I never expected to have strong feelings for a member of Germany’s Green party, but I really do feel extremely sorry for Stefan Gelbhaar, once (but not now or ever again) an MP for Berlin.
Women should hang together, say some feminists. I couldn’t disagree with this more
Gelbhaar is a 48-year-old criminal defence lawyer who was, until very recently, running to be a candidate in the 23 February elections. He’s reasonably handsome if you like a Timothy Dalton chin dent. He has two young children and he’s a moderate, centrist Green, which is probably the root cause of his troubles.
Late last year, quite out of the blue, Gelbhaar was informed by Green HQ that serious allegations of sexual assault had been made against him by an anonymous woman known only by a pseudonym, ‘Anne K’. He was never told who Anne K was or what he was supposed to have done to her, so it was impossible for him to defend himself. Gelbhaar swore he’d nothing to hide, but what could he say? ‘I didn’t do any of the things I don’t know about’? Just before Christmas the German public broadcaster RBB secured a signed letter from the mysterious Anne K swearing her accusations were true, so they ran with the story of Gelbhaar’s ‘crimes’ and he was encouraged to resign. Green career up in smoke.
I see this is not so far very unusual. Sexual skulduggery is par for the course in politics. But the twist in Gelbhaar’s tale is that it turns out that Anne K doesn’t actually exist. RBB has had to announce the fact, shamefaced. For all the signings of affidavits, Anne K and her story of being harassed by Gelbhaar has been revealed to be a fiction cooked up by an enemy of Gelbhaar’s, a woman, also in the Green party, who describes herself online as an angry autistic feminist. You’ve got to really loathe someone to publicly humiliate your own party just before an election, but there’s no one a left-wing German Green hates more than a moderate German Green, I’ve been told. The angry Green feminist has also, reluctantly, had to resign. Or as she puts it, take some time to deal with the accusations levelled against her. Poor poppet.
But it’s too late for Gelbhaar. He hasn’t been reinstated as a candidate – the paperwork can’t be done in time, officials say, and besides he’s tainted. Another young hopeful is running in his place. So the angry feminist stalked and got her man. It’s Baby Reindeer in the Bundestag.
It’s not the in-fighting that’s chilling. In my limited experience, an all-consuming loathing for people in your own party is pretty normal in politics. What’s icy is the total lack of any feminist outcry or defence of poor Gelbhaar. The German Greens consider themselves to be social justice activists. The party has loudly championed the global ‘Believe Her’ movement, which insists we should never doubt a women who says she’s been abused. But can you think of a bigger blow to Believe Her than the Anne K scandal? It’s a free pass for men worldwide to accuse women of being fantasists and opportunists. The author of Gelbhaar’s downfall has enabled an anti-feminist movement: Disbelieve Her. She’s done more for misogyny than even Amber Heard, which is going some. So how on earth can any German feminists still be on her side?
There are two reasons, I think, both of them terrible. The first is that the hearts and minds of young left-leaning Greens have been curdled by queer theory. Gelbhaar’s a white man, which means he has power and must therefore be an oppressor, so who cares if he suffers? Perhaps they’d acknowledge that an injustice has been done, but that is offset in their minds against the great historic weight of male abuse of women.
I’m not just imagining this. The German Greens have a young superstar in their ranks – a 25-year-old blonde called Jette Nietzard, radiant with youth and self-confidence. ‘When Jette Nietzard speaks out, the party gets nervous!’ says Spiegel of her, admiringly. Her motto is ‘Never kiss up anyone’s ass’, and I think we can all at least agree with her there. Jette is a role model for socially aware Gen-Z Germans and is spoken of as a future party leader. Her response to the Anne K affair makes it clear whose side she’s on. ‘Where power is, power is abused,’ she says. ‘We believe victims and we expect the Green party to stand with victims.’ The Greens should stand shoulder to shoulder with an imaginary psychopath? Still, Jette looks super in a red one-piece swimming costume, as she points out on her own Facebook page.
I should probably mention here that Anne K’s was not the only accusation made against Gelbhaar, but quite honestly I don’t for a minute think that’s the reason for the great feminist omertà. From the very little I can find out about the other accusations, all seem pretty obviously sketchy, too. Several of them were, as I understand it, made within days of each other and via the same angry Green activist. The Anne K accusation is, anyway, said to be the most serious.
Women should hang together, say some feminists. It’s a betrayal of the sisterhood to attack another woman, even one as mad and bad as Gelbhaar’s Green nemesis. I couldn’t disagree with this more. If women keep quiet when men are destroyed by the lies of other women, then we can hardly complain when men become bitter misogynists. We’ve created the problem we complain about.
The Green party is doing its damnedest to downplay the Gelbhaar affair. ‘It will be like a cobblestone on a Prussian side street. You trip over it but it’s quickly forgotten,’ said one political commentator, merrily. I don’t think the Gelbhaar affair should be forgotten. I think it should be set as a test for young politicos who self-describe as feminists. Either denounce Anne K and her inventor – or renounce your feminism. The Gelbhaar test. It can be the poor chap’s political legacy.
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