When a German TV host praised Nazi family policies, she was forced off the set. It was an unforgettable hour's viewing, writes Derek Scally, in Berlin
A month ago, Eva Herman was one of Germany's leading television hosts. Then, at a press conference, the 48-year-old appeared to suggest that Nazi Germany was more family-friendly than modern Germany.
In the subsequent hail of criticism, Herman lost her job, was dubbed "Eva Braun" by the media and disappeared from view.
This week, Herman reappeared on Germany's most popular television talk show to defend her views and, after nearly an hour of heated discussion, she was forced to leave the studio.
Her unprecedented departure in front of three million television viewers provided a fascinating glimpse of the state of modern German taboos about the Third Reich and a brief scene from an ideological war about the role of women in modern Germany.
The source of the controversy is a meandering statement Herman made at a press conference to promote her new book praising conservative family values.
The cleaned-up version of the quote, circulated by wire agencies, suggested she said: "It was an awful time in which completely crazy politicians led the German people into ruin, we all know that. But there was good too, like valuing mothers, children, families and family solidarity." The full transcript shows that she book-ended her press conference by distancing herself from the Nazi era, but the quote in question remains highly confusing.
Herman declined to distance herself from it, although it could be read as a dubious comparison between Nazi Germany and today. Instead she clarified her remarks by saying that she meant to praise family policies encouraged in the past, including in the Third Reich, which, in her view, had been destroyed by the student revolution of the "1968 generation".
Countless critics, including leading Jewish groups, attacked Herman for using the "Hitler was terrible but . . ." logic usually employed by extreme-right politicians to play down Nazi crimes. Others lambasted her for ignoring what they said motivated generous Nazi-era child subsidies: to provide cannon fodder for Hitler's wars.
HERMAN IS KNOWN as conservative but former colleagues deny she has extreme-right views; last year she participated in a prominent public campaign against the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD).
On the talk show this week, Herman declined numerous opportunities to distance herself from her quote, saying she has received huge support for her views.
Earlier this week, she earned tumultuous applause during a speech to 700 delegates from the arch-conservative lay organisation, Forum of German Catholics.
She told her audience that the excitement over her alleged Nazi remark was an attempt by the German media to discredit her and her message, that women who want to care for their children at home are being discriminated against by a government that pumps money only into state-subsidised kindergartens.
"Now I'm aware that there is a mechanism at work to bombard anyone who raises their voice in support of . . . family values, harmony with partner and children and motherhood," she said. "That person is condemned publicly as a Nazi sympathiser." On the talk show she went farther, suggesting that, with her views, she had fallen foul of two taboos: questioning the achievements of feminism and, secondly, the proscription in modern Germany surrounding everything from the Nazi era. "Autobahns were built in the Third Reich that we still drive on today," she said.
"That's not on!" shouted the host, Johannes Kerner. After other panel guests threatened to walk out, Kerner asked Herman to leave instead. The talk show's website was bombarded with protest messages suggesting that Herman was victim of an on-air ambush. Other viewers praised her attempt to turn the screw on a perceived prejudice in Germany against women who care for their children in the home. For this work, however, viewers suggested Herman had tried to use inappropriate tools from the Nazi era.
By tackling two taboos simultaneously, Herman has attracted an extraordinary swell of support from people who may disagree with her views but respect her intentions. German firebrand commentator Henryk Broder attacked Herman as "street smart but not clever". But he condemned her dismissal from the talk show, suggesting that she had been swallowed up by Germany's "macabre" memory landscape of the Third Reich.
"Whoever wants to distance themselves from the Nazis," he said, "not only has to avoid their autobahns but the children's allowance too."