A Fairy-Tale Baddie, the Wolf, Is Back in Germany, and Anti-Migrant Forces Pounce
Source: New York Times
A Fairy-Tale Baddie, the Wolf, Is Back in Germany, and Anti-Migrant Forces Pounce
By Katrin Bennhold
April 23, 2019
-snip-
Extinct for the best part of a century, Germany’s most notorious fairy-tale baddie is back.
Wolves have been slipping across the Polish border for years, gradually settling into rural Germany. There are only a few hundred of them.
But to hear some politicians tell it, the country is facing an invasion. And the way they talk about wolves is strikingly similar to how they talk about immigrants, turning the animal into an object of terror — and the discussion into an allegory for the nation’s simmering culture wars. Between urban elites and rural left-behinds. Between west and east.
And also between those who welcome wolves — and immigrants — and those who fear them.
“The wolf polarizes, it touches something deep inside of us,” said Ms. Hertweck, who runs a biosphere reserve with 500 sheep and describes herself as pro-wolf.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/23/world/europe/germany-wolves-afd-immigration.html
