"Munich is diverse:" Protesters at a demonstration in the Bavarian capital a bastion of support for the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) party It's also the place where retiree Karl Meyer boarded a train to Munich with anger in the pit of his stomach He had painted a sign with a Bavarian swear word and a boat on which it said "Christian Social Inhumanity" with stick figures clinging to its sides wanted to protest in the state capital against "the nationalism that has brought so much calamity into the world" and against the representatives of the CSU "I favor a different kind of country," says Meyer His dialect betrays the fact that he lives in Bavaria Just over a week has passed since the protest and the country has quickly moved on to a different topic with the resignation of Mesut Özil from the national football team dominating the headlines attended by several tens of thousands of people because it was only the second in his life against a nuclear power plant located near his village he once again finds himself sitting in Geisenhausen and looking to Munich and Berlin with a mixture of astonishment and anger: He has read in his local newspaper that the economy grew by 2.2 percent in 2017 and that the unemployment figures in June are lower than at any other time since German reunification He doesn't understand where it's coming from right-wing agitators are shaping the discourse in Germany They want to "dispose of" fellow citizens in Anatolia or spur a "conservative revolution." But they are also being countered by members of the radical left like a small number of the protestors on July 22 in Munich believe that we are on the verge of seeing a "Fourth Reich" take power The many people at the center of German society are having difficulty understanding the aggressive tones the debate is starting to take Among those at the center of society are people with and without immigrant backgrounds third-generation immigrants who are self-evidently integrated but are now asking themselves if they are truly wanted in this country people working to help refugees who have the feeling they need to justify their work but also people who voted for conservative parties and dislike the polarization And high-ranking government representatives who are worried about the country's social cohesion the president of the Federal Constitutional Court who has complained of an "unacceptable" rhetoric being used by leading CSU politicians "Our skill within the Christian Democrats was always being able to hold together different directions We failed to do this in the conflict during the last few weeks," says German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen who is a member of the Christian Democratic Union which shares power at the national level with the CSU A sizeable majority of Germans are concerned commissioned by DER SPIEGEL several days ago over two-thirds of Germans decry the coarsening of the political debate Just as many respondents are seeing a rightward tilt in German politics but I am an immigrant when we lose," the professional football player tweeted on July 22 he became a personality upon whom people could project their feelings with some viewing him as a spoiled millionaire and others as a victim of prejudice 58 percent of people do not believe the footballer was treated disrespectfully and in a racist manner and only 27 percent regret his resignation from the national team But Özil's resignation is merely an opportunity for a necessary debate about marginalization and social cohesion Germany has been debating whether it is a country of immigration since the first guest workers arrived from Turkey and Italy during the 1950s and 1960s With the reform of citizenship rights in 2000 which made it possible for children born here to foreign parents to receive a German passport the question seemed to be answered with a "yes." The frustration and sense of being affronted described in Özil's statement of resignation are familiar to many people with an immigration background The children of immigrants still feel that they are placed at a disadvantage when it comes to school And given the continuing battle over refugee policies anti-migrant reflexes have grown stronger and not weaker There is a double alienation at work: Migrants are feeling alienated by Germany because parts of Germany are alienating themselves from migrants Gerd Thomas has been involved with the FC Internationale Berlin football club for 15 years There is no advertising on the team's jersey just the slogan: "No racism." The club includes people with roots in more than 70 countries "Sports has an integrative power -- it brings people together and helps solve conflicts," Thomas says How the language in everyday interactions has become rawer "What happens in the subway and the schoolyard The article you are reading originally appeared in German in issue 31/2018 (July 28th The right-wing is in the process of establishing ways of thinking and terms that were Muslims are increasingly talked about as threats with discussions of "asylum tourists" and a supposed "anti-deportation industry." When anti-immigrant Pegida protesters in Dresden shout that refugees should be left to "drown," it hardly causes outrage anymore But voices from the center of society are also getting drowned out in the media discourse Even agitators within the CSU party have since recognized the problem They now claim they want to adopt more moderate language moving forward The buzz term "concerned citizens" once referred almost exclusively to people who harbor prejudice against foreigners and consequently