Germany could approach the refugee crisis without surrendering its civility. But instead, the basest of anti-foreigner sentiment is taking hold in many places. If it continues, we could soon witness an atmosphere of brutality not seen in decades.

Recently, I just returned to Germany after spending a couple of years in the United States as a foreign correspondent. In that time that I’ve been back, I’ve become concerned, wrought with worry that my own country is losing its civility.

In America, I was often appalled by the brutality of a society where the majority support the death penalty and police are allowed to shoot people in the back even if they don’t present an immediate threat. I can’t change the fact that I am German, but for some time, I was pleased with that destiny. I was proud — not proud of Germany, but proud to be from a country that had apparently succeeded in becoming more empathetic and civil.

Firing on Refugees?

But the country I have returned to is a different one. It’s a country in which the state chairman of the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AFD) party in North Rhine-Westphalia has declared that, […]