Germany abolishes itself

Cover of the first edition of Germany abolished

The author, Thilo Sarrazin

Germany abolishes itself is the title of a book by Thilo Sarrazin published in 2010 . It is subtitled How we risk our country . In it, Sarrazin deals with the effects on Germany , which he believes will result from the combination of a decline in the birth rate , the growing underclass and immigration from predominantly Muslim countries. The book received considerable media attention even in the run-up to its publication, Der Spiegel and the Bild -Zeitung published excerpts in advance.

An evaluation by Media Control showed that Germany is abolishing itself among the best-selling non - fiction books in bound form (hardcover) since the Federal Republic of Germany was founded. By early 2012, over 1.5 million copies had been sold. The book was number 1 on the Spiegel bestseller list for a total of 21 weeks in 2010 and 2011 .

The theses formulated in the book triggered a broad and long-lasting social controversy with the participation of representatives from politics , media and science . In the course of this, Sarrazin was released from office as a board member of the Deutsche Bundesbank . The SPD Presidium decided on party regulatory proceedings against Sarrazin , which were discontinued.

content

The book is divided into nine chapters . After an introduction and two shorter chapters, which contain a “historical outline” on “State and society” and a “look into the future”, “an inventory” follows, in which “signs of decay” are shown. In the five following chapters of the book, Sarrazin turns to five topics: “Poverty and Inequality”, “Work and Politics”, “Education and Justice”, “Immigration and Migration” and “Demography and Population Policy”. In the last chapter Sarrazin describes in a satirical way two scenarios (“A dream and a nightmare”) for “Germany in 100 years”.

In the following, chapters (2–8) of the book are summarized in text chronological order. A list of the topics covered is followed by the policy recommendations derived from the problem analyzes.

"A look into the future"

Sarrazin makes a model calculation based on the assumptions of an average fertility rate of 1.4, an annual immigration balance of around 50,000 people, and an increase in productivity per hour worked of 1% per year. For the year 2050, based on these assumptions, the economic growth will come to an end around the year 2020 because the increase in productivity and the decrease in the number of people in employment will offset each other at this point in time. Relative to the number of people in employment, the number of people over 65 doubles and for every person in employment there is one person of retirement age . Thirdly, the national product per capita continues to rise, but pensioners can only participate if the share of pension-related expenditure in the national product is doubled. The additional burden from aging is higher than the relief from fewer children and the unemployed.

Sarrazin expresses concerns about the quantity and quality of German human capital (p. 35):

“If there is more continuous investment in Germany, then the German capital stock will not represent a bottleneck for economic development in the future either. With regard to the quantity and quality of the workforce, one has to worry more. The quantity results from the demographic development, immigration and the labor force participation of the population, the quality from their socialization, the level of education, the age structure and - if there is immigration - from the socialization and the level of education of the immigrants. "

As a result of these developments, Germany could “in future no longer solve distribution and financial problems through growth, but only through redistribution.” (P. 37)

"Signs of decay"

According to Sarrazin, the central problems for the future of Germany include demographic change , the increasing heterogeneity of society, a decrease in productivity and a consolidation of the educationally disadvantaged milieus and lower- class phenomena .

Sarrazin comes to the conclusion that society is shrinking and getting older, more heterogeneous and less productive. In Germany, an above-average number of children grew up in so-called educationally deprived classes with often below-average intelligence . The proportion of people who are difficult to integrate into working life due to a lack of education and “ intellectual deficiencies” is increasing: “The continuous decline in the quantitative potential of scientific and technical intelligence will continue” (p. 53)

"Poverty and Inequality"

Sarrazin discusses different definitions of poverty , the effects on the individual and the relationship between poverty and society.

Sarrazin postulates that a purely material definition of poverty does not go far enough and that redistribution as a means of combating poverty is insufficient. Many side effects of material poverty, such as poor health and poor nutrition , are not due to a lack of income: "The problem is not material, but spiritual and moral poverty" (p. 123). On this move, he also expresses criticism of poverty research:

“90 percent of the apparently observed negative consequences of poverty are not the consequences of income poverty, but its concomitant effects, which have the same causes as income poverty. The almost complete disregard of this connection deprives a large part of poverty research in Germany from its scientific basis and relegates it to the field of ideology. "

- p. 134 f.

Sarrazin also expresses criticism of the public handling of the issue of poverty:

“In the current German discussion, the focus is on the negative individual consequences and the social causes. In contrast, the individual causes of the poverty situation that can be attributed to the person and the social consequences of combating poverty primarily based on personal income are much less discussed. "

- p. 134

It is of central importance to get people into work, because dependence on state transfers exacerbates the problem of a lack of drive and self-esteem .

"Work and Politics"

Sarrazin initially deals with quantitative and qualitative changes in the world of work (“Are we running out of work?”, “Working in a networked world”). Then he discusses "Political Influence on the Labor Market".

According to Sarrazin, the underlayer has solidified. Their inadequate participation in the labor market has been reinforced by politics (p. 174):

“The greater the permeability of a society, the more meritocratic it became, the more the social stratification adapted to the talent profiles . [...] The assumption that equal opportunities can eliminate inequalities is therefore a big mistake. In reality, equal opportunity works in a bitter sense: in a truly equal opportunity society, someone is only down for reasons that lie within themselves. In Germany we have been observing the gradual consolidation and constant growth of a largely functionless and unemployed lower class for many years. For the reasons already described, a relatively high guaranteed basic income drives these less able-bodied people into non-employment and binds them there. "

To accommodate work would by the basic security perverse incentives set in Germany. The resulting passivation harms not only the taxpayers, but also the transfer recipients themselves. Ultimately, Sarrazin recommends that transfer recipients make compulsory consideration based on the American workfare concept. This is crucial for people's ability to activate.

"Education and Justice"

Sarrazin first defines the goals of education , then deals with “reading”, “practicing” and “thinking and memorizing ”. Then he asks whether everyone can learn everything and what PISA measures. Then he goes into gender differences, school systems , equal opportunities and equal opportunities , educational distance (i.e. the educational disadvantage in the Federal Republic of Germany ) and in an excursus on a Berlin elementary school project on multi-year learning. Finally, he shows political options for action.

According to Sarrazin, three things are important for an optimal contribution of the German education system to the functioning of the economy and society (p. 249):

• Socialization in the sense of a democratic and civil society, promotion of social skills and personal stability
• Adequate teaching of the basic skills in reading and arithmetic to as many as possible as a prerequisite for vocational training
• Promotion and use of all intellectual potential.

Specifically, Sarrazin suggests that towards the end of the school year a nationwide standardized test be carried out in every school and in every class on the level achieved in the core competencies of reading comprehension and mathematical comprehension (p. 252 ff.). In addition, intelligence tests should be carried out and socio-economic data collected on the basis of origin. All results should be published anonymously. Second, state schools should be given more administrative freedom, in particular the right to choose teachers themselves, to organize themselves as they see fit, and to manage material resources themselves. In order to anticipate the growing segregation of pupils, all schools should be given a minimum mix based on their origin.

Sarrazin describes how to deal with the “educationally distant” as the core problem of educational policy. Here he makes the following suggestions (p. 231 ff.):

• After the child is born, the mothers are given home visits to advise them on nutrition and child care.
• The visit of cribs to compensate, which would then be focused on deficits in parental attention and care, should be recommended.
• The visit of Kitas is binding from the third, no later than four years old. There should be no television and other modern media in day-care centers, instead a lot should be read aloud in addition to free play .
• The school is run as an all-day school from the first school year . Homework supervision and supervision are carried out by the teachers and the deficits of individual children are compensated as far as possible through targeted practice.
• Leisure and sports activities follow on from homework supervision. There are no television or computer games at school.
• School uniforms should be compulsory in order to blur social differences and to create a clear demarcation between the school sector and the private sector.
• In the first few years, the school concentrates on acquiring the core competencies of reading, writing and arithmetic.
• As the school career progresses, more and more practical subjects such as home economics , cooking , handicrafts and handicrafts are offered to the underperforming children .
• In order to prevent excessive media consumption by children and adolescents , at least older children should only spend the weekend and after work at home. Parents are subject to heavy fines for any unexcused absence from work.

"Immigration and Integration"

After a brief outline of immigration and emigration in Germany, Sarrazin discusses migrants of Muslim origin and Islam and Islamism . He then presents economic and cultural integration problems and discusses the topic of parallel societies . Marriage behavior is a "yardstick" for willingness to integrate . 60 percent of the marriages of Turkish citizens in Germany would be concluded with a partner from Turkey . These “import partners” “consistently” come from the regional environment and often also from close relatives of the family into which they marry. They “consistently” had a “very low level of education”. In this context, the author speculates about " hereditary factors " as the background for a "failure" of Turkish migrants in the German school system:

“Whole clans have a long tradition of inbreeding and a corresponding number of disabilities . It is known that the proportion of congenital disabilities among Turkish and Kurdish migrants is far above average. But the topic is often hushed up. One could get the idea that hereditary factors are also responsible for the failure of parts of the Turkish population in the German school system. "

- Germany abolishes itself : 6th edition. P. 316

Sarrazin presents the Neukölln example . Then he asks what the Germans want, whether assimilation is a crime, and discusses a “conquest through fertility ”. Finally, he goes into the connection between the welfare state and integration and gives policy recommendations.

First of all, Sarrazin demands that the receiving society must convey clear expectations of migrants, the tenor of which he characterizes as follows:

“Anyone who is there and has legal residence status is welcome. But we expect from you that you learn the language, that you earn your living with work, that you have ambitions for education for your children, that you adapt to the manners and customs of Germany and that over time you will become Germans - if not you , then your children at the latest. If you are of the Muslim faith, ok. You have the same rights and obligations as pagan, evangelical or catholic Germans. But we don't want national minorities. If you want to stay Turkish or Arab and want to do so for your children, you are better off in your country of origin. And anyone who is primarily interested in the blessings of the German welfare state is definitely not welcome here. "

- Germany abolishes itself : 2nd edition, p. 326

In order to improve the integration of Muslim migrants, increase their low labor force participation and reduce their dependence on social transfers , Sarrazin focuses on the three areas of language , early childhood education and education. He also calls for a clear “culture of expectation” in which integration is primarily the responsibility of migrants. Offers of help should have a clear invitation character. Sarrazin proposes a package of measures (p. 327 ff.):

• Mandatory non-profit work for recipients of basic income support who are able to work, which is replaced by language courses if they do not speak the language. Punctuality and non-participation should be sanctioned more strongly.
• Kindergarten is compulsory for children from the age of three. The lingua franca in kindergarten is German, the focus is on conversation and reading. In the event of an unexcused absence, the basic security for the child will be reduced. The all-day school becomes regular operation, with obligatory homework supervision for those students who do not meet the performance standards to a satisfactory extent. There should be no exemption from certain lessons for religious reasons, but a headscarf ban in schools and optional school uniforms .
• Tightening of the linguistic requirements for acquiring citizenship , also when the spouse moves in . No basic security for spouses who have moved in for a period of 10 years.
• Extremely restrictive conditions for further immigration , which in principle only specialists at the upper end of the qualification scale meet. Fines for accommodating illegals, which lead to a deduction from the basic security. A central nationwide database is to be set up for everyone except German citizens.

