Cody Schooler

Kelly Slivka
2/28/2017
English 250
Textual Analysis

Germany has traditionally been an isolated country, so when Chancellor Angela Merkel

decided to open their borders to hundreds of thousands of refugees, it came as a surprise to many.

Now after all these refugees have settled into Germany, attacks are on the rise. Anna Sauerbrey wrote

an article titled Germany, Caught Between Two Violent Extremes that talks in detail about the

effects of these refugee attacks and how Germany could possibly handle the situation. Sauerbrey uses

an interesting combination of personal, short stories supported with facts that really connect to the

audience on a personal level and evoke many emotions.

Anna Sauerbrey writes an excellent piece that addresses an important topic for many citizens,

how should Germany solve their terrorist issue? It is not an easy question to answer. For the first

time, Germany has opened their borders to all refugees, trying to become a more globally engaged

society. Now with these same refugees committing violent crimes, German citizens for the first time

ever placed terrorism as their leading concern in April and May of 2016. Sauerbrey uses her style of

writing to make you feel the same terror Germans did when these awful attacks took place.

Sauerbrey tells the events almost as a series of short stories from the perspective of the

citizens, this style of writing contains lots of pathos for the reader. Her description of events in

Wurzburg, Munich and Reutlingen are very detailed, each event its own short story making each one

more impactful then the one before. Sauerbrey tells how the Germans felt during the Munich attack,

the fear and anxiety they endured while a killer was on the run for hours throughout the city. Telling

her audience how the victims felt and what they experienced are great tools to make the readers

sympathize with the Germans. Sauerbrey continues describing the fear Germans have now of
terrorism and how confused everyone is about how to counter these events. She uses words like trust,

fragile, and proud to describe how the people feel about their country and government during these

critical times. These words give you a better sense of how the people reacted, giving the audience a

more immersive feel into the story. These emotions she has already worked up using such powerful

language, all go up another level when she starts to add the factual evidence to them.

The use of logos in this article is simple yet very effective. By adding factual pieces like

killed nine people, Syrian refugee killed his girlfriend and co-worker, bomb wounded 15 the

picture become so much more clear. They convince the reader that these are serious threats and tragic

events that would leave any population cowering with fear. These facts make the events seem even

more real for the reader, again making them feel more connected and passionate about what the

article is saying.

Overall Anna Sauerbrey does an excellent job of attracting the attention of her readers using

short, emotion filled stories that have essential facts to back them up. The way she writes the article,

almost as a timeline of events, each complete with the German citizens reaction does an amazing job

of showing the reader how the situation escalated. Finally, Sauerbrey ends her article with her idea of

a solution to the problem, this gives the reader a sense of peace while also having him/her think of

possible solutions on their own. This tactic causes her readers to think about the article long after

they have set it down and even gets them to possibly talk about it with others. All being said it is an

immersive, well put together, article that plays well on the emotion of the readers and gains appeal

the longer they read it.

 Work Cited

Sauerbrey, Anna. Germany, Caught Between Two Violent Extremes. New York Times

28 July 2016, A27.