#Kai Wegner

[thoughtlessarse]

Kai Wegner, Berlin’s conservative mayor, recently embraced the antisemitic conspiracy theorist Elon Musk. But Wegner’s relationship to Berlin’s former interior senator Heinrich Lummer raises even more questions. Heinrich Lummer, West Berlin’s interior senator from 1981 to 1986, has largely been forgotten. At most, a scandal or two from the conservative politician’s time in office has remained in the city’s collective memory. For years, the staunch anti-communist had an affair with an agent from East Germany’s Ministry for State Security (Stasi), making himself vulnerable to blackmail. In 1981, Lummer ordered the eviction of eight squats, during which the 19-year-old squatter Klaus-Jürgen Rattay was pushed under the wheels of a bus and died. A handmade memorial plaque in the sidewalk at Potsdamer Straße 125 still commemorates his death. Lummer’s career came to an end in 1986 due to a realty scandal. It was later revealed that the right-wing hardliner had allegedly donated thousands of marks to right-wing extremists in 1971. Today, one influential Berlin politician thinks this resume deserves admiration. After Lummer’s death in 2019, Kai Wegner wrote: “He was a strong personality in the Berlin CDU.” Wegner said Lummer was “unforgotten”: “Many will remember him as someone who consistently enforced internal security and order,” the Facebook post reads. “This didn’t just win him friends, but it showed his clear stance.” Today, the writer of that obituary is mayor of Berlin. Lummer stood out with one topic in particular since the end of the 1990s: his hatred of Jews. In 1997, Lummer spoke out against Jewish immigration to the Federal Republic of Germany in the Ostpreußenblatt, today called the Preußische Allgemeine Zeitung. The country already had too many foreigners — and its foreign policy on questions relating to Israel was largely “determined by others.” Lummer’s antisemitism was so clear that he was denied entry to Israel in 1998. The following year, in an interview with the right-wing newspaper Junge Freiheit, he said the Berlin Holocaust memorial had only been built due to pressure from the “American East Coast.” In another interview, he wondered if forced labor under the Nazis had really been “so terrible and low-paid.” After all, “there has always been forced labor in the context of war.” When CDU politician Martin Hohmann (now AfD) gave an antisemitic speech in 2003, Lummer was one of the initiators of a solidarity declaration. Further right-wing bugaboos completed Lummer’s world view. In 1999, again in the Ostpreußenblatt, he wrote that the German people were in danger of disappearing due to mass immigration, encouraged by foreign powers. Today, this far-right conspiracy theory is known as the “Great Replacement.” In 2001, Lummer signed a petition in support of Götz Kubitschek, today an ideologue of the neo-fascist Right, and in 2006, he signed another petition for Junge Freiheit. None of this is a secret. Lummer’s Wikipedia page in German contains an entire section on his antisemitism. How does Wegner respond?

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[bspoquemagazine]

Berliner Kultur in der Haushaltskrise schützen

An: den Regierenden Bürgermeister von Berlin Kai Wegner, Senator Stefan Evers, Senator Joe Chialo Gestartet wurde die Petition vom Deutschen Bühnenverein Landesverband Berlin  Am 19. September 2024 haben Sie den Vertreter*innen aller Kulturbereiche in einer Informationsveranstaltung die Haushaltsnotlage des Landes Berlin und die notwendigen und drastischen Einsparauflagen in 2025 und 2026 auch…

[channeledhistory]

