All anagrams contain the same basic ingredients: BundesSans (the official typeface of the German federal government) and Staatsräsonbraun (a colour mixed in equal parts from black, red and gold).
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Germany’s complicity in Israel’s genocidal exploits has triggered a significant erosion of the nation’s claims to political and moral credibility. Politicians from across the ideological spectrum have participated in increasingly desperate efforts to control the public narrative, most notably by stigmatising – and at times censuring – legitimate criticism of Israeli policy. Staatsräson – the vaguely defined and highly contentious doctrine that is routinely invoked to delegitimise political dissent – has been zealously weapon-ised against artists, musicians, philosophers, poets, writers and students. Protestors have faced intimidation and police violence. A significant number of cultural institutions have willingly complied with illiberal clampdowns on public discourse.
Along the way, the language and principles upon which Germany’s claims to atonement for the Holocaust have come to rest, have been ominously undermined. Universalist commitments such as “Never Again” – along with constitutionally anchored principles such as freedom of expression (Kunstfreiheit) and freedom of political opinion (Meinungsfreiheit) – ring increasingly hollow.
Explosive public debates over the meaning of certain words and phrases – including who may use them and how – are symptomatic of a democracy in backslide. As the German electorate lurches ever further to the right, neo-fascist contenders for state power stand to benefit most from cultural crackdowns in the evolving climate of repression. One need only try to imagine how a future government lead by ethnonationalist ideologues, would wield Staatsräson.
