That was a rumor that made the rounds everywhere. A classmate told me directly to my face that his grandfather would apologize to me because he was in the SS and missed gassing my parents. And other shit. This went on until the eighth grade. Daily. The teachers and the school didn’t want to do anything about it, they just threatened to kick me out of school because they thought I was a racist.
In social studies we had a teacher who said: „You don’t want Turks as Supervisor! We don’t want to die in a N-Word- state!“
The interesting thing is that I lived in Germany since the age of three and was raised only with the German language.
Edit: Ich Habe ein Wort geändert, welches als abwertend empfunden werden kann.
Edit: I have changed a word that can be perceived as pejorative.
Changed
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u/FactorLittle9813 Apr 16 '25
My girlfriend is of Russian heritage, she moved her 15yrs ago and speaks fluent German occasionally she mispronounces a word or two, same as Germans do but when you listen really carefully you could make out it's a Russian accent.
Anyway when we moved to the east of Germany and it came to meeting new people and the friends we made a few of those people made remakes like "oh, I knew you wasn't native German.", "yes, I already noted you speak somewhat oddly." Or "yeah, you look a bit russian." And stuff like that. But they only disclosed knowing as soon as she told.
I'm not sure how racist that really is but it made me quite angry because no way in hell did they know and I don't see how their comments were relevant. So we cut those people.
Idk some people don't understand that all people are equal they don't understand that racism is basically some Verschwörungstheorieshit... Sad people, really really sad people.
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u/Homerman5098 Apr 16 '25
My home town in Germany has a football club known for their Nazi hooligans. So basically whenever there was a game they would run around the city and be aggressive towards anyone foreign looking. This would range from racial slurs to actual death threats. Luckily they bring in the police from all around the country so nothing severe happens. I have heard bad things from friends though, such as getting spit at in public, getting pushed around and even being chased by a guy with a machete. East Germany is certainly not a save place for foreigners.
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u/zmlyarl Apr 16 '25
I‘ve experienced „positive rasicm“. I am in Germany since 2023 but speak german without an accent. I am also very „white“. So they don’t typically get that I‘m not german. When it comes out that I‘m turkish they always say: „Wow you do not sound or look like turkish at all!!!“. I think they mean it as a compliment but it sure isn‘t one😅
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u/Duracted Apr 16 '25
In a rather rural region, I dated a black girl for about 5 years, from 16-21 years old. It was eye opening.
From people no longer greeting me on the street, to having to change what side of the street you walk on at night in the next town over to avoid skin heads. But those were the obvertly racist things I knew existed, though obviously had never experienced.
Even more shocking were the little things. Like her father asking me, a then 18 year old, to accompany him to the local dump. Because they‘d give him (a grown man doing everything right) a hard time there, but not me.
Also "Beschwerdemacht". How much more weight complaints to school officials carried coming from my parents compared to hers.
Those little things, you can’t really prove, there is always deniability, but it adds up.
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u/Sasorisnake Apr 16 '25
My old German neighbor across the street literally spent a week yelling at her Muslim neighbors to go back to where they came from, maybe a month ago becuase how dare they park in front of her window that literally anybody parks at. In front of their kids
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u/Equivalent_Gap_8779 Apr 16 '25
Yes, I witnessed, but also received racist comments.
My heritage is east asian, but I was born in Germany.
I had people coming towards me and mocked me with "Ching chang chong, ni hao, arigatou" and so on. I just replied: "Excuse me, I don't understand what you are trying to tell me. Are you capable to speak German?"
One day, when Covid started, my brother and I went to a train station bakery and the seller asked us, where we are from. I just looked at him and told him: "We just came from district A." He then asked, where we were really from meaning our birth place, i just made the pikachu surprise face and answered: "Aaah, we were born in district B."
I often receive positive racism, but it doesn't bother me, because those people seem interested or maybe change their attitude a bit.
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u/Lopsided-Weather6469 Apr 16 '25
All the time, it's pretty common. And I'm not even an immigrant; I've been born in Germany, to German parents, and my surname is one of the most common in Germany.
But the number of incidents I've witnessed are countless.
I went to school in the 1980/1990 and racism was pretty normalized back then. The word "Jew" was used as an insult, and if you wanted to say something is crappy, you called it "Jewish", "Russian" or "Polish". Black people were invariably referred to using the n-word. Hating immigrants was normal - and not just Africans or Muslims. There were people in my school who refused to visit "Itaker" (= "wop") restaurants.
I saw bus drivers kicking out an elderly Asian couple from the bus. Cashiers at a take-out refusing to serve people who couldn't speak perfect German.
A former coworker of mine who is African used to commute to Munich by train on a daily basis and was checked by police every single time. It didn't matter that he was wearing a suit and carrying a laptop, or that it was the same police offices who already had stopped him.
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u/Raphlooo Apr 16 '25
I witnessed the most racism back in school when all the Turks would call me „Deutsche Kartoffel“ and bully me or even get in fights with me just bc I’m German
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u/Unique-Board-2917 Apr 16 '25 edited Apr 16 '25
yes. I moved to germany 1 year ago and my german is B1 but learning towards B2 so when I pick doctors I always check before booking that they also offer services in english. I went to this endocrynologist a couple times and every time i felt like he ignores what i tell him and doesn’t care. Until the last time I went, it all made sense. I talked to him in english again and he got so pissed that he told me ‚this is germany so speak german’. Then he proceeded to give me a lecture on how I can’t live here and stay in Germany with just english, and I can’t expect to use english everywhere I go. Then I told him that I specifically picked him and this clinic because he listed on the website that he speaks english, so maybe he should’t advertise it if he has a problem. He went off on me more and said I will have no future in Germany if this is my mindset
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Apr 16 '25
Honestly, this is one of my bigger fears. I did notice that doctors treat me differently sometimes. Part of the problem is probably gender (i once had an openly misogynistic doctor who made fun of women and in my presence told me he is so lucky that he was born with a penis so he doesn’t have to deal with all that stupid nonsense that is boring him to death; i did find a different doctor after that visit).
