Thilo and Ursula Sarrazin: Germany's Authoritarian Power-Couple

It's not enough that Thilo Sarrazin has been monopolizing public attention in Germany with his discredited racial theories concerning Turks and Arabs. Now his wife is getting into act with her 19th century views on education:

The name Sarrazin is back in the headlines in Germany, but this time it's not Thilo Sarrazin, author of a best- selling book that criticizes Muslim immigrants for living off social welfare.

It's Mrs Sarrazin.

The 59-year-old primary school teacher is facing a parent revolt over charges that she is too authoritarian and not sensitive to cultural differences.

What the parents report on Mrs. Sarrazin's behavior in her classroom reminds me of the central character in Heinrich Mann's 1905 novel Professor Unrat: 

Just as the fuss over the book ebbs, spouse Ursula Sarrazin's alleged strict ways at the blackboard have been splashed across the headlines. The dispute is bitter - even hateful - and only rarely nuanced.

Some of Mrs Sarrazin's teacher and parent opponents describe her as a 19th-century education dinosaur, tyrannizing tender children.

Mrs. Sarrazin's pupils report that the teacher yells at them, ridicules their work and behavior, and singles out "foreign" children for special abuse.  She called one German-Japanese child "Suzuki", a name picked up by the other children and used to taunt the boy.  One angry father accused her of hitting her son over the head with a musical instrument (a recorder). 

Of course, Mrs. Sarrazin blamed Turkish parents for spreading false rumors about her, as revenge for her husband's success with his book.  But, according to Der Spiegel, more than 50 parents lodged a "Sammelbeschwerde" (Group Complaint) against the teacher already in 2009, long before the publication Deutschland schafft sich ab.

The comments of this exasperated mother will sound familiar to anyone who has listened to Mrs. Sarrazin's husband over the past few months:

"Immer wieder", sagt eine Mutter, "fühlten wir Eltern uns abgebügelt von einer Lehrerin, die mit Kritik nicht umgehen konnte, stets alles bestritt und bis heute behauptet, es sei alles anders gewesen."

("Again and again", said one mother, "we parents were put down by a teacher who couldn't deal with any criticism, denied everything, and still today insists (the events) never happened.")

Both Ursula Sarrazin and her husband display the classic characteristics of the authoritarian personality: contempt for minorities, the need to maintain control and prove superiority over others, a worldview populated by enemies and empty of equality, empathy and mutual benefit.

 

Comments

[Hattie]

Maybe it's being married to that picklepuss that makes her so mean.

[Attie Schutte]

Ja- ja, Schoolteachers with views are a danger to society. This all sounds like witch-hunt to me, or do people with the Authoritarian personality normally rush to become schoolteachers? Those dam Nazi’s, hay; it is what I always suspected as a child though.

But speaking of Authoritarianism I heard that home schooling is illegal in Germany and that especially the Baptists who practice it had to flee Germany due to persecution by the state. Do they at least have private schools in Germany, or does the state not tolerate competition of this kind?

[David]

Sarrazin is always talking about "Jewish genes" and "Muslim genes". Perhaps there is a "Prussian gene" that is missing the chromosome for simple human empathy.

[Attie Schutte]

“Perhaps there is a "Prussian gene" that is missing the chromosome for simple human empathy.” – It is here that I take the militant agnostic view of: Perhaps, but I don’t know, Sarrazin also doesn’t know, no one knows and nor do you! The mapping of DNA to physical features and behaviour is probably still in its infancy. Maby they find out we are all exactly the same maby they don’t. The point is government should not discriminate against Prussians whether it is true or not, I just don’t think we should have an affirmative action program for Prussians in the slaughterhouse and dentistry industries or in the industries where they are not performing like kindergarten teachers and petting zoo managers. Government should not force anyone to live next to Prussians or Prussians to live with people they don’t want to, it should treat them like everyone els and let individuals decide for themselves.

[David]

That's the whole problem, isn't it? Sarrazin thinks he DOES know that Muslims are genetically deficient. That is the core argument in his book.

In an interview he gave on the BBC the week he even went so far as to claim that Muslims have an innate propensity to manipulate emotions.

The guy is too much!

