A Living History

Quick – name a settled country that doesn’t have a piece of its past it wishes it could forget. British imperialism, America’s sanctioned racism, South Africa’s apartheid. At the top of the list, though, is Germany’s Nazi regime, and it is Germany’s current government that is persistently and acutely aware of that history.

Last week, Eva Herman (pictured), a top talk show host on German public television, was fired after saying, “What I wanted to express was that values which also existed before the Third Reich, such as family, children and motherhood, which were supported in the Third Reich, were subsequently done away with.”

She prologued that by saying most of what they did was very bad. An understatement, but in light of what happened in the era, isn't everything? From USA Today, “NDR program director Volker Herres said in a statement that ‘Mrs. Herman’s authorial activities are in our view no longer compatible with her role as a television moderator and talk show host.’”

Herman has written extensively that women ought to rediscover their essence – i.e. leave the workplace to raise children and adopt a more motherly position in society. She essentially repeated that sentiment, this time using an extremely volatile subject. But, I doubt that any public commentator, even the most conservative, would dare support the actions of the Nazi regime.

Germany is in a tough spot. The horrors of Adolf Hitler’s oppressive rule are still living memories of many citizens around the world, and the German government is anxious to move on to embrace a democratic and liberal future. However, it now walks a thin line. In its yearning to learn and improve from the lessons of the past, it has curtailed the freedoms that it has strived to establish and protect.

It’s a foundational dilemma that lives in the forefront of the new and proud Germany. In light of its painful history, is it okay to suppress certain political views – read “Neo-Nazi” – or should the right to believe how you wish to believe deserve the utmost protection? In fact, this question could be posed to almost any nation on the map, but it is in Germany where this question is perpetually in play.

In this case, NDR made the wrong choice. It’s a dangerous precedent. She isn’t pro-Nazi, and her statement doesn't prove that she is. In their silence and tacit approval, the German government has approved a punishment based on an idea. Ideas ought to be protected by liberal democracies. NDR failed in what could have been a large step in healing for a country still feeling the painful scars of a not-so-distant history.