A few of weeks after embattled Hesse Governor Roland Koch, a conservative, decided to put some starch into the old brown shirt in an attempt to lift his prospects of re-election (ranting against “criminal young foreigners” - which promptly drew a round of applause from Germany’s neo-Nazi party), German immigration groups have now decided to fight back: “In an open letter addressed to Chancellor Angela Merkel and to Koch - both of the conservative Christian Democrats - an association representing some 100 immigrant groups in Germany expressed its frustration at the populist tones coming from Koch” (story). “One wonders how far along integration [of foreigners/guest workers] might be if the country’s politicians found a more constructive way to discuss those who helped build modern, postwar Germany.” notes Charles Hawley