German Of The Day: Enteignung

April 7, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Habeas Corpus, Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: Apartments, Berlin, Building, Construction, Gentrification, German, Germans, Germany, Greens, Language, Political Parties, Property, Property Rights, Rents, SPD Leave a comment

That means confiscation or dispossession. You know, like confiscating private property?

And the German Greens hold this to be denkbar – another cool German word meaning conceivable or possible.

After all, the world must be fair and if rising property rents in cities like Berlin – caused by city governments like Berlin (Social Democrats and Greens for decades) – are creating hardship for the 85 percent (!) of Berliners who don’t own property – the government does everything it can to discourage owning property here – then the government that created this mess will simply confiscate the private property of those currently developing new housing and… And what? Give it to the poor? Been there, done that. We all know how that turns out. And who foots the bill. Robin Hoodlums never learn. They have no intention of learning.

Thousands took to the streets of Berlin on Saturday in protest against rising property rents and called for properties of large-scale landlords with more than 3,000 houses to be taken over by the government.

“Das Grundgesetz sieht Enteignungen zum Allgemeinwohl ausdrücklich vor.”

German Of The Day: Abkühlung

April 5, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Economy, German, Germans, Germany, Language, Recession 1 Comment

That means cooling or cooling off.

You know, like German growth predicted to stall during 2019 in significant Abkühlung?

Germany’s economy could experience a “significant cooling” in 2019 and could see sharply lower growth this year, the country’s leading economic institutes have warned in a report compiled for Germany’s economics ministry.

Forecasts for German growth were revised significantly downwards in a ‘Joint Economic Forecast’ collated by several prominent German economic research institutes and published Thursday, with economists predicting a meager 0.8% this year.

This is more than one percentage point lower than a prediction for 1.9% made in a joint economic forecast in fall 2018.

“The long-term upswing of the German economy has come to an end.”

Germany Is NATO’s Biggest Freeloader

April 4, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: Anniversaries, Defense, Defense Spending, Freeloading, German, Germans, Germany, Language, Military, NATO Leave a comment

That was a Washington Post headline, not mine.

There’s a German word for freeloader, by the way. Sounds worse in German, too.

As Nato commemorates its 70th anniversary in Washington this week, Germany seems to be labouring mightily to reassure the 29-member alliance that it will never threaten anyone militarily again — because it is in fact its own worst enemy.

How else can you qualify an ally that has announced it won’t be meeting its own pledge to increase defence spending to 1.5 per cent of gross domestic product by 2024, even when it has formally committed to a target of 2 per cent, like everybody else?

Eines kann man Donald Trump nicht vorwerfen: Dass er mit seiner Meinung hinter dem Berg halten würde.

German Of The Day: Litfaßsäule

April 2, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Hi-tech, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Advertising, Berlin, German, Germans, Germany, Language, Progress, Tradition Leave a comment

That means advertising column.

Take a good look. They won’t be around much longer. They’re going to a better place – the same place the LPs, dial phones, typewriters and carrier pigeons went.

They have been an integral part of the city’s furniture for so long, Berliners admit to taking them for granted.

But concrete advertising pillars, known as Litfaßsäule – or Litfaß columns – after the man who invented them, around 3,000 of which dot the German capital, are under threat. A low-key, grassroots protest has sprung up in an effort to save them from destruction and sparked a trend involving writing messages on the pillars, as well as poems and heart felt tributes.

It takes two or three people to group hug a Litfaßsäule, and that has also become another way of highlighting the reluctance to let them go.

“I’m certainly still more drawn to a catchy poster on the Litfaßsäule, than I am to something that flashes up on my mobile phone which I’m likely to swipe away in annoyance.”

No Contradiction Here

April 1, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hysteria Tags: Daylight Savings Time, EU, German, Germans, Germany, Polls, Surveys, Time Leave a comment

Not if you’ve lived in Germany long enough there isn’t. Or you won’t notice it, I should say.

Germans Invented Daylight Saving Time—Now They’re Going to Kill It – The European Parliament voted in favor of stopping the practice by 2021, following a poll last year from the EU in which 84% of the respondents voted in favor of reverting to one time year-round. The law must now be passed by national governments…

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is a force behind the movement, having vowed to back the end of Daylight Saving Time in September last year, after the results of the poll were released. The survey proved it was the will of the people, he declared; “Clock-changing must stop.”

