we are thinking of spending 2 weeks in this area. is there racism. we are dark skinned and have a child. thanks

I've been travelling regularly to Eastern Germany for ~10yrs now and never, ever heard from any of my colleagues in the area (dark, light or in between) of any issues.

Where specifically are you travelling?

we are going to dresden. thinking of adding on leipzig, cottbus, erfurt. i have read some comments and am feeling afraid especially with our daughter.

I was in Leipzig a few years ago with my dark skinned Indian-American boyfriend. Our biggest difficulty was that fewer people spoke English there, as they were of course taught Russian instead while in school under the Communist regime.

Leipzig was a nice town, lots of stuff about Bach and very musically oriented, even when it was in the GDR. There's a nice park there with a small zoo. We wandered around a lot of the town center plus the park and didn't get any odd looks or anything. (I'm pretty sensitive to that sort of thing, though my boyfriend is oblivous!)

From what I recall, it wasn't a very long train ride to Berlin. If you'll be in the area for two weeks and Berlin isn't on your itinerary, you may want to look into it; it's a very cosmopolitan, mixed city with lots of different types of cuisine (among its other attractions).

It's my understanding that there is more of an issue in Germany with people of middle-eastern descent, as there is a largely Turkish immigrant community there, so they are the scapegoats of choice...

I've been to Dresden many many times. Dresden is a very busy tourist center - every day and night the town is bustling with visitors from all over the world. I know of no reason why you should be concerned there, especially in the tourist areas.

There has been one incident in the last 3 weeks or so, where a dark skinned German citizen (male in his 30's I believe) was attacked by skin heads in Potsdam.

It caused outright public revulsion throughout Germany, especially in Potsdam.

If you want to check further, you probably can get the facts in the archives section of the Deutsche Welle website, www.dw-TV.de

Having said that, I think you and your child will be entirely safe if you keep to the main tourist sites in the cities you mention.

Regrettably I would suggest to leave out Cottbus. It is not an especially interesting city anyway, and the skinhead problem increases within East Germany from big to small cities, and from more to less "touristy" places. Leipzig will be absolutely OK, Erfurt as well. Erfurt is actually very beautiful, more so than Leipzig, but also much smaller (less to do there). I would suggest going to Dresden instead of Cottbus.