Trouble with African Commissioners of the Federal Government: Learn from despots

Günter Nooke, 60, African Commissioner of the Federal Government, has been under criticism for some time. It is said that of all the former GDR civil rights activists and Merkel's man for Africa have a history-forgotten image Africa and judgments on flat rate across the globe with more than 50 countries.

If the African representative talks about Africa, he sometimes makes it very simple: The fact that it does not work economically is also due to the weather, says Nooke. At "35 degrees", "Labor productivity at construction is different than here". Africa is "different", also because of "clan structures" and "the role of tribal leaders," said Nooke the tabloid "BZ".

European Development Policy, which also emphasizes equality before the law, overtakes the African representative: "Germany has given enough lectures to African governments on democracy, the rule of law and so on," Nooke told Die Zeit. And on ZDF he said that "in African countries in a sense, authoritarian" must be governed.

The CDU politician with his views on the European colonial history drew the greatest displeasure so far: "The Cold War has damaged Africa more than the colonial era," said Nooke the "BZ". In addition, colonialism "helped to solve the continent from archaic structures".

With these sentences, a limit was crossed for a number of well-known African researchers: In an open letter to the Chancellor, they accused Nooke in November 2018 of propagating "colonial stereotypes" and "racist overtones". Because of his "colonial revisionist statements" Nooke must go.

Then it happened: almost nothing. Already in October, Nooke had told the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" that he did not "relativize the crimes of the colonial period". In response to a parliamentary question, the Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) stated that a comparison of colonialism and the Cold War was inappropriate.

What Nooke attributed to his critics was a conversation. And now, because of this meeting in Berlin, the question arises whether Nooke should still be African representative.

DPA

Anne Storch, Africanist at the University of Cologne and winner of the Leibniz Prize

Several representatives of the nine-member scientific delegation say that there was an icy atmosphere about the meeting on February 13 at the BMZ. Nooke was flanked by a lawyer and he had "insulted".

Nooke himself does not want to comment on multiple demand of the SPIEGEL "on the painful matter", it says from his office. He has too much to do in preparation for a trip to Kenya and Somalia.

Matthias Theodor Vogt, theater scholar from Görlitz, with whom Nooke toured Cameroon in Feburary 2018, among others, also took part in the conversation. According to the agenda Vogt was "moderator" of the meeting. Inquisitor but would have done better, mock participants.

"Plump threatening gestures"

"Even during the conversation, it was suggested that we scientists without fixed positions should pay attention to what we say," recalls Raija Kramer in an interview with SPIEGEL, a DFG-funded professor of Adamawa languages ​​at the University of Hamburg.

From the perspective of African and Leibniz Prize winner Anne Storch, both Nooke and Vogt have tried to intimidate the critics. Several times the scientists were reminded with fixed-term contracts, because they may think about their future. According to Storch, Vogt has said that he does not speak here "in the well-endowed permanent positions".

Vogt remembers very differently. The conversation with the professors was initially good, he told the SPIEGEL. Among other things, with the Cologne African stork Storch it was harmonious.

Storch and another participant recall that Nooke spoke of Kramer's still young career. Kramer is a junior professor, and in less than three years decides whether she will become a full professor or whether she will be without a position. It was she who had sent the resignation request for the Fachverband Afrikanistik. Storch told the SPIEGEL that she and her colleagues had found Nookes and Vogt's statement a "crude threat".

In spells it was not: After the interview, Nooke handed the scientist Kramer an envelope. In it: A 13-page "assessment" to the open letter of the Africanists.

The so-called "assessment", addressed to the BMZ, initially contains a collection of comma and typo errors of the letter, accompanied by justifications for Nooke's failures in terms of colonialism. In addition, in the document, which is the SPIEGEL: Another indication of Kramer's insecure employment, as "a - so far at least - publicly appointed Juniorprofessorin".

Petzen the boss: "The President of the University of Hamburg" inform

The Africans then assume that the paper still has no idea of ​​Africa. The author also pretends that the protest letter against Nooke is a scientific work by Kramer, accusing her of plagiarism, "misrepresentation" and "falsification of data."

This could be bizarre or funny - but in the end follows a recommendation that has it all: The Ministry should "inform the President of the University of Hamburg" by sending this report "- ie Kramer's direct boss.

In addition, Kramer "after the conversation" but "before the subsequent press conference" should be handed a copy - a Nooke advice that followed literally. The letter closes with the sentence: "Everything else is up to the decision of the colleague of Mrs. Kramer."

Author of the paper is Nookes good friend Vogt. The theater scholar says he was commissioned by "BMZ" to write the assessment, which the Ministry has now confirmed to a demand from the Left in the Bundestag. However, the BMZ also stated: According to the knowledge of the Federal Government, only the contents of the paper would have been known to Nooke, Professor Kramer and the author.

Should critics be silenced here?

What Vogt delivered, and Nooke according to unanimous statements handed over by present, see Kramer and her colleagues as an attempt to harm the reputation of a scientist targeted. And as an actual purpose: Nookes critics muzzle.

The letter worked. Her participation in the press conference Kramer said after the appointment. Due to the assessment of Vogt and the reference to her superiors she felt "threatened".

Nooke says nothing to all this. Even the Federal Government told the SPIEGEL only: On the events surrounding the conversation on February 13, you can "currently do not give their own rating."

Author Vogt can find nothing threatening in his writing, in which he coaxes his colleague with adventurous reproaches, and which he would have liked to see in the hands of Kramer's boss. The "science business" is just "incredibly hard". Despite 13 pages in which he keeps Kramer, among other scams, Vogt calls himself "only evidence collector". He was simply "grammatical errors and lack of respect" noticed, a verdict he does not allow himself.

That would have to do the University of Hamburg.