It was called the ‘refugee summer’. That year, 2015, saw two sides of Germany on display. One was the Willkommenskultur or ‘welcome culture’ wherein volunteers greeted asylum-seekers arriving at German railway stations with refreshments. Another was a four-fold spike in attacks on refugee shelters, as social anxiety surged about the new mouths to feed.

Over the two year period of 2015-16, a total of 1.2 million asylum-seekers entered Germany, the largest movement of conflict refugees into the country since World War II. On 31 August 2015, then German Chancellor Angela Merkel memorably told her fellow-citizens, ‘We can do it’.

She was referring to Germany’s capacity to absorb the economic strain that a refugee influx would pose. In July, the country had received 76,000 asylum-seekers. T

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