Our Little Corner of the World

These pictures are taken in the "Schanzenviertel", a multicultural, alternative, left-wing quarter in Hamburg. On the billboard you see a comment of the "Rote Flora" - the alternative community center - to the World Cup ("You are germany. As a guest among 'friends' 2006"). It depicts a celebrating German in the tricot of the German Football League. The foto was taken 1992 in the eastern-German town of Rostock-Lichtenhagen, were Germans had their own reunification fiesta – celebrating a three day pogrom against refugees and Vietnamese immigrants. The "Rote Flora" made a good point with that poster, but, as you can see, the antinational liberated area ends about 15 meters from the building.
You can argue that it would be suicide to take off all the national flags hanging around in this city quarter and I could agree or, the other way round, you could take it as a proof that nationalists of different flavours can co-exist completely relaxed (about that later) in this place… only that all this reminds me of scenes from only two years ago which were a bit different.
On the 31st of January of 2004, Neo-Nazis had a demonstration in Hamburg against an exposition about the crimes of the "Wehrmacht", the German army of WWII. Of course there was also an anti-fascist counter-demonstration – and a group of demonstrators wearing flags of Israel and of the allied Anti-Hitler-Coalition was immediately kicked-out violently under the pretext that the organizing coordination committee hadn’t allowed any national flags on the rally. Intifada outfit didn’t come under that ban.
This event sparked a big discussion about anti-fascism, anti-nationalism and anti-Semitism in the left-wing scene of Hamburg. But despite (or because) of all the pluralism showed in this debate, in the end it became clear, that the majority (for statements of the minority see here and here) of the participants wouldn’t back demonstrators who were "provoking" violence by organized "Anti-Imperialists" beating up people who thought that Israeli and Allied flags would fit in an anti-fascist demonstration.
It's not always that relaxed in Our little Corner of the World.