But in reality, it was mostly just the will of the Germans.

Out of 4.6 million responders to the poll, 3 million were German. (The country accounts for about one-sixth of the EU’s total population.)

“If we didn’t have the time change, and today someone would come up with the idea of introducing it, everybody would think that person was crazy.”

German Of The Day: Migrationshintergrund

March 31, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: Angela Merkel, Borders, German, Germans, Germany, Immigrants, Immigration, Integration, Language, Migrants, Unemployment Leave a comment

That means migrant or immigration background.

You know, like almost half of the unemployed in Germany have Migrationshintergrund? 46 percent, to be exact, sort of (answering this question at the employment office is not mandatory so the number will actually be higher). Back in 2013 it was 36 percent. Kind of a high percentage, don’t you think? But the talking heads in government and media don’t worry about something like this turning into a larger problem than it already is because they have been told, officially like, that “they can do it.”

Die entsprechende Quote liegt demnach bei 46 Prozent. Ende 2013, vor Beginn der verstärkten Migration nach Deutschland, hatte der Wert noch bei 36 Prozent gelegen.

German Of The Day: Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei

March 28, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Angela Merkel, Economy, German, Germans, Germany, Language, Recession Leave a comment

That means the “fat” (good) years are over.

Merkel Doesn’t Want to Tell Germans the Good Times May Be Over – The leaders preparing to take over when Merkel steps aside are worried too. They say voters could be caught unawares by an economic shock in the middle of the political transition from Merkel’s rule. Two senior party officials this month voiced concerns that such a double whammy could shake up the political map ahead of the next election. They asked not to be identified questioning the chancellor’s approach.

One shouldn’t undermine the economic upswing by talking it down.

No Parallel Society Here

March 27, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: Courts, German, Germans, Germany, Integration, Islam, Kindergarden, Muslims, Rulings, Salafists Leave a comment

Not yet anyway.

But if at first you don’t succeed, try and try again.

Germany: Muslim kindergarten loses appeal against closure – State officials had ordered “Al Nur” to close following revelations that inappropriate literature had been shared at the kindergarten. The day care center is the only Muslim kindergarten in Rhineland-Palatinate…

The state’s decision to revoke Al Nur kindergarten’s license was lawful because evidence showed links between the school’s administrators and the extremist Salafist ideology, an administrative court in the city of Mainz said. The court said the links made it difficult for children at Al Nur to integrate into German society and compromised their independence.

“Efforts by Arab Nil-Rhein, the association that runs the kindergarten, to distance itself from Salafist thought were not convincing.”

Stop The Presses!

March 26, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helections, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: German, Germans, Germany, History, Industry, Nazi Germany, Nazis 2 Comments

(Do they even have presses anymore?) This just in, folks: Some German industrial dynasties have a Nazi past!

Holy freakin’ Scheiße! Once this leaks it’s going to ruin the reputation of all the other German industrial dynasties out there. With a Nazi past, I mean. You know, like every single German industrial dynasty that exists? Without exception?

I’m shocked. And stunned. Just like those dynastists in this particular German industrial dynasty who just found out about it themselves. For, like, the very first time. Honest.

A German industrial dynasty with big stakes in various international brands has admitted brutality towards slave labourers during Nazi rule.

A partner in JAB Holding, Peter Harf, said the Reimann family was shocked by links to Nazi abuses, discovered by the Bild am Sonntag newspaper in archives.

“We were ashamed and turned white. You cannot gloss over any of that. Those crimes are abhorrent.”

It’s In Their DNA Or Something

March 25, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hysteria Tags: Brexit, EU, Europe, Europeans, German, Germans, Germany, Religion Leave a comment

Self-abnegating Germans obsess about becoming more European than the other Europeans only to make the EU more German than anyone wants it to be.

What makes me chuckle about the Brexiteers is how little they understand the German mindset. Here in Germany, the European Union is a religion. It is ingrained so heavily in the DNA of nearly every German citizen that any reasoned argument to counter its domination, or challenge its direction, is swiftly dismissed. The integrity of the EU – its unity, identity, money and rules – is central to German identity. That’s why they’ve maintained such a tough stance over Brexit.

And there is a clear reason why. As stated here, The EU is Germany writ large.’

The EU is a religion for Germans – no wonder Brexit is going so badly.

Observing Hermann

“Was interessiert mich mein Geschwätz von gestern?”

Category Archives: Hurt Feelings