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Germany

Frankfurt Lessons: Books Are Not Inherently A Force For Good

This year's Frankfurt Book Fair was marred by violence amid protests against a far-right publishing house. It's time to rethink our relationship with literature.

Protests at Frankfurt book fair against Bjorn Hocke of far-right AfD party
Protests at Frankfurt book fair against Bjorn Hocke of far-right AfD party
Lothar Mueller

-Analysis-

FRANKFURT — There was something approaching mass hysteria last weekend at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the world's largest trade show for the publishing industry. In the evening, brawls broke out between strangers among the empty booths. Fists flew at book launch parties. The title of the German text behind much of the fervor was Mit Linken leben ("Living with the Left"), published by the far-right Antaios publishing house. But there was also the presence of Bjorn Hocke, a far-right Alternative for Germany politician, that riled up the crowd. The book was a hastily-written riposte to another book titled Mit Rechten reden ("Speaking with the Right"), published by Klett-Cotta, a rival publisher. The latter book's title was meant to be sincere: a call for meaningful debate instead of marginalizing political opponents.

This plea may now seem like wishful thinking after last weekend's ruckus, but it's not. Since the organizer of the Frankfurt Book Fair, the German Publishers and Booksellers Association, may not deny a booth to any legal publishing house or reject books that are popular with readers on the political right. Likewise, the association may not ban young men, clad in neo-fascist uniforms and military-style boots, so long as they never take a swing at anyone. The same goes for members of Antifa, who are at the fair to do more than just chant slogans.Everywhere book fairs must accept the risk of a fight breaking out if they wish to conform to the law and do not want to make simply suspecting someone of causing trouble a criterion for exclusion.

When thug and the reader are one in the same.

In the run-up to the event, some people had demanded that the Frankfurt Book Fair exclude far-right publishers. Their demands still have not been retroactively validated in light of the fighting.Had the German Publishers and Booksellers Association caved to such demands,it would have only served to fuel the far-right's propaganda of playing the victim of the mainstream.

In the hysteria over the proximity of books and thugs, the publishing industry frequently winds up on its soap box, pushing a familiar myth. In these sermons, the book as such is a medium which civilizes and builds bridges between people. It is an instrument of culture that reliably counteracts barbarism. The brawl that broke out in Frankfurt suggests that we can bid farewell to this illusion.For it may be true in individual cases that a cultivated reader can confront an illiterate thug, but more realistic and unsettling in Germany today is that the thug and the reader are one in the same.

Newspapers, magazines, books can kindle a fire. Even below the punishable level of hate speech, they have just as much capacity to shrink as broaden the worldviews of their readers.They can just as easily fuel emotions as strengthen arguments.This is a truism that manifests itself in front of the public eye in Germany today.It appeared long before fists flew at the Frankfurt Book Fair.The fight did not befall the event from exterior forces nor could it have been avoided by excluding radicals and reactionaries. But in the end, you don't ban the books, you arrest the thugs.

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eyes on the U.S.

The Weight Of Trump's Indictment Will Test The Strength Of American Democracy

The U.S. legal system cannot simply run its course in a vacuum. Presidential politics, and democracy itself, are at stake in the coming weeks and months.

The Weight Of Trump's Indictment Will Test The Strength Of American Democracy

File photo of former U.S. President Donald Trump in Clyde, Ohio, in 2020.

Emma Shortis*

-Analysis-

Events often seem inevitable in hindsight. The indictment of former U.S. President Donald Trump on criminal charges has been a possibility since the start of his presidency – arguably, since close to the beginning of his career in New York real estate.

But until now, the potential consequences of such a cataclysmic development in American politics have been purely theoretical.

Today, after much build-up in the media, The New York Times reported that a Manhattan grand jury has voted to indict Trump and the Manhattan district attorney will now likely attempt to negotiate Trump’s surrender.

The indictment stems from a criminal investigation by the district attorney’s office into “hush money” payments made to the adult film star Stormy Daniels (through Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen), and whether they contravened electoral laws.

Trump also faces a swathe of other criminal investigations and civil suits, some of which may also result in state or federal charges. As he pursues another run for the presidency, Trump could simultaneously be dealing with multiple criminal cases and all the court appearances and frenzied media attention that will come with that.

These investigations and possible charges won’t prevent Trump from running or even serving as president again (though, as with everything in the U.S. legal system, it’s complicated).

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