Bundesbank official under police investigation after blasting Turks for ‘conquering Germany’

A top official at the German Bundesbank is under police investigation after giving vent to a wild outburst against Berlin’s Muslim population, resorting to language reminiscent of Nazi race theory.

Dr Thilo Sarrazin, a member of the executive board and head of the bank’s risk control operations, told Europe’s culture magazine Lettre International that Turks with low IQs and poor child-rearing practices were “conquering Germany” by breeding two or three times as fast.

“A large number of Arabs and Turks in this city, whose number has grown through bad policies, have no productive function other than as fruit and vegetable vendors,” he said.

“Forty per cent of all births occur in the underclasses. Our educated population is becoming stupider from generation to generation. What’s more, they cultivate an aggressive and atavistic mentality. It’s a scandal that Turkish boys won’t listen to female teachers because that is what their culture tells them”, he said.

“I’d rather have East European Jews with an IQ that is 15pc higher than the German population,” he said

Dr Sarrazin has since apologised but his comments may have breached Germany‘s anti-racism laws. The Bundesbank’s staff union said over the weekend that his position had become “untenable”.

Bundesbank chief Axel Weber found himself caught in the storm while attending the G7 summit in Istanbul, where Turkish newspapers have been in uproar. He was provided with bodyguards.

“The Bundesbank is an institution held in high esteem in Germany. I see that a loss of reputation has arisen here,” he said. Every member of the Bundesbank from chauffeur to cashier must look into their own conscience and judge themselves if they breach the bank’s moral code, Mr Weber said. However, he may be in some difficulty himself if the Süddeutschen Zeitung is correct in reporting that he approved the Sarrizin interview after calling for certain changes.

The dispute has overshadowed Mr Weber’s warnings to Chancellor Angela Merkel‘s new coalition that Germany cannot afford years of loose fiscal policy. The budget deficit is already 6pc of GDP, yet the pro-business Free Democrats are pushing for tax cuts of almost €50bn.

“There is very little room to reduce the tax burden on citizens unless spending is cut,” he said. The Bundesbank has long argued that the key to raising growth rates is by structural reform.

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