Dear Hiveans,
I'll follow up on my 2 posts about Germany with 3 more:
- today about the Germans' soul / delusions of grandeur / megalomania
- in the coming days a forecast for the German elections with some scenarios
- a post-election evaluation.
I mostly write this for non-Germans (that's why the sources are English) - as many Germans already have their own worldview and strong opinions.
Last year I read an interesting book about Germany of the 19th century (blackbourn) where Blackbourn describes the Germans' subject-mentality and obedience (long before Hitler) and Germany's tendency to authoritarianism and militarism.
And there is the famous book The Delayed Nation (plessner). Plessner describes the ambivalent and therefore dangerous potential of the German mentality which is rooted in a pronounced insecurity and rejection of the Western Enlightenment.
In my opinion (built from both reading historical books on Germany and from living nearly 30 years in Germany) I would diagnose a national inferiority complex. Depending on the era, this complex presents itself in different facets
- Imperial Germany (1871-1918): The emperor said "am deutschen Wesen soll die Welt genesen" (The world should be built on the German character.), meaning that the German nature is so good that the world should accept that Germany takes many colonies.
- Nazi Germany (1933-1945): the Nazis said the Aryan race is superior, and inferior people need to be exterminated or enslaved/oppressed. Thus Germany should expand (conquest of "living space in the east").
- today's Germany (2005-?): Germans today live in the "best Germany of all times" (quote by German's Federal President). Germany is so great that it can take the world's problems on its shoulders and solve them single-handedly. Germany can solve the global (!) climate change (by an unrealistic energy transition that costs trillions and deindustrializes Germany) and simultaneously solve the migration crisis (by accepting millions of immigrants that are partially not even controlled when entering). Merkel says "Wir schaffen das" (basically stolen from Obama's "Yes, we can").
- When Germans (currently embodied by the Greens) think that one thing is correct, they make a dogma out of it (climate change will kill us, immigration is a human right). The science is settled. (side remark: who doesn't allow refutation, does not take part in the game of science, and is "anti-science"). Their belief is some kind of substitute religion (in the case of the Greens its their imaginary goddess Gaia, gaia-hypothesis).
- Then they elaborate a strategy to reach their goals. As they do the right thing (dogma), everybody who is against their policies, is a traitor/defeatist/Nazi, and it is legitimate to use any means (lies, media propaganda, prohibition, bans, intimidation, incarceration of dissidents...), both to further their agenda and to fight against their enemies.
- unfortunately Germans are really effective, both when starting a war killing millions (WW1, WW2) and when deindustrializing their country ( Thus Germany is in deep trouble.
- If shit hits the fan (and it will; actually already does), who will be the scapegoat this time? Jews? The rich? The AfD? Trump?
That much about the German soul. I know this is a gross overimplification and collectivization, as there are many Germans that do not suffer from this illness/madness/megalomania/inferiority complex.
Many people in Germany are fed up with the political paternalism and the extreme left's will to better the world (of course only in their own view). Parties should realize that more and more people want to be left alone, to live their life freely, to raise children. Therefore they need
- secure borders, internal safety/security
- cheap and reliable energy, cheap living conditions (zero or negative inflation for housing and food) in order to found families
- lower taxes (for the record, the income taxe rate is 42% for the highest income bracket (by an income of 71000 USD), plus anti-social 19% value-added taxes (which makes everyday consumption just that much more expensive), plus countless more taxes (fuel taxes...).
What Germans don't need are
- lies about the energy transition. Globally there has never been an energy transition, only energy addition. The Germany special path is an impasse, and this will end. But how much more damage is necessary? Build nuclear! Drill! Frack!
- moralizers who, themselves, take the plane to get to the next climate change discussion in Paris, Cancún or wherever.
- more terrorist attacks (since my last post 11 days ago there were 2 attacks, a mother and her 2-year old daughter were killed in Munich, a 14-year old boy in Villach, Austria, and more than 40 persons injured)
- more taxes
- economic ministers who seriously said when asked about the problem that companies go into insolvency when they can't sell their products anymore: “Companies are not insolvent, they just stop selling”. We must be near peak insanity.
- media that are clearly dominated by Greens and (extreme) leftists, source1, source2
I have to close (though I shouldn't) with a quote from a Turko-German philospher, who (ironically?) said back in the 1990s: "Hang the Greens, while there are still trees." (I naturally distance myself from this statement.)
Have a great day,
zuerich
Memes...
Liebe Hiver,
meinen letzten 2 Beiträgen über Deutschland schliesse ich 3 weitere an:
- heute über die Seele der Deutschen / Größenwahn
- in den nächsten Tagen eine Prognose für die Bundestagswahl mit einigen Szenarien
- eine Bewertung nach der Wahl.
Ich schreibe dies hauptsächlich für Nicht-Deutsche (deshalb sind die Quellen englisch) - da viele Deutsche bereits ihre eigene Weltsicht und starke Meinungen haben.
Letztes Jahr habe ich ein interessantes Buch über das Deutschland des 19. Jahrhunderts gelesen (blackbourn), in dem Blackbourn die Untertanenmentalität und den Gehorsam der Deutschen (lange vor Hitler) und die Tendenz Deutschlands zu Autoritarismus und Militarismus beschreibt.
Und es gibt das berühmte Buch Die verspätete Nation (wiki). Plessner beschreibt das ambivalente und daher gefährliche Potential der deutschen Mentalität, das in einer ausgeprägten Unischerheit und der Ablehnung der westlichen Aufklärung wurzelt.
Ich würde Deutschland (auf Basis der Lektüre historischer Bücher über Deutschland als auch eines fast 30-jährigen Aufwachsens in Deutschland) einen nationalen Minderwertigkeitskomplex diagnostizieren. Je nach Epoche zeigt sich dieser Komplex in unterschiedlichen Facetten
- Kaiserliches Deutschland (1871-1918): Der Kaiser sagte „am deutschen Wesen soll die Welt genesen“, was bedeutet, dass das deutsche Wesen so gut ist, dass die Welt akzeptieren sollte, dass Deutschland viele Kolonien einnimmt.
- Nazideutschland (1933-1945): Die Nazis vertraten die Ansicht, dass die arische Ethnie überlegen sei und minderwertige Menschen ausgerottet oder versklavt/unterdrückt werden müssten. Daher sollte Deutschland expandieren (Eroberung von „Lebensraum im Osten“).
- Das heutige Deutschland (1998/2005-?): Die Deutschen leben heute im „besten Deutschland aller Zeiten“ (Zitat des Bundespräsidenten). Deutschland ist so toll, dass es die Probleme der Welt auf seine Schultern nehmen und sie im Alleingang lösen kann. Deutschland kann den globalen (!) Klimawandel lösen (durch eine unrealistische Energiewende, die Billionen kostet und Deutschland deindustrialisiert) und gleichzeitig die Migrationskrise lösen (durch die Aufnahme von Millionen von Einwanderern, die teilweise unkontrolliert einreisen). Merkel sagt „Wir schaffen das“ (im Grunde von Obamas „Yes, we can“ geklaut).
- Wenn die Deutschen (derzeit verkörpert durch die Grünen) eine Sache für richtig halten, machen sie ein Dogma daraus (der Klimawandel wird uns umbringen, Einwanderung ist ein Menschenrecht). Die Wissenschaft ist feststehend. (Nebenbemerkung: Wer keine Widerlegung zulässt, nimmt nicht am Spiel der Wissenschaft teil und ist „antiwissenschaftlich“). Ihr Glaube ist eine Art Ersatzreligion (im Fall der Grünen ist es ihre imaginäre Göttin Gaia, gaia-hypothesis).
- Dann arbeiten sie eine Strategie aus, um ihre Ziele zu erreichen. Da sie das Richtige tun (Dogma), ist jeder, der gegen ihre Politik ist, ein Verräter/Defaitist/Nazi, und es ist legitim, jedes Mittel (Lügen, Medienpropaganda, Verbote, Einschüchterung, Inhaftierung von Andersdenkenden...) einzusetzen, sowohl um ihre Agenda voranzutreiben als auch um ihre Feinde zu bekämpfen.
- Leider sind die Deutschen sehr effektiv, sowohl bei der Kriegsführung, der Millionen von Menschen tötet (1. Weltkrieg, 2. Weltkrieg), als auch bei der Deindustrialisierung ihres Landes ( Deutschland steckt also in großen Schwierigkeiten.
- Wenn die Kacke so richtig am Dampfen ist (und das wird sie; eigentlich ist sie es schon), wer wird diesmal der Sündenbock sein? Die Juden? Die Reichen? Die AfD? Trump?
