A television presenter in Germany has triggered a huge online debate after calling for a public stand against the growth of racist attacks on refugees.



Anja Reschke used a commentary slot on Tagesthemen, the nationwide news bulletin of German public broadcaster ARD,to lambast hate-filled commentators whose language she said had helped incite arson attacks on refugee homes.

She said she was shocked at how socially acceptable it had become to publish racist rants under real names.

“Until recently, such commentators were hidden behind pseudonyms, but now these things are being aired under real names,” she said.



“Apparently it’s no longer embarrassing – on the contrary, in reaction to phrases like ‘filthy vermin should drown in the sea’, you get excited consensus and a lot of ‘likes’.



“If up until then you had been a little racist nobody, of course you suddenly feel great,” she said in the two-minute commentary.

The segment went viral within minutes of being broadcast, and by Thursday afternoon had been viewed more than 9m times, clocked up more than 250,000 likes, 20,000 comments, and had been shared more than 83,000 times on Facebook.

Reschke said the “hate tirades” had sparked “group dynamic processes” that had led to “a rise in extreme rightwing acts”.



Calling on “decent” Germans to act, she said: “If you’re not of the opinion that all refugees are spongers who should be hunted down, burned or gassed, then you should make that known, oppose it, open your mouth, maintain an attitude, pillory people in public.”

Her appeal came a day after the head of the intelligence service, Hans-Georg Maassen, warned that a small number of rightwing extremists were in danger of escalating a wave of attacks.



He made specific mention of the group Der III Weg or “The Third Way”, calling them “dangerous rabble-rousers”.

Comments to the television station’s own website and on social media overwhelmingly supported Reschke, whose closing lines had been: “And I’m already looking forward to the comments on this comment.”



But it also triggered a predictable spate of hate-filled reaction, such as the Bournemouth-based @Der_GERMANE, who tweeted “Rather a Nazi on a street than a foreign social welfare freeloader.” Others accused Reschke of trying to stifle free speech.

Reschke later tweeted a link to a website that has collected some of the more rabid remarks she was referring to, and which publishes links to commentators’ Facebook pages.



Called Pearls from Freital, it refers to the Saxon town of the same name where refugees have been subjected to arson attacks and racist abuse, including Nazi salutes and rallies calling for them to leave.



The comments included references to gassing migrants while others embedded videos of Hitler and antisemitic propaganda into posts.

At a time when the number of refugees arriving in Germany is expected to more than double to a record 450,000 from the 200,000 who arrived last year, tensions are rising in some parts of the country.

In the first half of this year alone there were a recorded 200 attacks on asylum-seekers, including 150 arson or other attacks that have destroyed refugee shelters or made them uninhabitable.



Last week Red Cross workers setting up a tent city for Syrian refugees were attacked by far-right protesters. Some commentators have said the attacks recall Kristallnacht, the organised anti-Jewish pogroms which took place in November 1938.

The response is arguably so emotional because of Germany’s past and the paradoxical situation it finds itself in. The country has one of Europe’s most hospitable asylum systems, introduced as a way of helping it make amends for the Holocaust, but which itself has unleashed some loathsome responses as the numbers have continued to rise – reminiscent of some of the bleakest moments in its history.

The aggressive response towards foreigners is seen as a minority reacting to the changing face of Germany where one fifth of the population is now of a migrant background, according to statistics out this week.



In contrast, the mainstream debate has been overwhelmingly positive, with many communities and individual families welcoming refugees, most of whom have fled conflict in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

The positive response notwithstanding, the government is coming under growing pressure to increase aid to communities that are struggling to cope, as well as to speed up the decision-making process as to who might stay in Germany.



There is also the urgent question of how to house refugees, as temporary accommodation such as schools, camping sites and shipping-container villages are clearly not durable solutions.

“It’s not only the fact that the school holidays are soon coming to an end, and people will have to move out of the schools,” wrote the Süddeutsche Zeitung in an editorial.



“Winter is coming and the people won’t be able to be kept in tents any more ... not only that but hundreds of thousands more will join them in the next few years and they’ll all need a humane place to live in the long term.”

There are also growing calls across the political parties for the introduction of an immigration law to enable a better distinction between political and economic refugees, which would also allow a more efficient integration of immigrants into a labour market that needs them because it is suffering from a skills shortage.

Interviewed on Thursday, Reschke said she had been astounded by the response her commentary had received, which she had felt keen to deliver because politicians’ reactions to the racist incidents had been “wholly inadequate”.

“It’s about saying that the majority of Germans don’t think this way,” she told the news bulletin Tagesschau.

“There’s a really big willingness to help here in Germany and a mind-boggling number of people that are doing lots for refugees, who are not racist, and I think it’s their voice that should be dominant rather than a handful of simpletons who think they should stir up hatred.”