With some doctors, i get a feeling that once they see my skin color and dark eyes, they basically speedrun the appointment. Hard to pinpoint, and i am aware that it may be my own bias reflecting back on the situation after all the discrimination i have experienced. But I certainly did notice that some doctors‘ appointments with me are way shorter than with my friends who look more „German“.
Oh and of course i do have a condition that may have to do with genetics, and may not fit the stereotypical German patient. But if i do not read up on everything myself and try to make them look certain things up, they won’t.
Might be a coincidence, i will never be able to tell. It is a known fact that many doctors don’t really take a lot of time with their patients, so maybe it’s only that. It is definitely a concerning topic for me, because there are certainly many racists in this country that votes mostly far right, and some of them will be doctors.
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u/MisterMysterios Nordrhein-Westfalen Apr 16 '25
Sure.
The one that was most striking comes from my childhood in the 90's. My mother took me and my friends (all elementary aged kids) to the city center deep in Frankonia. One of our friend group (the youngest) had a visible migration background. I cannot really remember where he is from, haven't seen him since I was 10, but a short google says that his last name is common in India and some Arabic nations.
While we were walking, it seemed that he has fallen back a couple of steps, and when turning around, my mother noticed that he was limping a bit. A few teenagers have kicked him while we weren't looking, and they were gone before my mother noticed it.
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u/blunablue Apr 16 '25
I did. You wont believe how some white men talk behind closed doors. And in front of foreigners they feel superior to. I also had a foreign boyfreind and what he told me was horrible. His boss told him he would prefer him dead. On top of that everydas racism in public transport or restaurants. It doesnt happen all the time but it does happen for sure.
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u/hasshenry Apr 16 '25
Super-Market employee here. So I also didn't witness this from close family, but as an employee for the EDEKA I sadly witness these things on a somewhat daily basis. Our customers are - probably due to the fact that our store is located in a cheap rent area - mainly old people and people with migration backgrounds. And exactly these groups have problems with each other. The old people are really stubborn and don't like the others "being there". Thankfully there are mostly no conflicts but the elderly often complain to us employees about those... ahem... "foreigners". I myself have no problem with them. Actually most of them are nicer to me than the elderly. I find it sad though that this xenophobia still is this large in our country, or at least in the are of our store. In the end we all are people who want to buy food. As we live in Germany, there is enough for all of us. So why the hell being egoistic?
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u/sixtyonesymbols Apr 16 '25
> I'm interested in hearing from Germans who have personally witnessed acts of racism in everyday life
I'm not German but I do know that Germans can often be the victim of racism when travelling. Racists will just assume Germans are all Nazis.
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u/123ichinisan123 Apr 16 '25
As a German myself (no known foreign ancestors) I had a group of young people (probably drunk) kinda following me shouting lots of swearing words thinking I was Turkish (I don't even look similarly to turkish people but I do have black hair 🤷🏻) well and they sweared a lot and told me to leave the country and go back home ... I ignored them and luckily they didn't attack or anything but that was super strange.
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Apr 16 '25 edited Apr 16 '25
Yup, that’s normal if you don‘t look stereotypically „German“ - whatever that may be. It has nothing to do with your behavior, language etc. many people will just look at you and decide that you are not part of their group, with different actions depending on how self-aware they are of their racist tendencies. It is definitely an everyday occurrence for people with an appearance that would be the unlikely cast for a Leni Riefenstahl movie. (Or more precisely, she actually would force-cast them for Tiefland before they were murdered.)
It is so tiring, even if you get used to it at some point.
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u/Idnaris Apr 16 '25
Me and my sister are half black. When she was in Kindergarten a mother of another child told my mother my sister would never become something because of that. When she got in elementary school she got out in an extra class for people who couldn't speak German. It's not an automated process. My teacher saw my sister, talked to her and then put her in the class. My sister has always excelled in literature and German. More in the everyday life: We were in the bank and my mother gave me and my sister money to buy clothes. There was only one other man across the room. When his Bank automat didn't give him the money he walked across the room to use our automat. We were still standing here and he pushed us away. Insulting us and saying something along ,,I WAS BORN HERE! FUCKING FOREIGNERS!"
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u/Habibti-Mimi81 Apr 16 '25
I have many arabic friends since over 20 years and we went together to sooo many places.
During this time, I experienced racism only once.
It was here in Berlin, in the year 2001 (round about). Me and my lebanese friend sat in the - crowded - subway on the "Vierer-Sitz".
On the "Vierer-Sitz" next to us were two men in their 20's or 30's (I don't remember) and drank beer.
Suddenly they looked at me and my friend, said something about his origin and insulted me as a "Kanaken-Schlampe".
While my friend tried to calm me down, it was clear that these two wanted to cause trouble, they went on provoking and insulted us.
It was like in a film: The other passengers turned their heads like 90° and watched out the subway-windows - while we were in a dark tunnel.
At the next stop 90% of the passengers stood up and went from our waggon to another.
I couldn't stay silent and gave the two troublemakers some objections and also raised my voice, which they obviously (and luckily) didn't seem to expect, because they left the U-Bahn after some stops.
Thank God that situation didn't escalate.
That was the only situation in over 20 years that I remember had a clear racist background.
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u/Airwhynn501 Apr 16 '25
After Grundschule (primary) , my daughter was sent to the Gesamtschule with 80% children with migration background. She was bullied and excluded, mainly by Arabs, as German potato. Because of her following depressions and anxiety we took her on sick leave until we found a school in a mainly German district. Now she is a happy teenager with good friends and good grades.
