At a folk festival in Hesse, a local politician tells stories about "headscarf squadrons".
That has consequences.
Bad König – His racist and misogynist opening speech on the curb cost a CDU city councilor his office in Bad König (Odenwaldkreis) in southern Hesse.
After loud public criticism, local politician Marc Böhm resigned from his mandate in the city parliament on Friday (September 16) and also gave up his role as a notary speaker, as reported by fr.de.
The weekend before, Böhm had apparently wanted to settle accounts with the city politicians in Bad König “in a joking format” – as he put it himself.
Parts of his speech, excerpts of which were later put online by the
Hessischer Rundfunk (hr)
, dealt with people with a migration background living in the Odenwald city.
Bad König (Odenwaldkreis): CDU politician apologizes for racist statements
Böhm said: "If you look into the main street, your pulse will rise, your veins will swell, you can almost only see squadrons of headscarves." And further: "Four out of five headscarf women" would still have "a roast in the oven".
Statements for which he now apologized in a statement to everyone he had "offended and hurt" beyond the city limits.
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The notch in Bad König (Odenwaldkreis) has a bitter aftertaste in 2022.
© Peter Kneffel/dpa/symbol image
"I fully understand that the statements I made in the speech are discriminatory and wrong," wrote the CDU politician.
He said he "got the tone wrong", "deeply regrets his mistake", but can no longer take back what he said.
With his resignation, he wanted to limit the damage to the city and show that he "honestly regrets" his statements.
Racism scandal in Bad König (Odenwaldkreis): "I thought I was in the wrong film"
For more than 25 years, Marc Böhm was known as "Kerbvadder" in Bad König, as the
Odenwald Journal
reported.
Accordingly, the building technology entrepreneur was also a sponsor of the local sports club TSG Bad König.
On Thursday (September 15) he distanced himself from the controversial notch speech in a Facebook post.
TSG CEO Matthias Hofman later told
hr
that during the speech he "thought at first that I was in the wrong movie".
The SPD in Bad König said on Facebook that a “red line” had been crossed.
Bad König's independent mayor, Axel Muhn, also condemned Böhm's statements as "bottom drawer".
Racist failure at Kerb in Bad König (Odenwaldkreis) causes controversy
The head of the town hall was present at the folk festival, but did not intervene because he did not want to disturb the celebration: "In retrospect, you are always smarter," said Muhn to the
hr
.
According to club boss Hofman, the audience had reacted differently to the speech.
There were those who were shocked, but also others who "clapped stormily".
city | bath king |
district | Odenwald district |
population | about 10000 |
Known as... | Spa town and spa |
The social networks showed that not everyone in Bad König actually saw the racism scandal as such.
On Facebook, for example, it was said apologetically that notch speeches were “always hearty”, and many felt that the resignation of the “Notch Vadder” was exaggerated.
According to Mayor Muhn, his speeches should be checked in advance in the future – to be on the safe side.
(Alexander Gottschalk)
Racism is a structural problem in Germany.
This is shown again by research by the daily newspaper
taz
, which is dealing with the rescue services.
According to this, employees in an office in Cologne are said to have entered their birthdays with those of Adolf Hitler and other Nazis in a calendar.
List of rubrics: © Peter Kneffel/dpa/Symbolbild