As Germany prepares to welcome more than a million foreigners for the World Cup, a spate of racist attacks is raising fears the world's most popular sporting event - and Germany's image - will be tarnished by an explosion of violence.
The issue flared into a hot national debate after a former government spokesman floated the idea of ''no-go zones'' in the most notorious epicenters of racist attacks.
In a radio interview last month, Uwe-Karsten Heye warned anyone with dark skin against setting foot in small and middle-sized towns in Brandenburg, the region around Berlin that has been a hotbed of hate crimes. ''He might not leave alive,'' Heye said.
Heye later played down his comments after Chancellor Angela Merkel's government insisted all parts of Germany are safe. But fears of racist attacks - especially in the economically depressed east - remain rife.
''We have seen on radical right and neo-Nazi Web sites they plan to target black people,'' said Eritrean-born Jonas Endrias, vice president of the International League of Human Rights. ''All of east Germany is unsafe.''
Recent cases of ethnic violence include an attack on Turkish-born Berlin state legislator Giyasettin Sayan, who suffered a concussion after two men shouting anti-Turkish epithets beat him with a bottle in his east Berlin district.
Government figures released last week show acts of violence connected to the far-right rose nearly 25 percent in 2005, from 776 to 958.
Despite the recent high-profile attacks, officials say hate crimes have long been a problem in Germany and there are no signs of an upswing.
''Our numbers don't show any increase leading up to the World Cup,'' Interior Ministry spokesman Christian Sachs said. ''We have this problem independent of the World Cup, but the World Cup is certainly the reason for the huge interest now.''
Indeed, many minorities in Germany say politicians and the media are simply being jolted awake to the reality of life for dark-skinned people in eastern Germany.
''For a long time, the politicians wouldn't listen to us; now they are listening,'' Endrias said.
