Königsberg War Schon Immer Eine Deutsche Stadt

March 21, 2014 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, History, Humor, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: Crimea, Germans, Germany, Humor, Kaliningrad, Königsberg, Putin, Russia, Satire, Ukraine Leave a comment

In light of Russia’s recent righting of the “historical error” made by Nikita Khrushchev when he decided to hand Crimea to the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic back in 1954, the German government is now openly considering laying claim to the historic German city of Königsberg (OK, Kaliningrad) that was wrongly handed over to the Soviet Union back in 1945.

Talks with Moscow have not yet begun but are expected to proceed VERY slowly once they do, I mean once they don’t.

Kaliningrad, which as Konigsburg served as the capital of Prussia in the 1500s and 1600s and was home to German philosopher Immanuel Kant, still exudes Germanic history, despite having served as a closed military area in Soviet times. But today, Germans make up a mere 0.8 percent of the Russian exclave’s population of 940,000 — a far cry from Crimea’s significant ethnic Russian population and majority of Russian speakers.

Germany Still Threatened By Fukushima

March 2, 2014 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Helplessness, High Art, History, Home Cooking, Hypochondria, Hysteria Tags: Atomic power, Disasters, Earthquakes, Fukushima, German, Germans, Germany, Humor, Natural Catastrophes, Nuclear power, Satire 3 Comments

Or by the ghost of Fukushima, I should say.

Danger! Danger! More “experts” issuing expert warnings here again: Nearly three years have passed since the Fukushima disaster in Japan and Germany is still not adequately prepared for a nuclear incident, the Süddeutsche Zeitung reports.

I can only assume that they mean being not adequately prepared for a nuclear incident caused by a magnitude 9.0 undersea megathrust earthquake hitting somewhere off the coast of Bremerhaven in a region of the world that doesn’t “do” earthquakes and causing a massive tsunami that could wipe out one of Germany’s coastal power plants, or maybe even one in Bavaria, provided, of course, that said tsunami could still find a German nuclear power plant that was still in operation, which is very doubtful indeed, but still.

Nope. You can never be prepared enough when it comes to preparing for one of those worst conceivable and most completely unpredictable natural disasters like-in-recorded-history-type-disasters that has already happened somewhere else, I guess.

Deutschland ist nicht ausreichend auf einen nuklearen Störfall vorbereitet.

Forbidding Stuff Makes It Go Away

March 1, 2014 By Hermann Observer in Habeas Corpus, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Higher Education, History, Hurt Feelings Tags: Bans, Censorship, Films, German, Germans, Germany, Nazis, Propaganda, YouTube Leave a comment

Right? In Germany it does. Or it’s supposed to, at least. But it doesn’t work here either, of course.

Take old Nazi films apparently easily available on YouTube, for instance. “Experts” are now shocked to find that it is possible to view them on the Internet, even though such films were placed “on the index” in Germany long ago. Reminds us of the Mein Kampf–Krampf (convulsion), doesn’t it?

Let’s face it, if we really want to forbid something it ought to be stupidity. Before that works, forbidding films is a questionable undertaking at best. I think the Libertarians sum that up nicely: “If there is no good reason to forbid something (a good reason being that it violates the rights of others), it should be allowed.”

Or do these films, as sad and stupid as they are, violate your rights?

Müssen Filme überhaupt verboten werden?

An Anti-Semitic Caricature?

February 26, 2014 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, History, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Anti-Semitism, Caricatures, Facebook, Jews, Journalism, Mark Zuckerberg, Nazis, Newspapers, Technophobia 3 Comments

In Germany? Today? No way.

Or way?

Hard to say.

Uh. German anti-Facebook technophobia is one thing, but like what on earth were they thinking (or drinking?) over there at the Süddeutsche Zeitung when they put out this one?

“If anyone has any doubts about the anti-Semitic dimension of the cartoon, we can point to Mark Zuckerberg’s very prominent nose, which is not the case in real life.”

Where Have All The Nazis Gone?

February 13, 2014 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hideology, History, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Action Groups, Bombings, Demonstrations, Dresden, German, Germans, Germany, Nazis, Neo-Nazis, Police Leave a comment

What has become of Germany? You can’t even count on mindless herds of Neo-Nazis anymore.

In Dresden, I mean. For their annual “Bombenholocaust” (bombing of Dresden) get-together. Up to 6500 showed up in recent years but that doesn’t appear to be the case anymore. It might have something to do with the two zillion police out on the streets but I’m just guessing here. OK, OK. And the Bürgerinitiativen (citizen’s action groups), too.

Am Donnerstag ist es wieder mal so weit – aber nach Lage der Dinge wird alles anders sein als in den Jahren zuvor.

First Hitler-Platz, Now Hitlerberg, Google’s Parallel Universe Really Starting To Piss Germans Off

January 22, 2014 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hi-tech, History, Humor, Hurt Feelings Tags: German, Germans, Germany, Google Earth, Google Maps, Hitler, Hitlerberg, Humor, Nazis, Satire Leave a comment

The mountain of Heiglkopf near the German town of Wackersberg has not been referred to as Hitlerberg for more than 69 years. But an entry of Hitlerberg in Google Maps/Earth today will land you in Wackersberg nevertheless.

The fine people of Wackersberg are mad as hell about this and aren’t going to take it anymore (just like Berlin residents living near Theodore-Heuss-Platz maybe ought to be but could hardly care less). I don’t blame them, either. I think. Would you really want the one nutcase out there actually looking for a place called Hitlerberg to find out where you live?

Seit fast 69 Jahren heißt der Heiglkopf im Landkreis Bad Tölz schon nicht mehr Hitlerberg. Trotzdem reicht heute immer noch der Eintrag Hitlerberg in die Suchmaske bei Google-Maps und -Earth – und der Betrachter landet in Wackersberg.

Guinness Ist Gut For You

January 20, 2014 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Heconomy, Helplessness, High Art, History, Humor, Hurt Feelings Tags: Advertisements, Beer, German, Germans, Germany, Guinness, World War II 1 Comment

This Time Google Really Has Gone Too Far

January 10, 2014 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hi-tech, High Art, Higher Education, History, Humor, Hurt Feelings Tags: Adolf-Hitler-Platz, Berlin, German, Germans, Germany, Google, Google Maps, Hitler, Humor, Language, Satire Leave a comment

Google Maps has, I mean.

Sure, Theodor-Heuss-Platz may not exactly roll right off the lips for some of us here but to rename the thing Adolf-Hitler-Platz simply does not solve the problem.

Der Berliner Theodor-Heuss-Platz ist beim Google Kartendienst Maps zeitweise auch als Adolf-Hitler-Platz bezeichnet worden. So hieß der Platz im Bezirk Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf in der Nazizeit von 1933 bis 1945.