Cold and wet start and trouble for the Intercultural Weeks in Regensburg

It was a nail-biter. The cold, wet rain on Saturday left the organizers worried about whether the opening of the Intercultural Weeks at St. Kassians-Platz could go ahead as planned.

It was still drizzling when the Citizens’ Initiative Asylum, the Training Instead of Deportation Association, the Alliance for Tolerance and Human Rights, Borsch eV, the Greens and the Hromada Association set up their stands. In the end, the opening could only take place late and in a slimmed-down form.

The performance by the drum group Sarará and the dance performances in Vietnamese costumes had to be cancelled. Only the singers of the Ukrainian-Bavarian association Hromada provided some excitement with their songs.

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The cancellation of an organizer who wanted to participate in the Intercultural Weeks with around 20 individual events and who had fallen out with the organizers shortly before the opening caused some irritation. Interested parties can now expect a program with over 30 offers that are intended to serve as exchange, entertainment, education and culinary delights in order to increase understanding between cultures.

The dialogue

Vice-Chair Hanifah Mumtaz opened the Intercultural Weeks on behalf of the Integration Advisory Board. “At a time when social tensions are increasing, it is important to promote dialogue,” she stressed. The program would reduce prejudices, promote understanding and create new friendships.

Dogan Cetinkaya from the Integration Advisory Board called for more humanity. With regard to the knife attack in Solingen, he stressed: “While we are talking about new spaces, we have simultaneously allowed important spaces such as humanity, empathy, solidarity and social cohesion to fall victim to populism and isolation.”

He reminds us that prosperity is often based on the exploitation of other people and appealed for more participation rights for migrants who have lived in Germany for decades. “We demand the right to vote for everyone at the local level and are committed to expanding this to the state and federal level.”

Mayor Gertrud Maltz-Schwarzfischer supports this demand at the local level. “Those who live here should also be able to have a say here,” she said. Worldwide wars, crises and climate change are ensuring that the world is changing more quickly. This means that people can no longer live where they have lived before.

The opening ceremony was overshadowed by the cancellation of 20 events by an initiative of Ukrainian refugees and musicians. Bernhard Steinbeißer, as its coordinator, wanted to integrate the 2nd Regensburg Ukrainian Cultural Days into the Intercultural Weeks. However, the organizers only gave him one page in the program booklet for his 20 planned readings, concerts, discussions and exhibitions. “Our offerings make up a third of the entire program,” he told our newspaper. He believes that the fact that he was only given one thin page for this is a massive exclusion of the Ukrainians, he wrote in an email.

Opening: Who was allowed to speak?

Steinbeißer explained that he was therefore cancelling all of the events. He also criticized the fact that the organizers had not explicitly asked him to give a speech at the opening. “As the Integration Advisory Board, we represent all ethnic groups in Regensburg,” explained Dogan Cetinkaya for the Integration Advisory Board. “If we give one organization a lot of space, then our program booklet will become one-sided.”

In addition, their budget would not have allowed for more pages to be printed. All events were held online. Opening speeches were offered equally to all organizers without having to address individual people separately.