After racist hostility in a holiday camp in the southern Brandenburg town of Heidesee, the Brandenburg state security will question the affected Berlin students as witnesses this week. The spokeswoman for the Brandenburg Police Directorate South, Ines Filohn, told the F.A.Z. The tenth grade from the district of Kreuzberg had prepared for the mathematics exams for the intermediate degree in the resort.

Markus Wehner

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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On Saturday evening and Sunday night, according to previous findings, they were racially insulted and threatened by young people from the region who were celebrating an 18th birthday in the facility. However, physical violence is said not to have occurred. Numerous students with an immigrant background go to the school class, some are of Muslim faith, several girls wear a headscarf.

According to unconfirmed reports, people tried to enter the building during the night, in which the Berlin school class was staying. The Brandenburg police, who had been alerted by a member of the class at half past one in the morning, arrived after 20 minutes, according to information from security circles, and were able to calm the situation. According to the police, the officers found the personal details of 28 participants in the birthday party, but not all of them were suspects. According to previous findings, "four to five" people are said to have "become active", according to the police spokeswoman. The teachers, in consultation with the school management, decided to leave the resort during the night. The state security is investigating on suspicion of incitement, insult and threat.

Brandenburg's Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke (SPD) condemned the "obviously racist and xenophobic statements". All guests of the state were told: "You are very welcome in Brandenburg," said Woidke. Marcel Hopp, a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in Berlin, who himself worked as a teacher, said he had received many messages from teachers who had experienced similar things. If students with a migration background "cannot feel safe, this increasingly calls into question the respective region as a travel destination," Hopp told the German Press Agency.

Recently, teachers in the Brandenburg town of Burg in the district of Spree-Neisse had anonymously reported in an incendiary letter that they experienced right-wing extremism and homophobia at the school on a daily basis. There are swastikas on the school furniture and right-wing extremist slogans on the walls of the school corridors. In addition, they experienced a "wall of silence" around such incidents. The Brandenburg CDU chairman Jan Redmann told the F.A.Z.: "We have a problem in Brandenburg with increasing right-wing extremist youth culture." For a long time, no charges had been filed against such incidents. Schools, municipalities and the police must now take joint action against it. In the places where right-wing extremists have their focus, a "massive police operation" is needed to combat them.