Detmold

This weekend I took a trip down to Detmold to spend time with friends from orientation. Detmold is cool, small, like Minden, but with a castle and a moat. It's even got the "Party Bus," a late-night bus with florescent stars pasted on the side, techno music playing, and a bus driver who really seems to want everyone to feel like they're on a mobile disco. Most passengers were sleeping, but the idea was nice. It was a fun trip, and good to be able to speak English for a bit.

The weirdest part of the trip, though, was the train station in Minden when I got back. I was trying to leave the train station, and suddenly there were police everywhere, not just hanging out, all of them with heavy-duty guns and serious faces. They seemed to be blockading the stairs leading up to the exit, but other people were walking past, so I did too. Then suddenly there was a parade of angry people marching past the train station with banners and a loudspeaker, all of them shouting things and waving flags. I couldn’t really figure out what they were saying, but another man near me started yelling things back at the parade, and the police restrained him, while a man with a camera ran over to shoot footage. I just kept walking, and passed three separate groups of people having arguments about whether or not foreigners are taking jobs away from Germans. Otherwise, the streets were deserted except for me and a million police (they were like movie set police, too: the men huge and rugged, the women beautiful with flawless makeup). Finally I came to a road blockade, and had to talk police officers into letting me pass. “We can let you out,” one told me, “but you can never come back.” That was really no problem for me.

I saw on the news later that right-extremist groups were holding demonstrations in several cities, and it turned out that city officials expected much more trouble than they got, thus all the police. I think the strangest part was being so disoriented: not really knowing where I was going, what people were saying, and what was happening, except the general sense that people were angry about foreigners.

The immigration issue in Germany is interesting, especially when thinking about immigration attitudes in the U.S. There are lots of good articles and statistics online, but for a basic general overview, you can look here.