So viel zur deutschen Seele. Ich weiß, das ist eine grobe Vereinfachung und Kollektivierung, denn es gibt viele Deutsche, die nicht an dieser Krankheit/Wahnsinn/Größenwahn/Minderwertigkeitskomplex leiden.
Viele Menschen in Deutschland haben die Nase voll von der politischen Bevormundung und dem linksradikalen Weltverbesserungswillen (natürlich nur aus ihrer Sicht). Die Parteien sollten erkennen, dass immer mehr Menschen in Ruhe gelassen werden wollen, ihr Leben frei leben, Kinder großziehen wollen. Dafür brauchen sie
- sichere Grenzen, innere Sicherheit und Schutz
- billige und zuverlässige Energie, billige Lebensbedingungen (keine oder negative Inflation bei Wohnraum und Lebensmitteln), um Familien zu gründen
- niedrigere Steuern (zur Erinnerung: der Einkommenssteuersatz beträgt 42% für die höchste Einkommensgruppe (ab einem Einkommen von 68'000 EUR), plus unsoziale 19% Mehrwertsteuer (was den täglichen Konsum entsprechend teurer macht), plus unzählige weitere Steuern (Treibstoffsteuern...).
Was die Deutschen nicht brauchen, sind
- Lügen über die Energiewende. Weltweit hat es nie eine Energiewende gegeben, sondern nur einen Energiezuwachs. Der deutsche Sonderweg ist eine Sackgasse, und dieser wird enden. Aber wie viel Schaden ist noch nötig? Atomkraftwerke bauen! Bohren! Fracken!
- Moralapostel, die selbst das Flugzeug nehmen, um zur nächsten Klimadiskussion in Paris, Cancún oder wo auch immer zu gelangen.
- mehr Terroranschläge (seit meinem letzten Beitrag vor 11 Tagen gab es 2 Anschläge, eine Mutter und ihre 2-jährige Tochter wurden in München getötet, ein 14-jähriger Junge in Villach, Österreich, und mehr als 40 Personen wurden verletzt)
- mehr Steuern
- Wirtschaftsminister, die auf die Frage nach dem Problem, dass Unternehmen in die Insolvenz gehen, wenn sie ihre Produkte nicht mehr verkaufen können, ernsthaft sagten: „Unternehmen sind nicht insolvent, sie hören nur auf zu verkaufen“. Wir müssen kurz vor dem Höhepunkt des Wahnsinns stehen.
- Medien, die eindeutig von Grünen und (extremen) Linken dominiert werden, Quelle1, Quelle2
Ich muss mit einem Zitat eines deutsch-türkischen Philosophen schließen, der (ironisch?) in den 1990er Jahren sagte: „Hängt die Grünen, solange es noch Bäume gibt.“ (Ich distanziere mich natürlich von dieser Aussage.)
Have a great day,
zuerich
Memes...
Der Minderwertigkeitkomplex, gepaart mit dem Ekel vor jeder Art von Stolz und Patriotismus, ist offensichtlich, manche sprechen gar von Todestrieb.
Symbolhaft in dieser Geste der Ex-Kanzlerin
ich bin weit weg davon nationalistisch oder rechts zu sein - ich Depp glaub noch an liberale Wert - hat die FDP aber selbst verkackt - aber mir geht die Scheisse auf den Sack im Land, diese anti patriotische Haltung gibt es nur bei uns und ist traurig. Wenn ich sowas sage heisst es aber Du alter Sack, Du Booomer.
Genau.
Ich frage mich, ob hier ein Staats- bzw. Verfassungsschutz hätte eingreifen müssen. Merkel wurde vollständig in der DDR sozialisiert und ihr wurde 35 Jahre lang eingetrichtert, die BRD zu hassen. Darf man so jemanden Kanzler werden lassen? Zudem hat sie in der DDR studiert und promoviert. Das ging kaum ohne aktive Mitarbeit (Stasi o.ä.).
Nicht ohne Grund wird ihre Stasi-Akte geheimgehalten!
Die Person hat um an die Macht zu kommen, brav mit der CDU kooperiert, aber als Kanzlerin hat sie das Land systematisch in eine neue DDR transformiert. Geht bis heute so.
Germany is at an inflection point, and so is the U.S.--both with global implications.
I have opinions about what is 'right', but I have no certainty about what is the best way forward. What do I consider the best way forward? The way that brings the greatest good to the most people.
This is a fascinating analysis. I have also read much about 19th century Germany. I try to look at history, see trends and apply those trends to contemporary geopolitical events. I do so with no confidence.
The famous pendulum of history is swinging with mighty force these days. And it is swinging with startling rapidity. The inclination toward autocracy is undeniable at the moment. Do we need to retreat from so-called democracy? Has liberalism dug its own grave?
I don't know. These days I feel like an observer, not an actor. Probably always was true, but I never felt before so politically insignificant. That must mean something.
Great blog, @zuerich. One need not agree or disagree, but one certainly must think.
Yes, In my opinion that has been the case since at least 2008 (financial crisis). The state apparatus has even been growing since the early 1990s. Though there are some tendencies towards autocracy in many (western) countries, I see some positive developments like the department of government efficiency where fraud, inefficiency and waste is reduced. And reducing the extent of government is a fight against fascism and against inflation (and inflation is per se detrimental to the lower classes and a driver of extreme election results).
Great point 😀
Excellent analysis.
I was just talking this morning of how the Holocaust was a German auto-immune disease because they attacked and destroyed the best of themselves; Jews having been central to German culture and economic success for centuries before WWII.
Post WWII, the Germans took cultural immuno-supressors to prevent the re-occurrence of anti-semitism, but in doing do they destroyed their society's ability to protect itself from real external pathogens / threats , such as conquest by Islamic expansionism (via mass illegal immigration) or Russian expansionism (via classic conquest or hybrid warfare). They became completely dependent on the US.
Now we literally have the head of the Munich Security Conference crying like a baby when confronted with the truth and, even worse, being applauded for it by an audience of senior generals and politicians.
It goes without saying that geopolitics and war is a rough business and crybabies have no place. What must Putin think? Or Islamist leaders?
Germany looks ripe for conquest to these people.
BTW that tank is a Mervaka IV and the photo is taken in Israel.
You neglect the early 20th Century in your plaint about German self-destruction, the malign threat of the Communists that horrifically genocided the victims of the Holodomor, that very nearly did the same thing to Germany in the attempted revolution, and the vile degeneracy imposed on the upright people of Weimar Germany during the unconscionable suffering after the economic destruction caused by the Treaty of Versailles.
These obviously deliberate exclusions from your narrative cripple your otherwise rational observations. You, most of all, suffer from such disingenuity. Rational people aren't deluded by your obfuscation of such blatant sociecide as Jews cruelly imposed that Germany eventually was crushed by, betrayed by the very banksters that pretended to succor them by funding the Nazi economic miracle.
It is the very deliberate war by deception practiced by Zionists you seek to lay at the feet of Putin, or Muslims, or anywhere but where it belongs. I know Jews that do abjure such malign policies, so I know reason is potential to you, and I can only be sad you refuse it.
Comparing the Holocaust to an auto-immune disease is a very interesting point of view. Germany which calls itself the land of poets and thinkers, indeed, lost exactly this group of people, and never recovered.
(Not so) fun fact about the head of the Munich Security Conference is that he is an anti-Semite.
Translated from the German wikipedia (wiki): "In 2019, Heusgen was ranked 7th on the Simon Wiesenthal Center's list of the “10 worst incidents of anti-Semitic behavior”.[24] He was accused of one-sided anti-Israeli voting behavior as Germany's representative at the UN and a speech in which he compared rockets fired by the radical Islamic group Hamas at Israel to Israeli bulldozers destroying evacuated Palestinian homes.[25] Germany had voted against Israel seven times in eight resolutions."
...
"Following Hamas' terrorist attack on Israel in 2023, Heusgen came under fire again when he spoke out against an Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip on ZDF's heute-journal and referred to it as a “Hamas action”. The Israeli ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, described these statements as “outrageous”. Heusgen's description of the “bestial terrorist attack by Hamas” as a “Hamas action” was trivializing and cold-hearted, and he had not condemned it with a single word. Israel does not need any lectures from “know-it-alls like Mr. Heusgen”, who should be ashamed of himself. According to Prosor, there were “big questions” about Heusgen's ability to lead the Munich Security Conference."