Vor der Humboldt-Universität haben sich am Freitagnachmittag Dutzende Menschen zu pro-palästinensischen Protesten versammelt. Wie die Polizei mitteilte, demonstrierten Menschen im Innenhof des Campus Mitte bei einem nicht angemeldeten Sit-in. Weitere Demonstranten standen noch vor dem Uni-Gebäude. Gegen 17.30 Uhr war der Protest weitestgehend beendet. In der Spitze waren es 300 Menschen, wie die Polizei auf X schrieb. Wegen antisemitischer Sprüche oder Widerstand gegen die Polizei nahmen die Beamten Personalien nach eigenen Angaben „auch unter Anwendung von Zwang“ auf. Etwa 40 Personen wurden vorübergehend festgenommen, so die Pressestelle der Polizei. [...] Wenig Verständnis für die Proteste zeigt Berlins Regierender Bürgermeister Kai Wegner. [...] „Bei uns wird es kein Verständnis für diejenigen geben, die hier Zustände wie in den USA oder Frankreich wollen.“ Die Präsidentin der Universität, Julia von Blumenthal, war vor Ort und im Gespräch mit den Protestierenden. „Wenn Unrecht zu Recht wird, wird Widerstand zur Pflicht“, war auf einem Schild zu lesen und auf einem anderen: „From the Spree to Overseas the people will rise in solidarity“ (Deutsch etwa: „Von der Spree bis Übersee werden die Menschen sich solidarisieren“). [...]

[sigalrm]

Das Tor zum Sumpf by Pascal Volk Via Flickr: Nach über 20 Jahren stellt die CDU seit heute das/den/die Regierende/n Bürgermeister/in in Berlin. Mal sehen, wohin uns das führen wird.

[unfug-bilder]

Endlich ein Beweis! Es gibt mindestens ein weiteres Berlin - wo auch immer es sei. Dort geht es schlimm zu. Wie gut, dass das richtige Berlin von Kai Wegner und Franziska Giffey regiert wird. Die haben schon genug damit zu tun, seit 6 Jahren geplante Radwege NICHT zu bauen. Für so einen Quatsch hätten die gar keine Zeit.

Die nachfolgende Erklärung gefällt mir übrigens sehr gut und würde mir auch einleuchten, wenn ich nicht wüßte, dass Lindemann sehr weit vom Schienenverkehr entfernt "wohnt".

Das hier klingt auch nachvollziehbar, allerdings ist die nächste Schienenanbindung erst in Bad Segeberg.

[mariacallous]

BERLIN (JTA) – Several thousand Berliners braved a chilling rain Sunday to demonstrate against antisemitism at an interfaith rally at the city’s iconic Brandenburg Gate.

The event — which drew a broad coalition of politicians and religious leaders as well as popular stars — was a response to a record increase in reported antisemitic incidents across Germany in the month after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7.

Dubbed “Never again is now — Germany stands up,” the rally was organized by a Jewish real estate magnate, Nicolai Schwarzer.

In announcing the event, Schwarzer, 48, said he wanted “to send a powerful and unmistakable signal to the world — from the heart of the capital — that no form of antisemitism, hatred or xenophobia will be tolerated in Berlin or anywhere else in Germany.”

The rally joins several others organized in major cities in Europe and the United States to demonstrate opposition to antisemitism. They have been organized in part as a counterpoint to the large pro-Palestinian rallies that have taken place in many of those cities. Such rallies have been relatively muted and heavily monitored by police in Germany, where antisemitic speech and criticism of Israel are circumscribed by laws enacted in part because of the country’s role in perpetrating the Holocaust. Still, pro-Palestinian sentiment, including among Germany’s large immigrant population, is high.

“Sometimes I don’t recognize this country, something has gone out of control,” Josef Schuster, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said at the rally.

He described a pro-Hamas protest that took place at Berlin’s University of the Arts on Nov. 13, where he said participants “dressed in black to look like Hamas terrorists. They had painted their hands red — a clear reference to the murder of two Israeli soldiers by an Islamist mob in Gaza more than 20 years ago. The whole thing was orchestrated by visiting professors from the global south – how can that be?” Schuster said the incident was proof of the danger of the movement to boycott Israel, which has been considered officially antisemitic in Germany since 2018.

Bärbel Bas, the president of Germany’s parliament, read through a litany of antisemitic incidents: “Swastikas and Stars of David have been daubed on synagogues, memorials and even private homes.” In one notable incident on Oct. 18, two Molotov cocktails were thrown at a Jewish community center that houses a synagogue as well as a kindergarten.

