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BERLIN: On a sunny Sunday in April, 20 people were enjoying a barbecue in the city of Schwerin in northern Germany.
The police immediately intervened and fined them for breaking the new social distancing rules to limit the spread of COVID-19.
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They were alerted to the festivities by a neighbor, “outraged by such behavior,” who also bragged about his efforts on social media, opening a heated debate over the return of the complaint to Germany and whether it is acceptable in the current crisis. .
Counting on your neighbors is a very sensitive issue in a country that is still haunted by memories of Nazism and the former communist dictatorship in East Germany, two regimes under which reporting on each other was practically a national policy.
The term “Duninziant” (“snitch”) has been trending on Twitter, fueling more and more references to the Third Reich and the Stasi secret police.
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“All this seems to confirm a deep-seated prejudice that the Germans have against themselves: that when in doubt, part of the population is ready to become an extension of state power,” psychology professor Christian Stoecker told Der Spiegel weekly .
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But Germany is not the only country that has seen an increase in the number of people reporting their fellow citizens to the authorities for violating the rules of social distancing related to the virus.
A woman in a protective mask walks with a dog on the shopping street “Kurfuerstendamm”, as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Berlin, Germany, on April 23, 2020. REUTERS / Annegret Hilse
Similar observations have been made in countries around the world where blockades have been imposed. In New Zealand, a dedicated website was awash with reports; In South Africa, a wedding was interrupted after an anonymous call; and in France, the emergency number 17 has been invaded by calls.
UNIVERSAL PHENOMENON
“The phenomenon is universal, but with different regional characteristics. It occurs more frequently in urban areas, where many people depend on each other, than in less populated areas where there is more space,” said Rafael Behr, professor of criminology and sociology. at the Hamburg Police Academy.
“The acts of denunciation will increase, as will the acts of solidarity,” he predicts.
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“The longer the state of emergency continues, the more antisocial people will become and the more mistrust and suspicion will develop, for example, about whether their neighbor is contagious.”
In Germany, the police receive several hundred complaints per day through phone calls, emails and social media, according to an AFP count.
In Munich alone, “about 100 to 200 citizens call every day” with rapes to report, according to Sven Mueller, a spokesman for the city’s police force.
In the state of Brandenburg, which surrounds Berlin, the police intervened in 2,930 violations of social distancing rules between March 20 and April 7.
“About two-thirds of these cases were linked to citizen reports,” said police spokeswoman Stefanie Klaus.
Most complaints are about people entering public spaces like stadiums, private house parties, or license plate cars from outside the area.
POISONING SOCIAL RELATIONS
“Not all calls lead to police intervention,” said Heidi Vogt, a police spokeswoman in Berlin.
In late March, overwhelmed by the complaints, police in the German capital appealed to residents on Twitter to stop calling the 110 emergency number, stressing that “it was not designed for closure violations.”
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Andreas Geisel, minister of the interior of the city-state of Berlin, asked the citizens to restrain themselves.
FILE PHOTO: People stroll through the “Hohe Strasse” shopping district as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues in Cologne, Germany, on April 22, 2020. REUTERS / Thilo Schmuelgen
“We don’t want a snitch,” he told RBB radio.
“With a smooth blockade like the one we have in Germany at the moment, people’s continued freedom depends on their ability to contain themselves,” political historian Klaus-Peter Sick told AFP.
“If a group of young people behave in an undisciplined manner, some people will see it as irresponsible and will not think of others,” which can lead to frustration and complaint, he said.
But some informants are less motivated by social responsibility and more by the desire to settle personal accounts.
“This is always the case in times of crisis, especially when they lead to new regulations that make it possible to invoke justice: anyone who is jealous of their neighbor now has the opportunity to report him for the slightest violation of the coronavirus rules, Behr said.
“That poisons social relations.”
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