Call us Nazis if it makes you happy
3 February 2012
Die Zeit Hamburg

“Hitler”, “Occupying Power" – it’s always the same. Berlin is asserting its stance on the euro crisis and, in turn, is being abused with comparisons to the Nazis. Die Zeit ponders how Germans should respond.

Bernd Ulrich

“A noi Schettino, a voi Auschwitz.” So wrote the Italian newspaper Il Giornale recently: “We have Schettino, you have Auschwitz”, responding to a similarly subtle Spiegel Online criticism of the cowardly captain of the Costa Concordia, who was called a “typical Italian”. The riposte the Italian paper had in mind was: “You Germans just keep your mouths shut – you have the Holocaust to answer for!”

Now, one might say that Il Giornale is a populist rightwing newspaper, from Berlusconi’s publishing empire no less, and so not to be taken too seriously. One could also take some comfort from the fact that Nazi comparisons have always been trotted out from time to time against Germans. But at the moment the comparisons are accumulating around Europe. It's a discourse we hear in Greece daily, often formulated in an even more virulent manner.

At a book reading in Portugal the sensible East German writer Ingo Schulze was even asked if the Germans intended to take with the euro what they had failed to take with their panzers, i.e. become the masters of the continent. From Greece we can hear the same sort of remarks every day, often put more dramatically.

Elsewhere the reproach is dressed up with more gentility, when for example Germany’s current austerity policy is compared with that of Reich Chancellor Brüning, whose successor was Adolf Hitler. Frequently, too, German’s “special path” is brought up, as when the Merkel government fails to print as much money as the others are demanding. The so-often quoted “special path” ends where, historically? In Auschwitz, of course. Thus is the circle closed.
We must not let ourselves be intimidated

It does not take long, really, to work out the riddle of why the Nazi comparisons are being flung about so thick and fast. It’s because for the first time since 1945 Germany is back at full strength, not because it wanted to be, but because the European debt crisis has left it the economically strongest and politically most powerful country in Europe. German interests now reach deeply into the internal affairs of other states.

Gradually the country is taking on a role in Europe similar to the role the U.S. long played for the entire world: as a power that used its power, and sometimes abused it, that was to blame for everything, that had to rescue everyone, and that had to put up with insults for how it did it.

But there was one thing you could never accuse the Americans of: sending six million Jews to their deaths and plunging half the world into war. When it comes to the Germans, the humanly understandable and often justified ranting against the biggest power too often takes on a different, conversation-killing tone.

How should one, as a German, handle it? Ingo Schulze got outraged and offended, as he self-critically admitted. His reaction was definitely the wrong one for that reason alone, because it was precisely what his audience wanted. Secondly, it is surely wrong to respond with German arrogance, as Volker Kauder, parliamentary leader of the Christian Democratic Union, did when he declared that “Europe is speaking German”; only the word “again” was missing.

Thirdly, we must not let ourselves be intimidated by comparisons to the Nazis. The notion of the “special path”, or German exceptionalism, must not lead a German government either to cave in or to insist now more than ever on getting its own way – especially since we are all aware that Auschwitz gets deployed as a moral lever in political conflicts. A friendly imperviousness to being pressured, sometimes an unoffended rebuff, are therefore the most judicious responses. And then we can get back to the substantive issues, like money or military intervention.
The German historical paradox

The new German role will lead for some time to an accumulation of comparisons to the Nazis. We will have to put up with them, rightly or wrongly, and weather them out. In this very stoicism, however, there lurks a serious problem, which has to do with the German historical paradox. Germany’s past, that paradox goes, will surely never return only if the Germans are never quite sure whether it will return.

What should we do now? Ask the others to quit this Nazi crap, to please insult us Germans in every imaginable way but that one? Yes, that could be done. The Germans could also admit that they want to be loved, much more than the French or the British, who already love themselves very well indeed. However, the Germans cannot deny themselves out of the sheer need for love, if only because the others would despise us even more.

