We make it

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The quote on a house facade in Berlin-Mitte

“We can do it !” Is a saying that the German Chancellor Angela Merkel uttered in the Federal Press Conference on August 31, 2015 with regard to the refugee crisis in Germany 2015/2016 and the increasing reception of refugees in Germany and which has been in the media and since then has found widespread echo in the political debate . It is considered the core slogan or soundbite of the “new welcome culture ”. She repeated the sentence, which was later often criticized, several times, including at the CDU federal party conference on December 14, 2015.

The quote from the federal press conference on August 31, 2015 (the so-called summer press conference of the federal government) has been repeatedly abbreviated in the following. The Chancellor said literally, after listing historical moments in the Federal Republic that the federal government, the federal states and the municipalities managed together: “I can say quite simply: Germany is a strong country. The motive with which we approach these things must be: We have achieved so much - we can do it! We can do it, and where something stands in our way, it has to be overcome, it has to be worked on. The federal government will do everything in its power - together with the states, together with the municipalities - to achieve just that. "

In mid-September 2016, Merkel relativized her motto for the first time in view of the significant losses of her party in the state elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and the Berlin House of Representatives as well as the emergence of the AfD .

Use of the saying

Use before Angela Merkel

Already on August 22, 2015, before Angela Merkel's first use, the SPD chairman and vice chancellor Sigmar Gabriel had used the phrase “We can do it” in connection with the refugee policy of the grand coalition. Gabriel specified the goal he was striving for as follows: “Peace, humanity, solidarity, justice: these are among the European values. Now we have to prove it. I'm sure we can do it. "

Use by Angela Merkel

On August 31, 2015, Merkel said the sentence for the first time: “I can say quite simply: Germany is a strong country. The motive with which we approach these things must be: We have achieved so much - we can do it! We can do it, and where something stands in our way, it has to be overcome, it has to be worked on. The federal government will do everything in its power - together with the states, together with the municipalities - to achieve just that. "

Merkel used the sentence in a slightly expanded way. She also said: “We have already achieved so much, we can do it!” At the New Year's address on January 1, 2016, she said: “We can do it, because Germany is a strong country”.

After the presumably Islamist-motivated attacks in Würzburg and Ansbach in July 2016, Merkel interrupted her summer vacation for a press conference in which she repeated her sentence and presented a nine-point plan, which is primarily intended to ensure more security against terrorist attacks. She expanded the sentence to include references to the changed political world situation "in times of globalization".

Picked up by the press, politics and science

The phrase “We can do it” was quickly received by parts of the media as a positive signal in Germany's refugee policy. The journalist Georg Diez wrote the headline “Yes, we can do it” in his column in the magazine Der Spiegel . The Holocaust survivor Ruth Klüger described the sentence as a “simple and heroic slogan” at the memorial service for the day of commemoration of the victims of National Socialism in the Bundestag . Slight variations of the sentence were also used in the press to support Merkel's sentence. So read the headline in January 2016 journalist Walter Wüllenweber the star : "Upper limit - that we can not do."

The phrase has been modified many times in the press and on other occasions. The journalist Hans-Georg Damerau used the headline "Refugee Policy - 'We Can't Do It'" to support Merkel's refugee policy, since "We can't do it" is not an option. The journalist Thomas Seifert wrote in an editorial in the Wiener Zeitung : “We have to do it”. The peace researcher Egbert Jahn used the title “We can (not) do it!” At the Monday lectures in Frankfurt in November 2015. - The perplexity of German and European refugee policy ”, to address the refugee policy in Europe.

On the anniversary of the sentence, Roland Schulz and Rainer Stadler wrote in Süddeutsche Magazin : “Germany has been dealing with this question for a year - a question of faith: We can do it, We can do it, We can't do it !, Why do we have to do it, Can we do it? , or We can do it - but that's not the name of the corresponding book titles. Party congresses, panel discussions, ministries, editorials have worked on the question, business associations, churches, trade unions, as well as the very big politics. "

Also one year after the first utterance of the slogan, the Viennese sociologist of religion Paul Michael Zulehner called for a policy of trust in view of the increased fear of attacks, which, according to Zulehner, is often increased by those in charge to a politics of fear. It is possible to overcome fear if commitment and the means provided are supported by political education, which may a. expose that every religion has been and still is linked to violence, Christianity as well as Islam. But according to Zulehner, arguments often do little to promote a politics of trust. “Encounters are more healing,” says Zulehner.

