The first thing I noticed when I moved back to Germany last year, after living for four years in the UK, was the sudden increase of the number of black people in this country. I left Germany in summer 2016, and until then I had very rarely met a black person there, at least in Cologne (which is the fourth-most populous city in Germany). In the last seven years before I left Germany for the second time, from 2009 to 2016, I had only three times the opportunity to talk to a black person: two times on the street when I was asked for an address, and once with a very friendly guy who worked at a McDonald’s toilet. The low number of black people in Germany, especially in comparison with its neighbour countries Netherlands or France, and with the UK, was really ashaming.
Since I have been back to Germany, I see everyday a lot of black people everywhere in Cologne, especially in the city centre, where I live. Most of them still have no other choice than to work in low-paid jobs – many of them work as drivers, for instance. But the good thing is, that they are now hired not just by international companies like Amazon, but also by German companies like the German Post/Mail which even until a few years ago refused to employ foreign-looking people with black hair.
Today, I was waiting at a tram stop in the city centre when I saw a young black guy with a military uniform. I looked thoroughly at his uniform to find out which country he is serving. My guess was France. But surprisingly I recognised the German flag on his sleeves. This was the first time I had seen a black German soldier, and it gave me a feeling of gladness and hopefulness about the coming changes, especially as a person who has experienced the other face of Germany in the 1980s and 1990s.
Spontaneously, I decided to approach the black soldier and to tell him that I am really happy about these changes in the “Bundeswehr” (armed forces of Germany) and in Germany generally, but a German (white) homeless man who was drunk approached him before I could make a move. He checked out the black soldier’s uniform for 1-2 minutes and then, began to talk to him for about 10 minutes. I got a little bit closer to them with the hope to hear what the drunk man was telling the soldier, but there was too much noise. I just noticed that the black soldier didn’t feel very comfortable. He didn’t talk to the drunk man, and moved his head all the time in different directions to avoid eye contact with him.
After 2-3 minutes two other German (white) homeless people, who were drunk, too, had joined the other drunk guy and began circling the black soldier. Their movements and the way they talked to themselves and to others, though I couldn’t hear properly what they were saying, seemed very aggressive. The black soldier looked somehow worried. Me, too. And, I guess, some of the other people who were waiting there, too. I was thinking about what actions I should take if the black soldier got attacked, as a tram approached the stop. That was not the tram I was waiting for. I hoped that the black soldier would get with me on the same tram, so that I could tell him my slogan-like sentence I had prepared a few minutes earlier: “I am really happy for the ‘Bundeswehr’ and for Germany!”, but he took the approaching tram and left the scene.
