“Whether we like it or not he remains our strongest trademark.”
In a country where the Nazi salute, Mein Kampf and swastikas remain banned, the nervousness of the curators is palpable.
Category Archives: History
Playing with numbers
Talk about being “alarmist.” Der Spiegel wants to warn us that right-wing attitudes are suddenly on the rise again in Germany. Hmmm. Where did that come from all of a sudden? They wouldn’t be trying to ride on that obligatory anti-Sarrazin hysteria wave, now would they?
“A new study has revealed that far-right attitudes are deeply rooted in German society.” Wow, like we really needed a new study to know that.
“30 percent think that foreigners come here to take advantage of the welfare state.” Another shocking new revelation. I bet it was closer to 50 percent thirty years ago.
“More than one-tenth would like a ‘Führer‘ who would govern the country ‘with a firm hand’ for the benefit of all.” Again, honestly, do any of you really believe that this number has ever been any lower in this country since World War II?
None of this is new, in other words. Germans have always been xenophobic and somebody’s “victim”–that’s just what they do.
So is this fear mongering? Yes. Am I being complacent? Yes. It’s because Germans have never been more strapped in to democracy than they are now–whether any of them like it or not–and although I can imagine a whole lot of things, anything even remotely resembling Nazi Germany taking place here again is definitely not one of them.
“More than 90 percent of respondents felt it was useless to become involved in politics.”
Anybody out there remember Clay Headquarters in Berlin?
I didn’t think so.
But in case you do, it’s up for sale now. I’m sure it’s a steal. They can’t tear it down (it’s basically an Adolf bunker), so make them an offer they can’t refuse.
PS: You may be familiar with it after all, whether you actually remember it or not. Parts of “Inglourious Basterds” and “Valkyrie” were shot there.
Jubiläumswiesnbier?
Go ahead. Say that ten times really fast.
My oh my, it seems just like yesterday that the Oktoberfest began. 200 years ago, I mean.
And to honor this hallowed event, and to be able to charge even more than usual for the stuff, six rival Bavarian breweries are calling a beer truce to brew a speciel brew in beer-heavenly peace and love and justice together forever amen; that there Jubiläumswiesnbier thing mentioned up there.
The top-secret recipe being used will produce an “amber-colored special beer full-bodied in taste with a flowery malt aroma” and a beer, with an alcohol content of 6 percent, that’ll also knock your Ding in the dirt. But it’s all in the name of tradition, people, OK? Like, it took 200 years to get here, you know?
Even though the Oktoberfest tradition is 200 years old this year, the festival is only being held for the 177th time because it was cancelled on 24 occasions in times of war and during two cholera outbreaks in the 19th century.
Fake fakes not the original fakes
Konrad Kujau is the only original in this story, folks. Remember him? He’s the forger who authored those hilarious Hitler Diaries way back when. You know, the ones with the wrong initials on the cover?
Anyway, a woman in Dresden claiming to be his great niece has topped him, sort of, by having been given a two-year suspended sentence for forging his (the forger’s) signature on forgeries of masterpieces that weren’t forged by him (they were Asian import forgeries) and then selling them for the genuine amount of €300,000.
Though clearly marked as fakes, Kujau’s newfound fame meant that people were willing to pay up to €3,500 for his work.
Well we sure showed him!
It took 65 years, but better late than never I guess. The city of Trier has now officially revoked Adolf Hitler’s status as honorary citizen.
Believe it or not, some 4000 German cities gave the dictator honorary citizenship between 1933 and 1945. I believe it. How many gave him honorary citizenship after 1945 is unclear.
So let this be a lesson to all you despotic would-be world conquerors out there who would despotically conquer the world; Trier will eventually revoke your status too. So like don’t even try.
Ein historisches Votum zwischen Beschlüssen zur neuen Parkgebühren-Ordnung und zur Generalsanierung einer Berufsschule.
Shooting yourself in the foot 101
It’s become a well-loved custom here, Germany politicians making complete fools of themselves by using completely unnecessary Nazi comparisons and/or terminology that every German third grader knows not to use.
This time it’s the SPD’s Matthias Platzeck (the SPD is really on a role these days) who used the term “annexation” when referring to German reunification, the same word that was used to describe the Nazi takeover of Austria in World War II. Platzeck is from the mystical German East, by the way.
Now everybody’s upset and stuff. Dumb a#!*´s.
“I don’t know what there is to celebrate.”
This gives German unification a whole new meaning
There’s new research out or something. In a nutshell, it’s let’s talk about sex again. And talk and talk and talk…
“After forty years of separately developed approaches to sexuality, reunified Germans struggled to establish a working moral consensus, a sexual code for the new Germany.”
Huh? If you have to struggle at it, what’s the fun? Whatever.
“We really don’t have more orgasms in the GDR. Not me, anyway, because I have to work up to 12 hours a day and that doesn’t leave much time for love.”
Before and after
Same newspaper, same issue, same photographer. Only this story…
is about the ultra-conservative religious and rassist Tea Party wacko right attacking our (as in Germany’s) President Obama himself.
And this one…
meanders around a bit before coming to the stunning conclusion that this grass-roots conservative movement is much more diverse and multilayered (and larger) than European observers have perceived it to be up until now.
Funny how newspapers can be like that, online or not. Maybe it was a slow news day. But was that second article absolutely necessary? That kind of stuff only confuses folks once they’ve read the first article, well, first.
Die gibt es natürlich darunter, doch das konservative Sammelbecken ist vielschichtiger als man in Europa bisweilen wahrnimmt.
50 years?
It was 50 years ago today, Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play (whoever he was). In Hamburg, of all places.
50 years? Wasn’t it more like 500 years ago? Was that really the same planet?
“Incredible though it may seem, today it will be 50 years ago to the day since the band played the first of what, during the course of five separate visits over the next two and a half years, would be 281 concerts in Hamburg.”
“Their work rate was phenomenal – at one point in 1961 they played for 98 nights in succession, frequently starting at 7pm and going through until 7am. They learnt how to survive on their wits, their flair for improvisation, their innate cockiness – and on a steady stream of uppers.”
Observing Hermann 