Federal President Joachim Gauck said in August 2016: “I do not want to imagine a head of government standing before the people and saying we will not make it. So why should one choose such a person? [...] The country is not in a state like a sinking ship, it is not even in a state of a severe hurricane, but rather gusts that shake us, and gusts that also upset society a little. "

On August 31, 2016, Hugo Müller-Vogg headlined “The reality check - what we have managed to do and what not” at Huffpost on August 31, 2016 and referred to the saying in the article.

The Focus online correspondent Martina Fietz wrote at the end of August 2017: “This phrase should appear in every biography of the Chancellor because - from today's perspective - it represents the most controversial decision of her Chancellorship.” And “Merkel repeated her 'We can do it' at the beginning with the addition that Germany is a strong country. In the autumn of last year, however, she admitted in an interview that she would hardly repeat the sentence because too much had been interpreted into it. It has developed into an 'unproductive endless loop'. Your policy has changed in the meantime anyway. "

In December 2018, BDA President Ingo Kramer reported that Chancellor Angela Merkel was right with her sentence: "We can do it". Surprisingly quickly, many refugees (around 400,000) would have found a job or training position in Germany. Most young migrants would be able to speak German so well after one year of instruction that they could follow vocational school lessons, and the vast majority of employed refugees work in jobs subject to social security contributions.

On June 22, 2020, the ARD broadcast the documentary Angela Merkel: Wir Schaffen das - One sentence and the consequences . The film tries to establish a connection between the 2015/2016 refugee crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany .

Merkel distancing herself from her statement

In mid-September 2016, shortly before the election to the Berlin House of Representatives , Merkel distanced herself from the sentence in an interview with Wirtschaftswoche . She understood the skepticism in the population about the sentence and said: “It is part of my political work because I am convinced that we are a strong country that will come out of this phase stronger. It is an expression of an attitude that many people are sure to know from their professional and private lives. But sometimes I also think that this sentence is a little exaggerated, that too much is being secreted in it. So much that I hardly want to repeat it anymore, it has become a kind of simple motto, almost an empty formula. "She made it clear:" It was never meant that way, of course, but encouraging, decidedly appreciative. Because I know that we all have a lot to shoulder together in our country, but that this is not immediately reflected in the overly often repeated three words. "

On the day after the election for the Berlin House of Representatives in 2016 , in which the CDU lost 5.7% of the vote, Merkel said that her sentence "We can do this" had developed into an "unproductive endless loop" and that it was not sufficient. to describe the problems associated with receiving the refugees. So she doesn't want to repeat it again. Instead, she said in a press conference of her party on September 19, 2016: "We will get out of this phase better than we got in."

Merkel on "We can do it" in the 2018 government declaration

In the government declaration in March 2018, Merkel said about "We can do it": "The dispute over this actually so banal sentence has since been symptomatic of what our country and we can achieve together and, above all, what we want to create together." During the speech, Merkel was thoughtful about her refugee policy.

criticism

The saying was the subject of criticism of Merkel's refugee policy relatively early on, e.g. B. by converting the sentence into its opposite (“We can't do it”) to argue that Germany's reception capacities are exhausted. On September 11, 2015, Spiegel Online quoted the antithesis to the sentence from the mouth of Horst Seehofer , then Bavarian Prime Minister: "I don't see any possibility of getting the stopper back on the bottle."

