How is it possible for people to arremoline for hours screaming around a bus to intimidate a group of refugees and block the way to an accommodation? How, that chillen "We are the people", while the police dragged as a criminal to a child crying, forcing their way through the mass? Why a group is not able to recognize the fear of the other?
For his book, "Against the hate" (Gegen den Hass), the journalist and writer Carolin Emcke envisioned time and time again on the Internet this scene, which took place in the saxon village of Clausnitz, last February. Not to denounce, but to understand. What makes it possible for the disappearance of about before the eyes of others? What patterns of perception come into play? How do the mechanisms of hatred?
The author of berlin does not want to ask questions aggressive, but rather to analyse rationally the phenomenon and the causes of fear, time and time again, faced by refugees in Germany. It questions concepts seemingly innocuous as love, hope, and concern. Is returning it with clarity: love can be blind; the hope, to be lost; and the concern, hide the rejection.
That in Germany, it so groped image of the "concerned citizen" acts in the meantime, "as a sign of discourse, to divert attention from the questions for the rational reasons. As if the concerns are, in themselves, be a valid argument for the public discourse," calls the attention Emcke.
“Against the hate”
Passion for understanding
With his books, articles and participation in events, Carolin Emcke has been committed for years against the dogmatic thinking and the polarization of the society. It is not only in his last work the only one that calls for plurality and to fight against the exclusion of people perceived as different and alien: jews, homosexuals, women, foreigners… Because only by maintaining and re-negotiating day-to-day plurality can be accomplished democracy.
For his significant contribution to the dialogue and social peace, Emcke received this Sunday (23.10.2016) the Peace Prize of the German book trade, one of the most important literary prizes of the country, delivered each year at the close of the Frankfurt Book Fair.
“Carolin Emcke is exposed to difficult conditions of life and describes, in a very personal and sincere, how the violence, the fear and the silence can change people. The work of Carolin Emcke thus becomes an example of social action in times of political conflicts, religious and cultural often inhibit dialogue”, argued the German book trade.
From Frankfurt to Berlin
“Of the wars. Letters to friends”
Born in 1967, Emcke began his journalistic career in 1998, as editor of the weekly magazine Der Spiegel, that was sent as war correspondent to countries in crisis such as Kosovo, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and the Gaza Strip. In 2004 appeared his book “the wars. Letters to friends” (Von den Kriegen – brieven aan Freunden), in which process their experience and reflect on their role as an observer. Since 2007 he settled as a publicist free in Berlin, with numerous award-winning contributions, interviews and essays for the daily newspaper Die Zeit, a weekly column of opinion for the Süddeutsche Zeitung, among other. In 2012, he published a book about the discovery of his homosexuality: “How we want”.
Doctorate in philosophy, with a work around the concept of "collective identity", Carolin Emcke now lives in the berlin district of Kreuzberg. Grew up and studied in Frankfurt, in addition to studies in London and at Harvard University. Philosophy, Politics and History were his fields of training, with a work diploma tutoreado by Jürgen Habermas, one of the most cited representatives of the Frankfurt School.
Award against the growing hatred in Europe
Emcke was the goddaughter of the banker Alfred Herrhausen, assassinated by the red Army faction (RAF) in 1989. In his book “mute Violence” (Stumme Gewalt, 2008), deals with that organization, whose paths also crossed with yours in a “traumatic experience". In his text, argues against all types of violence and revenge, in favor of the creation of a kind of Truth Commission.
This award Carolin Emcke is also a prize for voting against the growing hatred in Europe. Because Emcke not only asks for the causes of hatred and contempt for other groups of people, but also names them: "The ideology that leads to hatred is being justified in all of these contexts, digital, discussion forums, publications, in discussion forums, in music texts, in which the refugees, in principle, are not seen as human beings equal in dignity.”
Author: Sabine Peschel (rml/few)
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