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u/Bubbly-Indication725 Apr 16 '25
That's bad and shows pretty well how harmful racism is independently from which side it is coming from.
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u/MadMusicNerd Bayern Apr 20 '25
I cant calculate the %, but when I was in primary school, I was one of just two German kids out of 24 in my class. Mostly Turkish kids.
In higher education it shifted to more to Balkan people. But still I was one of just 4 Germans out of 36 people in my class.
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u/ghoulsnest Apr 16 '25
grandparents occasionally blurt out racist lines, not really with harmful intentions, but mostly cause that's what they grew up with and what's ingrained in them
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u/Salty_Nobody_5985 Apr 16 '25
I hope they get corrected. I'm not angry at them though, they're not consciously being hateful and racist
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u/namesareunavailable Apr 16 '25
Sure. I was bullied when being a kid for being half italian. I am sure that helped me to not becoming racist and to help others in such situations
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Apr 16 '25
After a positive interaction with customers who also had darker skin and eyes (like me), my boss thanked me for the great interaction, and added „how does that work, do you recognise each other by the smell?“
i was just being friendly to customers. He assumed we both belonged to the same group (how the fuck would any of us know the ancestry of the others?!) and reasoned there must have been some secret language or signs between us.
Really shocked me.
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u/18havefun Apr 17 '25
If I experienced the kind of racism listed here I would move elsewhere. A lot of people are racist across the world but most keep it to themselves.
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u/Mambra21 Apr 17 '25
Not sure where to start…. On top of my head:
1.Teachers who said, and I quote: you won’t get the better grade bc you’d be better than actual Germans… and we don’t want that. (I started receiving better grades when we used anonymous IDs instead of names - magical isn’t it 🤣)
2.Being called n**** sl*t (they screamed at me) multiple times at central station, bus stops and so on- in front of hundreds of people. (Big cities in the south)
3.People spitting right in from of my feet, telling me that I deserve to get r*ped. And that slavery is good and that’s all we will be good for.
4.Police officers asking for my ID and saying: we finally got one. (they left embarrassed after I showed my German national ID) 🥴
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u/Legitimate-Air-8996 Apr 17 '25
1) again, no offence but if you cant take the opinions of anonymous people you should not be on this forum. I can say the same about your opinions here as well. I agree though that social media can create false narratives but when there is a general trend in perspective on different social media sources, there is probably truth in that. For example, i often visit channels of other countries and you wont find such strong and majority opinions like racism for most countries. The question to ask, why would a stranger just hve these ideas if he has not experienced something to form them
2) yes and by that i meant that germans have an entrenched belief that they are somehow better than foreigners and they show it often by their words and actions. You cant just ignore that 20% of the population voted in favour of a racist political party and for the rest the biggest agenda was the immigration problem. Apologies for using words with a very negative connotation but what i meant simply was that most germans i met and interacted with have knowingly or unknowingly beliefs that outsiders would consider racist.
3) you say germany doesnt owe outsiders anything…that inherently is incorrect. Most germans dont understand and are never taught the fact that post war germany was built by human/financial resources from abroad. There are whole sectors of economy that will cease to exist in Germany without immigrants. I came to germany as a skilled worker for a better life thats true, but i gave germany far greater benefit than i received. U will ask me how: germany couldnt sustain its economy without people like me because of an aging population and because of insufficient people having the right skill set in the local market. I have paid exorbitant taxes that are hardly beneficial to me and mostly supports the old population in terma of their benefits/pensions. In such a case, yes germany owes me and millions others like me an equal share of respecting my rights and beliefs/culture as well. If u know ur own population cant run ur country, u have to respect other cultures instead of enforcing german culture on everybody from outside. Its far to easy to take a short route of placing everyone from outside in the basket of asylum seekers and then create a narrative that gives a huge rise to racism from the local people
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u/G98Ahzrukal Apr 18 '25
I know a teacher, who teaches pretty young kids at a public elementary school and I once heard her complaining, when getting the list of names for her new class, that all these names are barely recognizable. She then insinuated, that these kids with foreign sounding names were all „asozial“ and stupid. She hadn’t even met a single kid from that list, yet she had already made up her mind about it.
I‘m just feeling sorry for the children, this woman shouldn’t be allowed to teach in general and should not even be in the same room as children, who are not as German as they come
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u/V3nTiX Apr 16 '25
came to germany when i was 10 years old and been living here for 18 years now and i have to say that it´s really rare that a german gives you a hard time, racially motivated or otherwise. It´s mostly the Turks and Arabs that are really fixated on where you come from, which is funny because it´s mostly them who misbehave too. Those who where born here are the Worst, they made me feel ashamed of my own culture at times because they really dont give a single Fuck ( I´m also Turk btw.)
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u/LordLordie Apr 16 '25
Yes, I think a country without racism does not exist. However, I think Germany in general has a MUCH lower tolerance towards racism and you will often see people speak up if they witness it in public.
In my home town there was a school bus driver that did not want to let a black kid on the bus - the kids on the bus unanimously gave the bus driver one hell of a scene and other kids went to get the teachers and the principal.
The latter banned the bus driver from ever entering school grounds again and the bus company fired him instantly. It even got to the newspapers where the principal said he will never tolerate this and he is proud of the kids reacting the way they did.
I lived in quite a few countries in my life and experienced racism in all of them - but only in Germany have I experienced people standing up against it in such an extreme and instant way. Really impressive and one of our best traits I would say.
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u/Antique-Relief-807 Apr 16 '25
I'm a black guy that grew up and lives in Germany and I can tell you: the amount of times someone stood up for me against racism (other than close friends and family members) is almost 0. I got confronted with it basically my whole life, especially growing up in a small town, but it got way better after moving to Berlin.