Bas described hearing from a student who was the only child to attend class at her Jewish school on a day when fear reigned about a Hamas call for violence abroad.

“Jews are afraid, and they feel left alone. And it’s not only hate that creates this feeling, but also silence and indifference,” she said. “And that’s why it’s important that we make a powerful, wipeable and loud statement here today. Never again is now.”

Other speakers included Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor; Berlin’s mayor, Kai Wegner; author Michel Friedman; 1990s pop music icon Herbert Grönemeyer; and Hubertus Heil, Germany’s minister of labor and social affairs.

The rally began with the lighting of a Hanukkah menorah by Rabbi Yehudah Teichtal, the head of Berlin’s chapter of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. Representatives of Catholic and Protestant churches lit advent candles.

Eren Güvercin, a member of the German Islam Conference — which the German government started as a forum for dialogue in 2006 — delivered a prayer of his own, for “peace for the souls” of the Israelis murdered on Oct. 7 and for the hostages and their families, “who fear for their loved ones.”

“And we pray for peace for the people who are now suffering the consequences of this terrorist organization’s crimes in Gaza,” he added. “Nothing we say here today will solve the Middle East conflict. But we raise our voices to remind everyone who lives together here in this city, in this country: Faith is a source from which we draw to create peace. Faith must not divide us. It must unite us.”

Organizers claimed 11,000 people had taken part in the rally, though police estimated the attendance at 3,000. Those gathered were praised by many speakers for braving the weather to show their support. They included members of Berlin’s Jewish community, estimated at over 30,000, as well as non-Jewish allies.

“This is the third time we have been here in front of the Brandenburg Gate since Oct. 7,” said Berliner Melanie Schmergal, 55. “It upsets me that you don’t see any big demonstrations for Israel’s right to exist and against antisemitism. You see other people screaming quite a bit. [But] I believe… that the others are not in the majority.”

“It is important to take a stand against any kind of extremism,” said Christian Götz, 60. “And that Israel has a right to defend itself, and that we as a population have to show, especially here in Berlin, that we are on Israel’s side.”

The pair, who are not Jewish, said they had met the descendants of Jews who used to live in their building in Berlin, and who were either deported or managed to flee Nazi Germany.

“It’s so incredible that something like this seems possible again,” Schmergal said.

***

On Dec. 8, the Bergen-Belsen Memorial in Lower Saxony hosted a public panel discussion marking 75 years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, specifically addressing the issue of antisemitism after the Hamas terrorist attack.

Next week, the Berlin-based Tikvah Institute is co-hosting the presentation of a study on how Russian-speaking Jews in Germany perceive antisemitism after Oct. 7. About 90% of all Jews in Germany today are migrants from the former Soviet Union.

And though not in Germany, the annual Claims Conference International Holocaust Survivors Night on Dec. 11 — a star-studded event whose virtual guests of honor will include German Chancellor Olaf Scholz — “takes on unique significance,” said the organization’s president, Gideon Taylor: “We are reminded that some of the strongest among us survived during the darkest of times.”

Despite the alarming statistics in Germany and elsewhere, Jews are in a better position today in terms of world support than they were in the 1930s-40s, said New Yorker Menachem Rosensaft, who was born at the displaced persons camp at Bergen-Belsen and participated in the recent round table at the memorial.

“President Biden, for one, is the polar opposite of FDR in his unequivocal support for Israel after Oct. 7 and his equally unequivocal repudiation and condemnation of all manifestations of antisemitism,” said Rosensaft, who is also the chair of the Advisory Board of the Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation.

[gulyas069]

Kai Wegner wird von der japanischen Botschaft zum Essen eingeladen und lässt danach Comfort Women Denkmäler abreißen

[miat-tcc]

Berlin conceals brutal gang rapes

As is only now coming to light, several men each attacked three young women and a 14-year-old girl at two prominent locations in Berlin in June. Although the police have set up a six-man special commission, they refuse to give descriptions of the perpetrators of the gang rapes. And Berlin's mayor, Kai Wegner (CDU), who as leader of the opposition demanded the release of the first names of the New Year's Eve rioters as recently as last winter, remains silent.

"The purpose of juvenile criminal proceedings aimed at education and avoiding stigmatization" would be jeopardized "if further information were provided," a spokeswoman for the Berlin public prosecutor's office said, according to Welt. Police and prosecutors declined to provide information on nationality and migration background.

Gang rape in the "Görli" The first crime occurred in Görlitzer Park in Kreuzberg, which is known as a crime hotspot and for open drug trafficking by migrants that is tolerated by politicians. As apparently leaked by officials to the newspaper, several men allegedly robbed a man and a woman first in June. The woman is then alleged to have been raped by several men in front of her companion.

In the "Görli," as the park is belittlingly called by Berlin politicians and activists, this is not an isolated case. In response to a question from the Left Party, the Senate recently stated that in the first half of this year alone there had already been eight cases of rape, sexual assault and sexual coercion there. Five of those occurred in June. In addition, he said, 13 other sexual offenses and two cases of sexual abuse of children occurred from January to June.

Gang rapes at Schlachtensee The second gang rape case, previously kept under wraps but now known, occurred at Schlachtensee in Berlin-Zehlendorf. On the night of June 9 to 10, several rapes, sexual assaults and sexual harassment of a total of three young women allegedly occurred there.

During a party of 50 to 70 people, several men attacked a 14-year-old girl. But she was apparently not the only victim that night. In total, the police took seven charges for the assaults. In total, there were three victims known to the police.

All suspects are free Here, too, the authorities refuse to disclose the nationalities and migration background of the suspects. The police have so far been able to identify four men between the ages of 14 and 19, searched their homes and confiscated cell phones on which videos of the crimes may be found.

The judiciary has released all the suspects for the time being after they have been identified.

[thoughtlessarse]

When German politicians attack Palestine solidarity protests at universities, they claim they are “protecting Jewish students.” In reality, though, Jewish students are getting beaten up by cops — all in the name of “fighting antisemitism.” An interview with Leah*, a Jewish student in Berlin. On Tuesday, May 22, the Institute for Social Sciences (ISW) at Berlin’s Humboldt University (HU) was occupied by about 100 pro-Palestinian students, as part of a wave of protest camps around the world. Why did you decide to join? We occupied the ISW and then named it the Jabalia Institute to take a stand against the university’s complicity in genocide. We were protesting against the repression of Palestinian students and pro-Palestinian events, and also against the weaponization of antisemitism to stop student protests. The occupation lasted until 6pm of the following day, May 23. Negotiations with the HU president ended due to police violence outside the building. Berlin’s mayor, Kai Wegner, had publicly demanded that the HU presidium order an eviction. We wanted to create an autonomous space, both as a protest against repression and as an environment to learn from each other. Throughout the day, however, police changed their rules again and again, making it very difficult to invite people inside. Students from any Berlin university were allowed into the negotiations with the HU president. There, six students shared their experiences, including an anti-Zionist Jewish student. The negotiations ended when police stormed the building. They did not let hundreds of students leave, even after previously telling them they would be allowed to exit safely. The HU administration abandoned them inside while police corralled and kettled them. Others stayed inside to protest against the eviction with sit-ins. Over 140 students were detained and charged — even those who only attended the public negotiations.

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[aktionfsa-blog-blog]

Baldiger Bürgermeister in rechtsradikaler Facebook-Gruppe?

"Mit EU-Chatkontrolle hätten ...

