Pianist who played for Merkel faces German deportation

Pianist who played for Merkel faces German deportation

main

norman lebrecht

January 29, 2018

Anastassiya Dranchuk has lived in Germany for 17 years. She has played for Chancellor Angela Merkel on state occasions.

 

But Anastassiya, 29, failed to get a college diploma and is now being threatened with deportation within days to Kazakhstan, where she was born but has nobody left.

She is appealing to Chancellor Merkel to intervene.

The broadcaster Deutsche Welle thinks this is a misapplication of the rules.

Watch.

Comments

  • Joan Maynard Keenes says:

    The German population is shrinking to nothing and therefore must be urgently replaced by migration. Industry can’t possibly afford to lose all those consumers, the banks need more debtors, real estate prices have to be propped up, politicians are seeing their tax base eroded and worship together with the economic advisors at the high altar of GDP. Keep to the script, people!

  • Caravaggio says:

    Of course the German government should let her stay. Especially when a million others from lands afar and potentially nowhere near as gifted as she are allowed to roam free. This has unfairness writ large.

  • anon says:

    That’s all one needs to stay in Germany, a college diploma? Under Trump’s new guidelines, a PhD in one of the hard sciences (physics, chemistry, engineering…) is the minimum requirement to stay in America.

    • herrera says:

      True, as a recent NYT op-ed illustrated, a woman with a law degree from Oxford and an MBA from Stanford, and a job offer from a Silicon Valley start-up, was asked to leave by the end of the month when her current visa expired. (Too many lawyers in America already, it seems…)

      • Sue says:

        My doctor’s UK husband (who is a plastic surgeon) has the sword of Damocles hanging over his head as an Australian citizen. People from the UK coming to live here have been severely disadvantaged by our need to take any and all from the rest of the world – no matter what the social welfare, social and infrastructure costs. So we may shortly lose a talented plastic surgeon AND his general practitioner wife (my doctor). Stupidity of epic proportions.

    • Michael Comins says:

      Not sure about that since Trumpf and sycophants don’t believe in science.

    • Petros Linardos says:

      What is the status of those guidelines?

  • Andreas B. says:

    well …

    this article from last week sounds quite different:

    https://www.google.de/amp/s/amp.berliner-zeitung.de/berlin/keine-abschiebung-berliner-pianistin-anastassiya-dranchuk-darf-ueberraschend-bleiben-29538358

    “no deportation”
    “pianist can stay”

    • harold braun says:

      Thank God!!!

    • Scotty says:

      Not exactly “can stay.” The story says she can stay during the period in which the “Härtefallkommission” will decide if her visa can be extended. It also says that in the meantime she might apply for citizenship.

      • Andreas B. says:

        exactly:
        she does NOT “face deportation within days”.

        this SD post is simply last year’s news – the story was first reported in December.
        of course, it does sound much more dramatic like this, so why check the current state of the situation before posting …

        both her parents are German citizens – it would be interesting to watch the härtefallkommission uphold her deportation.

  • harold braun says:

    The German government let in masses of potential terrorists,criminals,rapists,sex offenders and IS supporters without vetting them,without papers,many of them claiming false,and often,multiple identities.And they want to deport some valuable musician,who contributes to arts and music…Says all about Merkel´s hypocrisy,double standard “politics”.But what do you expect from someone selling tanks to Erdogan as a tool to slaughter Kurds,and selling rocket launchers to the Kurds at the same time?A totalllly rotten character without morale,playing her role as a”humanist” to an audience of fools.

    • Gustavo van Voorthuizen says:

      The plan is in a advanced stage of execution with Sweden currently in the lead:

      [redacted: The original attachment linked to white supremacist site.]

    • Sue says:

      Bravo. And living behind the ‘iron curtain’ until her 40s, cut off from any news from outside world, qualifies her with the life experience, know-how and expertise to make life-altering decisions for Germany?!! I think not. Perhaps she’s just got too many of those “agreeableness traits” that Jordan Peterson talks about; ergo, the things which DO NOT engender tough decision making and hard calls to keep her nation safe. Sometimes you have to be as tough as nails and forget about appeasing compassionistas.

      • Petros Linardos says:

        I am not a Merkel fan, but your argument on growing up behind the iron curtain is questionable and rests on wrong assumptions:

        – “In 1986 [Angela Merkel] was able to travel freely to West-Germany…” Wikipedia

        – That was at age 32, shortly after receiving her doctorate in physics.

  • Andreas B. says:

    comments peddling racist conspiracy theories, like the one from ‘Gustavo van Voorthuizen’ above (which I hope will be banned from this site), demonstrate why I find it regrettable and dangerous to post insufficiently researched and partly inaccurate stories about political topics.

    please let’s not give white nationalists, racists and demagogues (“movement of national salvation fighting for a white revival”) a forum.

    • Sue says:

      Keep hiding under that blanket; you’re going to need it.

      • Sue says:

        Oh, and make sure you ‘ban’ comments contrary to your own view. Mmm; where have we experienced THAT before?

        • Andreas B. says:

          simply posting a link to a racist white-supremacist website claiming a conspiracy to commit genocide on europeans does not constitute “a view”.

          in any case, Gustavo’s link hardly pertains to the issue being discussed on this classical music website, in this instance the personal fate of a young pianist; and arguing against it would certainly be completely off topic.

          I don’t mind having to read Harold Braun’s and your own comments, even though I find them distasteful and uninformed (e.g. Merkel was not “cut off from any news from the outside world” – TV and radio from the west was popular and being widely consumed by the east German population, apart from two areas in the extreme east where it could not be received; also, in 1986 she even travelled to West Germany).

          interestingly, instead of offering any argument you just give us catch phrases: “tough as nails” and “compassionistas” and ” under that blanket”.

          • Pianofortissimo says:

            Maybe you should concentrate on the contents of Sue’s comments, not in her rhetorical concluding phrases.

          • Andreas B. says:

            just to make it clear:
            I respect Gustavo’s freedom of speech –
            I have merely expressed the hope that his peddling of racist conspiracy theories be banned “from this site”.
            I hope NL does not want to grant this kind of world view on his classical music blog a platform.

            Gustavo is free to keep believing and talking about his extravagant theories – but they are off topic on this site (as well as simply ludicrous) in my view.

            and Pianofortissimo:
            Sue’s contents such as Australia has “a need to take any and all from the rest of the world” ?
            or the speculation about Merkel’s “agreeablesness traits” ?
            or the above mentioned “Merkel being cut off from any news” ?

  • Andreas B. says:

    apparently, the case has been resolved by the härtefallkommission and she can stay:

    http://www.zeit.de/kultur/musik/2018-02/anastassiya-dranchuk-pianistin-abschiebung-berlin

  • MOST READ TODAY: