Germany lies in the center of Europe in more ways than one. Not only is it the geographical center, but all of European history seems to revolve around it. In German there is the term Mitteleuropa, which aptly conveys Germany’s pivotal role in Europe. To be honest, to some extent France and Italy also need to be considered part of that concept, especially those parts of France and Italy bordering on Germany. European civilization has essentially been shaped by Germany and those two “junior partners.”
From a holistic point of view, Germany’s central position may help to explain why during the past century the Anglo-Saxons (England and the US) have twice tried to destroy Germany, and with considerable success! Obviously, the US is not a European nation, except perhaps indirectly as a result of mass immigration from Europe. Nor is England, which is at best part of Europe’s periphery. Europe’s actual periphery consists of Scandinavia, Russia, the Iberian Peninsula, Southern Italy and the Balkans. England’s insular position physically and mentally sets it apart from Europe. After all it is well known that the inhabitants of any island, no matter how small, tacitly see themselves as the center of the universe. In a fundamental and very tangible sense, England’s geographical position gives it a separate status, rendering it a lot less European than it likes to pretend.
Together with its American ally and relying on the resources and manpower of its vast colonial empire, England has been a moving force behind the first two efforts to destroy Germany during World Wars I and II. The first, especially through the Versailles Diktat, resulted in the destruction of German military power, the second led to the destruction of its political power. On a continent where, since 1918 Fascism and National Socialism had apparently taken root quite firmly, Germany, on account of its economic and demographic weight, was once again the core element.
After Germany’s second defeat by the Red Army, the USSR made sure National Socialism was thoroughly eradicated. In the occupied western portions of Germany the Anglo-Americans set up an entire framework to prevent the Nazi party from resurrecting in any form whatsoever. Denazification of Western Germany was supervised by the US, with its extensive, well-developed propaganda (“PR”) agencies. Since about one in every ten Germans was a member of the Nazi party, the first step in this process was obvious: to declare the Nazi party illegal and to punish those who had been a member. Then to scrutinize those former party members and decide whom to kill (for “Crimes against Humanity”) and see who might be useful for rebuilding Germany according to US specifications. For both the US and the USSR it was crucial to avoid any confusion caused by any overlap and similarities between National Socialism and Fascism on the one hand, and Socialism (Communism) and Capitalism on the other. Thus the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany in the west were in a sense showcases for the empires they were part of as vassal states.
After the collapse of “Real Existing Socialism” in between 1989 and 1991, leading to the implosion of the USSR, for some time the US could cherish the idea that it was the sole surviving superpower and that the entire world was at its feet. There were few Americans to realize that their nation was facing a new and unsuspected challenge. What could possibly serve as a frame of reference, as a guide, as signposts for possible new directions to follow? A very tricky question indeed, because the US regards itself as outside history, as a unique civilization not subject to the laws of history.
Realizing that Fascism, especially in its economic aspects (with big corporations enjoying almost unfettered liberty while at the same time exerting undue influence on all policy decisions) was actually quite an attractive model. Some political aspects of Fascism (like centralization of decision making and full media control) were also attractive. When soon after the fall of Socialism, the US empire fully embraced neoliberalism, a number of Fascist policies were also factually embraced in the process.
Just as after 1918 and 1945, it fell upon Germany to pay the price for the collapse of Socialism in 1989-91. Initially, however, it seemed that Germany benefited from that collapse, because after four decades of separate existence, the two German states could fuse into one. But in exchange, the Federal Republic had to sacrifice its powerful national currency, the German Mark, and allow the establishment of a European Central Bank that introduced a new currency: the Euro (2002).
In hindsight, the reunification of Germany could not have been prevented. It was bound to happen as long as each of the two Germanies had a strong, competitive economy and a robust social fabric and as long as they were needed as showcases in superpower rivalries. Therefore, the new attacks on united Germany (with the ultimate goal of reducing it to the status of a third-rate little country with at most a bit of cute folklore to amuse groups of foreign tourists) focused on the economy and society.
The attack on society reached a new level in the summer of 2015. “We can do this,” Chancellor Merkel said as she opened the doors widely for “asylum seekers,” the 21st century’s “poor, huddled masses” from Third World nations destroyed by NATO bombs and cheap agricultural imports from the EU. (It is often overlooked that the agricultural economies of many African nations were destroyed by imports of cheap surpluses produced by heavily subsidized EU farmers). Since many of these newcomers were young, single and often muslim males, the effects are devastating, especially for the safety of women. Entire sections of German cities are now muslim ghettos, with Arabic street signs. Many schools have high percentages of non-German kids, born from illiterate parents, while literacy among the younger generations has been declining at alarming rates. In other words, Germany is rapidly being “de-Germanized.”
