Wolfgang Büscher, spokesman for the German children’s charity Die Arche, warns in an interview with Statement of religious pressure, political Islam at disadvantaged schools and an integration policy that has reached its limits.
Wolfgang Büscher says schools are being left alone with the consequences of social hardship, religious pressure and failing integration. Photo: private
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Wolfgang Büscher has spent years drawing attention to child poverty, educational hardship and social exclusion in Germany. As spokesman for Die Arche, a Christian children’s and youth charity, he works closely with founder Bernd Siggelkow and regularly speaks about the pressures facing children in disadvantaged neighborhoods.
In the interview, Büscher warns that schools in some German districts are being overwhelmed by social hardship, failed integration and religious pressure. He argues that political Islam is gaining influence in certain school environments, while politicians, churches and parts of the media are too reluctant to name the problem.
Die Arche - Kinderstiftung Christliches Kinder- und Jugendwerk was founded in 1995 by the Protestant pastor Bernd Siggelkow in Berlin-Hellersdorf. The organization supports children and young people from socially disadvantaged backgrounds, offering free meals, homework support, leisure activities and personal guidance. Its aim is to strengthen children and improve their educational prospects and life chances.
Die Arche operates at numerous locations in Germany and abroad. In Berlin alone, it runs five branches across five districts. The charity is also active in cities such as Hamburg, Frankfurt and Munich.
Büscher is the co-author of several publications, including Deutschlands vergessene Kinder, a collection of harrowing portraits of children supported by Die Arche. In Das Verbrechen an unseren Kindern, he and his co-authors draw on 30 years of Arche work to analyze how child poverty and educational deprivation go hand in hand and where politics has failed on a massive scale.
Children at Die Arche in Berlin-Hellersdorf, where the charity supports socially disadvantaged families in one of the districts at the center of Germany’s school integration debate. Photo: Jens Kalaene/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa via Getty Images
Statement: Mr Büscher, you say pupils in Germany are being excluded, pressured, intimidated and in some cases even pushed to convert to Islam at school. Where do you see the causes?
Wolfgang Büscher: You have to look at where these problems arise. People from difficult social backgrounds are pushed to the edges of cities. That creates new problem areas. When many children from refugee families attend the same school, we get disadvantaged schools where children with a Muslim background form the majority in some classes. I know schools where the share is up to 90%.
In situations like that, well-integrated children from Muslim families, but also German children, quickly come under pressure. There is bullying. There are attempts to pull children in a certain direction. The cause is political Islam, which exerts pressure. The children affected are those who want to live more freely and differently.
Statement: What would be the answer?
Wolfgang Büscher: We have to distribute the children evenly. To do that, we need an intelligent system that prevents individual schools and classes from tipping socially and culturally. Every class should have a balanced share of children who need special support. If you concentrate everything in a few schools, you overwhelm teachers, social workers and, in the end, the children too.
Statement: You also criticize the way such problems are recorded statistically. What, in your view, is going wrong?
Wolfgang Büscher: I was very annoyed when, after a public debate in Berlin, people said: we are now going to conduct a survey on bullying linked to Islam. That survey was carried out at all Berlin schools, including schools in Charlottenburg or Dahlem, where such problems barely occur or do not occur at all.
That dilutes the result. If I want to know what is happening at disadvantaged schools, I have to examine disadvantaged schools.
When Children Bring Politics Into the Playground
Statement: Primary school children are suddenly politicized. Where does this pressure come from? From their parents, their social environment, social media?
Wolfgang Büscher: The child’s home environment, wider surroundings, friends and social media all play a role. I am involved with an organization that commemorates 27 January, the liberation of Auschwitz. Once, I was wearing a German-Israeli button on my suit. An eight- or nine-year-old boy in the Arche came up to me and said: “I hate you.” I asked him how he had arrived at that. His answer was: “The Jews took our land away from us.”
Statement: How does a child come up with something like that?
Wolfgang Büscher: When a child of that age says something like that, it is not an independent political judgment. It is indoctrination. Children bring prejudices like that into school, after-school care and the playground. There, they put others under pressure.
Then there is social media. I recently watched a German-speaking preacher who was explaining to young people what they needed to know about Allah. I watched the video for a few minutes and was then shown more radical preachers. Young people use that as a source of information. That is where they are radicalized, incited against the West, against Jews, against Christians and against free ways of life.
Statement: In your view, are we failing on integration?
Wolfgang Büscher: Migration only works through integration. That means learning the language, becoming part of this society and accepting the values of the country in which you live. If someone comes to Germany and says: “I want sharia here in 10 years”, then it becomes dangerous.
We hear from young people who say Germany has to become more Islamic, women have to dress differently and unbelievers have to adapt. That is not simply religion. That is political Islam. And we have to oppose it.
Overloaded Classrooms, Abandoned Teachers
Statement: What responsibility do schools bear?
Wolfgang Büscher: Schools alone will fail at this. At many disadvantaged schools, teachers are confronted with a large number of very difficult children. In one Berlin district, we received a cry for help. Around 230 teachers are missing at the schools in Hellersdorf alone. Teachers do not want to work there because the burden is enormous.
Wolfgang Büscher: The solution cannot be to overload individual schools and then hold teachers responsible. It only works if we distribute the children. No school should have such a high share of migration, refugee backgrounds and social problems that normal educational work is barely possible any more. Teachers need time again to pass on knowledge. Today, they often have to absorb what parents, the administration and politicians fail to do.
Statement: What exactly would schools need in order to regain authority?