Finally, a certain coolness to what foreigners think must be combined with very high historical sensitivity to what is happening inside Germany. Anti-Semitism, neo-Nazi terror, historical amnesia, bouts of arrogance – these are the real dangers and temptations.

The Germans must be very brave now – and very sensitive.

http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/1476831-call-us-nazis-if-it-makes-you-happy

Kao tridesetih godina prošlog veka. Biće rata.

I dan danas...velika vecina rusa ce vam reci da nikada nisu trebali da se povuku ...ali...kasno je...

Grci zapalili nemačku zastavu

Više hiljada Grka protestovalo protiv mera štednje u centru Atine. Demonstranti zapalili nemačku zastavu ispred parlamenta.

Više hiljada ljudi pridružilo se u centru Atine protestu koji su organizovali grčki sindikati da bi izrazili nezadovoljsto zbog novih mera štednje koje razmatra grčka vlada.
Demostranti-pale-zastavu.jpg

Nekoliko stotina demonstranata zapalilo je zastavu Nemačke i uz povike "Nacisti napolje" pokušalo da probije kordon ispred parlamenta, ali ih je policija sprečila upotrebivši suzavac.

Grupu od 200 demonstranata koji su nosili veliku grčku zastavu sa starom grčkom izrekom "ili sa štitom ili na njemu" što znači "ili pobediti ili poginuti u borbi", potisnula je policija.

Dok su demonstranti uzvikivali "Lopovi, lopovi", jedan od okupljenih je izvadio nemačku zastavu i zapalio je. Drugi su izvadili veliku nacističku zastavu koju su pokušali da zapale, ali ih je u tome sprečila policija.

Sukobi su ubrzo prestali, a za sada nema povređenih i niko od učesnika protesta nije uhapšen, preneo je AP.

Prema podacima policije, u protestnom maršu do zgrade parlamenta učestvovalo je oko 10.000 ljudi, dok je u odvojenim demonstracijama bilo oko 10.000 pristalica komunističke partije.

Protesti su još jedna u nizu akcija grčkih sindikata, među kojima je i 24-časovni generalni štrajk, koji su organizovale dva vodeća sindikata.

U peticiji dostavljenoj parlamentu, sindikati su izrazili protivljenje merama štednje i politici koju sprovodi grčka vlada kako bi ispunila zahteve takozvane trojke, MMF-a, Evropske unije i Evropske centralne banke.

Sindikati su sve radnike širom Grčke i Evrope pozvali na jedinstvo i borbu u nastojanju da se "ukinu uznemirujući, katastrofalni projekti evropskih moćnika koji uzrokuju recesiju i promovišu Evropu tržišta i bankara, a ne Evropu građana", prenela je grčka novinska agencija ANA.
Grci-protest.jpg

Zbog štrajka rade samo osnovne službe u školama, ministarstvima, bolnicama i bankama, usporen je javni prevoz, obustavljen je železnički saobraćaj i ne rade trajekti.

Privremena vlada premijera Lukasa Papadimosa saopštila je juče da će tokom godine otpustiti 15.000 radnika iz javnog sektora, a EU i MMF zahtevaju i smanjenje minimalne bruto mesečne zarade, koja iznosi 750 evra.

Nemačka: Kolaps zbog kiselog kupusa
 Izvor: Tanjug

Berlin -- Gomile kiselog kupusa, koji je ispao iz kamiona na jednom od najprometnijih nemačkih autoputeva, izazvale su danas nezapamćeni saobraćajni haos.

 


Incident se dogodio tokom jutarnje gužve nadomak Frankfurta kada je kamion koji je prevozio kupus udario u jedno vozilo, prenosi Rojters.

Ceo tovar se izlio na autoput, a pakovanja sa kiselim kupusom su se u kontaktu sa ledenim asfaltom odmah zamrzla, stvarajući neprobojnu blokadu i uzrokujući kolonu dugu 10 kilometara.

Autoput je četiri sata bio potpuno zatvoren jer je trebalo sačekati da radnici sastružu zaleđeni kupus sa asfalta.
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Šofer je sigurno Srbin, a kupus iz Futoga.