In reading your latest insights into "all things" Germany, I can't help but think of a book I read a long time ago, about the impact of the famous German philosophers of the 1800s on generations since. While one might think these people might be ... "randomly" (I do not personally believe in it) ... sprinkled about, this is not the case. They all came from Germany.
What does that have to do with your post and what has happened since that time? What were the conditions in Germany leading up to the emergence of these men and their view of life?
I do not pretend to know. Maybe I will find that book one day and refresh my memory what that author proposed for answers.
I'll be looking forward, in the light of what is happening here in America and other countries, what the results are of Germany's upcoming election. And what you will have to say about it.
Dear @roleerob,
that's a very interesting question.
Sometimes there are locations where very bright people emerge and form circles. These come to mind:
I don't know why that happens. Regarding Germany around 1800 I have my own theory. Until Bismarck united Germany (between 1860 and 1871), there was no real Germany. This territory was very fragmented.
Many people evaluate this fragmentation (of the Holy Roman Empire) as bad. But this political fragmentation enabled people to easily move between different counties, duchies, city states. When the ruler of a territory became abusive towards its citizens, the citizens had the possibility to "just" move 5 or 15 miles to another territory. The language, the currency and most of the customs were the same. Thus, freedom-loving people or poets and thinkers chose the territory or the ruler that gave them what they looked for. In the case of Goethe and Schiller that ruler was Karl August, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (wiki). Unfortunately, Napoleon and later on Bismarck ended that freedom (including the freedom of mind).
Germany as it should be 😉
Das Zitat, Je näher eine Zivilisation an ihr Ende kommt desto verrückter ihre Gesetze, trifft es relativ genau was die EU aufführt.
Und deutsch-türkischer Philosoph Mehmet Scholl finde ich klasse. 😂
!BEER
I wish everyone understood the importance of what you write here, and is that respect is always fundamental, and can be achieved as long as everyone does their job properly. I read your post a few days ago, and now this one has inspired me much more. Germany has been a great choice for many singer friends who are achieving in your country what they couldn't do here, I hope that continues. I'm glad to agree with your writings again, and look forward to reading the next ones. Happy start of the week! ✌️
I agree with master Yoda! 😉😁✌️
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I am not a German, but I do talk to them daily. I hear their thoughts on the 'Deep SPD' that, like Obama's politicization of the USG - now being dismantled - has created eddies of power and corruption in the national and subsidiary polities. I also heard the disparagement of the CDU's pledge to never ally with the AfD, because this will cause them to be overpowered by the AfD allied with any of several other parties that AfD will dominate. A few things my German friends have provided me to consider here follow.
The recent Munich speech by VP Vance exposes the dramatic sea change in the political situation confronting the EU, and the member states of the EU, that are today affected from the direction completely opposite to what affected them only last month. Given the sudden rapprochement of the US to Russia, the prior intransigence and war profiteering (that has led to couping it's member states, most obviously Romania) appears to be utterly replaced with the Art of the Deal, and Germany has an opportunity it must seize with both hands, and every toe, IMHO, to gain the prosperity potential to it's people in the 21st Century - and avoid toppling from excessive exuberance pushing beyond superable policies.
The forces of history have apparently buried the prior power of political parties under the weight of their own anti-democratic policies that have underlain the massive immigration (and because of their expectation, now shown to be false, that immigrants would support them exclusively), the de-industrialization fomented by globalist conquistadors their minions have plotted to empower, and any narrative left of center, or even of centrists that neglect the inevitable blowback against collectivism presently exploding.
Yes, but past the peak, not approaching it. The collapse of the smug destroyers of the Volk has already been caused, their foundations blasted away, and their freefall only just beginning it's exponential acceleration. The real interests of the German people aren't represented by any of these external machinations, and only prescient leadership might present a truly centrist party that restores to Germany a balanced polity divorced from Machiavellian manipulation towards either cheek of globalism.
My recommendation is to suspend your disbelief in your gut, and trust fully your, and your fellow Germans, will to civil society (rather than power) that will demonstrate the superiority of win/win policies over anything lesser. Do not underestimate the blowback being fanned with the full vigor of reactionary powers. Failing to get in front of that current will prevent you from reining it in, and uncontrolled it may well lead again to terrible consequences. Transnational criminals represent both factions of that globalist power and the opportunity to supercede the machinations of the controlled opposition is briefly availed you.
Thanks!
Very interesting publication. May God bless you and your family. And may you have a happy day