In a joint article by ten Spiegel authors from September 19, 2015, there is the formulation: “Can we do it? What is certain is that Merkel underestimated the pull her words would trigger, how much people are now feeling attracted by the promise of a better life in Germany. "At the beginning of October, Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière said:" We cannot do it easily - that is It's a great effort. "As a radical opponent of Merkel's refugee policy, the Brandenburg AfD state chairman Alexander Gauland coined the sentence in a speech on October 7, 2015 at the Erfurt Wednesday demonstration by the Thuringian state association of the AfD, to the great applause of around 8,000 gathered supporters:" We don't want to do that! ”and at the same time demanded the resignation of the Chancellor. In October 2015, the Lord Mayor of Tübingen Boris Palmer , a member of the Greens , also used the phrase “We won't make it” and pleaded for a limit on the admission of refugees (“Under the current conditions, where 10,000 refugees come to Germany every day, create we don't. ").

The journalist Alexander Marguier described Merkel as a "proverb knocker" in relation to the sentence in the magazine Cicero . The sentence was also used in a modified form by critics. Berthold Kohler wrote in the FAZ in October 2015 : “We can do it, I can't help it”. On January 26, 2016, the journalist Theo Sommer chose in his column in the weekly newspaper Die Zeit the heading: “Merkel's 'We can do it' is no longer convincing”. Hans-Peter Uhl , member of the Bundestag for the CSU , said in January 2016: “We can't do it like that”. Peter Tomaschko , member of the CSU state parliament in Bavaria , said in January 2016: "We can no longer do this". The online edition Mannheimer Morgen wrote in January 2016: "We can do it - but not like this". At the end of February 2016, the Austrian Kronen Zeitung headlined : “Now Schäuble is warning: Fewer refugees, otherwise we won't make it” and quoted Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble as saying: “Otherwise we won't make it anymore”.

Sigmar Gabriel 2016 in the ZDF summer interview : "It is not enough to keep saying we can do it," Gabriel said. Rather, the prerequisites would have to be created 'that we can do it too' - but the CDU / CSU 'always blocked' that. "

In August 2017, Martin Schulz commented on Merkel's saying: "It is not enough to say," We can do it, "said Schulz, referring to the corresponding statement by Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) on dealing with the refugee crisis. You then have to create the conditions for this. Schulz therefore calls for a political strategy that regulates immigration on the state side in a permanent and stable manner. "

The journalist Mathias Müller von Blumencron commented on the divisive effect of the sentence in August 2019 and pointed out, among other things, that a secular society has difficulties getting involved in a " I can't help it " Lutheran character, even if the Chancellor felt that way.

Linguistic analysis and criticism

The sentence was seen close to Barack Obama's “ Yes we can ” (2008), but Helmut Kohl also used the slogan “We will make it” in 1990 with reference to German unity .

All three sentences have in common that a concrete object and a precise definition of the we-group are missing: Who exactly belongs to the we-group? Especially when Merkel later repeated her saying and added: “I didn't say: we can do it on our own.” Who are “we alone” who cannot do “it”? And what exactly will "we" create or can "we" do? The FDP chairman Christian Lindner expressed this criticism with the words: “What is missing: What can we do? What is missing: How do we do it? And what's missing: Who can do it? "

Nils Minkmar wrote in Der Spiegel : “Who are we when all borders are open, when the Chancellor is also responsible for Syrians? This question undermines the effect of the beautiful sentence 'We can do it!' For many conservative Germans - including by no means only voters of the Union, but also many Greens and Social Democrats - are no longer spontaneously understandable who this 'we' should actually be. And an imploring, encouraging sentence that loses its subject is ineffective. "

On the occasion of the first anniversary of the first mention of the slogan in August 2016, Walter Wüllenweber attempted to concretise and differentiate the general object “that”: “Germany is making progress in housing refugees, in administration and in schooling. Voluntary help from civil society is becoming more and more professional. Germany can do all of this. We can't just deport rejected asylum seekers. ”In August 2018, Wüllenweber took stock, again indirectly taking up the quote from the Chancellor:“ We have achieved a lot: three years after Germany let refugees from Hungary into the country, the results are surprisingly positive. There is a lot to be done, but there is no crisis. ”However, according to Wüllenweber, deportation remains (as in 2016)“ a big, unsolved problem ”.

