Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Daniel Schubert
Kelly Slivka
English 250
27 February 2017
Assignment 4
The recent influx in immigration from the Middle East has caused a massive amount of
controversy in nearly every single first world country. Peoples xenophobia combined with the
acts of terror some immigrants have committed have resulted in harsh backlash from
conservative politicians as well as regular citizens. One developed country that has only recently
started going through this experience is Germany. In early 2016, enough acts of rape, murder,
and terrorism occurred to cause an uprising of far-right individuals who heavily and vocally
opposed immigration in Germany. Anna Sauerbrey is a German who offered her perspective on
these issues in an article on the New York Times. In Germany, Caught Between Two Violent
Extremes, Sauerbrey uses graphic storytelling as well as her understanding of and personal
Sauerbrey begins by defining the two violent extremes mentioned in the title: Middle
East immigrants and extreme conservatives. By listing off attacks committed by both sides, the
author shows that this situation is not an easy-to-solve, one-sided issue or that she is biased in
only mentioning one of the sides. And because the dateline reads Berlin, the audience learns
that the author is in the capital of Germany, a place that would of course be experiencing the
brunt of Germanys response to these events. In reality, this issue is multi-sided and messy,
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causing many Germans to ask themselves, are we safer as a globally engaged society, or should
we isolate ourselves? (Sauerbrey). This question explains exactly what the writer will attempt to
answer. But first, Sauerbrey justifies why immigration even needs to be defended: because
Germans are afraid of what they might do. She reveals an alarming statistic that terrorism has
just recently become Germanys largest fear. Then, she vividly details the amount of chaos and
tension that occurred during one of the recent attacks, showing that it will have a lasting,
traumatizing effect on the German people. These two reasons combined make it easy to see that
Germans are uneasy about the idea of immigration. They also explain the recent anti-
immigration uprising that is Sauerbreys largest opponent to what she is trying to defend.
Now that Sauerbrey has introduced why immigrants and their opponents are an issue
worthy of talking about, she transitions into explaining her solution to the issue. By describing
Germanys values as honorable, treasured, and hard-earned, she gives these values a sense of
necessity, as if they are now an integral part to what makes Germany the incredible country it is.
Now, the extreme conservatives committing violent acts against immigrants are going against the
very values they worked so hard for. Similarly, denying refugees access into Germany is going
against the value of freedom. Therefore, an emotional attachment is noted to show that both these
And Sauerbrey has quite a lot of credibility to help convince her audience of this claim.
Her use of the pronoun we throughout the article shows that she is a German citizen genuinely
concerned with the issues affecting Germany. It is unlikely she has any motives other than caring
about her own country. This article being on the New York Times also benefits her greatly, as the
Times has a time-tested reputation for providing well-written content. As a result, the idea of
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Sauerbreys article being substantial enough to gain the attention of a newspaper as prestigious as
the New York Times adds a lot to readers trust towards her.
Sauerbrey makes the convincing claim that openness to immigration is a necessary part
of Germany. First, she explains exactly how this is an issue in order to justify the impact she says
it could have on Germany as a whole. Then, she shows how important Germanys values are and
specifically how attacking immigrants and denying refugees both harm those values. And
because of her attachment to Germany and ability to appear on the New York Times, her claims
appear credible and trustworthy. Considering how important and prevalent the topic of
immigration is, Sauerbreys article could cause a significant change in the actions and thoughts
Work Cited
Sauerbrey, Anna. "Germany, Caught Between Two Violent Extremes." The New York Times, 28
extremes.html.