Since publication of my report on German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier referring to the opposition AfD party as “rat-catchers” and hence, by implication, to its supporters as “rats”, I have been seeing many responses in social media supposedly debunking the report and insisting that Steinmeier was merely alluding to the legend of the Pied Piper. The original German title of the legend is Der Rattenfänger von Hameln or ‘The Rat-Catcher of Hamelin’.
But to get a sense of just how disingenuous these responses are, just have a look at the above historical postcard from precisely Hamelin. “Greetings from Hamelin” can be read to the right, and the final couplet in the accompanying poem or stanza reads: “A travelling singer who no one knows; a rat-catcher, that is my job.”
Or consider the below picture of the Glockenspiel figurines at Hamelin’s Hochzeitshaus (Wedding Hall).
Or the below picture from a 2009 parade in Hamelin. What are the children marching behind that Rat-Catcher/Pied Piper dressed up as?
Yes, we all know that in the legend – both in the German original and the English-language adaptation – the rat-catcher/pied piper will return to town to lead away the town’s children with his tune. But to suggest that the word “rat-catcher” means anything other than what it means because of the legend or that the root meaning has somehow been eclipsed in the German imagination is completely bogus, as the above images attest. (The images can be found on the German-language Wikipedia page on the legend here.)
Those most directly concerned by Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s “rat-catcher” allusion, i.e., the members and supporters of the AfD, understood perfectly well what was being said, and so too did virtually every other German-speaker of good faith, as innumerable outraged reactions in German-language social media make clear. Many of these reactions call for Steinmeier’s resignation.
But even supposing the German President did not “really” mean to compare AfD supporters to rats but merely to innocent children being led astray, how is that better? This would mean that instead of dehumanising AfD supporters, he will have infantilised them. And what is the German Government considering doing in order to ‘protect’ these innocent little children? It is considering banning the party they support and want to vote for.
Three cheers for German democracy!
Robert Kogon is the pen name of a widely-published journalist covering European affairs. Subscribe to his Substack and follow him on X.
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