The perfect dog whistle

One of the most extreme politicians in the AfD is about to stand trial. Did he knowingly use a Nazi slogan?

Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

The accusation that a word or phrase used by a politician is a ‘dog whistle’ - i.e. it is pitched at a frequency that most listeners can’t hear but sends a clear message to a specific clientele - has become a journalistic cliché in recent years.

If you listen to the German left, Christian Democrat leader Friedrich Merz loves to deploy dog whistle phrases to win over voters that have migrated to the AfD.

After Merz told a Bavarian beer tent last summer that “Kreuzberg isn’t Germany, Gillamoos is Germany,” the accusation that this was “a shrill dog whistle” followed as surely as night follows day.

(For readers outside Germany: Kreuzberg is a hip Berlin neighbourhood with a large Turkish community, while Gillamoos is an ancient Bavarian beer festival.)

Think what you want about Merz’ attempts to rouse a tent full of Bavarian drunks, there is no dog whistle - i.e. no secret code - in this phrase.

Everyone in Germany knows exactly what a politician means when…