... wir ihn schon vor der Berliner Wahl erwischt." Diese Hoffnung haben wir nicht, denn wir wissen, dass die von der konservativen EVP Fraktion  aber auch von vielen Sozialdemokraten verlangten Überwachung aller unserer Kommunikation im Internet sicher nichts bringt, außer ein Mehr an Überwachung. Alle unsere Argumente gegen eine EU-weite Chatkontrolle gibt es hier https://www.aktion-freiheitstattangst.org/cgi-bin/searchart.pl?suche=Chat&sel=meta

Dass der Berliner CDU Spitzenkandidat nun als Mitglied in einer rechtsradikalen Facebook-Gruppe erwischt wurde, bleibt ein Zufall. Genau, wie viele andere nicht erwischt werden oder wenn wieder andere fälschlicherweise denunziert werden. Gerade letztere, die sogenannten False Positives, sind in der Regel die Opfer, weil sie Beweise für ihr "Nicht-Tun" erbringen müssen - eine Umkehrung der Unschuldsvermutung.

Überführt oder nicht?

Auch diese Frage führt nicht viel weiter, denn man könnte ja aus investigativen Gründen Mitglied so einer Gruppe werden wollen, um die wirklichen "Extremisten" zu entlarven. Fest steht, dass Kai Wegener selbst keine Beiträge in der Gruppe gepostet hat, lediglich ein Like gab es von ihm für einen Beitrag seines Parteikollegen Burkard Dregger zu einem Polizeieinsatz in der Rigaer Straße aus dem Mai 2019. Vielleicht sollte man sich dessen Äußerungen genauer ansehen?

Die taz führt in ihrem Artikel zum Thema noch 2 entlastende Argumente an, die man auch im Rahmen der Internet-Überwachung und im Nachhinein zu den Berufsverbotsverfahren stets im Kopf behalten sollte.

Die Gruppe könnte "sich erst im Laufe der Jahre über den 'erlaubten Rahmen' hinaus radikalisiert" haben, was wenig aktive Mitglieder nicht mitbekommen haben könnten.

Im Internet lassen sich die Namen der Nutzer beliebig verwenden und es war möglicherweise ein Fake der Gruppe, so bekannte Namen, wie Kai Wegener oder Hamburgs Verkehrssenator Anjes Tjarks von den Grünen oder René Domke, Landesvorsitzender der FDP in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in ihren Reihen nennen zu können.

Gegen das letzte Argument spricht allerdings ein Satz aus dem taz Artikel: Bis 2021 war er [Kai Wegener] aber sogar als einer von 18 Ad­mi­nis­tra­to­r:in­nen und Mo­de­ra­to­r:in­nen gelistet, wie ein Sprecher der Berliner CDU bestätigte.

Wie auch immer, für uns bleibt es bei unserer Forderung von letzter Woche "Stopp für eine Politik von gestern!" - insbesondere gerichtet an die SPD, die unter Frau Giffeys Führung mit einem 29€-Ticket links blinkt und dann vorsätzlich und ohne Not rechts abbiegt.

Mehr dazu bei https://taz.de/Kai-Wegner-in-rechter-Facebook-Gruppe/!5916396/

Kategorie[21]: Unsere Themen in der Presse Short-Link dieser Seite: a-fsa.de/d/3sR Link zu dieser Seite: https://www.aktion-freiheitstattangst.org/de/articles/8328-20230307-baldiger-buergermeister-in-rechtsradikaler-facebook-gruppe.htm

[channeledhistory]

[korrektheiten]

Nius: »Arche-Sozialarbeiter zu gestrichenen Klassenreisen: „Berliner Senat und Kai Wegner haben diese Kinder auf dem Gewissen!“ http://dlvr.it/TFFCCk «

[unfug-bilder]

Wahlen organisieren können sie in Berlin!

Wie gut, dass sie Kai Wegner zum Regierenden Bürgermeister gewählt haben. Der war ja angetreten mit dem Ziel, dass es in der Verwaltung künftig besser läuft.

[caprano]

„Das Besondere an Berlin ist Berlin.“ Berlins Regierender Bürgermeister Kai Wegner