Wolfgang Büscher: More staff, clear backing and an administration that does not abandon teachers. If a seven-year-old boy says to his teacher: “You cannot tell me what to do”, and the next day the father is at the door saying the same thing, then the teacher has to be protected. Teachers must not be left alone with that. We need clear rules. We need support for educators. And we need the courage to say that whoever lives in this country has to accept the rules of this country. Including at school.
From the Burqa to the Bikini
Statement: What role does culture shock play in the radicalization and self-isolation of children?
Wolfgang Büscher: A major role. Some children come from completely different worlds. From the burqa to the bikini in one week. No child can process that. Many children have experienced terrible things while fleeing.
A child at the Arche in Berlin-Friedrichshain was playing with Lego and built a ship. The child put lots of people on it, tightly packed together. You could see immediately that this child was processing experiences of flight. I know a Yazidi girl from Berlin-Hellersdorf who had to witness relatives being beheaded in Iraq. Suddenly, in Germany, she is once again with young people of Arab origin from the region. That is an enormous shock for a child like that.
We need far more staff to absorb experiences like that. But cuts are being made across the board. At the same time, Die Arche needs more and more people to solve the children’s problems and thereby also avert dangers to our society.
Statement: How do you distinguish between faith and political Islam?
Wolfgang Büscher: That is an important distinction. We have had Muslim children in our facilities for many years. In Berlin-Wedding or Reinickendorf, children of Turkish origin have been coming to us for a long time. They lived their faith. That was not a problem because they were not politicized.
It becomes problematic when Islam turns political, when children are told they have to fight against Western society. Political Islam does not belong to Germany. There is nothing right-wing about saying that. It is a necessary distinction.
The Cost of Silence
Statement: What role do the media play in the debate about Islamism?
Wolfgang Büscher: Many media outlets remain silent. That applies above all to parts of public broadcasting. Journalists tell me: you are right, but I am not allowed to broadcast it. That is fatal.
After an interview with me, a Jewish weekly newspaper wrote that, because of German guilt in World War II, many people were afraid to say certain things. The decisive sentence was: silence also breeds new guilt. I consider that sentence central.
If ARD, ZDF or other media conceal certain things, they make themselves guilty again. Problems do not disappear because you do not report on them. If you hide problems, you strengthen the AfD. It says the things others do not dare to say.
Statement: Die Arche has a Christian character. What do you expect from the churches?
Wolfgang Büscher: Unfortunately, the churches often remain silent too. Die Arche is not a church organization. It was founded by Christians more than 30 years ago, but we receive no regular funding from the churches.
I would expect the churches to speak more clearly about freedom, human dignity, the protection of children, the protection of women and the protection of Jews and Christians. Christians should have the courage to call things by their name.
Statement: What role does Christianity play in your work?
Wolfgang Büscher: Die Arche is a Christian organization in character, but it is not a missionary organization. We work with Christian values. We care for every person. Around 60% of our children come from Muslim families. We do not proselytize. We live out Christian values such as care, help, responsibility and charity.
Toughness and Support
Statement: You also report personal hostility. How do you experience that?
Wolfgang Büscher: I receive threats. Sometimes they say things such as “Just die already” or “Antifa will take care of you”. I do not take that too seriously, but it shows how poisoned the debate is.
Sometimes I am cast as right wing, even though I have worked with children for decades, care for refugee families and carry out practical integration every day. It is absurd. I help, I get involved, I care. And when I name problems, am I suddenly supposed to be right wing? That is a convenient way of preventing the debate.
Statement: What would have to happen politically if the trend is to be reversed?
East Germany-era apartment blocks in Berlin-Hellersdorf, the district where Die Arche was founded and where social hardship, child poverty and school pressure remain especially visible. Photo: Maja Hitij/Getty Images
Wolfgang Büscher: It must not be allowed to happen that, in a very small area, a minority suddenly becomes the majority and entire neighborhoods tip into parallel societies.
We need more staff. Teachers, social workers, nursery teachers and educational specialists. Integration costs money and time. Solidarity alone is not enough. Help means that I give either money or time. Everything else is symbolic politics.
In addition, crimes must have consequences. Anyone who comes here and commits serious crimes must know that actions have consequences. And anyone who fundamentally refuses to come to terms with our political system, anyone who wants Islamism here, must be asked to leave or, if necessary, deported.
Statement: How can we help those who are willing?
Wolfgang Büscher: I know a 17-year-old girl with excellent school-leaving results. She is friendly, clever and wants to become a journalist. I will do everything for a girl like that to open doors for her. We need people like that. Of course, people from other countries enrich our society. But integration also means that they have to live according to our laws.
Statement: So you are calling for toughness and support at the same time?
Wolfgang Büscher: Exactly. We have to distinguish. Anyone who wants to integrate, who learns the language, who wants to work, who accepts our rules should be supported. We have to help, support and open doors. But anyone who rejects our system, who uses violence, who oppresses women, who hates Jews or wants sharia does not fit into this country.
“We have to say what reality is”
Statement: How can we change the situation for the better?
Wolfgang Büscher: We have to say what reality is. Not generalize, not incite hatred, not devalue people. We have to say what is happening. We have to protect the children, Muslim, Christian, Jewish, girls, boys, homosexual young people, everyone.
If we continue to remain silent, the problems will grow. Political Islam and the AfD will then grow at the same time. We need a policy that does not merely manage problem areas, but dissolves them. What is needed for that is courage, honesty and, above all, more people who provide practical help.
Statement: Mr Büscher, thank you for the interview.
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