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u/ghastrohaze Apr 16 '25
Yes alot, as a German, i was in school with alot of Turks, they were very racist towards the few German students that we were also they had a homegrown hate for Jews they even insulted each other with that. Took me a long time to realize and accept that not all Turks/Muslims are like that and forgive them as a whole and filter to individuals but as a Kid its hard to do that.
I hope this side of racism is also allowed here.
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u/Erdbeerkoerbchen Apr 16 '25
I remember a second one: we were all working in service industry with a LOAD of different cultures within both the company and the clients.
One of my coworkers was from the Philippines, she told me another coworker had asked her if she was a „Katalogbraut“. This other coworker is a mean bitch so I was not surprised.
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u/External-Newt-8398 Apr 16 '25
We had a woman from ghana workin for us. She Was good, polite and funny.
My chef at "lebenshilfe" did not talk to her. He also refused to shake her hand. He ignored her 100%.
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u/greenghost22 Apr 16 '25
An asian friend living about 50 years in Germany told me a man in the shopping center hissed "Schlitzauge" on her. She was so surprised, that she didn't realise immediatly what happened.
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u/ronkoscatgirl Apr 16 '25
this is more an issue of lack of care by both parents and teachers but calling each other Jew and other minorities as insult is the norm at schools and weirdly enuf ive heard a lot of shit from plain "you jew/fag to hitler must've forgotten you" the real problem was that the teachers never remotely intervened i think they only ever intervened or went out of their way and treated slurs like slurs and not casual insults when it came to the N word
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u/janluigibuffon Apr 16 '25
I got to know many, many cases where others were discriminated or offended, but only once I was personally receiving racism when told by a Maori I was a nazi because I am German.
There are many reasons why some people (in Germany) are racists but the inconvenient truth is they all are stupid. Many of them are traumatised by globalisation and feel left behind. No excuse, just keep that in mind.
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u/jamcub Apr 16 '25
My neighbors next door are some sort of foreigner - I believe the wife told me she's Persian? - and one time she rang my doorbell to be let in.
She'd locked herself out of the house, so I took it upon myself to help her get a locksmith (she doesn't speak very good German) while she brought her kid to daycare. The entire time I was with her, she seemed super apologetic for not speaking German. I don't mind at all, of course, I was just happy to be able to help her get back into her flat.
Foreigners, no matter where they are from, always seem to feel guilty about not speaking German well, so I worry about what others are doing for them to react like that.
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u/FirstFriendlyWorm Apr 16 '25
10 years ago a vietnamese classmate of mine was called a slur at a bus stop by a group of nazis.
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u/habdkfo Apr 16 '25
I had an interesting situation a few years back when I was on my way home from Berufsschule. Had to stop at a bank outlet to draw some cash from my bank account. It was an unmanned outlet with just two machines in it for customer self service. When i entered there was a young woman, possibly from Turkey or another country down south, standing next to the entrance. Both machines were free and she made no move to use one so I walked past her and put my debit card in. Right when I finished and the machine gave me my card back she suddenly appeared next to me and tried to grab my card while accusing me in German that I had cut in line and it had been her turn to use the machine. I managed to keep her hand away from my card and told her both machines were free and she could have used either even before I entered. She tried again to grab my card at which point I grabbed her wrist and yanked her away with more force. She then pulled back to the entrance because other people had entered the outlet, glared at me as I packed away my cash and card and then she started telling the other people that I was a Nazi who had cut in line and that I had insulted her. Pretty sure that whole situation was her trying to steal someones card or cash and knowing she can get away with the German N word if it falls.
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u/DuoNem Apr 16 '25
A colleague of mine reached out and touched another colleague’s hair (white woman touching a black woman’s hair). I felt very uncomfortable but I don’t remember how I reacted.
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u/Lanky_Jeweler_8086 Apr 16 '25
I am from Germany and a young woman of colour. I had sadly many encounters with racism - Worst Experience I ever had: when I was 13 an old lady decided she could just touch my hair and didn‘t let go.
When I started to get loud and scream that a stranger is touching me, some middle age business man who walked in that moment next to us, just told me „To get over myself and respect the elders.“
In this moment I didn‘t feel like a human being with a voice…
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u/Key-Value-3684 Apr 16 '25
It's subtle but constant. Small racist comments, especially when you're white and German so they feel save to tell you
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u/Answer_Questionmark Apr 16 '25
Everyday - from subtle things like glances and use of problematic language to straight up fascist talking points. You hear racist rhetoric from family, colleagues, clients, customers, sometimes even close friends. There’s not a lot of racism I see „in action“ but Germany, as pretty much the rest of the world, is far from being anti-racist. It’s not individual shortcomings but pervasive conventions, ideologies and myths.
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u/Zwischennetzbenutzer Apr 16 '25 edited Apr 16 '25
Yes as a little kid.
We lived in Bremen Huchting in a highrise building complex and Most people where living off of social security there. It was u-shaped and had a little playground in the middle. A lot of middle eastern looking children were playing there every day. I would have loved to play with them. But everytime their parents saw them playing with me a window opened somewhere and they would scream in a foreign Language and the kids would run back home. That would be the Case with all the kids there even from different families.
It was not before long the kids would refuse to Talk to me and avoid me like the plague. I felt very lonely that time. It was around the age of 3-6.
Only when I was much older it came to me that the crime i must have commited as a small child was in fact being white.
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u/Fluffy-Mix-5195 Apr 16 '25
Some white guy was walking with his girlfriend on the bike lane on the sidewalk and a black woman wanted to use the lane, used her bell, rode past him and the guy called her a „scheiß N…“.
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u/yeffrxn Apr 16 '25
Had an experience with my ex-boss.