The US government had long been irritated by Germany’s growing reliance on cheap and plentiful energy from Russia. The completion of Nord Stream 2, a new gas pipeline through the Baltic, in September 2021 opened vast new possibilities for German industry and German-Russian cooperation, that the Biden regime decided to make good on its threat to sabotage the new pipeline: on 26 September 2022 it was blown up. It is part of a three-pronged coordinated attack on the German economy. The first element is to force Germany to abandon Russian energy and to switch to more expensive US imports, the second to destroy the lucrative German-Chinese business relationship, and the third to force Germany to increase its military spending.
But the toughest nut to crack has been German popular culture and the sense of pride that comes with it. Hence the long-lasting American offensive against German popular culture. It has succeeded in forcing most Germans to listen to American-style music with English lyrics on their radios and TVs. The attack on popular culture is essentially a war on the German spirit, since popular culture is only the immediately visible part of the collective spirit.
As a first step in the attack on German popular culture, the Americans began to reeducate them. For instance, propaganda movies (rather “clips”) were made telling the Germans not to march and how to walk briskly without making too martial an impression. Eventually such reeducation efforts managed to convince German men to pee sitting on the toilet. The Americans did not immediately flood Germany with Hollywood movies (as they did in France in an effort to displace French competitors), perhaps also because the UFA studios in Berlin had been producing popular movies according to similar concepts, with movie stars that were far more popular than any from the US. Until the 1970s, German audiences continued to flock to movies made by German directors such as Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Werner Herzog and Wim Wenders. German TV channels produced many highly popular series such as Derrick, that were even successfully exported to distant places like China.
Immediately after the war, the Germans were too busy clearing up the rubble of their bombed cities and getting their lives back in order to develop any interest in American music and English lyrics. Instead they had dreams. About faraway places where life was easy and where the sun was shining, such as Tampico in Mexico, as in the 1946 Schlager (“loads of liquor everyday, every man has three women and can afford to build a house.”). For a long time, Germans dreamed of such places and until the 1960s, tried to find these especially in Italy, like around Lake Garda, during their summer vacations. American music did not become the norm in Germany until the early 1990s. Sometimes it was even the other way around, as when American Gus Backus in 1962 became a German Schlager star, singing German lyrics, of course. This in itself was a powerful signal of how attractive the German language and culture were. Along with Backus, there were Italian, Israeli, Greek, Croat, Dutch, French, Belgian and Czech singers all singing Schlager in German, and welcomed by an appreciative public. This is no longer the case now that musical and popular culture have become almost fully Anglicized.
Apart from music, for a long time German sports enjoyed broad popularity, and international successes by West-German, East-German and all-German sportsmen, sportswomen and sports teams would electrify the republic and the nation and strengthen a certain sense of Germanness. In 1954 the German national football (soccer) won the World Cup defeating the famed Hungarian team. I have always suspected that somewhere up in the hierarchy the decision had been made to let Germany win. No better way, short of a victory in war (that had twice escaped Germany), to restore national self-esteem, or at least soften the pain. In 1974 the West-German national team again won the World Cup when the tournament was organized in Germany. In the 1960 Olympics at Rome, the united German team (both FRG and GDR) ended in fourth position, with a record of 12 gold medals. In the 1976 Montreal Olympics, the FRG and GDR teams put together ended in first place with 50 gold medals and a total of 129 medals. Since then, Germany has dropped in the overall medal ranking, taking only 9th place in the 2020 (2021) Olympics. In soccer, the (West)-German national team only won the UEFA (European) championship a mere three times in so far eighteen tournaments. The current German national team, once in its moments of greatest glory exclusively composed of real Germans, has a Turkish captain and half a dozen “black” Germans. For many native Germans it is rather difficult to identify with such a national team. However it is a faithful reflection of a population of which 30% has a “migration background.”
The destructive attack on Germany would not have yielded any tangible results if the Anglo-Americans had not succeeded in subverting German collective consciousness, or the German mind, if you will. By constantly hammering on the German guilt for World War I, World War II and for every real or imagined misdeed to any group of people, the Germans were talked into having a true guilt complex. This is especially noticeable among German millennials and the German Generation Z. Unlike their counterparts from elsewhere in Europe, these young Germans almost break under the weight of their guilt feelings. They are so guilt-ridden as to be even unable to support any jokes on these issues, no matter how innocent. Not one of them can grasp the notion that they are absolutely not accountable for the real or imagined deeds of their grandfathers and great-grandfathers. Add to that the fact among those younger German generations wokeness, climate and gender lunacy have taken root more firmly than anywhere else in Europe, and it is obvious Germany is heading for the exit.
In addition, with a government composed of incompetents, imbeciles and traitors faithfully carrying out orders from Washington DC, it is obvious that Germany is fast becoming the very antithesis of the country it once was. Even the trains no longer run on time!
After two wars and about a century of sabotage, the Anglo-Saxons have finally been able to get the better of Germany. Theodore W. Kaufman’s 1941 exhortation has almost been executed: Germany Must Perish!
By Hans Vogel