Consultation

BEFORE helps people who have been directly or indirectly affected by the results of right-wing and racist attacks to help them overcome the resulting effects.
Frequently, the people concerned are under an additional burden caused by reactions from their social environment. It is possible, for example, that they are given a share of the blame for their attack.
We support people to exercise their own rights and to gain a new scope of action for themselves.

What is right-wing violence?

Motives for violence
Right-wing and racist acts of violence are attacks which are characterized by inhuman attitudes and prejudices against particular social groups. These can be racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, social Darwinism, homophobia or transphobia.
The offenders single out their victims on the basis of specific criteria, e.g.

  • sexual orientation and/or gender identity
  • disabilities
  • homelessness
  • Weltanschauung
  • ethnic background
  • political activity against racism and right-wing violence or involvement on behalf of people who have fled their country
  • different behaviour and/or non right-wing attitude,
  • religious affiliation

What should i do if i was attacked?

Read more

Classification of the act
The political self-definition of the offenders or the localization and assessment of the offence by investigating authorities is of secondary importance for our evaluation of the attack.

Definition of violence
The starting point for BEFORE’s counselling is all forms of physical and mental violence. Attempted attacks, non-completed actions, severe assaults and threats as well as targeted damage to property are all acts of violence.

Personal perception
Decisive for the classification of the act and the clarification of the case for BEFORE is the personal perception of the victims. The appraisals of outsiders or the police is initially of secondary importance in our casework.

More and more frequently xenophobia is resulting in outbreaks of violence.
The burning down of the residences of asylum seekers, right-wing agitation at refugee accommodation, acts of violence against people seeking protection and those involved in anti-racist activities, all these things have become commonplace in Germany. The number of right-wing offences and acts of violence are increasing dramatically. According to the Department of the Interior 1,450 offences were registered in August 2015 alone – almost 50 per day. These data are, however, provisional: the cases which were not reported or not classified as being right-wing motivated cannot be expressed in numbers and can only be speculated on.
Behind these abstract figures are real human beings with their own life stories and suffering. These victims have not only experienced physical and mental harm but also material damage as a result of inhuman ideology and abasement.
The severe increase in right-wing and racist violence reflects an alarming development but too little attention is still being paid to its causes in public discourse.
Many of those affected by right-wing and racist violence and discrimination feel they are not taken seriously, the incidents are not reported and the victims have to face and come to terms with the results of these acts on their own. Frequently, there is a lack of expert support on site.
The counselling centre BEFORE would like to provide a range of services which the victims, with their anxieties and concerns, can turn to. Standing up for the concerns of the victims is just as much a part of our field of activities as the documentation of incidents and encroachments in Munich and the surrounding area.