Berlin-Beograd

Intro

When we got on the train in Berlin to set off to the icy cold of Belgrade in December 2002, we knew at least who was going to expect us there. The first part of an exchange between a group of Belgrade university students and graduates who had been involved in the protests against Milosevic while holding very different political views, and us, a group mainly of activists in different leftist circles in Berlin, had already taken place in Berlin in October 2002. The exchange was part of the political journeys program of the Internationaler Arbeitskreis e.V. (International Working Group) which already had contacts in Belgrade. In Belgrade, we planned to continue our discussions about the two main issues of the project, nationalism and racism, to broaden our perspectives and to pose a lot of questions. Of course, we also wanted to explore a new city and get to know our exchange partners' everyday lives. They welcomed us at the Belgrade train station and took us to our accommodations.

Our Berlin group had come together only on the occasion of the exchange, although some of us had known each other before. The war in Kosovo in 1999 lead many of us to have a critical look at the situation in Yugoslavia. The first German combat mission since 1945 was euphemistically called a "humanitarian intervention" and justified by saying that a "new Auschwitz" had to be averted. In view of these circumstances, we wanted to know how people in Serbia had judged and experienced the NATO bombings. The anti-Serbian propaganda in the German media during Milosevics term of office and the insufficient analysis of the situation by the majority of the German left lead us to deal with the changes in the last decade in Serbia. Some of us were surprised at the fact that there were people in Belgrade who had placed hopes in the bombings. Considering the clear positioning of the German government in favor of the Kosovo-Albanians on one hand, and the broad local protest movement against the Serbian government on the other hand, Serbia was of particular interest to us. Our starting-point was the fatal influence of the German foreign policy on the situation in Yugoslavia during the 90ies: Hadn't the German government aggravated the conflict with its "fuel to the fire" policy (that is by the rash recognition of Slovenia and Croatia) which showed a certain continuity of German policy towards the Balkans? The issue of the very different functions of nationalism in Germany and (ex) Yugoslavia and the turning of social conflicts into ethnic ones in particular was crucial for us.

Another motivation was our criticism of the European refugee policy. Many of the refugees living in Germany, Roma in particular, were either victims of the "humanitarian interventions", that is of the NATO bombings on Yugoslavia, or victims of the subsequent expulsions by Albanian nationalists who had been supported and strengthened by NATO politics. In Germany, however, the expulsions were considered as a result of internal Yugoslavian conflicts which no further responsibility had to be taken for. On the contrary, the deportations to refugee camps and slums were sold as part of a humanitarian aid program and euphemistically called "repatriations".

Our main goal for the Berlin part of the exchange was to show the exclusion of and the discrimination against non-Germans in Germany and the rapid increase of nationalism, racism and anti-Semitism since the so-called reunification. Too positive images of Germany our Belgrade exchange partners possibly had should thereby be corrected. Thus one focus of the Berlin program was on the situation of refugees, both as a consequence of the war in Kosovo and from the perspective of refugees self-organization. A lecture by the Forschungsgesellschaft Flucht und Migration (Research Centre Migration and Refuge) on the cooperation of NATO, NGOs and the EU and their strategies of repulsing refugees during the Kosovo war was on the agenda. Furthermore we met the Flüchtlingsinitiative Brandenburg (Initiative Group of Asylum Seekers, Brandenburg) and a Roma group taking actions against their deportations. For the issue of racism we watched the movie The Truth Lies in Rostock about the racist pogrom in Rostock in 1993, and discussed about it with Heike Kleffner, a journalist who then was present in Rostock. Together with representatives of the Bündnis gegen Antisemitismus und Antizionismus (Alliance against anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism) and the Bundesverband Jüdischer Studenten in Deutschland (Association of Jewish Students in Germany), we discussed about the current situation of Jews and the growing anti-Semitism in Germany. We also visited the concentration camp memorial Sachsenhausen and the Antifaschistisches Pressearchiv (Antifascist Press Archive). By discussing a lecture on normalization, a revised version of which is to be found in this reader, we tried to historically and theoretically analyse the social changes in Germany. In the evenings, we explored the pubs and the gay-lesbian scene of Berlin.

The concept of the second part of our exchange, taking place in Belgrade in December, was to connect the events in Belgrade and Berlin, to exchange the different experiences and to discuss Serbian and German nationalism in connection with racism, anti-Semitism, anticommunism and (in the Serbian case) the new role of the Orthodox Church. We were also interested in feminist positions and in the situation of homosexuals which had become notorious by the hooligans' raid on the Belgrade Gay Parade in 2001. Furthermore, we wanted to know more about the economic changes since Milosevics fall on 5 October, 2000. We wanted to talk to groups still maintaining a positive reference to communism and leftist social criticism. The situation of Roma in Yugoslavia and, last but not least, the reasons for the civil wars in the 90ies were further topics on our agenda. Our hosts in Belgrade did their best to fit in all our wishes, but ten days were just not enough to reasonably reflect all the meetings and discussions we had.

At the end of the whole program we had to admit that each of us was given an insight into the other world, but that a real exchange could only take place now that we know the different personal and political backgrounds. We have made up this reader in order to continue our exchange, to document and reflect our impressions of Belgrade and to give those interested in Yugoslavia an insight into current local discussions. Our articles can only give a first overview and raise new questions, we do not claim to present final answers. Some of us visited Serbia again after our common stay there and gained new impressions, partially answered questions or at least reposed them. Some of these impressions, above all of the events during and after Zoran Jinjic's murder, therefore left their marks on the texts as well.

We did not categorize the articles according to their topics, because many of the topics comprehend so different aspects that we could not and wanted not to decide on super-categories.

Last but not least, we would like to thank our Belgrade friends for their organizational work, their never-ending willingness to discuss with us and their overwhelming hospitality. Without them, the meetings and this reader could not have been realized, and we could not have learnt that much about Yugoslavia and its inhabitants.

The editors