The organizers of Frankfurt Book Fair are in criticism because of ir handling of riots between left and right groups. On Saturday, during appearance of Thuringian AfD politician Björn Höcke, he had to tumultuous scenes between his followers and demonstrators. “The Frankfurt Book Fair lives on diversity of opinions and is a place of free dialogue”, organizers n shared in a statement. Violence, on or hand, prevents exchange of political positions: “We will not tolerate it as a means of dealing with it.”
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Statement of Frankfurt Book Fair and Exchange Association of German Bookstore (@boev) on incidents on fbm17 Pic.twitter.com/XsutQuvf2D
— FrankfurterBuchmesse (@Book_Fair) October 14, 2017
In net, statement provoked negative reactions. Many accuse organizers of lack of positioning against right. Some even drew a comparison to Donald Trump’s dealings with deadly riots in Charlottesville. He spoke of “violence on many sides” at time. The statement of book fair organizers talks about “assaulting attacks by left and right-wing groups”.
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The satirist Shahak Shapira tweeted a corrected statement in which he exchanged “physical attacks by leftist and right-wing groups” against “physical attacks by Nazis and fascists”. Nico Semsrott, also a satirist and member of party, wrote on Twitter: “Frankfurt Book Fair has invited Nazis to discuss with m. Shoot me in foot in morning to be able to run better. ” Even moderator Jan Böhmermann revolted. “The host country of Frankfurt Book Fair this year: Dark Germany,” he wrote.
EY Frankfurt Book Fair, have corrected your opinion. You’re welcome. fbm17 @Book_Fair pic.twitter.com/pywUTus11u
— Shahak Shapira (@ShahakShapira) October 15, 2017
The user meow. Reported by her fear of visiting fair. Her heart has never struck as fast as at book fair when she faced “so many Nazis” as a migrant. Some Twitter users also refer to paradox of tolerance according to philosopher Karl Popper. Tolerance towards intolerance ultimately causes tolerance to be destroyed.
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Maybe an infographic and clue to Popper will help you to react next time. Man Man… fbm17 pic.twitter.com/zrKVUgAB9w
— Storyvents (@Storyvents) October 15, 2017
The Thuringian AfD politician Björn Höcke participated in presentation of book with left-wing life of Antaeus publishing house at Frankfurt Fair. Protesters protested with banners and shouting like “Nazis out”. The followers of Höcke turn chanted “Everyone hates Antifa”. Finally, police attacked. Anor reading by two authors of extreme right Identitarian movement was canceled due to loud protests.
The Frankfurt Book Fair is one of most important international events of publishing and media industry. It was founded 1949 by Exchange Association of German Book trade and is held annually on site of Messe Frankfurt. In addition to lectures, publishers with ir own stands also offer ir services. According to Exchange association, this includes rights to extreme right-wing publishers and media, such as Manuscriptum or young freedom. Also Antaois, publisher of publicist Götz Kubitschek and his wife Ellen Kositza, is a regular guest, although he was not represented at last fair.
Even before start of event, Exchange Association had a position regarding handling of rights publishers. Freedom of expression is not Newton. Publishers or individual titles that do not violate applicable law would not be excluded, said Alexander Skipis, chief executive of Exchange Association on his website. However, this does not mean that one can approve ideas. “We advocate an open, diverse society, for tolerance and solidarity, xenophobia and racism,” he said.