Attention was drawn to the correspondence of Angela Merkel's sentence with the German translation of the name of the left-wing populist party Podemos , which has been appearing in Spain since 2012 , although Merkel herself was probably not aware of this connection and played no role in the debate about her quote. Both sentences are inspired by Obama's motto Yes we can , but were probably created independently of each other.

Surveys on “We can do it” from 2017

2017

On September 1, 2017, Die Welt published a survey on "We can do it". 55.8% of the respondents saw “We can do it ” as not applicable or not applicable at all . 38% said not at all true . 37.2% said that “we can do it” as either more accurate or completely accurate . In the survey, there were significant differences in the responses by age, West and East Germany, and among the supporters of different parties. Only among the supporters of the Union with 56.5% and the Greens with 68.5% was the majority of the opinion that the verdict was correct. In the case of all other parties, the majority of the supporters were of the opinion incorrect or incorrect at all . Among the left, 47.3%, the SPD 51.7%, the FDP 58.2% and the AfD 96.9% of the supporters were negative. The older the respondents are, the more likely they are to rate Merkel's statement today as "not applicable". In eastern Germany 63% of the respondents rated “We can do it” as “not applicable”, in western Germany it was 53.6%.

2018

In August 2018, the online edition of the “ Süddeutsche Zeitung ” asked its readers to draw a conclusion on “three years of 'we can do it'”. The editors published a "highlighted comment" from a reader on August 24, 2018. The author assesses positively that the many asylum applications could have been processed in accordance with the Geneva Refugee Convention a good way, especially that many refugees have found paid work. The Balkan conflict of the 1990s teaches that, in general, many refugees return to their homeland as soon as peace reigns there. Everything to be done has been tackled. However, it was not possible to prevent some politicians from creating “mood” through agitation and to ensure that everyone internalized the basic principle of the Basic Law (“Human dignity is inviolable”).

According to the ARD Germany trend from September 2018, a majority of those surveyed in Germany think the federal government's refugee policy has not been successful. And mean this

  • 50 percent in terms of housing and distribution of the refugees
  • 69 percent in terms of violence and crime prevention
  • 69 percent with regard to the integration of refugees into the labor market
  • 83 percent with regard to the deportation of rejected asylum seekers.

In addition, 49 percent of those surveyed believe that the federal government does not take immigration concerns seriously.

Other uses and allusions

Used in Angela Merkel's speech at the Political Ash Wednesday 2018

Angela Merkel ended her speech at the CDU Political Ash Wednesday in Demmin on February 14, 2018 with the sentence “I am convinced, we can do it”, referring to the slow formation of a government. It was the first time since summer 2016 that Merkel used the sentence.

Use of Beatrix von Storch after shooting amok in Münster on April 7, 2018

Beatrix von Storch , deputy parliamentary group leader of the AfD parliamentary group , described the perpetrator of the rampage in Münster on April 7, 2018 as an “imitator of Islamic terror” in a Twitter post . Previously, she had tweeted the Merkel quote “We can do it” in capital letters with an angry emoticon and put the act in connection with refugee policy . Four people were killed and numerous others injured in the rampage. The general secretary of the CSU Markus Blume then asked von Storch to give up her parliamentary mandate. Von Storch was also criticized by AfD chairman Jörg Meuthen .