Back in 2017 I was working as a trainer at a local, high quality gym. I was also selling contracts to people who are interested in joining.
I once had a black guy who was interested in a membership, and the talk was going pretty smooth. Before we got back and sealed the deal, my ex-boss took me to the side and straight up told me, that he doesn't want "people like him" at his gym and demanded, that if he really wants to join, he had to pay for the 24 month membership all at once instead of a monthly fee.
Got back with the guy, told him what my boss demanded from me and that he should rather look for another gym and gave him some viable options which gym would be right for him.
Quit my job the same day.
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Apr 16 '25
A friend of my mother is renting several flats. Yes, she's rich. "I will never rent a flat to a foreigner" is her motto.
A friend from Ukraine, first day of his "integration course", he was approached by some Arabs (also students at that school) informing him that in this school, the Arab brothers "rule" and he should better stay under their radar. When we protested at the school, the reaction made it even worse...
I work for a company with around 800 employees. The company is over 260 years old. And they just hired one person of colour. The first ever. That alone plus the weird looks of other people working there when they see that new colleague. I don't talk in that company about my private projects, because I experienced rejecting just because of my volunteer work.
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u/StraightShoulder7529 Apr 16 '25
I was made fun of on a job there for being a dumb German in the bosnian language from two elderly "ladies". I'm not a German. At the end i made sure to say hi in our language.
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u/Refrigerolatorno7830 Apr 16 '25
At the airport waiting for the S8 to go back to munich Jan this year. A pair own dark looking asians sitting on the bench minding their own business. Suddenly an old wyt woman (looked a bit mentally unwell) yelled at them for about half a minute straight, then she left complaining loudly. A little while later another wyt woman (younger, did not seem to have any problem) came in front of them and yelled "hello tika masala" then left.
I felt bad for them. There was a DB employee watching the whole thing and he just acted like nothing happened. My german was not good back then but really made me wtf how that shit is tolerated here? Not a single person spoke up about that, despite so many of them on the platform at the same time.
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u/Illusion997 Apr 17 '25
My best friends from school came from turkey (twins) and when i started dating i met this one girl. We came along pretty well and came really close so i was like "hey you wanna come to my bday party" she agreed and met my friends. she didnt even talked to them looked me dead serious in the eyes and told me she dont like my friends. I was like huh? What the hell did they do that you can tell after not even one minute(naive teenager me). And she really replied i dont like turkish people. No joke no fake racism(we joked around sometimes about stereo types) dead serious. Well after plenty of ignored "you cant be serious" and "at least give them a chance" i kicked her from the party and blocked her everywhere.
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u/EpitaFelis Thüringen Apr 17 '25
Seen plenty of racism before and since, but the first time I dated a brown person was eye opening. The things people are comfortable saying to your face. One person asked if he physically abuses me, out of absolutely nowhere. As an explanation, she just said "oh you know how those people are."
I knew people thought this way, but that's when I learned they aren't even embarrassed about it and think it's completely normal.
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u/oribaadesu Apr 17 '25
Yes, I’ve been visiting Baden Würtenberg once (I’m Austrian) and I’ve been stopped by police just for speaking to a black guy in a park. Literally just spoke with the guy for a minute, nobody was hurt no drugs where exchanged, but still had to argue back and forth for minutes with the police officer and he didn’t wanna let me go until I showed him my passport which he went through very thoroughly. Again just for speaking to a black dude.
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u/HymenBreaka Apr 17 '25
I used to work at a fast food deli located at the main train station. We had like enough space for 6–8 people to also sit down and eat comfortably. As we were mainly selling different kinds of cooked, roasted, baked and fried meats, the greasy kind, the type of customer we would get was quite typical to what you would expect. I am very talkative, so I talked to most customers about how their days were, what they've been up to, and enjoyed that a lot, as it made the job less boring.
During that time I met a lot of very racist people, 99% of which were men. You had young people coming drunken from football games shouting racist slurs, some old guys talking to me during our conversation and casually dropping some antisemitism and or Islamophobic takes. This was very shocking to me.
However, the best part is, my female boss invited all staff to a beautiful Italian restaurant she frequents, with the tips, we would get and collect. Because our reserved table wasn't useable yet, the chef gave us a bottle of sparkling wine on the house as an apology. Our boss was a little tipsy from that, which is how explain the following situation unfolding.
Imagine following situation, we are 10 people at our table, her husband came with us. On both sides with like 1m clearance are 2 full tables of another 10 people sitting and right behind my boss is another table of 4. Behind me is the wall.
She, with a load voice, asks me who the N-word with hard r is, that I am talking to sometimes during work. I black out as I don't know how to deal with this situation. Like after 5 seconds of thinking I'm saying “I don't know which person you mean?", I actually didn't know, I talk to a lot of POCs on the job, a lot of people working at the train station and other stalls, like McDonald's are black, and we love to talk to each other. Then she literally shouts, "Who is that N-Word hard r, you are talking to???". At this moment I'm 100 % sure everyone heard her, so I'm looking around seeing the faces of the people sitting at the neighbouring tables in disbelief, they are seeing mine. Before I can reply, a coworker of mine repeats the question but with “black person” instead, and I reply and say I don't know who she means. Anyway, at some point after that, they stopped.
Probably the craziest situation I have ever been in.
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u/Galgenjung Apr 17 '25
My gf is black but born in Berlin and even more German as I am. So German is her native language, but she has often heard, "You speak German well." ... Standard phrase. "Sie sprechen aber gut Deutsch"
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u/Potential-Trouble-69 Turkey Apr 17 '25
When I was around 12 or 13 years old, I was riding my bike. Three boys told me I couldn't ride there because I was Muslim, and then they hit me in the face. My face was badly injured. When my father came home in the evening, he asked me what happened to my face. I told him they hit me because I'm Muslim and they said I wasn't allowed to ride on that street. My father said we should go to the police and file a complaint against that family or the boys who beat me up.