"Demography and Population Policy"

The chapter begins with a comparative description of the demographic trends in the developed industrial countries and in Germany. Then Sarrazin discusses the consequences and influencing factors of the trends described. He postulates that immigration is not a solution for Germany and gives reasons why the net reproduction rate must not be fate. After presenting the “socialization and logic of lived life”, he makes the following “considerations on trend reversal” (p. 378 ff.):

• The attractiveness and social appreciation of long-term partnerships should be supported and promoted.
• Care offers are to be expanded and all-day schools to be introduced across the board.

“In the case of kindergartens, the share of all-day care would have to be expanded, because only then [...] is it really possible for the mother to work. [...] Ultimately, every child of any age has to be looked after during normal working hours on working days. [...] If this time is used for a sensible upbringing, educational offers and concrete requirements for the children, this is the best contribution to equal opportunities for the children from the lower classes. "

- Germany abolishes itself : p. 380 f.

• The willingness of working parents to reproduce should be stimulated by suitable combinations of exemption rules and wage replacement.
• The aim of child benefit must be that workers should not fall into poverty through children and that transfer recipients are not seduced into increasing their support through children.
• Monetary incentives to increase the fertility rate of educated women should be used. So could

“For example, if they have completed their studies, each child born before the mother's 30th birthday is given a state bonus of 50,000 euros. [...] The premium - and that will be the political cliff - should, however, only be used selectively, namely for those groups for whom higher fertility is particularly desirable in order to improve the socio-economic quality of the birth structure. "

- Germany abolishes itself : p. 389 f.

History of origin, publications and editions

Emergence

In a word of thanks, Sarrazin says that Germany is getting rid of the idea that the book came from May 2008. Tobias Winstel from the Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt (DVA) asked him whether he would like to contribute to the political debate about the German welfare state with a book . The working title was initially We eat our seeds , for publication he had considered the titles Deutschlanddämmerung and Deutschland im Abendlicht , but discarded both in favor of the final title. In addition, he followed many of the publisher's suggestions for defusing the text, such as B. to replace the word “ race ” with “ ethnicity ”.

In an interview with Frank Schirrmacher , Sarrazin said in the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” that the starting point for his considerations was “the book by the famous American naturalist and sociobiologist Edward O. Wilson On Human Nature, cited in Chapter 2 ”. He also refers to a speech by Nobel Prize winner Gunnar Myrdal from 1938 “Population, a Problem for Democracy” as well as Richard Lynn and Tatu Vanhanen and - as Sarrazin further explained - “its observed connection, but without giving me the causal explanations of the authors to make your own. Rather, I cite the ' Flynn effect ', named after its discoverer, as a conceivable explanation . Sarrazin also said:

"The educational researchers Elsbeth Stern and Jürgen Guttke published an anthology in 2001," Perspektiven der Intellektivenforschung ". In 2009 Detlef H. Rost published the work “Intelligence. Facts and Myths ”, which gives a very detailed overview of the entire state of research. I also have the controversial book by Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray The Bell Curve, of course . Read Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life and the literature of the resulting debate. The various evaluations and discussions of the international PISA results were also decisive . Another important factor for me was Heiner Rindermann's study “What do international school performance studies measure?” And the discussion it triggered. Finally, I also read with interest the American educational researcher Roland G. Fryer with his study of the test differences between white and black students. Finally, the psychologist [ sic ] Volkmar Weiss said something illuminating about the upward trend and educational policy in the GDR . I have evaluated and quoted many other sources that I will not name in detail now. "

- Thilo Sarrazin in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

When Schirrmacher commented that Volkmar Weiss came from an extremely right-wing environment, Sarrazin replied: "I only quoted Weiss where he was competent, namely with his knowledge of the GDR education system." Volkmar Weiss has the explanation on his homepage The Sarrazin success book - to what extent is plagiarism? in which he accuses Sarrazin of deliberately "obscuring" his sources.

Pre-published theses

In the run-up to publication, Sarrazin cooperated with the Bild newspaper , among others , which published the following theses from the book:

1. Germany is said to be "smaller and more stupid" due to the decline in the birth rate, while the "social burdens of uncontrolled migration [...] politically correct " are hushed up.
2. Muslim migrants are below average integrated into the labor market and above average dependent on social transfers. They did not care enough about participation in education, had a high birth rate and showed a tendency towards the formation of parallel societies . Integration officers and Islam researchers, sociologists and political scientists as well as naive politicians keep these problems silent.
3. Sarrazin criticizes “low educational standards” and therefore advocates an all-day school and the reintroduction of school uniforms , and denies computer games (negative example World of Warcraft ) any pedagogy.
4. The "Islamic immigration" is characterized by "demanding, the welfare state, criminal, different, misogynistic attitudes [...] with flowing transitions to terrorism".

Publication date and editions

Sarrazin abolishes himself at the book presentation of Germany

The book was already available in bookstores before the official publication date, August 30, 2010. Both the first edition of 25,000 copies and the second edition of 15,000 copies were sold the day after publication. The third edition of 30,000 copies was delivered on the third day, the fourth edition of 80,000 copies after a week. A further 100,000 copies were reprinted for the fifth and sixth editions. With the 13th edition, Sarrazin commented on the debate triggered by the book in a newly written, short foreword and "defused" a few critical passages. According to a DVA spokesman, an additional 10,000 copies were sold daily in December 2010. The bestseller was published as a hardcover , as an e-book and as a paperback .

methodology

In his book, Sarrazin mainly evaluates secondary statistical data that he did not collect himself, but compiled and interpreted from existing data sources. He uses methods of descriptive statistics (e.g. correlation analyzes) to derive statements about possible causal relationships between different variables. For example, Sarrazin sums up that “intelligence measures and educational indicators [...] are highly correlated with one another”, but expressly points out that a causal relationship between these variables cannot be proven by the correlation analysis.

The data material used for the data analysis shows a given degree of aggregation , on the basis of which the analyzes are carried out and conclusions are drawn. For example, the data on the origin of migrants according to region (e.g. “Africa”, “Middle East”) are aggregated. A breakdown according to religious affiliation or nationality is not offered, which is criticized by reviewers , since the educational success of migrants at the analysis level of nationalities shows a considerable variance within the regions of origin summarized by Sarrazin. Regarding religious affiliation, Sarrazin justifies his approach by postulating that almost all immigrants from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, the Near and Middle East and Africa are Muslims and that non-Muslim immigrants from these regions show above-average integration behavior.

reception

Criticism of previously published theses

Simone von Stosch examined Sarrazin's theses on tagesschau.de . The claim that a particularly large number of immigrants from Turkey take Hartz IV benefits is wrong. In fact, the rate is no higher than for other migrants. The willingness to engage in entrepreneurship is above average in this population group. Due to a shortage of skilled workers, there is a tendency in industry to bring more than fewer skilled workers to Germany from abroad. The educational level of Muslim migrants is not always lower than that of the average population. It is true that only 7.8% of migrants of Turkish origin have the Abitur. In contrast, every third immigrant from Iran, Afghanistan and Iraq have a high school diploma. 15.2% of the Iranian , Afghan and Iraqi immigrants have a university or technical college degree, compared with only 11.3% of the total population. Therefore, the thesis that Muslim immigrants are uneducated is wrong.

The evening newspaper stated that Sarrazin's theses "are not explicitly wrong, but statistically or verbally tricked into so that the truth has at least been manipulated". His statement that "the proportion of congenital disabilities among Turkish and Kurdish migrants is far above average [and] whole clans [...] have a tradition of inbreeding" cannot be supported because inbreeding disabilities are not recorded statistically. He also stated that Turks only married a German partner in 8% of the cases, whereas Russian Germans married 67% of the cases without including the fact that “most Russian Germans already have a German passport” and can marry one another without having one Statistics to be excluded. Sarrazin's statement that the Sharia is finding its way into Germany is not carried out objectively, and his thesis, according to which male Turkish heads of families are “largely unemployed”, cannot be denied with an unemployment rate of 25%, according to AZ large part “(ie 75%) compared to employed Turkish male heads of families.

Martin Spiewak criticized Sarrazin's theses on educational policy at the time as "just missing the lie [... a mixture of] truths with half-truths and nonsense". He pointed out that the migrants with the lowest academic performance come from Christian Italy, that Iranians are academically above average and that there is generally no evidence of a causal connection between religion and educational deficits. Spiewak criticized Sarrazin's conclusion on a result of the PISA studies as being particularly distorting of the meaning , according to which “students with a Turkish migration background again performed worse than all other immigrant groups”. This was justified “genetically” by Sarrazin, although the official PISA study conclusion on this was that this deficit could be explained by “socio-economic factors” (poverty) and [the lack of command] of the German language. In addition, the rate of migrants with an educational background is increasing “still too slowly, but constantly”.

Die Welt am Sonntag questioned the accuracy of his calculation models in an interview with Sarrazin: Among other things, he claimed that Germany would only have 25 million inhabitants in 2110 and that the proportion of migrants would rise from six to 69 percent, although a serious extrapolation over 100 years not possible: For 2060 it is likely that there will be 65 to 70 million Germans. The newspaper also criticizes the selective picking of statistics because, although Turkish students only graduate with a high school diploma in 7% of cases (German average: 17%), the proportion of Afghan, Iranian and Pakistani students is 30%.

Reviews in chronological selection

Klaus Popatzky gave the book a mostly negative review on the Deutschlandradio Kultur program “Criticism” . It is "corrosively boring" and consists of a "bundle of notes" in which "Uncle Thilo" explains the world to us. Sarrazin's anti-Muslim excesses are extremely questionable and close to racist tones, according to Popatzky. In addition, the author's views on Hartz IV recipients , which had already been expressed years earlier, were also incorporated into the work, which underlined his view of man, reduced to economic usefulness. Above all, the reviewer criticizes the contradictions of the work. As an example, he quotes from the end of the book, in which Sarrazin writes on page 359, “There is no scientifically reliable method of reliably predicting birth behavior and immigration over several decades” , a statement that makes Sarrazin’s main thesis about the extinction of intelligent Germans seem pointless .

Christian Geyer said in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that “Sarrazin has written an anti-Muslim dossier” and wants to get to the heart of elementary life contexts. The point is the omnipotence of genetics . “Indeed, the elemental thing about Sarrazin is biological. For him, cultural is a cover word for genetic. ”Once you have understood this, read“ Sarrazin's concern about the 'cultural identity', the 'cultural substance' and the 'national character' of Germany with different, correct biological eyes ”. The thesis emerges clearly in his book: "Islamic immigration to Germany must be stopped - and for 'ultimately' genetic reasons." Nobody prevents "the author Thilo Sarrazin from propagating his theses." However, the "biologistic book" is missing the cultural basis of business. 'Germany is abolishing itself' tells the story of the “downfall of a nation” for which “with the Muslims, six percent of the population now take responsibility”. It is questionable "what the other 94 percent have done for the future of their country in the last few decades". Sarrazin's book is "an attempt to exonerate a disoriented elite."

Arno Widmann reviewed in the Berliner Zeitung that this book was "the book of a man possessed". Sarrazin wants to make something clear to us and for this he mobilizes “everything that fits his business”, but at the same time wants to “be precise”. As a result, "he doubts his figures, points out himself that one statistic is in truth not comparable with the other, but then he does use them." Sarrazin said, "the genetic makeup of people of all countries and peoples" is " of great resemblance ”. Nevertheless, he advocates the idea that “50 to 80 percent of intelligence is hereditary” and deduces from this that there are serious differences in mentality not between individuals but between different peoples. Sarrazin is right in many ways, our education system is fatal. Students are "not challenged and encouraged, but left hanging". Widmann, however, asks whether Sarrazin wants to demand and promote. Statistically, it is clear to Sarrazin that “it is not worth the effort to generally help those down there”. In the best education system, “the innate inequality of people is not reduced by education, but rather accentuated.” Sarrazin is a man possessed, “who feeds his madness, which is the madness of the boundless superiority of his own life plan, with numbers, him for logic himself and everything serves as confirmation of what he already knows. "Sarrazin has been a case for the courts for a long time and again:" Anyone who reads his book thinks of 'sedition', of Section 130 of the Criminal Code. "Sarrazin is enjoying this attack and believes - that is part of his madness -" science, logic, intelligence on his side. "Sarrazin is" a case not just for the judiciary ".

In the taz , Ulrike Herrmann and Alke Wierth particularly criticized the chapter “More children from the clever, before it's too late” : “This was exactly the eugenics program invented by Francis Galton in the 19th century . Sarrazin refers to him explicitly - but without using the word eugenics. However, he used the term "dysgenic" very precisely , which could not be understood without the context of eugenics and was invented in 1915 to describe "negative selection processes" in a human population. "

Andrea Seibel said in Die Welt , “that all those people who hope that someone will finally tell the truth here” ”would be disappointed and overwhelmed“ by this bundle of historical philosophy, statistics and precarious treatises on intelligence, genetics, racial theory and Population policy. "

Necla Kelek spoke out in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that Thilo Sarrazin's theses on education and immigration should be discussed instead of just demonizing the author. “The political class,” which he criticizes, refuses to participate in the debate. If “an economist, financial expert and experienced politician like Thilo Sarrazin” is concerned about Germany's future, one can expect “that he will analyze connections with the controller's eyes, make a qualitative and quantitative assessment of numbers and connections and make suggestions as a politician how the problems could be solved. ”Kelek says that this expectation will not be disappointed in his book. Sarrazin brings together "on 460 pages of data and facts, all of which are more or less known for themselves, but in their overall view and assessment yet result in surprising connections and conclusions." She believes that the interrelationship between intelligence and demography shown by Sarrazin is biologistic is defamed: "Common sense seems to suggest that ethnic groups such as the peoples of Anatolia or Egypt, who for centuries were prevented by the Ottomans from learning to read and write, where girls are still not allowed to go to school, inherited other talents than the sons of Johann Sebastian Bach and that there is also something like the Gaussian normal distribution in terms of intelligence. ”His“ remarks on poverty and inequality and work and politics ”could be a liberation, as he was the Free poverty from material dependency. In the previous understanding of politics, across all political parties, it was assumed that “social progress, health, nutrition and ultimately happiness can only be achieved through more material care.” Sarrazin stated that “in the previous political concept, the individual, his behavior and his responsibility 'does not occur at all', which he wants to change by introducing qualitative criteria. In terms of content, none of his critics responded to the suggestions. With some statements by politicians, she has the feeling that “a German Haider or Geert Wilders or the strengthening of the NPD is being talked about”. The social democrat Sarrazin and his book were not suitable for this enemy image. Sarrazin's book is "an opportunity to rethink integration policy and thus also the future of the country in important areas."

Frank Schirrmacher described Sarrazin in the FAZ as a “ghostwriter of a frightened society”. He wrote a book “which says a lot of right and necessary things”. However, it leads "to consequences that he does not trust himself to draw and even hides with diligence and which would take the breath away from some of his followers as a result." It is no coincidence that "decisive terms, names and sources are not in the register." emerge ”, although they could be reconstructed. That is not a mistake and one should not underestimate Sarrazin. He wanted to "trigger a completely new political debate that argues biologically and not culturally at its core". Sarrazin speaks, "when he speaks of culture, not of heritage, but of genetic material" and that "is part of democratic discourse exactly a hundred years ago". With every page that you read, “it becomes clearer that this is not an educated bourgeois treatise, but the establishment of a completely different concept of culture”. The book is "about the connection between hereditary biology and culture and ultimately about it, a word that Sarrazin (quoting Darwin) uses as fearlessly as Gottfried Benn once did, 'selection' and 'selection'." Da Sarrazin, who If culture wants to defend “in truth no longer believe in its binding and binding force”, what happens “what basically happens when societies fear for their identity and distrust their own values: the flight into biologism ”.

Schirrmacher went on to say that Sarrazin had hidden a vulgar Darwinian social theory at the heart of his book, "as if all the experiences of the twentieth century had not existed." The author obscures the terminology and treats his sources negligently. Sarrazin ignores "a centuries-long, sometimes devastating, scientific history of the reception of Darwinist theories" and follows on from them, "as if they were knowledge of today". So that this would not be noticed, he obscured the terminology; It seems like "as if a lecturer has banned all 'offensive' but historically relevant terms from the book so that the message can be brought to the customer historically uncontaminated" or "so that the customer does not notice where the journey with Sarrazin is going" . Public debates would always be risky "when correlations are made into causalities". Sarrazin asserts “causalities”, but whoever proceeds in this way “has to provide more than a derivation from the correlations of a statistic”. There is a lot to suggest that "Sarrazin is really interested in the establishment of a new political morality." It is "not moral in itself, but comes as a 'law of nature'."

In the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Richard Wagner described Sarrazin's book as “ alarmist ”, which sparked a debate in Germany “about the negative consequences of Muslim immigration”. Wagner thinks that the book's great attention is due to "the fact that the German political class has been whitewashing the subject for too long". Sarrazin is "neither a theorist nor a reporter", but underpins "his theses with a lot of statistics and ultimately with a genetic justification", with which he makes himself most vulnerable, since in Germany genetics is "still an instrument of evil" . What Sarrazin brings up, however, is "for years a big topic for the German reality". It is about "the rapid emergence of a new lower class" and especially "in the second and third generation of Turkish and Arab immigrants, about the emergence of parallel societies with unlawful areas and a high rate of juvenile delinquency". It is therefore a matter of "the visible disintegration of the bourgeois order."

In the SZ magazine, Andreas Bernard called Sarrazin's book “uneducated, fertile and far too fat”. He summed up that the book is a “proliferating structure” and “surprisingly uneducated in its flawedness” and “almost obese in its stoutness”, “but so fertile that the germ of the argument of a short lecture has grown into a giant oatmeal”. If you add the narrator's perspective, "which can easily compete with the narrowing of the eye slit of a burqa, Thilo Sarrazin's book is actually exactly like his enemy: an overweight, fertile religious fanatic." Sarrazin founded a new "discipline of religious hygiene", whereby He goes to great lengths to “uncover the historical blueprint of his book only up to the limit at which it remains unrecognizable to most readers.” The “discredited catchphrases such as" eugenics "”, which have been “discredited for 70 years, do not appear once . On the other hand, the "rare and therefore safe counter-term of» dysgenics «" constantly falls, "in the context that the unhindered reproduction of Muslim immigrants leads to damage to the German genome". Bernard suggests that there should be only one appropriate response to the book and that is silence. But the fact that “the exact opposite is the case bears witness to the strange culture of debate in Germany, which has a particularly open ear for apocalyptic demographers.” The demon of demography is “a safe bet when it comes to attracting public attention”, even “if it does one relies so heavily on scientifically legitimized racism as Thilo Sarrazin. "

Lorenz Maroldt remarked in the Tagesspiegel that the most annoying thing about Thilo Sarrazin's book was “that it has supplanted another, first in public perception, now also in the bestseller lists, which also deals with social neglect, juvenile delinquency and integration: Kirsten Heisig's Das Ende der Patience . A serious debate had only just begun about the coolly summarized experiences and recommendations of the late Berlin youth judge, when she was drowned again in the hysteria about Sarrazin's sociobiological all kinds of things. "

The historian Hans-Ulrich Wehler called in time , however, the book as "the reform plea of a downright passionate social democrats." Sarrazin's problem diagnosis hit the mark. Furthermore, Wehler demanded that one should “finally take note of the book's strengths”. He said that “there are undoubtedly not just a few controversial theses or steep attempts at interpretation” that “require contradiction and discussion”. For a “stringent argument”, as requested by Sarrazin, however, in his opinion it is completely sufficient “to rely on the influence of sociocultural and political factors”. Sarrazin also knows that "breeding procedures, especially in Germany since the experience with the Nazi dictatorship, which wanted to achieve its goal of" racial purity "in this way, rightly meet with sharp rejection".

Reception by scientists

Michael Blume (political and religious scholar)

Michael Blume protested against the incorrect citation of one of his scientific papers. In order to be able to prove the postulated connection between the pronounced religiosity of many Muslims and a higher birth rate, Sarrazin simply “dropped” the data published by Blume on the birth rate in “very traditional communities” such as the New Apostolic Church and Jehovah's Witnesses .

Harry Ostrer (geneticist)

In a comment for the online magazine The European , the American geneticist Harry Ostrer protested against a possible misuse of his study of Abraham's children by Sarrazin. Although he was not yet familiar with the book, the scientist wrote, he had the impression from press reports that Sarrazin had misunderstood his theses. Due to genetic similarity, no conclusions can be drawn about individual characteristics.

Siegfried Lehrl (psychologist)

In an interview on Sarrazin's theses, the psychologist Siegfried Lehrl confirmed that the educated had fewer and fewer children, mental fitness declined in the less educated, 50 to 80% of intelligence was hereditary and that less educated children often educated their children incorrectly. He said there is some scientific evidence that intelligence, as measured by intelligence tests and PISA studies, has declined since 1995. There is a fundamental risk of spiritual impoverishment in the future if the persons concerned are not induced to participate more in social, including cultural life, since they have often adjusted their lifestyle to not get out of the misery. Lehrl said the problem is by no means limited to Muslim migrants, but affects over half the population. He sees “great potential to get back those who have fallen back” in the change in lifestyle.

Elsbeth Stern (psychologist)

The intelligence researcher Elsbeth Stern contradicted Sarrazin's prognosis. With his repeatedly repeated sentence “50 to 80 percent intelligence is hereditary”, Thilo Sarrazin shows that he has not understood the fundamentals about heredity and intelligence. Therefore one must also question many of his conclusions. Stern interprets Sarrazin in such a way that he sees an absolute value in intelligence, which, if taken further, could lead to the misunderstanding that, for example, a person with an IQ of 100 points owes 50 to 80 points to his genes. "But the absolute intelligence of a person cannot be measured at all," says Stern:

Statistical analyzes, in which matches in identical twin pairs were related to those in dizygotic twins ( twin research ), led to the conclusion that in developed countries with compulsory schooling at least 50 percent of the differences in intelligence were due to genetic variations. The fact that not even 100 percent of the differences in intelligence are the result of genetic variation is essentially due to the unequal distribution of educational opportunities .

"But because we are far from such educational equality, the following applies: If a German-born, fully promoted academic son" only "achieves an average IQ, it can be assumed that his genes are simply no longer available. If, on the other hand, the same value is measured in a daughter of Turkish origin from an educationally disadvantaged home, it can be assumed that she was not able to optimally convert her genetic potential into intelligence. Under better conditions, she would probably have achieved a higher IQ. In children with a migration background, there is more hidden intelligence potential to be found than in children of German origin. "

Stern criticizes Sarrazin for neglecting these social influences:

“To conclude from heredity and fertility in the rule of three that there is a threat of dumbing down, as Thilo Sarrazin does, is simply not possible with a complex system such as intelligence and also ignores the diverse social influences. There will be no collapse in the average IQ in Germany if people who are in the lower half of the intelligence distribution have more children [,] "

so the researcher's conclusion. The greatest danger to social stupidity is that social origin is more important than intelligence and talent for school and professional success.

Detlef Rost (developmental psychologist) and Heiner Rindermann (educational researcher)

The developmental psychologist Detlef Rost and the educational researcher Heiner Rindermann , whose works Sarrazin had given as sources, confirmed shortly after the book was published that differences in intelligence between people - depending on their age and environmental conditions - can be "fifty to eighty percent cleared up by genetic factors" and rated "the numbers cited by Sarrazin", which would relate to "the importance of genetics for differences in intelligence", as "correct". After considering five intelligence and education-related theses by Sarrazin, they came to the following conclusion:

“As far as the psychological aspects are concerned, Sarrazin's theses are by and large compatible with the knowledge of modern psychological research. Here and there a different weighting could certainly be made. However, we did not find any massive misinterpretations. Sarrazin also makes suggestions for promoting children from educationally disadvantaged homes. His suggestions in this regard are sensible and differ little from those that are being expressed by others in the current discussion on education policy (e.g. more crèches; more and better kindergartens; intensified language training; all-day schools). However, the German education system does not show any extreme deficits in an international comparison, and resources that are to be invested here would first have to be generated outside this system. Nor should one indulge in a feasibility illusion: There are limits to funding, in the end the person concerned must always learn and think for himself. Measures must be psychologically target-oriented, politically sensible, borne by benevolent responsibility and ethically legitimizable. The question of genes is of secondary importance here, and a stronger genetic anchoring does not automatically mean unchangeability. "

Werner Greve (developmental psychologist)

The developmental psychologist Werner Greve described the thesis that half of intelligence is genetically determined as "absolute nonsense".

“When experts give such figures, they are not interested in individual differences. As a rule, they relate to a certain group, let's say 1000 people, who differ in many ways: behavior, attitudes, characteristics, history, living conditions. If 50 percent of all differences can now be traced back to the genes, that means that the differences cannot be explained by the various environmental conditions. It can also mean: They cannot be explained yet. Because genes and the environment always work together; how they do this is largely unknown. "

There is still a great deal of research to be done regarding the understanding of the interaction between plant and environment in the development of intelligence. According to Greve, the environment has a "tremendous influence" here. Sensitive parents, for example, who try to correctly interpret the signals from their toddler, are beneficial. The child benefits from this communication in the long term. It is also known that children need space to develop their intelligence. You should be able to try a lot. First of all, there are no significant differences between Fritz from Kreuzberg and Mehmet from Kusadasi . But both of them may need special assistance. This differentiated approach to individual strengths and weaknesses is also very important for the development of intelligence. That is hardly possible in a primary school class with thirty children. Greve therefore calls for smaller groups, especially at the beginning of school. He is convinced that children benefit from a multicultural environment. The decisive factor is whether there is a good atmosphere at the school.

André Reis (human geneticist)

The human geneticist André Reis confirmed that intelligence is inherited to a certain extent:

“Depending on the genetic study, this is between 50 and 80 percent. However, there is no such thing as a single intelligence gene, rather a large number of genetic factors are involved. Since these are always recombined in the offspring, less talented parents can also have talented children and vice versa. So you can't make it so easy for yourself. "

The assumption that entire ethnic groups are less intelligent because of their genes, he described as "outright nonsense". It cannot be said that people of Turkish origin are generally more stupid. There is a dispersion in all populations - there are clever people and less intelligent people. It is clear that the environment has a decisive influence on whether a child can develop their skills or not, whether certain genes are activated and how they work together. Basically, genes should only be seen as an option. A certain potential is inherited, but this must also be activated. Environmental conditions such as the parents' economic situation and their educational standard are decisive for this.

It is true that the genetic make-up shows, for example, whether a person is of African, Asian or European descent . However, geneticists are no longer able to clearly separate whether someone comes from Turkey or Germany. Genetic differences between two people in the same population group could be greater than between two people from different population groups. The attempt to repeatedly bring evaluative properties into the discussion in comparison between population groups is "an ongoing problem", according to Reis. Perhaps the fact that there are external differences between people of different population groups, such as skin or hair color, leads to the short-circuit that intelligence must then also be different. However, these are pure prejudices.

Association of Biology, Biosciences and Biomedicine in Germany

The Association of Biology, Biosciences and Biomedicine in Germany protested in a press release on the occasion of the book presentation "decisively against any falsification and political instrumentalization of biological facts". Sarrazin have "misunderstood basic genetic relationships". His statements were based on a "partial knowledge that does not correspond to the state of evolutionary research". Genetic differences between different ethnic groups are determined using selection-neutral genetic markers . These follow random statistical principles and therefore do not allow any conclusions to be drawn about specific characteristics . Functional genes that exist in addition influence the phenotype (e.g. skin color) and are therefore subject to selection. Their special variants are the result of an adaptation to the environment.

The association distanced itself from the thesis “that there could be genetic differences in ethnic groups with regard to intelligence performance”, this was “not to be expected according to the current state of knowledge”. Intelligence is influenced by many gene regions that are thrown together anew in each individual, which can lead to great differences within a group, but at the same time acts like a buffer in comparison between groups:

"To put it scientifically: the variance within the group far exceeds the differences between groups."

Differences in distribution, i.e. local changes in the frequency of gene variants, for example through inbreeding in Alpine valleys, would also be quickly compensated for in the case of backcrossing, for which a gene flow of one percent is sufficient. It can therefore be assumed that every ethnic group basically has the same genetic potential for intelligence. Measurable differences in the intelligence performance of individual ethnic groups can be attributed to the fact that the intelligence tests are influenced by previous cultural experiences:

“Any ethnic group that would develop an intelligence test based on their own culture would find that most other cultures perform worse on average than members of their own culture. But since cultural traditions are not genetically fixed, they can also change within a generation. The grandmother is vastly superior to the grandson when it comes to formulating handwritten letters, while due to a lack of relevant experience she cannot perform certain (intelligence?) Tasks on the computer.

Klaus Jürgen Bade (Migration Researcher)

The migration researcher and chairman of the Expert Council of German Foundations for Integration and Migration , Klaus Jürgen Bade , assessed Sarrazin's competence in an interview with Der Spiegel :

“Sarrazin understands integration about as much as I understand his domain, financial policy: namely, only what a layman reads. The layman, however, often strives for explanatory models that are as manageable as possible, because the complexity of the problems remains inaccessible to him. One such pattern in Sarrazin is, for example, his thesis that hereditary intelligence is concentrated in the upper class. For him, the lower class is the realm of the largely unintelligent. And because the lower class is multiplying faster than the intelligent upper class, the German people are supposedly becoming more and more stupid. Basically, this is not a highly conservative, but rather flat nationalistic-elitist semantics, which has already led to terrible consequences in German history. "

Demographic model calculations over a hundred years into the future are absurd. Statistics on educational success without adequate consideration of the social situation do not provide any reliable information. Intergenerational educational success is not taken into account. Because the path from an Anatolian smallholder who could not read and write to a grandson with a German Abitur is by far steeper than that from a German industrial worker who has completed elementary school to a grandson who has passed the school leaving examination. Bade does not see an "integration misery":

“As the Expert Council of German Foundations for Integration and Migration has shown in its current annual report, integration in Germany is much more successful than disintegration journalism would like it to believe, even in an international comparison. Exceptions prove the rule. In the last ten years, more has happened in terms of integration policy than in the previous four decades. The second and third generation immigrant population born in Germany achieves significantly better results than their parents and grandparents in almost all areas, be it education or the labor market. This effect can be observed for almost all groups of origin. "

Integration deficits are mainly due to the social milieus in which the migrants live. Bade refused to link integration deficits with the ethnic origin of the immigrants.

Christoph M. Schmidt (economist)

Christoph M. Schmidt wrote in the Handelsblatt that Sarrazin reached deep "into the moth box of racial theory". His theses about Muslims and Turks are just as valid "as the statement that red cars drive faster because they are red." Schmidt explained that statistical data sets and methods can "cause a lot of harm" if "they fall into the wrong hands" . Such is the threat "if their limits are overlooked". He called it a "particularly sad example" of how Sarrazin tried to substantiate the theses of his book. His attempted explanation equates "without further ado, ethnic affiliation and performance." According to Sarrazin's view, "the educational achievement of Turkish immigrants is lower than that of Germans because they are Turks." This arbitrary interpretation is intellectually justified by a "convoluted theory of the high inheritance of intelligence". Causality is “a very intellectually challenging and often misunderstood topic” and Sarrazin is no exception. "But the fact that you are not alone in the maddening of methodological limits does not make the absurdity of the pseudo-scientific underpinning of racist theses any better."

Frans Willekens and Wolfgang Lutz (demographers)

At the European Population Conference in Vienna, Frans Willekens , Director of the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI), contradicted the thesis that migrants make a population dumber. The statement is based on two false assumptions: First, it is assumed that migrants will have more children in the future than the "native" population - which is not true. In the second generation at the latest, the birth rate of immigrants has fallen to the local level, which is why the cliché of immigrant families with many children cannot be maintained.

“And secondly, it is assumed that migrants always stay in lower social classes - which is simply not true. […] Even though the current education system is not exactly conducive to social advancement, ”said Willekens. The director of the Institute for Demography of the Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) and host of the conference, Wolfgang Lutz , added: "The parents were brought in with a poor level of education, so you shouldn't be surprised if it takes a little longer."

Reiner Klingholz (demographer)

Reiner Klingholz , molecular biologist and director of the Berlin Institute for Population and Development , criticized the fact that the connections that Sarrazin makes between genetics and intelligence do not stand up to modern scientific scrutiny. In addition, with his book he did not advance the discussion, he would have split the discussants into two camps: “into a bipartisan indignant faction that people in public places find it difficult to evade; and in the semi-public forum and blogger regulars' table, which Sarrazin applauds by a majority. Both groups are not serving the cause. The political correctness of some prevents sober reflection on the problems that Sarrazin rightly names, even if he is by no means the first to do so. And the regulars' table mixes half-truths with prejudices and thus cements a negative caricature of the immigrant that prevents any sensible migration policy. Both groups are suppressing a debate about what Germany urgently needs: significantly more immigration. "

It is true and important to note that the integration of immigrants in this country shows massive deficits. Migration in the past has now become a cost factor for the economy and no comparative study can hide the fact that people with Turkish roots find it hardest to integrate. The OECD complains that there is hardly any other country where migrants have such a poor level of education as in Germany. But such data obscured “all those immigrants who lead a completely normal average life or are even better qualified, earn more and pay more taxes than the average long-time resident”, and activated an excessive social reflex: “More of it - no thanks . "

Sarrazin's thesis that “we would be infiltrated by the Turks” contradicted Klingholz: “Their net immigration fell from 10,130 in 2000 to 1746 in 2005. Since then, the direction of migration has even reversed. 2008, the most recent year for which concrete figures are available, recorded a net emigration of 10,147 people to Turkey ”. Overall, between 2008 and 2010, significantly more people from predominantly Muslim countries emigrated than immigrated. In addition, there has long been no talk of "unrestrained increase" in Turkey, currently Turkish women have an average of 2.1 children, which is enough to keep the population stable, and fertility will "almost certainly" continue sink.

Klingholz pleaded for significantly more immigration, even with an assumed immigration balance of 100,000 to 200,000 people per year, the Federal Statistical Office is assuming a population decline of around 12 million by 2050. “Without demographic help from outside, we will shrink to a bunch of old people in the medium term, hardly mixed up by a Turkish minority who, after one or two generations, are approaching the low birth rate of their environment. It is true that people of Turkish origin in Germany have more children than the long-established residents, but that is not good for a population explosion, as Thilo Sarrazin suspects - it is not even enough to maintain the population. "Klingholz continues:" It is absolutely clear that our culture will change in the process, which also applies to the culture of the immigrants. How 'western' this new culture will ultimately be, nobody knows. This thought alone scares many people. It helps, however, to recognize that it is part of the essence of culture that it is constantly changing. Otherwise it wouldn't be culture, but history. "

In the Augsburger Allgemeine , Klingholz summed up: “Overall, Mr. Sarrazin addresses a few important issues. His analysis of educational policy or the social differences between rich and poor is good. When it comes to problem solving, his imagination often runs wild. And individual parts - like his genetics chapter - lack any scientific basis. He also likes to mix hard data with personal anecdotes. ”Sarrazin's thesis that the number of Germans will drop from 80 million to 20 million in the next three or four generations and that of Muslims will rise to 35 million is a“ sandbox calculation ”.

Naika Foroutan (social scientist)

In a dossier developed by her research group at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin , Naika Foroutan presents counter-theses to 14 statements by Sarrazin about Muslims and their educational behavior, transfer benefits, knowledge of German, criminal behavior, an affinity for the headscarf and an affinity for parallel societies. Among other things, this dossier uses the data from the study "Muslim Life in Germany (MLD)" (BAMF 2009) and other studies to show that Sarrazin's thesis about the inheritance of educational problems of Muslims (p. 284) when comparing educational qualifications over Generations can not be confirmed or is in contradiction to the data of the studies specified by him. Likewise, Sarrazin’s alleged numbers of Muslims who have not graduated from school have been questioned. In addition, the dossier complains that Sarrazin did not take into account the technical high school graduates in his statements on Muslim high school graduates, and it shows through the distinguishable data on the educational results of different Muslim ethnic groups that Sarrazin 's claim about a direct connection between Islam and educational problems is scientifically unsustainable. It is also shown that the “only 33.9% Muslims who earn their livelihood from work and gainful employment” stated by Sarrazin are not compatible with the “13.8% Muslims who only receive transfer payments” stated in the MLD study.

Sarrazin himself commented on the dossier in a letter to the editor to the FAZ that it was "at least a step forward that someone is actually dealing with the content of the statistics I have cited and my interpretation of them". He will “get the study and evaluate it in peace”.

Hans Wolfgang Brachinger (statistician)

Hans Wolfgang Brachinger , Full Professor of Statistics at the University of Freiburg i. Ue. Sarrazin , head of the research center for economic statistics there and president of the Federal Statistics Commission , called Sarrazin a lay statistician in the NZZ , complained about his lack of statistical competence and the “statistical illiteracy” with which the debate was conducted. He accused Sarrazin of drawing conclusions from the data sets of the Federal Statistical Office that could not be justified from them.

“That is inadmissible. For more in-depth statistical analyzes, one needs well-founded hypotheses about cause-effect relationships. Is the family background decisive for the fact that a woman remains without a school leaving certificate and which characteristics are characteristic of her family background? Then you need data on these characteristics. Above all, one needs methods with which hypotheses about such relationships can be empirically tested. The question to be examined is whether the likelihood that a woman will not have a school-leaving qualification actually depends on the suspected causes. Mr Sarrazin apparently lacks this methodological competence. If he had her, he would never have written this book like that. "

Brachinger also criticized the media. The statistical illiteracy emerges particularly clearly "when the media tries to refute Sarrazin's pseudoscientific arguments with individual cases of successful integration and the politically correct audience applauds."

“Statistical illiteracy prevents the results of the 2008 microcensus from being handled properly. They threaten to be drowned out between clutter and ignorance. German integration policy is apparently inadequate. But there is also a lack of statistical competence: There is a lack of willingness to read statistical information and to deal with it. There is a lack of the ability to correctly interpret statistical information. And there is a lack of understanding of what descriptive statistics can and cannot do. Here, too, there is an important educational task for German society. "

Gerhard Schurz (philosopher)

Gerhard Schurz , professor of theoretical philosophy at Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf , described Sarrazin's theses in Focus as “a serious work” that “deserves to be seriously discussed” and “contains three politically very unpleasant core theses [contains] which, even after deducting all justified doubts, have been scientifically proven far too well to be placed in the 'right corner' as 'undisputable' ". As these core theses he describes Sarrazin's assertions that Muslims with a migration background in Germany received disproportionately high transfer payments, that people with a Muslim migration background, even without further immigration, formed the majority in Germany after three generations due to an allegedly twice as high birth rate and that the IQ in Germany would decline due to a higher birth rate of the less educated classes. In doing so, he takes over the arguments from Sarrazin. In the course of his analysis of Sarrazin’s theses, Schurz comes to the conclusion that Sarrazin makes “a number of clever suggestions” in his book which counteract the current “unsustainable situation in terms of immigration policy”.

Schurz criticizes the party expulsion process against Sarrazin:

“[T] he normative basis of Western culture is no longer Christianity , but the value system of the Enlightenment . Instead of excluding Sarrazin from their party, the SPD politicians should realize that he is defending those values ​​from which their very own political legacy once emerged. "

Despite his general agreement with the theses in the book, Schurz states that Sarrazin made two mistakes in his book: On the one hand, he equates the IQ with proficiency across the board, without considering other forms of proficiency (such as technical or artistic talent). On the other hand, Sarrazin stressed the genetic component of intelligence unnecessarily. Even if Schurz, with reference to scientific studies, also puts the inheritance of intelligence at at least 50%, this statement distracts from the core problem: “A sustained decrease in IQ follows solely from the fact that the mean IQ largely changes from parents to children transmits, regardless of how great the genetic versus legal guardian portion of this influence is. "

Schurz also commented on dealing with Sarrazin after the book was published. He criticizes the fact that "biological facts are largely denied by relevant politicians and journalists and [...] people who utter such facts are verbally 'beaten'". This reminds him - despite all democratic progress - of the trial of the Catholic Church against Galileo Galilei in 1616 .

Wolfgang G. Schwanitz (Middle East historian)

Wolfgang G. Schwanitz is astonished that Sarrazin does not go into the remarks of the journalist Bernard Lewis , who specializes in oriental studies and who predicted an Islamic Europe for the end of the century in 2004. With regard to group-related characteristics of Muslims and Jews , Schwanitz criticizes that Sarrazin emphasizes “the intelligence in only one group and hereditary diseases in the other, both of which occur in both parts and follow the usual marriage traditions of minorities. Here he has entered a field that can certainly be justifiably discussed. ”With this, Sarrazin offers polemics points of attack that lead far away from the issue. Schwanitz sees in Sarrazin's proposals, despite his emphasis on the responsibility of the individual, a state-centered attitude of a state official who always wants to take further action. In contrast, Schwanitz praises Sarrazin's research: nobody can say anymore that he did not know about anything. As Schwanitz sums up approvingly and hopefully, Sarrazin had, if not triggered, significantly deepened a desired debate on the promotion of a Euro-Islam that was compatible with the liberal basic order .

Hans Mathias Kepplinger (communication scientist)

Hans Mathias Kepplinger looked at the book debate in the late summer of 2010 and saw a "failed scandal of Thilo Sarrazin". The discussion about the book was initially similar to "the usual scandals" - for example on the occasion of the historians' dispute , the Paulskirche speech by Martin Walser or Friedrich Merz's call for a " German leading culture ". Typical is "the extensive tabooing of the factual discussion through the personalization of the attacks". This is done through the "intellectual and moral discrediting of the scandalized people". The main reasons for the taboo are the "self-interests of the scandalizers - above all the preservation of their self-image, the defense of their interpretive sovereignty and the concealment of their own mistakes and omissions". Often it is also about power and economic interests. In the book debate, the “vision of a multicultural society”, which in turn goes hand in hand with the “desire for the dissolution of the national identity discredited by the Third Reich”, belongs to the “latent background of the scandalization”. Frank Schirrmacher's FAZ editorial “Sarrazin's third book” would have been a “high point of the scandal” . In scandals it is no longer about the evaluation of the actions, but only about the "execution of unanimous, emotionally charged judgments - the elimination of the scandalized". In contrast to earlier cases, “Schirrmacher's massive and complex scandalization” did not lead to a “scandal in this sense”, but rather resulted in a “journalistic conflict” in which “two similarly strong camps with different points of view opposed each other” would have. Kepplinger identifies six reasons for this:

1. the defense of Sarrazin by "eminent journalists and publicists"
2. the sales success of the book and the “opinion of the population” approving of Sarrazin, as measured in a survey by the Allensbach Institute for Demoscopy .
3. the “reactions of the public to the editorial offices”. Some newspapers were "inundated by critical letters to the editor" after negative articles about Sarrazin's theses and made "special pages" out of them.
4. the “reactions of several Jews to the accusation that Sarrazin is an anti-Semite ” because he spoke “of a 'Jewish gene'” in an interview. This made a "successful killer argument" worthless.
5. “Several scientific statements on Sarrazin's analyzes and conclusions”, in particular the FAZ article “What is it about Sarrazin's theses?” By psychologists Heiner Rindermann and Detlef Rost. With this and a few other statements, the allegation that Sarrazin's theses were untenable collapsed.
6. “The change of subject from the discussion of Sarrazin's theses to the discussion of freedom of expression in Germany”, marked by the leading articles by Berthold Kohler on September 10 in the FAZ, Volker Zastrow on September 12 in the FAS and Reinhard Müller on September 15 in the FAZ. This is the "probably decisive reason for the failure of the scandalization attempt".

At the presentation of Sarrazin's follow-up book Der neue Tugendterror (2014), Kepplinger sat on the podium.

Andreas Kemper (sociologist)

In an essay in the anthology published by Michael Haller in 2012 , The Myth of the Decline of Intelligence , Andreas Kemper advocates the hypothesis that Sarrazin took some of the central theses and formulations of the book directly from the geneticist Volkmar Weiss .

Andreas Heinz (psychiatrist and psychotherapist)

Andreas Heinz , director of the Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the Charité in Berlin, accused Sarrazin in August 2012 of having misinterpreted the sources for overestimating the “inheritance of intelligence” at 80 percent and also for specific social factors for people of Turkish origin such as neglecting poverty or disadvantage in explaining IQ scores. Heinz later stated that Sarrazin had overlooked or withholding a footnote from Rost's table when evaluating it and thus wrongly concluded that the heredity rate was 82 percent. Rost himself correctly comes to 52 percent heredity of the IQ test performance. It is amazing to find such a capital mistake in the middle of an overall controversial discussion. It is completely incomprehensible, however, that Rost and Rindermann, in their statement on the scientific correctness of Sarrazin's figures in the FAZ of September 7, 2010, did not notice this error or did not want to have noticed and that Sarrazin attested that his figures were on the whole correct. Similar to the “fabrication of the Bell Curve ”, at the core of the argument there is a procedure “which at best can be described as sloppiness and at worst as deliberate deception”.

Thorsten Gerald Schneiders (Islamic and political scientist)

In a special study in 2013 Thorsten Gerald Schneiders analyzed the image that is drawn and conveyed in the book and through Sarrazin's contributions to the debate of people of Arab origin. Schneiders comes to the conclusion that Sarrazin's representations are "judgmental, template-like and selective". "Inevitably, references to the four typical characteristics of racism can be found: Difference, valuation, generalization and legitimacy", but it is "difficult to infer a cohesive and well thought-out racist attitude towards Arabs from Thilo Sarrazin". Ultimately, it should be noted:

"A massively derogatory description of Arabs emanates from Sarrazin's statements, which through the book and the media coverage has reached millions of people in Germany."

Volker Weiß (historian)

According to the historian Volker Weiß , Sarrazin understood in the course of the debate about his book it “masterfully” to stage himself “as a resistance fighter against an allegedly harmonized public opinion”; White draws parallels to the “ Lies Press ” campaign. Through Sarrazin "keywords of the new right found their way into the general public". The inhibition thresholds have fallen and the right-wing publisher Götz Kubitschek has also said that the book has made “discussing certain things [...] easier” and that Sarrazin has “ventilated” terms that “we have been sharpening for years, but not at all be able to pull through as Sarrazin could ".

Social and political debate

The book triggered violent social reactions even in the run-up to its publication. Sarrazin was reprimanded and criticized by top politicians from all established parties and journalists from established media, but received approval from individual commentators. The book was also received positively by right-wing populist and right-wing extremist parties and politicians, and in some cases it was instrumentalized. In addition, some of the negative political and media reactions were themselves criticized. As a result of the sharp controversy, the term " Wutbürger " was created, which was chosen as Word of the Year 2010 by the Society for German Language (GfdS) .

The writer Leon de Winter wrote the parable The Secret of the Jewish Intelligence .

Rejection

The theses of the book on migration and labor market policy were criticized by Chancellor Angela Merkel as “stupid and not going on”. The SPD party chairman Sigmar Gabriel criticized, among other things, the “violent language” and suggested that Sarrazin quit the party if he continued to hold on to the “eugenics debate”.

Sigmar Gabriel argued in a commentary in the weekly Time in September 2010: factors such as income levels , education, social status , cultural background , integration or disintegration in the labor market are far crucial biological and natural selection. Efforts to integrate through promotion and education could change a lot in terms of character traits such as diligence , effort and discipline . Essentially, intelligence is not inherited. If 40 percent of foreign young people in Germany do not get a vocational qualification today, it would be due to a lack of language support or a lack of all-day schools and not to Mendel's laws . Gabriel described the theses and prognoses set out in Sarrazin's book as a “hopeless image of man”, which is incompatible with enlightenment and an image of the free and capable of emancipation .

Sarrazin's theses have been criticized by the FAZ as a " biologistical panopticon ". The Süddeutsche Zeitung also accused Sarrazin of “racism”. Wilhelm Heitmeyer accused him of serving "clearly a right-wing populist potential" with his choice of words .

Sarrazin's party colleague Ralf Stegner wrote a criticism of the Spiegel in which he accused Sarrazin of “over-pointed fears of foreign infiltration”, that the situation regarding immigration was reduced to the financial point of view, and that he assumed a “confused mixture of economism, eugenics and flirtatious borderline racism”, which “ far behind the status of integration policy and research ”, criticized his assertion of“ migrants unwilling to integrate across the board ”, which cannot be statistically supported, as well as Sarrazin's causal link between large numbers of children and poverty, the creation of a“ false dilemma ”because In Sarrazin's world of thought, a migrant must either completely give up his roots or completely deny German culture, as well as the thesis that a migrant has to do "80%" of the work to integrate, although the SPD's basic program in Hamburg says: "Integration requires a common one Effort by the German population and migrants. "

The reactions from the ranks of the Greens were similar . Claudia Roth characterized Sarrazin 'theses as "pure racism", while Cem Özdemir described Sarrazin as a "tribal warrior", "as a bin Laden can only wish for". Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle stated that “requests to speak that encourage racism or even anti-Semitism […] have no place in the political discussion”, and Stephan Kramer from the Central Council of Jews criticized above all Sarrazin's attempt to “polarize minorities and against each other. "

Gesine Lötzsch ( Die Linke ) spoke out in favor of removing Thilo Sarrazin from the management body of the Deutsche Bundesbank . A spokesman for the Bundesbank, on whose board Sarrazin sat, stated that "Mr Sarrazin 's views are his personal opinions, which [...] have no connection [...] with his work as a member of the Bundesbank board".

Roland Koch (CDU) warned against rashly tabooing the debates, but criticized Sarrazin's “very backward-looking, pessimistic description of the conditions without actually seriously considering the options and chances for a solution”, the eugenic fixation of Sarrazin's educational thesis and Sarrazin's “general Cynicism".

The signatories of a declaration by the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Interkulturelle Soziale Arbeit (AG IkSA) expressed themselves “outraged and concerned about the current ' lower class' and ' foreigners ' debate, which is undisguised as socio- biological and racist ”. Unmistakably, "the inhuman eugenic tradition, based on pure utility calculations, is being taken up again". In particular, "the ethnicizing attribution of intelligence based on the assumption of biological racism, long disproved in genetics, that there are genetically isolable ethnic or racial collectives with distinguishable characteristics" was rejected.

Hasnain Kazim called the mirror the book "with many errors in reasoning" as "not a cause for annoyance, something happens more often." "As bizarre and shameful" he feels, "but the inhuman nature of the debate on how suddenly that Turks' and 'Muslims' were the scapegoats for all problems of the republic. "It was previously called" xenophobia and racism ", today it is called" Islamic criticism "and one does not shy away from" blanket judgments, from the denigration of an entire religious community " . They even invent “a 'Christian-Jewish dominant culture ' and thus force Judaism to become complicit in rejecting Islam”. Kazim described the type of debate as "Stammtischgegröle"; she made the non-German part of him grow larger. He knows many people with foreign roots who have had similar thoughts since this year and asked the question: "Do we really want to call a country our home where people are met with such hostility?"

The former bishop and council chairman of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), Wolfgang Huber , also called the Sarrazin debate "eminently aggravating the conflict". He defends himself with all his might against tying people and their problems to their religion . The debate is rather a debate of the German majority society about its own problems. Paradoxically, there is talk of Muslims on the one hand and Germans on the other. Germans are not all Christians either: “This way of speaking is a consequence of September 11, 2001. We are 'religionising' conflicts. It is unworthy for our own sake that we talk about Islam in such a general way ”. Sarrazin's view of man is "cynical" and "condescending" when he polemicizes the lack of propensity for German academics to have children before the age of 30. In essence, however, Sarrazin's book projects the German problem of population development onto immigrants.

Alan Posener compared the warnings in Sarrazin's book against the threat of Islamization of Germany through a feared disproportionate increase in the proportion of the Islamic population with reference to Heinrich von Treitschke's warning of 1879 "The Jews are our misfortune".

approval

Ralph Giordano took Sarrazin's side and agreed with his theses that large parts of the migrants were neither capable nor willing to integrate. Giordano praised the “fearless” language of the book and saw the opportunity to remove obstacles to integration through publication. Sarrazin's thesis on the genes of Jews and Basques were not shared by Giordano, but in his opinion they were also used as a pretext to avoid having to talk about Muslim parallel societies. However, at Sarrazin Giordano missed empathy with Muslim immigrants.

Hans-Olaf Henkel stated, referring to the preliminary publications, that Sarrazin rightly made use of freedom of expression and demanded that "we should regard Sarrazin 's statements as a constructive contribution to the discussion". However, he also "poured fuel on the fire with a few statements". The statement, for example, that intelligent women have fewer children, makes “no sense”. Sarrazin would be “not vulnerable” if he had spoken of proximity and distance from education instead of the presence or absence of intelligence. Accusing him of racism is "inappropriate". Henkel demanded that “we” should be “grateful” “when a man like Sarrazin [...] focuses on the fate of many Islamic women and, on the other hand, considers the consequences - including economic ones”. Sarrazin complains not only about "the excesses of Islam", but above all about "how we Germans deal with these problems". He did not hold the mirror up to “the Turks and Lebanese”, but “us”.

In the Münchner Merkur, Udo Ulfkotte took the view that the accusation directed against Sarrazin that he was inciting general agitation against immigrants was ineffective, since "[g] just the immigrant fellow citizens who integrate here about their possibilities [...] are asking [ ...] why we do absolutely nothing against the black sheep from their ranks and even prefer them ”.

According to Islamic critic Necla Kelek , who officially presented the book, Sarrazin is making an important contribution by asking Muslims to reflect on their role in Germany. To accuse him of racism is absurd, because Islam is not a race , but culture and religion. You yourself share Sarrazin's concern for Germany. In a world interview, she said that there is "the now very successful attempt by politicized Muslims", especially Turks and Kurds, to lead the debate in their favor by declaring critics to be racists. The writer Monika Maron said on the same occasion that the book had relaxed the “speaking ban”. Sarrazin diagnosed a failed social policy, which included a failed education and immigration policy.

Approval also came from Manfred Rouhs , who offered Sarrazin the chairmanship of the small party Pro Deutschland , and from Jörg Krebs from the NPD , who thanked Sarrazin in an open letter. The then NPD chairman Udo Voigt also praised Sarrazin because his statements on immigration policy were "completely on the NPD line". Voigt expects Sarrazin's theses NPD statements make "socially acceptable" and future Volksverhetzungsverurteilungen against NPD functionaries difficult. He offered Sarrazin to advise the NPD executive committee or to become the party's "expatriate repatriation officer". The DVU also praised Sarrazin and pointed out that there was a strong correspondence in terms of content in the case of “declining birth rates among Germans, educational misery, lack of integration, foreign crime, immigration policy, growing underclass [and] slow Islamization”. Rolf Schlierer from the Republicans made a similar statement : “Sarrazin has honestly said what's going on”, the parliamentary group of the citizens' movement pro NRW in the city council of Cologne proposed Sarrazin for honorary citizenship of the city.

At the request of Lukas Mihr from the Humanist Press Service , the press spokesman for the NPD parliamentary group in the Saxon state parliament, Holger Szymanski , later announced that the NPD “did not provide all of the statements made by Dr. Sarrazin “parts. In the opinion of the NPD, Sarrazin's merit lies primarily in the “removal of taboos on the problem of foreigners” among the general public. According to Jürgen W. Gansel , who said in advance of the book's publication, "Thilo Sarrazin with his attacks on German Hartz IV recipients and his indifference to the plight of socially excluded compatriots definitely does not belong in the social home party NPD".

The journalist Berthold Kohler called the handling of Sarrazin's book a “usual process”, even among those who had initially denied immigration and later the problems it caused.

“The message for Sarrazin, but also for other potential deviants from the political mainstream, the Sarrazins of the future, is clear: Anyone who writes such [...] books must be prepared for political and social ostracism. [...] The freedom of those who think differently was once upon a time. Even Voltaire does not seem to be frequently read in Potsdam and Berlin. "

- Berthold Kohler : FAZ, September 10, 2010

Henryk M. Broder criticized the world ’s handling of the book as the “first case of witch hunts in Germany since the middle of the 17th century” and doubted “that everyone who criticizes Thilo Sarrazin so hastily now would even consider his book have read". In relation to the debate about the book, media theorist Norbert Bolz called for respect for those who think differently and spoke of “ Jacobins in the feature pages ”.

In a guest article in the Süddeutsche Zeitung , the former Federal Minister of Education and First Mayor of Hamburg , Klaus von Dohnanyi (SPD), worked out a “reflexive ostracism” of Sarrazin instead of a “fair trial”. “It's only in Germany that you make yourself impossible if you name the obvious.” In the further course of the article, Dohnanyi again addressed some of the book's core theses in the context of the current criticism, and then turned to the SPD: “Sarrazin would not be out of any European left party because of excluded from this book. If the SPD wants to exclude him, I am ready to defend him before the Arbitration Commission. ”In the opinion of Peter Gauweiler ( CSU ), Helmut Schmidt , Oskar Lafontaine and Rudolf Augstein “ [z] have expressed themselves tougher on the subject of Germany being overwhelmed by immigration. "

According to his own statement, Joachim Gauck had not yet read the book when he was interviewed by the SZ about it in October 2010 . Following the book debate, he attested Sarrazin to be “brave”. Sarrazin pointed to a problem that was "not adequately solved". “The other” is his biological derivations. Gauck replied to the Tagesspiegel in December 2010 that Sarrazin had “spoken more openly than politics about a problem that exists in society”. The political class can learn from the success of Sarrazin's book that "their language of political correctness makes people feel that the real problems should be covered up."

Helmut Schmidt assessed in an interview with Sandra Maischberger : "If he [Sarrazin] had limited himself to the problem of the clash of completely different civilizational traditions, then he would have been right".

Sarrazin's reactions

In a guest article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in December 2010, Sarrazin accused critics such as Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel and the then Federal President Christian Wulff of behaving like “German inquisitors”: “The Federal Chancellor opened the dance and put my book on the index, like that as the Holy Inquisition did earlier . ”Sarrazin took the view that he could, if wanted,“ have triggered a state crisis ”and spoke of enemies“ in politics and the media ”. At the same time, regarding the sales success of his book, he admitted that part of him was bursting with “author's pride”, but “in the background” was telling him “a voice” that “such sales figures do not only come about because a book is good”. He said "something that from the point of view of some one should not think, let alone say, and the very fact that I said this triggers the enthusiasm of the others."

Sarrazin accused his critics that many had not read the book at all or only in part, which is why their evaluations were not well-founded. In fact, in addition to Angela Merkel, Joachim Gauck and other politicians, the political scientist Frank Decker , who had described Sarrazin in the world as a right-wing populist, later had to admit that he had not read the book at all and only based his assessment on Sarrazin 's two talk show appearances to have.

Others

The book Germany abolishes itself was the most frequently borrowed title from the parliamentary library in the German Bundestag during the 17th legislative period .

The Campus-Verlag published the book The Unmaking of Israel by Gershom Gorenberg in German under the title Israel abolishes itself out and thus formed Sarrazin's bestseller entitled to.

expenditure

• Thilo Sarrazin: Germany is abolishing itself. How we risk our country . DVA , Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-421-04430-3 .
• Thilo Sarrazin: Germany is abolishing itself. How we risk our country . DVA, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-421-04545-4 .

literature

• Patrick Bahners : The panic makers : The German fear of Islam. A polemic. Beck, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-406-61645-7 .
• Jürgen Bellers (Ed.): On the Sarrazin matter. Science - Media - Materials . Lit, Berlin et al. 2010, ISBN 978-3-643-10991-0 .
• Deutschlandstiftung Integration (Ed.): Sarrazin - A German Debate . Piper, Munich et al. 2010, ISBN 978-3-492-05464-5 .
• Naika Foroutan (Hrsg.): Sarrazin's theses put to the test - An empirical alternative to Thilo Sarrazin's theses on Muslims in Germany . Humboldt University of Berlin, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86004-258-8 ( online ).
• Michael Haller , Martin Niggeschmidt: The Myth of the Decline of Intelligence. From Galton to Sarrazin: The Thinking Patterns and Mistakes in Eugenics. 2012.
• Hans Mathias Kepplinger : The Mechanisms of Scandalization : Zu Guttenberg, Kachelmann, Sarrazin & Co. Why some go down in public - and others don't . New edition. Olzog, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-7892-8248-5 .
• Patrik Schwarz (Ed.): The Sarrazin Debate. A provocation and the answers . Edel Germany, Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-8419-0071-5 .
• Hilal Sezgin (Ed.): Manifesto of the Many. Germany is reinventing itself. Blumenbar, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-936738-74-2 ( online ).
• Christina Stein : The language of the Sarrazin debate. A discourse linguistic analysis. Tectum, Marburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-8288-2888-9 .
• Georg Karner: Are you worried about old Europe? Discourse-analytical approach to Thilo Sarrazin's Germany abolishes in the German-Austrian comparison. In: Austria in History and Literature (with geography) 2/2013, pp. 207–216, ( online ).

Film documentaries

• "Sarrazins Germany" ( Memento from February 17, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )

Web links

• Germany is abolishing itself on the website of the DVA non-fiction book
• Reviews on pearl divers
• Compilation of data and facts on people with a Muslim migration background in Germany , project website of the Humboldt University in Berlin