Allusions in the course of the supposed "BAMF scandal" in June 2018

In June 2018 during the alleged scandal over manipulated asylum procedures and the possibly faulty work at the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) wrote image on 2 June 2018 'This BAMF we can not do it "and the Süddeutsche Zeitung headlined the BAMF on 3 June 2018 “You can't do it”.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Angela Merkel's “We can do it!” In context . SWR2 , accessed November 23, 2018.
  2. ↑ In the eye of the hurricane . In: Die Zeit , No. 38/2015.
  3. ↑ speech at party conference on refugee policy: "And that's why we will create" . On tagesschau.de on December 14, 2015, accessed on January 26, 2016.
  4. ^ Minutes of the Federal Press Conference on August 31, 2015
  5. ↑ a b Miriam Meckel , Gregor Peter Schmitz: Angela Merkel does not want to repeat "We can do it" . Wirtschaftswoche, September 17, 2016.
  6. ↑ a b Merkel regrets that her sentence has become an “empty formula” . Welt Online, September 17, 2016.
  7. ^ A b Katharina Schuler: Refugee policy: Merkel's new wording . In: The time . September 19, 2016, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed September 19, 2016]).
  8. ↑ "We can do it" does not come from Merkel . In: FAZ , September 1, 2016, accessed on September 7, 2016
  9. ↑ Will Merkel stick to “We can do it?” On tagesschau.de on February 17, 2016, accessed on February 19, 2016.
  10. ↑ "We can do it, because Germany is a strong country" . In: FAZ.net , December 31, 2015, accessed on January 26, 2016.
  11. ↑ Angela Merkel repeats "We can do it", plus a 9-point plan . Spiegel Online , July 28, 2016; accessed on August 21, 2016.
  12. ↑ Yes, we can do it . Spiegel Online / KulturSpiegel, October 25, 2015, accessed on January 26, 2016.
  13. ↑ Speech by Ruth Klüger: "Forced Laborers". Video recording of the speech on the website of the German Bundestag.
  14. ↑ Speech by Ruth Klüger: "Forced Laborers". ( Memento from April 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) On the website of the German Bundestag.
  15. ↑ "We can do it": Merkel calls concentration camp survivors heroic . Spiegel Online from January 27, 2016, accessed on January 29, 2016.
  16. ↑ Walter Wüllenweber: Upper limit - we can't do that . In: The star. Issue 5/2016, January 28, 2016, online may vary
  17. ↑ Refugee Policy - “We can't do that” , Ostsee-Zeitung of January 20, 2016, accessed on February 2, 2016.
  18. ↑ We have to do it ( Memento of February 27, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), Wiener Zeitung of February 24, 2016, accessed on February 28, 2016.
  19. ↑ We (can't) do it! - The perplexity of German and European refugee policy . (PDF) Frankfurt Monday Lectures on November 2 and 16, 2015, accessed on February 2, 2016.
  20. ↑ Roland Schulz, Rainer Stadler: Land of limited possibilities. Süddeutsche Magazin number 31, August 5, 2016: 8–25
  21. ↑ Paul Michael Zulehner: “We can do it!” Angela Merkel's sentence of all sentences is celebrating her birthday. She said it for the first time on August 31, 2015. What happened to him? An essay about hopes and disappointments - and the power of encounter. In: Publik-Forum, No. 16, August 26, 2016, 18–20, 20.
  22. ↑ Gauck supports Merkel: Germany is not a sinking ship , faz.net, August 13, 2016, accessed on September 7, 2016
  23. ↑ The reality check - what we have done and what not Huffingtonpost of August 31, 2016
  24. ↑ We have to do it: Merkel sentence split the country - but it remains correct in FOCUS-Online from August 31, 2017, accessed on September 2, 2017
  25. ↑ Employer President Ingo Kramer: "The integration of the refugees is going better than expected" . Mirror online. December 14, 2018
  26. ↑ ARD documentary fails to draw a connection between refugee and corona anger focus.de from June 22, 2020, accessed on June 23, 2020
  27. ↑ What Merkel thinks now about "We can do it" . Spiegel Online, September 17, 2016.
