Germany - Online Outrage Over Woman Exiting Mercedes To Enter Food Bank

Food banks in Germany have been in the news for a few weeks now. As we’ve reported (see our related coverage), last month a small organization decided to hand out new member cards to Germans only and were immediately accused of racism. Their truck was spray-painted with the words ‘Nazis’ as a result. The owner of the food bank claimed that too many young unmarried Muslim men were coming for the free food and caused problems for his (mostly female) staff, of whom a large percentage are Catholic nuns.

Related coverage: https://thegoldwater.com/news/19631-Merkel-Wades-Into-Germans-Only-Food-Bank-Row

This time, it is a picture that has caused outrage: it shows a veiled woman exiting the back of a luxurious Mercedes car as she is being dropped off to enter a ‘free’ food bank and pick up food for her family.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="de" dir="ltr">Eine Frau mit Kopftuch steigt vor der Tafel in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Landau?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Landau</a> aus einem Mercedes. Die Folge: Tausende Hasskommentare bei Facebook. Bloß: Die Tafel macht nun klar, dass die Frau zu einer Gruppe hilfsbereiter Nachbarn gehört, die Rentner*innen zur Tafel fährt… <a href="https://t.co/NVyCa0e8mz">https://t.co/NVyCa0e8mz</a></p>&mdash; Pro Asyl (@ProAsyl) <a href="https://twitter.com/ProAsyl/status/976057294696976384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 20, 2018</a></blockquote>

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The image quickly went viral (being shared 30,000 times on Facebook with many claiming the woman doesn’t need free food as the family obviously has money) and the food bank has been forced to issue a statement explaining the circumstances.

Related coverage: https://thegoldwater.com/news/19717-Second-Germans-Only-Food-Bank-Stirs-Emotions-Even-More

According to the Landau food bank, the image is misinterpreted as the car was actually picking the woman up from the front of the food bank as she cannot walk the distance herself due to her old age.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="de" dir="ltr">Tafel in Landau: Die Geschichte der Muslima mit Mercedes ist ein Fake - Today - bento <a href="https://t.co/RSf1L9fVsu">https://t.co/RSf1L9fVsu</a></p>&mdash; 「Akamaru」 ~pi (@Akamaru_Pie) <a href="https://twitter.com/Akamaru_Pie/status/975802712133685251?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 19, 2018</a></blockquote>

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The woman’s neighbors are the ones who own the car and offered to give her a ride.

Tensions in Germany are clearly high as to this topic with many claiming that the picture is ‘taken in such a way’ to show ‘fake news’.

Source:

https://www.focus.de/politik/deutschland/streit-um-muslimische-frau-landauer-tafel-klaert-hintergrund-zu-umstrittenem-mercedes-foto-auf_id_8639556.html