want to seal the country's borders from outsiders But there are also other types of concerned citizens who worry about values like solidarity and worldliness and the sometimes overly discredited "welcoming culture." The latter is a reference to the intially warm reception given by many Germans to the hundreds of thousands of refugees who came to the country in 2015 and 2016 sees himself with some justification as a man of the center part of a group currently being discussed constantly in Berlin political circles He's an office manager in a forestry office a Catholic and the chairman of the parish council in Rückers a village of 1,900 inhabitants near Fulda in the central state of Hesse he has had the feeling that many politicians no longer think of people like him when they refer to the middle class He believes they are instead talking about other people: those who are much louder than him or those who complain about the "asylum-seekers" on social networks "It's painful to see this populism take hold," he says When asylum-seekers moved into the neighborhood in 2016 Höflich was immediately ready to help -- as a Christian but also because he was curious about them as people He listened to their stories and organized an aid group called Rückers Active together with other local residents They invited refugees to the village festival and the locals to a meet-and-greet day where the asylum-seekers cooked dishes from their home countries Höflich says he has "lots of good memories" from that time He helped a young Afghan man battle his way through the German bureaucracy In terms of grander scale politics in Berlin he says the focus is no longer on making integration easier for new arrivals abuse and keeping people out," says Höflich He blames the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party for ratcheting up the unpleasant rhetoric of too often allowing itself to be driven by the populists is starting to rub off on broader segments of the population He says that some people who provide assistance to refugees have been forced to justify themselves to acquaintances for supporting the asylum-seekers The help being provided for the refugees receded around the country after the first massive wave of refugees entered Germany during the summer of 2015 But that "welcoming culture," as it has been called by many also hasn't disappeared as the debates of recent weeks might lead one to believe According to a study conducted by pollster Allensbach for the German Family Ministry one-fifth of Germans are still involved in helping the refugees a total of 55 percent of the population above the age of 16 has gotten involved in one form or another "I'm very concerned about the heated debates of recent weeks," says Antje von Dewitz She says people are more focused on fears and no longer on the potential opportunities that immigration can provide for Germany is the head of the outdoor outfitting company Vaude Syria and Nigeria work for her company at Tettnang near Lake Constance in the southern state of Baden Württemberg They make bicycle bags or sew tents in the repair workshop and one is apprenticing as an industrial clerk Dewitz says she acted out of a feeling of responsibility above all the company was looking for employees for a new manufacturing site and tailors and welders were especially hard to find The company organized German lessons for the new employees and helped them deal with bureaucracy and the search for apartments and there were concerns among the employees the new arrivals have become some of the company's most important employees There's just one hitch: Half of the 12 employees have had their asylum claims rejected and now face deportation  Dewitz views the development not only as a human drama but also as an economic fiasco She says her company stands to lose as much as a quarter-million euros if it loses the workers Dewitz and representatives of 100 other companies have founded an initiative that is calling for migrants to be permitted to stay in the country if they have employment contracts She has even written a letter to Chancellor Angela Merkel Baden-Württemberg state Governor Winfried Kretschmann was told "You can't deport our colleagues." The company head knows that refugee laws aren't meant to draw new members of the workforce into the country and that not everyone who makes it to Germany can stay But as long as there is no real immigration policy here a transitional regulation could also be implemented -- a pragmatic move "Politics is currently dominated by fears and is no longer capable of shaping politics," Dewitz says "These fears lead to the threat of stagnation." Executives with large companies are also worried about the shift to the right are willing to engage openly in the debate recently spoke in the federal parliament about "headscarf girls" and "knife men," Kaeser responded on Twitter "We'd rather have 'headscarf girls' than a 'League of German girls'," he tweeted Weidel is damaging the reputation of our country in the world which is the main source of German prosperity." Kaeser encouraged the heads of other firms listed on the DAX index of German blue chip companies to found an initiative against right-wing populism as he revealed in July at a reception held by a Munich association of business reporters He recalled how the head of one car company told him he feared he would sell fewer vehicles if he positioned himself against the AfD Kaeser was criticized mercilessly after his tweet and he and his family received threats on social media Kaeser drew comparisons to the Nazi period He even explained how his uncle had been