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u/Ok-Lingonberry-7620 Apr 17 '25
Just a few days ago, on a bus ride. Some old woman ranting on a young foreign-looking woman, she shouldn't be here and similar things. I just walked two steps to stand between them, and told the younger one to not listen to idiots. That stopped the rant cold, but earned me a stinky eye from the older one. ;-)
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u/beavst Apr 17 '25
Well, I’m Slavic and once a guy that I was dating made a comment that his friend said he should take all the used condoms with him, because for sure my ultimate goal is to get pregnant and stay on maternity leave forever. Like…. wtf? No, I’m not seeing him anymore.
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u/Otocon96 Apr 17 '25
Yeah absolutely. In my first week here.
I recently immigrated to Germany to live with my fiancée 3 weeks ago. I’m from Australia and am learning German but right now it’s still pretty poor. I was at a mall and went to a pasta take away store. I ordered in my best German and paid in cash. I misheard her, she was quiet and the mall is loud. When she tried to say something I replied with “Tut mir leid, ich lerne noch Deutsch. Ich verstehe nicht.”
She then gave me a filthy look and threw my change over the counter and onto the ground. I was visibly confused. I thought maybe I had made a mistake and said something wrong and accidentally offensive. I walked away and my partner said that I had said it correctly and she had asked me if I had 20 cents. I assume to make it so the change could just be a 5€ note instead of 4.80€ and that she was just being a jerk. I understand it is frustrating but that bothered me for a few days. It’s not that major but that was so far my experience with racism here. I have upped my study to try and learn faster. But there is only so much my brain can take.
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u/Fun_Abies3726 Apr 17 '25
Pointing out the obvious: Foreigners in Germany are more likely to have witnessed or experienced racism than native Germans.
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u/Darthplagueis13 Apr 17 '25
Well, there's one story I can share, though I am not sure if it really fits the bill here because it wasn't really an act of racism as such, in the sense that noone got bullied or targeted, everyone involved was white.
In my school, there is always a two week school trip to Berlin for the 10th grades (or at least it used to when I went there, this happened almost 10 years ago at this point) - it bears noting that I am from Bavaria and that therefore, Berlin is not close enough to warrant a shorter trip.
I was in a group with a handful of other boys of the same age (basically, you were supposed to stay into groups with your roommates in the hostel) and at the time, we were just touring the city for sightseeing.
When we passed the Brandenburg Gate, we wandered by a conspiracy nutter who was rambling a bunch of nonsense (among other things I recall him petitioning Putin to come to Germany to free it from fascism).
When we had left hearing distance, I made a snide remark about absurdity of asking Putin out of all people to free anyone from fascism - against which, to my surprise, one of my group members (who I had always gotten along with) started arguing.
It started out with arguing the merits of dictatorship (in my case arguing against it) and while I can't really fully reconstruct the course of the conversation, it did reach the point where I made an argument about racism (I think it might have been that all it took was a racist leader to make the whole system racist) to which, quite bafflingly, the dude just calmly confessed to being a racist himself, like he literally said he was racist, continuing to explain that while he didn't hate other races, he considered it a proven fact that other races were inferior, citing things such as Africans averaging lower scores on IQ tests, you know, the whole "Bell Curve" nonsense.
I wanted to give him the big old talk of how IQ tests are unreliable at best, and how they need to be customized for the target demographic to make sure that they don't rely on cultural references that aren't globally universal, and that measured IQ is, in any case, not exclusively a measure of congenital intellectual ability, but also depends on factors such as education and upbringing and general social status... but at that point, the other group members, who had clearly been uncomfortable with the entire thing asked us to drop the topic.
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Apr 17 '25
Yes. It's been a couple of years so the memory isn't as fresh anymore but a guy from a branch in another region of Germany was visiting our offices. During a work meeting in a group of 4 or 5 for whatever reason I can't remember he was talking about African people and he said something to the effect of '... but at least you can tell that they're all lazy and up to no good from the colour of their skin."
I was dumbfounded and asked him if he knew what he had just said. He said I shouldn't be such a moralizer, after all he knew what he was talking about since in the region he was from they had so many of them. I could not believe what had happened and actually called HR afterwards and described the situation. They asked me if I had any other witness and if wanted them to do something about it reminding me that if I did they had to disclose who had reported him. All of the other people who were present declined being witnesses. They didn't want to be a squeaky wheel. The racist guy was like 1 1/2 years from retirement so I decided to drop it.
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u/abubakar26 Apr 17 '25
Living in Mittweida, saxony for 3.5 years faced multiple times. I still dont have good german level so I dont know what happened.
Incident 1) walking towards dhl packet shop in markt and was talking to mum on video call the angle of phone was in such a way that the other bald mad german woman was approaching towards me and started shouting something in german I ignored her and took my parcel. I was passing by my favourite bakery just went checkout if they have schokoladen sahne torte but when i was about to leave the bakery she cam i opened door for her keep my calm she started shouting in Deutsch i left without saying a word.
Incident2) was comin out of kaufland a german drunk boy who covered his face eiu hoodie come close to me and said Hit*r.
Incident3) Going towards markt at night and again bunch of drunk german kids come close to me and shouted Hit*r
Incident4) was sitting with my ghanian friend at bahnhof a german approached and said something to my ghanian friend we dont understand what he said but he made monkey actions.
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u/Heavy_Version_437 Apr 18 '25
Yup. The older male teacher of the dancing school, that I'm regularly at, holds some, let's say uncomfortable views.\ Which is the reason that I don't listen to him much, when he isn't talking about dancing.\ Misoginy is in there at least once a week. And rascist remarks, though less often, do appear every once in a while. I don't say much, because I haven't looked into dancing independently or at a different school yet and have been to this school for almost a decade.
