Justice for Hate Criminals in Germany : Courts turn away from the light sentences often given in attacks on foreigners

Few events in postwar Germany have been more disturbing than the xenophobic violence that began to sweep across the country as it moved toward reunification in 1990. Singled out especially for often deadly attacks by young neo-Nazis and like-minded extremists were members of Germany’s Turkish minority of 2 million. Arabs, Africans and Vietnamese among others also were frequent targets of abuse. Those who began to fear for the solidity of Germany’s democracy were not reassured when judges tended to show remarkable leniency to the mainly young men who were convicted of anti-foreign violence. Examples of judicial tolerance included suspended sentences even for murder.

No crime was more shocking than the arson attack in 1993 on a house in the western industrial city of Solingen. Five Turkish women and girls from the same family, ranging in age from 4 to 27, died in the fire. Revulsion and protests over this horrifying act were not limited to Turks. Germans, too, again took to the streets to condemn what they rightly saw as both a moral outrage and an assault on their democratic constitution, whose first sentence proclaims, “Human dignity is inviolable.”

Five young men who were charged with the Solingen murders have now been convicted and sentenced. Four of them, tried as youths, were given the maximum sentence of 10 years. A fifth, older man, for whom the prosecution had sought a life term--Germany does not have capital punishment--has been sent to prison for 15 years. All this represents a notable change from the penalties customarily handed down by German courts for crimes against foreigners, and that change is being widely seen as a deliberate signal to others who might commit similar crimes that severe punishment awaits.

Anti-foreign violence has declined in Germany, but has not disappeared. Through the first half of this year authorities recorded more than 170 such incidents. Part of the drop-off in hate crimes is no doubt due to the necessary tightening that has taken place in Germany’s immigration policy, for long the most relaxed and generous in Europe. Credit as well must go to the government’s determination--encouraged by concerned public opinion--to get tougher with extremists.

The murders in Solingen two years ago were an unforgivable crime. People everywhere who abhor bigotry and the violence that so often accompanies it can be grateful that justice has now been done.