Following racial occurrences, Oktoberfest prohibits popular party anthem "L'Amour Toujours."
In Germany, a video-captured event at a fancy bar on the North Sea island of Sylt has caused a commotion since some young people sung the lyrics "Foreigners out" and "Germany for the Germans" to the party track "L'Amour Toujours" during a commercial Easter celebration.
Similarly, there are increasing similar events reported throughout the country at parties or in other circumstances. In Hamburg, the state police's security department is investigating an incident on Monday after a comparable incident at the Schlagermove on Saturday. There, several people sang racist lyrics to the well-known tune when it was played from a truck of the parade. A party-goer is also said to have made the Hitler salute.
In Schleswig-Holstein, the school supervision of the Kiel Education Ministry launched an investigation at a private boarding school in Schleswig on Monday because students sung "Foreigners out" and "Germany for the Germans" to the song at a party on Thursday. Teachers immediately halted the party, the ministry announced.
Therefore, a pedagogy follow-up took place at the school. The school is known for a "distinguished democratic culture," it remarked. Schleswig-Holstein's Education Minister Karin Prien (CDU) stated: "All students must comprehend that it is no joke to sing such slogans."
Furthermore, the police reported on Monday about more incidents when playing the song at a Pfingstfest in the Bavarian Bad Koetzting and at a shooting festival in the Lower Saxon Altendorf. In Magdeburg in Saxony-Anhalt, legal proceedings were initiated against two youths who were said to have called out racist slogans from a car to the party hit.
The incidents with the song sparked widespread anger and a debate about the expansion of right-wing extremist attitudes in Germany. Singing racist lyrics to the party hit "L'Amour Toujours" from 1999, along with the circulation of corresponding videos on social media, is not a new phenomenon. There are warnings about a so-called right-wing extremist meme culture.
At the Oktoberfest, the head of the Oktoberfest, Baumgaertner, announced in the BR that the song now carries a "racist connotation." Hence, the song will be banned entirely from the Oktoberfest. This is allowed by the operating conditions, which stipulate that racist comments are not tolerated.
The Oktoberfest, as the biggest folk festival in the world, attracts millions of visitors from Germany and abroad every year. This year, the Wiesn begins on the Munich Theresienwiese on September 21st and ends on October 6th.
Additionally, more alleged right-wing extremist actions took place on Sylt over Easter than initially reported. As the police in Flensburg, Schleswig-Holstein, reported on Monday, the state security is also investigating an apparently racist motivated attack on a 29-year-old woman in Kampen. The same applies to another incident with racist lyrics to "L'Amour Toujours" in a second bar.
The assaulted woman was allegedly slightly injured in the attack. "A connection between the three incidents is being investigated, but seems unlikely," the police said due to the differences in their jurisdiction.
In politics, the first event at the Nobelbar in Kampen caused significant consternation. Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier responded with alarm, while Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) described it as a "disgrace for Germany." The affected local establishment reacted with shock and stated that it also received death threats.
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Source: www.stern.de