  28. ↑ "Germany can do it" . Deutschlandfunk from March 21, 2018, accessed on March 25, 2018.
  29. ↑ We can't do it . Wirtschaftswoche of October 6, 2015, accessed on February 2, 2016.
  30. ↑ We can't do it . Bayernkurier from November 20, 2015, accessed on February 2, 2016.
  31. ↑ Seehofer railed against Merkel - and invited Orbán . Spiegel Online . September 11, 2015, accessed July 3, 2018
  32. ↑ Merkel and Seehofer - stations of a disruption . tagesschau.de . July 2, 2018, accessed July 3, 2018
  33. ↑ Nicola Abé, Melanie Amann, Hubert Gude, Peter Müller, Ralf Neukirch, René Pfister, Barbara Schmid, Christoph Schult, Holger Stark, Wolf Wiedmann-Schmidt: Herzdame . In: Der Spiegel . No. 39 , 2015, p. 16–24 ( online - September 19, 2015 , quote on p. 24). Retrieved February 8, 2016.
  34. ↑ De Maizière complains of bad behavior by refugees . The time of October 2, 2015, accessed on February 19, 2016.
  35. ↑ Applause for Gauland's “We don't want to do it” . Die Welt vom 8 October 2015, accessed on 4 September 2016.
  36. ↑ We can't do it - Palmer appeals to his Greens . Die Welt vom October 21, 2015, accessed on February 2, 2016.
  37. ↑ The Proverb Knocker . In: Cicero, September 16, 2015, accessed January 26, 2016.
  38. ↑ We can do it, I can't help it . FAZ of October 8, 2015, accessed on February 2, 2016.
  39. ↑ Merkel's “We can do it” is no longer convincing. In: zeit online from January 26, 2016, accessed on January 26, 2016.
  40. ↑ "We can't do it like that" . n-tv from January 19, 2016, accessed on February 2, 2016.
  41. ↑ Tomaschko on asylum policy: “We can't do it anymore” . Augsburger Allgemeine from January 23, 2016, accessed on February 2, 2016.
  42. ↑ "We can do it - but not like that" . On: morgenweb.de from January 28, 2016, accessed on February 2, 2016.
  43. ↑ Now Schäuble warns: Fewer refugees, otherwise we won't make it , Kronen Zeitung of February 25, 2016, accessed on February 28, 2016
  44. ↑ Criticism of Merkel: Gabriel calls for upper limit for integration , Merkur.de, August 28, 2016, accessed on August 28, 2016
  45. ↑ Schulz wants to regulate immigration again . Westfalenpost, August 16, 2017, accessed on August 18, 2017
  46. ^ Mathias Müller von Blumencron: "Angela Merkel's sentence divided the country" Tagesspiegel from August 30, 2019
  47. ↑ Alfons Kaiser: Angela the builder - "Yo, we can do it!" . On: faz.net from October 12, 2015.
  48. ↑ Integration of the refugees: Gabriel makes a row . In: Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung , August 28, 2016; accessed on September 7, 2016
  49. ^ Nils Minkmar: Family constellation . In: Der Spiegel . No. 34 , 2016, p. 118-120 ( online ).
  50. ^ Walter Wüllenweber: Germany one year after the historic 72 hours. A balance sheet . In: Der Stern , issue 35/2016, August 25, 2016, p. 41 ( podcast )
  51. ↑ Walter Wüllenweber: We have achieved a lot . In: Der Stern , edition 35/2018, 23 August 2018, p. 32
  52. ↑ Reiner Diederich: Podemos - Can we do it too? In: Ossietzky 3/2016.
  53. ↑ The majority of Germans see “We can do that” not fulfilled World of September 1, 2017, accessed on September 2, 2017
  54. ↑ Reader's discussion: Your conclusion on three years "We can do it" . sueddeutsche.de. August 31, 2018, accessed September 7, 2018
  55. ↑ Ellen Ehni : ARD Germany trend . tagesschau.de. September 6, 2018, accessed September 7, 2018
  56. ↑ Nahles: Merkel's "Götterinnendämmerung" has long since started Focus.de on February 15, 2018, accessed on February 17, 2018
  57. ^ A b Justus Bender: Faster than the AfD allows . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . April 9, 2018.
  58. ↑ Because of tweet about the rampage: CSU General Secretary demands Storch resign. In: Spiegel Online . April 9, 2018, accessed April 11, 2018 .
  59. ↑ Two secret reports on the asylum chaos picture from June 2, 2018
  60. ↑ You can't do the South German from June 3, 2018