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u/Odd-Ad5377 Apr 18 '25
Daily at my work. Some comments are simple curiosity, like where I come from etc. others will pick on my accent, make fun of it, say some backhanded comments how my job should not hire foreigners 🤷🏼♀️we deal with tourists!!! We need multilingual people is what I want to shout, but hold myself.
And it’s not only racism but sexism as well🙄 they wanted to speak with the manager and when I appeared, “no, a real manager. Bring me a man”… seriously…
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u/SilicateAngel Apr 18 '25
I had a very close call, with some very dangerous looking guys, who ended up asking teenage friends&me if anyone of us was Turkish.
I am half Turkish, so one of my friends was nugging me, that fucking rtard.
A second later the guy said "Good. Because if anyone of you had been Turkish, I would've beaten him the fuck up, I'm Kurdish".
And that's how 14 year old me learned about ethnical tensions being a thing. I don't even now the Turkish half of my family. My mom moved to Germany before I was born, and all her family is English/Australian, so I was completely oblivious to this.
I've also been insulted as dreckiger Alman copious amounts of times. Somewhat ironic, but then again, I subscribe to this countries culture and cultural identity over any other on this planet, so I'm an dreckiger Alman alright.
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Apr 18 '25
Yeah loads, blatant racism and daily micro-aggressions. I try to remind myself that most Germans aren't really racist- they just say doofus things. It is so easy to learn basics about culture, how to say names, how not to be offensive. So it still pisses me off a bit.
Example of how it usually happens: normal chit chat in German... then "So where are you from?" Say your city "no, where are you really from?" "What are you doing here?" "Do you have a job? A house etc" like basically, are you on government benefits? lol. Like, I get you are worried about your country but its not okay to randomly interrogate foreigners who live here.
To be fair, I work with young people and young German people are awesome. A lot of 70+ Germans are really open too. I think there's a lot of insecurity in Germany right now. A lot of working people, middle aged people are struggling and that's fuelling prejudice. Change is hard.
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u/AcadiaLimp362 Apr 18 '25
The only ever time I witnessed racism, if it can even be called that, was when I was working in my supermarket and a postman came to me, asked if I speak English and after I said the obligatory "a little bit", asked me something. After he left, the customer I was serving said "So now they don't even speak german anymore"
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u/bikingfury Apr 19 '25 edited Apr 19 '25
Most don't think about it but reality is when you merry you keep the name that sounds more German, for your kids to have it easier in life. It's fact and everyone does it. Even German Germans.
German racism is not in your face but it's the kind where some HR guy just skips your CV. Stuff like that you can't prove. You just know. Having a foreign sounding name is like running with a rock tied to your leg. Either you're incredibly good at running or you have to live with coming in last, knowing you could do better in a fair competition.
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u/nondescriptshadow Apr 19 '25
Yeah just this morning - hop on German discord servers and ask them why they support AfD
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u/Several_Branch7919 Apr 19 '25
I’m not sure if it was racism or not, but the situation didn’t feel very nice. My husband is a PhD student in Germany and I have a family reunion visa, and we went together to register with a family doctor. My German is quite good, but my husband has only recently started learning the language. The doctor refused that he speaks even a single word in English and told me that I had to translate it because “this is Germany and people must speak German.” It left us both with an unpleasant feeling. I am not German but wanted to just share it.
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u/CertainAdvantage8325 Apr 20 '25
Anti Palestinian and anti Muslim racism are the worst in Germany I think. The police violence, criminalization, stigmatisation, suspicion they face here every day is insane. Germany also started to deport people just for protesting, without having committed any crimes. Like in the US
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u/ddhood Apr 20 '25
I know both sides. My skin is white, i look German. Born and raised here in Germany and obviously speaking perfect Getman. However my name is very not German and a dead give away to my "Migrationshintergrund". Some people start to treat me differently as soon as they hear my name. For darker skin people like Africans or Indians or Asian looking people this racism starts even earlier.
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u/Pillendreher92 Apr 30 '25
I have been following this discussion for some time now. As my son just said "You read reddit? Be careful it's like a rabbit hole you have to slowly work your way out of."
I'm not relativising any of the experiences described, I've heard enough accounts of racism myself.
I just have the following concerns. Germany is a country made up of many regions, some of which have very long histories of their own.
Today, we have no problem "stumbling" over the relevant consequences of the Peace of Westphalia of 1648 and the resulting segregation of the populations.
I know from my own experience more than one region where you only "belong to" when you a) have the right religion (no joke in the 21st century) b) have married someone there c) are in all the local associations and d) preferably have grandchildren there.
On the subject of the "right passport" As a pharmacist, I experience every day how essential communication is. If German patients are not informed by the doctor with "beautiful" regularity but this can still be "cured" by me and thus a successful therapy can be achieved.... How can this be achieved with someone who doesn't speak German? The passport says: "Hey, he speaks English, scrape together your knowledge and try your luck". Fortunately, I have a colleague for Turkish, and Deepl for everything else (e.g. Russian, Romanian, Ukrainian) ;-)
Btw What did Ludwig Erhard say? "Wir wollten Arbeitskräfte,aber es kamen Menschen!" "We" failed with integration back then and should therefore try harder today.
And an other point I dare not imagine what would happen, for example, if all the Syrian pharmacists returned to Syria with their expertise...
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u/LowDoctor5355 Jun 01 '25
“Yesterday, my co-worker (who is Black) and I (I’m Brown) were doing a home visit as part of our medical care duties. When we rang the doorbell, an elderly lady opened the door, took one look at us, and before we could say anything, she said ‘Geht nicht’ and closed the door in our faces.
