After racist shouting
Sylt fears massive damage to its image
23.06.2024, 15:08
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Young men and women shout xenophobic slogans on Sylt. A video of the incident goes viral, a nationwide debate erupts and brings the holiday island into disrepute.
Women with discreet designer watches on their wrists and large sunglasses on their noses stroll barefoot with their children to the beach in Kampen. Luxury cars with gleaming chrome are parked in the sun in front of Club Pony on Sylt on this June afternoon. Their owners are drinking cool Pinot Gris on the terrace of the bar that made huge headlines across the country a month ago.
At the time, a video was released showing young people shouting xenophobic slogans while partying on the terrace. There was great horror. Today, there is no sign of the excitement in the upscale town of Kampen. At least, at first glance. The mayor hopes that the much-reported racism scandal has raised awareness nationwide. The Sylt Dehoga is calling for civil courage – and fears lasting damage to the image if further cases occur.
For at least two men and one woman, fundamental changes have taken place since then: They can be seen in the video, which is only a few seconds long and is said to have been taken on the terrace of a party with more than 500 people on Whit Saturday. It shows young people chanting “Germany for the Germans – foreigners out!” to the party song “L’amour toujours” by Gigi D’Agostino, seemingly completely unashamedly and exuberantly. One man makes a gesture that is reminiscent of the Hitler salute. The police made the incident public on May 24.
Public prosecutor is still investigating
One month after a video became known, the public prosecutor’s office in Flensburg is continuing to investigate the two men and the young woman. “The investigation will certainly take a few more weeks,” said senior public prosecutor Bernd Winterfeldt. The investigation is being conducted on suspicion of incitement, and one of the men is also being investigated on suspicion of using symbols of unconstitutional organizations.
The Pony operators took a public stance shortly after the incidents became known. Now they did not want to comment on dpa’s inquiries. The post in which they distanced themselves from the case four weeks ago and spoke out against “racism, fascism and any form of discrimination” and declared that they would report the party guests responsible is still pinned on the bar’s Instagram page.
The club’s operators said they had received death threats. “We are being insulted in the worst possible way and are receiving death threats,” they wrote on the club’s Instagram profile. They also published a sequence from a surveillance video that shows the scene from a different angle.
Otherwise just “Champagne Shower”
Around two weeks ago, the operators shared sequences of a Pentecost party without racist chants or any connection to them on Instagram: Young women dance with full glasses in tight dresses and short skirts, men in white shirts sway happily and laugh to techno beats, bright drone images show luxury cars and quick pans over partygoers on the terrace. Champagne is poured from magnum bottles, and the words “Champagne Shower” are displayed with three bottle emojis.
The public prosecutor’s office is also investigating two other cases – which are also said to have occurred in Kampen at Pentecost. In one of the clubs, a guest is said to have shouted “Germany for the Germans, foreigners out!”, and this is now being investigated for incitement. According to Winterfeldt, a suspect has been found in a third case – he must now answer for bodily harm, incitement and damage to property. He is said to have attacked a 29-year-old woman on a street near a beach bar in Kampen on Pentecost Sunday and insulted her with racist language – according to the police, the woman was slightly injured in the attack.
After a few turbulent days, the mood in the village is now fortunately calm again, said Kampen’s mayor Stefanie Böhm (Kampen Voters’ Association). “Sylt has a certain appeal: the nationwide media coverage of the incident in the Pony will perhaps make some people more sensitive and cautious.” This could therefore contribute to many people taking a closer look and listening to similar incidents elsewhere. “Especially in these times, we all have to be cautious and attentive to such racist statements.” Something like this has no place at any Whitsun party, or at any celebration in general.
Dirk Erdmann, head of the Dehoga on Sylt and operator of the Rungholt Hotel in Kampen, was also relieved: “We are glad that things have calmed down, but we all have to show civil courage, that is essential so that something like this cannot happen again,” he said. The European elections made it clear in which direction Germany is developing politically – the low results of the AfD in Schleswig-Holstein also showed that the northernmost federal state and thus Sylt “can by no means be described as a right-wing stronghold”.
“Sylt was, is and will remain a cosmopolitan and friendly island,” said Florian Korte, spokesman for the municipality of Sylt. After the video became known, the municipality coordinated with the tourism service and quickly published a joint statement. This statement, of course, still stands.
In response to the video with racist yelling, several dozen people gathered for a vigil in the island town of Kampen on Sylt. They wanted to make a stand against the right. A few days later, a small group of around ten punks marched through Westerland under the motto “Be loud against the right!” Later, the “Sylt against the right” initiative planned a larger demonstration in front of the town hall in Westerland.
For a student involved in the shouting, the incident had further consequences in addition to the criminal investigation: she was threatened with expulsion from the university. After a thorough examination, the Exmatriculation Committee of the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences decided against this step just a few days ago. However, a ban imposed on the young woman from the university until the end of July remained in place.