[Attie Schutte]

The guy is too much! – Mabe(LOL). But the other half of the problem is that the government also thinks it knows there are no differences, and they don’t. But I think it is important for people to air there opinions even if they are not popular, it frees people up to have discussions that they otherwise would not have had and given the magnitude of Muslim immigration to Europe, it is understandable that many people would be unhappy about it. The question becomes what is the morally correct course of action for those who simply don’t want to live in such a society? Because they can not discriminate in any existing sphere without a being themselves labeled or legally prosecuted and the inverse happens, where people are literally discriminated against because of race and ethnicity and I think people especially if they can’t find political clout or if it is not possible they end up feeling quite powerless and it eventually feeds into a very dangerous vorm of racism, and I think that is why I am so critical of this artificial multiculturalism. I am no Sarrazin van, his stupid economics where part and parcel of the “problem” he despises. And I think I would like to read your answer on that: What is the morally correct course of action for those who simply don’t want to live in such a society?

[Attie Schutte]

This is the essential failing of democracy (for me anyway), you envisage one society and me and mabe Paul Gottfried another, but instead of parting ways through secession we both end up with a compromised mediocre government that neither wants and argue forever because neither side can prove what they are saying by example. It must be understood that let’s say me and Oom Paul moves to Texas and convinces the population to succeed of the Union, and if you are the one denying us that freedom, you can’t call us fascists because you become the authoritarian holding us in a political union by brute force. For the same argument it must understood that if it is going to happen that ethnic Germans become a minority in Germany (and I said IF) it can happen that either your new majority or either the German minority could decide to succeed from Germany itself, but no one should call either side a fascist except the side that denies it, and is therefore the authoritarian fascist. I am not saying it wil or wil not happen, it’s just hypothetical, but you can’t call anyone fascist if you deny the moral right to succession, and neither does denying this right eradicate the question: What is the morally correct course of action for those who simply don’t want to live in such a society?

[Brandon]

She sounds foul.

[Zyme]

Maybe she writes a book too? She seems to be encouraged to do that again and again, at least she says.

The conservative part of the society has found its poster couple :-)

Lack of empathy? Maybe, but this is our traditional trait. We have become so mollycoddled that additional strictness is surely a good way of getting the school system back in track.

When I went to primary school in rural Bavaria, I recall getting clouts or even slapped in the face for serious misbehavior. And what can I say, I deserved it every time of those instances :-)

[rom]

Sarrazin might have been wrong with his inheritence theory of intelligence, but for all the rest he is absolutely right.Germany ( and many other european countries for that matter ) is importing the wrong immigrants....rom

[Attie Schutte]

David, you still have not answered the question, you did not even give an unsatisfactory answer, have you never even considered it? If you don’t have an answer, do you understand what that implies? It means you subscribe to an ideology that if successful will eventually be met with armed resistance by those who oppose it and if it is unsuccessful and based on incorrect assumptions it would mean an unprecedented civil war with no exit strategies.

[David]

What ideology are you ascribing to me?

I am a Christian and Democrat and live in the real world, not an imaginary libertarian utopia.

BTW, I happen to a white Anglo-saxon, but my idea of hell would be to live in a community comprised only of people of my ethnic background.

[Attie Schutte]

None, but you condemn everyone critical of multiculturalism as n repugnant Nazi; I don’t care if you call it cool aid or progressive. I didn’t ask about what you want or your faith or your ethnicity. I asked in your opinion: What is the morally correct course of action for those who simply don’t want to live in such a society?

[Hattie]

I can't think of anything more boring than being around a bunch of pure Germans being German together. yawn.

[Attie Schutte]

To: Hattie, My God who can? But that is why we are not importing millions of them to Africa. I don’t know why you think my writing was about you. I strongly suspect you are not part of a racial minority in your country of residence, your experience of this is probably zero point zero, zero. I was referring to Kurds in Turkey, ETA in Spain, ethnic minority and ethnic groups in multi ethnic states not you as a person. But I am glad you at least have an opinion based on reason and analysis. So let’s test your analytical skills: Would it then be easier for you to move to Africa, or import twelve million Africans to Germany?
Don’t rush your anser, take your time, if you get it right, I will be pleasantly surprised.