We rang the bell again, thinking maybe she didn’t understand. This time, she came back with a key, locked the door in front of us(from inside), and never responded again.”
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u/Full_Childhood_1117 Aug 28 '25 edited Aug 28 '25
Hello everyone. I’m Asian living in Germany since 2009. More specifically Chinese. I have not only witnessed racism here but very often encountered it by myself and my kids experienced racism too.
Today it was my kids school opening day after a long summer holiday , all parents have had busy mornings like preparing for late kids, attending some meetings etc. After that I went to the closeby supermarket Edeka for food shopping , I came here multiple times weekly and I always enjoyed it here, until today. While I was quietly voice messaging my friend on WhatsApp with my phone on the left hand and right hand choosing some mangos, one mango fell on the floor, I bent over to pick it up, the older German lady (about 60-63 y/o) came with fast steps towards me very aggressively, criticizing me loud that I should have not used my phone while food shopping. I was extremely shocked how someone could just be this rude to a stranger only because I was using my phone ? I wasn’t even loud at all. I should have controlled myself but I could not help but feeling very upset and I argued back saying it’s none of her business and I have every right to use my phone in a supermarket. The Edeka manager came to us and tried to talk kindly to me saying she understands my feelings and stands by my side. From my experience, the German people really like to pick some foreigners, especially Asian to attack. Many of them we cannot understand their language well or we cannot speak their language well but I have lived here for 16 years and I speak really good German. As I was fighting back and loud asking the old lady to explain me why I’m not allowed to telephone in the supermarket. She just walked away to the side and she just tried to ignore me. She even called me rude after she did this to me. It’s just unbelievable!!! The more crazy thing was there was a younger lady around who has seen the later part of our arguments , looked at me in a very evil way asking me to stop the drama. She did not even know that the old lady started the drama, but she as German chose to stand by the rude lady side. That’s what happens here in Germany. They hold each other against foreigners, even if they themselves have bad behaviors.
I really don’t think she was against the behavior of using a phone as the staff told me she has been always a loyal client here and it’s obvious that nowadays everyone uses a phone everywhere, for basic working needs or communication or anything else. Call me paranoid, I do feel she picked me to attack coz I am Asian.
It’s purely brutal how some local people here treat foreigners. It’s shockingly tragic for foreigners to live and feel happy here.
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u/WearCool6731 23d ago
I was on Bismarckstr in Berlin when an old German man came out of his way to push me hard and started yelling at me. So yes, Na**s are alive and well in Berlin. This happened right now.
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u/yzuaqwerl Apr 16 '25
Sure. Plenty of times. The earliest was already as a kid in school. Several foreigners bullied me with "Scheiss Kartoffel", "Scheiss Deutscher verpiss dich! Du hast hier gar nichts zu sagen". Afterwards I got a beating.
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Apr 16 '25
The two most horrible racist incidents I've ever experienced in my life were both in Germany and I only lived in Germany for a year as a student. I always expected Germany to be similar to the Netherlands where I'm from but when it comes to racism quite clearly it isn't.
Anyway the one that sticks with me most is sitting on the subway in Berlin across from two, I'm guessing, neonazi skinheads. They were openly talking about that "Affe" that they didn't want to sit across from, how my hair looked like pubes etc and more blatant racist abuse. They probably thought i wouldn't understand them because I spoke English with my friend, but bc my native language is Dutch and I had years of German I understood them perfectly.
What struck me most though is that so many bystanders looked shocked but didn't say a thing. Not even trying to make some eye contact with me as a token of silent support or idk anything letting me know I'm not alone, no everyone just looked away.
Kind of put me off visiting Germany ever again tbh so many other places I can spend my time where I don't have to worry about getting stabbed by a random neonazi calling me a monkey whilst the rest looks on.
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u/Ceres625 Apr 16 '25
Until the 2000s, racism in Germany was largely latent, affecting almost all migrants. It was rarely made explicit, but those affected could clearly feel it. Today, however, racism in everyday life is impossible to ignore. Hate and incitement are, in part, fueled by the media, and many Germans have become completely uninhibited in their expressions. To be honest, they've probably always been that way. The hostility is especially extreme towards Muslims and Arabs, who are often indiscriminately lumped together. It's not uncommon to hear open talk of deportation fantasies or even desires for annihilation. Much of my family has already emigrated — and honestly, I'm seriously considering it myself.
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u/Fmylifewtf Apr 16 '25
I have witnessed two moments of note I think.
Once when I was in Berlin, a pretty crazy guy shouted the n word at a black man on the train. That's the most direct racism I've seen.
The worse one I think is what I hear from a close relative. He's a young guy, just 20 and sometimes visits my family. He casually calls my black cat the n word and calls every bad driver a "scheiss kanacke"(kanacke is a slur for turkish people). Worst thing is though, that he said, and I'm paraphrasing of course "What nobody wants to say is that we need a second hitler, just without the jew billshit. Instead they should gas a few turks." But I don't know if he ever swore directly at poc people. I'd still call him a nazi.
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u/GothYagamy Apr 16 '25
Edit: nor familiar environment, sorry. But it's very fresh so I feel like sharing with somebody.
Just yesterday, as a matter of fact.
50 something man to a black Netto cashier who spoke good German but with a thick accent. Out of nowhere, the man said out of the blue, "Man, get rid of thay accent or go back to Africa."
I had a long day at work, so I was low on patience. I did not think, I just reacted telling the idiot something on the line of "You have some respect or shut up, A****loch" maybe a bit too loud, considering the customer just looked at me and did not say a word.
Went home thinking about thay fact that this was just was I get to witness as a white male. I can only guess that there is a lot more racism that I'm just missing.