murdered at the Dachau concentration camp for refusing to join the Hitler Youth "Maybe it's time to once again nip things in the bud," he said Kaeser is the chairman of Germany's largest multinational engineering company If a man like him is drawing parallels between contemporary Germany and the Nazi period German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder introduced an immigration law in 2005 that made integration the responsibility of the government the German Conference on Islam was established the hurdles for the immigration of skilled workers from non-EU countries were lowered and the door was opened for well-integrated youths and for people with tolerated residence statuses "In the approximately one-and-a-half decades since the turn of the century more things were done in the area of immigration and integration policy than in the four decades that preceded it," says immigration researcher Klaus Bade Former German national team footballer Mesut Özil: once a poster boy for a diverse Germany an organization of youths with Turkish roots have helped people with immigrant backgrounds become more visible in the public sphere who was born and grew up in Gelsenkirchen -- a national-team player World Cup-winner -- diverse Germany had found a poster boy he even received a Bambi media award for "integration." But this idea of a German inclusiveness is now being challenged by the right more than ever Before the rise of refugee numbers in 2015 immigration policies were largely focused on attracting highly skilled workers to Germany the country finds itself in the position of having to integrate 1 million new arrivals from Syria it seemed as though Germany would pass the stress test ("We can do it," as Merkel famously said at a press conference in August of 2015) But the fact that Merkel never explained how has made it easy for AfD to hijack the subject Merkel has almost entirely reversed the liberal refugee policies she set in place during the summer of 2015 The desire of many to seal the country off from migrants has contributed to the fact that Germany still hasn't passed an immigration law creating uniform rules for the entry of job-seeking migrants It has also led to a situation in which the Europeans work with despots like Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who where refugees are exposed to inhumane conditions immigrants today feel they need to justify their German identity a senior official in the government of the city of Berlin and the daughter of Palestinian refugees these kinds of identity crises are opportunities to further drive a wedge through societies Erdogan has called Özil and praised him for his "national and patriotic" position if Özil wanted to be taken more seriously as a leader in the fight against prejudice he also could have made an additional statement at that point pointing to the democratic deficits in Turkey his resignation could ultimately represent a kind of therapeutic shock If Özil sets off a sustainable debate about racism and social cohesion with his statement then we will have done a bigger service to the nation than he did by scoring all of his goals as a member of the national team HistoryNet restoration work was recently completed on one of World War II’s most spine-chilling weapons In the little Bavarian town of Geisen­hausen restoration work was recently completed on one of World War II’s most spine-chilling weapons: the V-1 Reichenberg pulse-jet-powered flying bomb intended for precision attacks against bomber streams It’s one of only six examples still in existence Three years ago the Reichenberg was in Alexander Kuncze’s shop in pieces Today all those parts have been cleaned up and assembled and the Reichenberg stands in the middle of his workshop decked out in green-gray Luftwaffe camouflage “a version built to be used against ships.” was launched from ramps in France to terrorize Britain was developed at Peenemunde and later launched at London targets from the French and Dutch Channel coasts some of the more fanatical Wehrmacht officers promoted creating suicide planes by adding a pilot’s cockpit to the V-1 just ahead of and underneath the Reichenberg’s Argus pulse-jet engine The explosive charge mounted in the nose was the same type that was used in the 15-inch shells of the battleship Bismarck Although Adolf Hitler and his Luftwaffe generals rejected the idea of a suicide plane as “un-German” and “unsoldierly,” the manned Reichenberg was put into production In­tended to be launched from under the wings of a Heinkel He-111 it was officially regarded as a manned missile whose pilot could parachute to safety just before it hit its target—though how this could be accomplished from an aircraft diving at more than 435 mph with an engine pod directly behind the cockpit and a few were tested by German pilots—including Nazi aviatrix Hanna Reitsch—but they never saw combat Kuncze says his Reichenberg, which was found in Tschechien, contains about 75 percent original parts. He is offering it for sale for 1 million euros (about $1.3 million). Another of his restorations, a V-2 rocket, is on display in Berlin’s Museum der Technik To restore a 1945 Taifun anti-aircraft rocket Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earhart’s disappearance Did Curtiss-Wright deliberately sell defective engines to the U.S “History is a guide to navigation in perilous times History is who we are and why we are the way we are.” HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the world’s largest publisher of history magazines photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians sign me up!