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Media Control : Thilo Sarrazin breaks all records. October 29, 2010.
2. ↑ Regina Krieger: Lucrative book: How Sarrazin became a millionaire Article in the Handelsblatt on May 21, 2012, accessed on May 2, 2016
3. ↑ Press Release: Press Statement of the Executive Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank ( Memento of 12 September 2010 at the Internet Archive ) of 9 September, 2010.
4. ^ Sarrazin is allowed to remain a member of the SPD , Zeit Online, April 21, 2011
5. ↑ There are many sarrazins. In: Spiegel Online . September 6, 2010.
6. ^ Sarrazin: Germany abolishes itself. 1st edition. Munich 2010, p. 409.
7. ↑ It was a long and loud fart. Interview with Thilo Sarrazin by Henryk M. Broder, taz.de, accessed on December 8, 2010.
8. ↑ ^{a b} I'm a little worried about the great approval. on: FAZ.NET . October 1, 2010, accessed October 7, 2010.
9. ↑ Germany is getting poorer and more stupid! , Bild.de, 23 August 2010.
10. ↑ If I want to hear the muezzin, I will travel to the Orient. on: Bild.de , August 24, 2010.
11. ↑ Thilo Sarrazin: Every student should wear a uniform! on: Bild.de , August 25, 2010.
12. ↑ In no other religion is the transition to violence and terrorism so fluid. on: Bild.de , August 26, 2010.
13. ↑ Out of stock on the day of publication: Two weeks waiting for Sarrazin to be read - FAZ from August 31, 2010 .
14. ↑ The interest in Sarrazin's book is huge. In: The world. August 31, 2010.
15. ↑ sueddeutsche.de of September 3, 2010 ( Memento of September 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive ).
16. ^ Daniel Friedrich Sturm : Sarrazin distances itself from Sarrazin. In: Welt am Sonntag. November 14, 2011.
17. ↑ Thilo Sarrazin also dominates the non-fiction market at Christmas. ( Memento from November 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) on: stern.de , December 18, 2010.
18. ^ Thilo Sarrazin: Germany abolishes itself. How we risk our country. DVA, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-421-04430-3 , p. 214.
19. ↑ See e.g. B. Thilo Sarrazin: Germany is abolishing itself. How we risk our country. DVA, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-421-04430-3 , p. 283.
20. ^ Thilo Sarrazin: Germany abolishes itself. How we risk our country. DVA, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-421-04430-3 , p. 261.
21. ↑ Simone von Stosch: Debate about the Bundesbank Executive Board: What is it about Sarrazin's theses? Contribution to the online offer of the Tagesschau (ARD) . Published August 26, 2010. Retrieved August 28, 2010.
22. ↑ Is that true? Sarrazin in the fact check , abendzeitung.de. Published on August 26, 2010. Archived ( September 10, 2010 memento on WebCite ) on September 10, 2010.
23. ↑ Sarrazin just misses the lie (Part 1) , Zeit Online . Published on August 27, 2010. Archived ( September 10, 2010 memento on WebCite ) on September 10, 2010.
24. ↑ Sarrazin just misses the lie (Part 2) , Zeit Online . Published on August 27, 2010. Archived ( September 10, 2010 memento on WebCite ) on September 10, 2010.
25. ↑ Don't you like Turks, Mr. Sarrazin , Welt Online
26. ↑ Reduced text version of the audio contribution from August 30, 2010
27. ^ This is how Germany gets stupid , Christian Geyer in: FAZ , 25 August 2010.
28. ^ The Sarrazin case ( Memento from August 31, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), Arno Widmann in: Berliner Zeitung , August 28, 2010.
29. ↑ Ulrike Herrmann / Alke Wierth: Thilo Sarrazin, the eugenicist. The genes are to blame , in: taz of August 29, 2010. Retrieved October 30, 2011.
30. ↑ Sarrazin argues too static-technocratic , Andrea Seibel, in: Die Welt from August 29, 2010.
31. ↑ A liberation . , Necla Kelek in: FAZ, August 30, 2010.
32. ↑ Sarrazin's consequence. A fatal wrong path , Frank Schirrmacher in: FAZ, August 30, 2010.
33. ↑ Frank Schirrmacher: Sarrazin's sources. Biologism makes society dumber , in: FAZ, September 1, 2010.
34. ↑ Sarrazin, the Muslims and the Grimm dictionary , Richard Wagner in: Neue Zürcher Zeitung from September 1, 2010.
35. ↑ I don't understand. Thilo Sarrazin's book Germany Abolishes Itself is uneducated, reproductive and far too fat. Why is it then printed from the picture and mirror? , Andreas Bernard in: SZ-Magazin issue 35/2010 from September 2, 2010.
36. ↑ Lorenz Maroldt: When are civil fears taken seriously? , Tagesspiegel, September 13, 2010.
37. ↑ A book hits the mark , Hans-Ulrich Wehler in: Die Zeit from October 9, 2010.
38. ↑ Michael Blume: The demographic traditionalism trap - and why Thilo Sarrazin had to cheat. In: scilogs.de. September 27, 2014.
39. ↑ The European : We are not clones . Comment by Harry Ostrer on September 8, 2010. Archived ( September 10, 2010 memento on WebCite ) on September 10, 2010.
40. ↑ Insulting Sarrazin does not help , Focus , August 27, 2010.
41. ↑ ^{a b} What does hereditary mean here? The intelligence researcher Elsbeth Stern contradicts the stupidity thesis. on: Zeit Online. September 2, 2010;
    Everyone can hit the jackpot. In: FAZ. September 2, 2010;
    Mr Sarrazin misunderstood something. In: Basler Zeitung . September 1, 2010.
42. ↑ Detlef Rost, Heiner Rindermann: Intelligence of people and ethnic groups - What is it about Sarrazin's theses? In: FAZ.NET. September 7, 2010.
43. ↑ Lilo Berg: "Diversity makes you smart" - Werner Greve, developmental psychologist at the University of Hildesheim, on human intelligence between genes and the environment. In: Berliner Zeitung . August 31, 2010.
44. ^ André Reis: Human geneticist on Sarrazin theses: "There is no Jewish gene". on: stern.de , September 1, 2010.
45. ↑ ^{a b} Thilo Sarrazin misunderstood fundamental genetic relationships. Press release from the Association of Biology, Biosciences and Biomedicine in Germany. Published September 2, 2010. Retrieved September 5, 2010. Archived ( September 10, 2010 memento on WebCite ) on September 10, 2010.
46. ↑ ^{a b} Sarrazin Debate - There is no integration misery in Germany. In: Der Spiegel . September 7, 2010.
47. ↑ Migration expert calls Sarrazin an "arsonist" In: DIE WELT. May 3, 2011.
48. ↑ Christoph M. Schmidt : Sarrazin under fire: misunderstood statistics and racism. ( Memento from September 9, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) In: Handelsblatt . September 6, 2010.
49. ↑ Demography: The population is not getting dumber . on: Die Presse.com.
    Demographers reject “Sarrazin theories” .
50. ↑ ^{a b c d} Reiner Klingholz: Ausländer her ( Memento from September 18, 2010 in the Internet Archive ). In: Der Spiegel. 35/2010, p. 135 ff
    . Interview with Klingholz.
51. ↑ Interview with Klingholz in the Augsburger Allgemeine , August 31, 2010.
52. ↑ Hybrid European-Muslim Identity Models (Heymat): The Dossier on the Sarrazin Debate , October 13, 2010.
53. ↑ Naika Foroutan (Ed.): Sarrazin's theses on the test stand , PDF available on the pages of the VW research project HEYMAT (“Hybrid European-Muslim Identity Models”), December 23, 2010.
54. ^ Thilo Sarrazin: Explanation for considerable integration deficits. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. January 8, 2011, p. 34.
55. ↑ Hans Wolfgang Brachinger: Official data between slapstick and ignorance. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . September 10, 2010, p. 23.
56. ↑ Gerhard Schurz: Sarrazin defends those values ​​from which the SPD emerged. In: Focus. 01/2011, pp. 56-58.
57. ^ Wolfgang G. Schwanitz: German Islamic Politics? In: Jürgen Bellers (Ed.): On the Sarrazin matter: Science - Media - Materials. Berlin 2010, pp. 141–154. online: Thilo Sarrazin: Berlin buries multiculturalism, but has no Islamic policy. (PDF; 687 kB)
58. ^ Hans Mathias Kepplinger: The failed scandalization of Thilo Sarrazin . In: Jürgen Bellers (Ed.): On the Sarrazin case. Science media materials. LIT Verlag, Münster 2010; Pp. 19-27, ISBN 978-3643109910 .
59. ^ Lenz Jacobsen: Thilo Sarrazin against the "virtuous terrorists" . In: Die Zeit of February 24, 2014.
60. ^ Andreas Kemper: Sarrazin's German-language sources. In: Michael Haller, Martin Niggeschmidt (eds.): The myth of the decline of intelligence. From Galton to Sarrazin: The Thinking Patterns and Mistakes in Eugenics. Wiesbaden 2012, ISBN 978-3-531-18447-0 .
61. ↑ Andreas Heinz: Statistical botch. In: Der Tagesspiegel. 20th August 2012.
62. ↑ Andreas Heinz: Intelligence versus Integration? In: Andreas Heinz, Ulrike Kluge (Ed.): Immigration - Threat or Future? Myths and facts about integration. Campus-Verlag, 2012, p. 68, ISBN 9783593397597 .
63. ↑ Thorsten Gerald Schneiders: Put in a bad light. The Arab picture with Thilo Sarrazin. In: ders. (Ed.): The Arabs in the 21st Century. Politics, society, culture. Wiesbaden 2013, ISBN 978-3-531-18526-2 .
64. ↑ Volker Weiß: The authoritarian revolt. The New Right and the Fall of the West. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2018, pp. 10, 24
65. ↑ NPD is not allowed to advertise with Sarrazin. In: Zeit Online. April 27, 2011.
66. ↑ Leon de Winter: The secret of the Jewish intelligence. [1] on: sueddeutsche.de , September 8, 2010.
67. ↑ Merkel accuses Sarrazin of stupidity. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . June 12, 2010, accessed August 28, 2010; critical of Merkel's position, for example, Thomas Groh : Quantendogmatik. In: myops . No. 11 (2011), pp. 4-11.
68. ↑ Veit Medick : Statements about foreigners: Gabriel suggests Sarrazin to leave the SPD . In: Spiegel Online . August 25, 2010. Retrieved August 29, 2010.
69. ↑ Sarrazin had to say in the course of the discussion whether he was going to keep "this eugenics debate" going or not, said Gabriel. The decision to expel the party will depend on this. In: Spiegel Online.
70. ↑ Gabriel on Sarrazin: What a hopeless image of man! In: The time. No. 38, September 16, 2010.
71. ↑ Sarrazin's theses - This is how Germany becomes stupid. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . August 26, 2010.
72. ↑ Thilo Sarrazin: Democratic Racism - The good in the potty, the bad in the croup ... on: sueddeutsche.de , August 30, 2010.
73. ^ Further dispute over statements by Sarrazin. In: FAZ. August 28, 2010.
74. ^ Claus Heinrich: SWR2 interview of the week. Thilo Sarrazin serves right-wing populist potential. SWR, August 28, 2010, accessed on August 30, 2010 (interview to listen to): “According to Bielefeld sociologist Wilhelm Heitmeyer, Bundesbank board member Thilo Sarrazin uses 'clearly a right-wing populist potential' for his controversial theses on integration policy. This potential comprises around 20 percent of the population in Germany. One could only say with luck that 'unlike in the countries around us there are no mobilization experts for this milieu', said Heitmeyer in the SWR interview of the week. " 
75. ↑ Sarrazin's evil world (Part 1) In: Spiegel Online.
76. ↑ Sarrazin's evil world (Part 2) In: Spiegel Online.
77. ↑ Sarrazin's evil world (Part 4) In: Spiegel Online.
78. ↑ Cf. Gideon Botsch: Expert opinion of December 22, 2009 on the statements Sarrazin regarded as racist (PDF; 299 kB), on behalf of the SPD district association Spandau and the SPD department Alt-Pankow
79. ^ Bundesbanker with profile neurosis. on: sueddeutsche.de , August 26, 2010.
80. ↑ ^{a b} Sarrazin steps up against minorities. on: dw-world.de
81. ↑ Bundesbank board must apply for Sarrazin's dismissal , die-linke.de
82. ^ Bundesbank board member Sarrazin: "Jews share certain genes" ( Memento from August 31, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
83. ↑ Sarrazin irritates the government. on: focus.de
84. ↑ Declaration of the WG IkSA on the "Sarrazin Debate" in September 2010 ( Memento from December 26, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
85. ↑ Hasnain Kazim : Sarrazin's scapegoats. In: Spiegel Online . December 24, 2010.
86. ^ Bishop Huber attacks Sarrazin's image of man. In: Welt Online. January 17, 2011.
87. ↑ Norwegians mourn, right-wing populists incite. tagesschau.de , August 19, 2011. Accessed August 19, 2011.
88. ↑ Ralph Giordano: Sarrazin's book: A push into the heart of Political Correctness. In: The world.
89. ^ Sandra Tjong: Hans-Olaf Henkel on the Sarrazin debate. Interview with Hans-Olaf Henkel in Focus. August 31, 2010.
90. ↑ Author Ulfkotte: Sarrazin is right! In: merkur-online. August 29, 2010.
91. ↑ ^{a b} Focus magazine: Sarrazin irritates the government. August 29, 2010.
92. ↑ Die Welt : Interview about Sarrazin: "Finally it was said what was already thought". Retrieved July 28, 2011.
93. ^ Approval from the right-wing camp. ( Memento from August 29, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) on: sueddeutsche.de .
94. ↑ NPD: "You are cordially invited to participate in the social home party NPD!" - Hesse's NPD state chairman Jörg Krebs turns to Thilo Sarrazin in an open letter. ( Memento from February 11, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) August 25, 2010.
95. ↑ Frankfurter Rundschau : Sarrazin makes us socially acceptable , published on August 30, 2010. Accessed on September 19, 2010.
96. ^ Sarrazin and the demands of the DVU. ( Memento of August 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) at: die-rechte.info .
97. ↑ Republicans: Sarrazin is right! ( Memento from June 14, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) on: rep.de
98. ↑ pronrw.net : Cologne: parliamentary group pro Cologne applies for honorary citizenship for Thilo Sarrazin! published August 31, 2010. Retrieved September 19, 2010.
99. ↑ Lukas Mihr: NPD distances itself from Sarrazin. In: Inquired. No. 12202, Humanist Press Service, October 28, 2011.
100. ↑ The usual process . In: FAZ. August 27, 2010.
101. ^ The red lines , FAZ.NET, September 10, 2010.
102. ↑ A kind of historical sign . on: FAZ.NET. September 6, 2010.
103. ↑ Now things really get going. In: Spiegel Online. September 6, 2010.
104. ↑ Cowardice before the word. on: sueddeutsche.de from September 5, 2010.
105. ^ “People see through media power less than political power” - Gauck conversation from 2010. In: Süddeutsche.de , February 19, 2012.
106. ↑ Press portal: Der Tagesspiegel: Gauck attests book author Sarrazin “courage”. News from December 30, 2010.
107. ^ Former Chancellor Schmidt on immigration and integration. In: Youtube (2:43). December 15, 2010, accessed April 20, 2019 . 
108. ↑ Thilo Sarrazin: I could have triggered a state crisis. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. December 24, 2010.
109. ↑ Thilo Sarrazin: The new virtue terror . About the limits of freedom of expression in Germany . 1st edition. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-421-04617-8 , pp. 86 f .
110. ↑ Cultural news: Thilo Sarrazin was the most popular author in the Bundestag library. In: Deutschlandradio Kultur . August 10, 2013, archived from the original on October 4, 2013 ; Retrieved April 30, 2014 .