Germany's Noble Sacrifice

"In a European comparison, and above all considering how people are coming to us [Germany], I think this roughly 185,000 [figure] is much too high."
"So far, it is still the case that the people who decide whether someone comes to Germany or Europe are criminal smugglers."
"[Germany is prepared to do its part to help people who genuinely deserve protection] but it can't be the case that we take in as many vulnerable people as the other European countries together." 
"In all cases, where no official and real document is presented, we need to determine the age [of the migrants declaring themselves underage] in another way, if needed through medical examinations."
German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere

The anti-migrant sentiment has increased over recent months Credit: Chad Buchanan/Getty Images

German cities, towns and villages generously, at the bidding of their Chancellor, opened their borders, their wholesale acceptance of the presence of alien migrants with backgrounds, cultures, and religion utterly unlike their own heritage, when Europe was being overrun by a mass influx of refugees, haven-seekers and economic migrants. Setting an example for all of Europe, Germany's selfless intake of people flooding their borders, ensured that Germany and its people would undergo a long and difficult commitment of inclusiveness and helpfulness offered to perfect strangers.

In well-publicized incidents, some of those strangers turned out to be less than perfect in behaviour, unfortunately. Germany's resentment at other European countries, particularly those in the east, not welcoming their apportioned 'share' of the newcomers is understandable in a sense, but Germany, its politicians and its people made a judgement call, deciding to absorb the mass influx, while other countries made their own decisions, to absorb fewer numbers and in some instances none at all, which is their right as sovereign nations.

Europe has had ample experience with absorbing immigrants from Muslim-majority countries fleeing persecution by their governments, absenting themselves from conflicts between nations, and attempting to find haven where economic opportunities might shape their futures, absent in their countries of origin. All too often sheer numbers of migrants have succeeded in diluting the home culture, laws and values of receiving countries. An inability and unwillingness to integrate into the prevailing culture and the adoption of indigenous values all led to demands for institutionalized recognition of Muslim culture, religious values and laws.

In European countries attempting to become functioning pluralities offering equality to all, Muslim communities continue to impose their misogynistic views of women, inclusive of the need to practise female genital mutilation, multiple marriages, the isolation of women, and the imperative of full body and face coverings for girls and women. A culture where 'honour' relates to women's chastity raises its sons to feel that violence against women when men are spurned by them is justified. In Germany the Berlin Christmas market attack, the mass rapes in Cologne and elsewhere have awoken German citizens to a kind of violent dysfunction they are shocked to feel immersed within.

Attacks by Muslim migrants upon one another of a sectarian nature, of men attacking and raping women in refugee shelters, of gays and Christian migrants being in constant danger of attack keeps authorities on the alert. In Kandel, southwestern Germany, a 15-year-old migrant stabbed a 15-year-old German girl in the heart after she spurned him and he stalked, then finally murdered her. He had declared himself to be 14 years of age on arrival in Germany for the government benefits known to ensure that youth have a higher acceptance rate and derive greater benefits in assistance.

Many of the migrant 'youth' from the Middle East, South Asia and North Africa are in fact, not youth at all, but mature, unaccompanied men from among whose demographic violence often derives. "I am scared" professed a 24-year-old German dental assistant in Kandel, mother of a two-year-old girl. "It makes you think how many others will betray our hospitality", she commented after the murder of the 15-year-old German girl. "It feels like we've lost control. The state has lost control", said Jana Weigel nervously.

Others resent the level of 'hospitality' given the newcomers, grumbling that German retirees' needs have been ignored, in contrast. "German retirees w ho have worked hard for 45 years get less than the refugees", claimed Knoll Pede, 64, a town maintenance worker. "I have no problem with foreigners", said 53-year-old Maja Mathias who works in a local bakery. "But there is always the fear: What else is coming?" "Germans feel neglected. We need to wake up", commented the town's mayor, Gunther Tieleborger.

Austria, Sweden and Saarland, a German state, conduct age-proofing examinations on a regular basis. By a migrant claiming to be under 18 they have access to German lessons and job opportunities geared to minors. In Saarland, over a third of the migrants claiming to be under 18 were tested and found not to be. In 2015, Germany took in 890,000 people from the Middle East and elsewhere, another 280,000 in 2016, and 186,644 in 2017. Syrians represented the largest single group last year at almost 50% of the total, followed by Iraqis and Afghans.

While 603,000 applications were processed last year, 38.5 percent were rejected and 18 percent ended in some other way; withdrawals of applications, and presumably a number of the rejected melting into the general population determined to stay. Last year 26,000 were forcibly deported, fewer than the year before but not by much. The city of Cottbus, population 100,000, which has taken in 3,000 asylum seekers. has had to endure unfamiliar levels of violence, leading to a 'temporary' ban on refugees.

The local governments representing the towns of Salzgitter, Delmenhorst and Wilhelmshaven in Lower Saxony claiming they lack the resources and capability to properly integrate additional arrivals have implemented their own prohibition on accepting more refugees. One might call it Germany's new awareness leading to a new awakening.

Cooling towers near the university town of Cottbus Credit: REUTERS/Pawel Kopczynski/File