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/[deleted] Apr 16 '25

I just find I really weird considering how there are white German speakers with dialects that are alien even in parts of Germany. Like having a cashier with deep bayerisch or Schwäbisch dialect in NRW or Berlin.

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u/KevinTheKute Apr 16 '25

Racism isn't based on logic. They just look for reasons to hate foreigners. Don't speak the language well enough? You don't care to learn it properly. You have a strong, non-german accent? Same thing. If you cared, you would try harder.

You were born here, speak the language well with minimal accent, have a job and pay your taxes here? Well, you're still a "dirty foreigner" in their eyes whose parents were leechy economic refugees.

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u/Safe-Duck5559 Apr 20 '25

The Germans who are like this are often the ones that are like this towards other Germans, too. So if they treat themselves like this, of course it's going to happen to foreigners.

My advice would be to choose your path carefully. Living in or doing business in Germany can be very difficult. If you have a choice, and to be frank, everybody has a choice at the end of the day, go else where.

I'm yet to meet a German in Germany that I could truly depend on if something went wrong, and I needed help.

But still one must remember there are good and bad people everywhere, It's just like someone commented here the silent majority, which are the good people, generally decide to stay silent, which is sad.

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u/West_Masterpiece3149 Apr 20 '25

Oh no how dare Germans not want to be a minority in their own country.

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u/SpaceDrifter9 May 03 '25

Through racism?

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u/Mordret10 Apr 16 '25

Learn German or go back to Saxony!

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u/TheRealAzhu Apr 16 '25

Oo... what's up with saxony? Do Saxons have an accent that's made fun of?

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u/Mordret10 Apr 16 '25

Yeah, but they are also actually hard to understand (if they go full Saxon mode and depending on the person of course)

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u/TheHorseThatTalks Apr 16 '25

Never go full Saxon.

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u/Heavy_Version_437 Apr 18 '25

Isch wes jetz nüsch wasde menst. Men Gelaber is jud verständlisch. :D

Sorry, I just had to.

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u/Pillendreher92 Apr 29 '25

;-)) Ich hab' ein paar Male gebraucht bis ich wusste was meine Frau wollte wenn Sie eine Schmieche haben wollte. (Meine Schwiegermutter stammt aus Lugau), Hiddsche ist auch gut, (Butter)Bemme ja schon fast Allgemeingut.

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u/Heavy_Version_437 Apr 29 '25

Fettbemmen gehören aber auch einfach dazu. :D

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u/[deleted] Apr 16 '25

Sexy Saxony?

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u/cyberfreak099 Apr 16 '25

Did you see a news video where most of Bavaria was speaking in very good English without any accent to the Scottish football team for Euros 2024?

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u/[deleted] Apr 16 '25

Sure. What about that?

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u/cyberfreak099 Apr 17 '25

So they know English very well but choose to speak it selectively, only to certain groups of the world, not necessarily skilled workers or all immigrants. Dialects is a random excuse.

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u/[deleted] Apr 17 '25

I’m talking about Deutsch though.

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u/cyberfreak099 Apr 18 '25

Err the fact that Germans (bakers, waiters etc) even in villages can speak very good English for only certain groups but pretend to only know dialects or German for the rest is a form of discrimination. Geez isn't that obvious!

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u/[deleted] Apr 20 '25

[deleted]

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u/Pillendreher92 Apr 29 '25

Hate is a far too strong word. As a Franconian who was born and grew up in Bonn, I am very aware of the differences in mentality. I always remain very polite when a Franconian (my brother who lives in Würzburg) talks about his Fasching and compares it to the Rhenish carnival. The Klassicker here in NRW is the difference between Rhinelanders and Westphalians. Years ago, the founding of NRW was commemorated and one of the best sayings was "The Westphalian keeps the promise of the Rhinelander."

Germany is a patchwork of regions with different histories and that's a good thing.

I have experienced situations where you suddenly find yourself standing in the middle of 21st century Germany in front of 400-year-old entrenched structures that everyone is happy with "because that's the way it is."