Let The Christmas Cheer Begin!

November 23, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Higher Education, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Angela Merkel, Berlin, Christmas, Christmas Markets, German, Germans, Germany, Islamist Terror, Migrants, Muslim Terror, Terror, Terror Attacks 1 Comment

New fortified security measures at Berlin Christmas market.

All week, workers have been installing 160 giant, square, lattice-work frames on the perimeter of Charlottenburg’s Breitscheidplatz, the site of the fatal attack.

Enormous sand-and-stone-filled bags have been lowered into each frame, which have all been bolted to the next to form a long row. Narrow access points have been protected with extra bollards.

During the market, private guards will patrol the grounds, joined by a heavy presence of uniformed and plainclothes police officers.

The Berlin Senate has said the elaborate €2.5 million ($2.9 million) installation will provide “unprecedented protection” against trucks weighing up to 40 tons.

This reminds me of German oddity 234. Germany is a country that now places the ugly security controls, bollards and heavily armed police it used to have on its national borders at Christmas markets and Volksfeste around the country instead.

German Of The Day: Kindergeld

November 21, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hustle (Hoax) Tags: Children, EU, Fraud, German, Germans, Germany, Language, Scams, State Support Leave a comment

That means child benefit payments. The “Kindergeld” benefits consist of monthly payments for each child in a family, starting at €192 per month per child for the first two children. Payments are then staggered depending on the number of children.

The funny part is – hardy, har, har – these German Kindergeld payments are also going to parents of children who don’t even live in Germany but in other EU countries (€600 million per year). It’s another big scam, in other words. This has raised some concern here in Germany, believe it or not, and attempts have been made to restrict this.

So the really funny part is – hardy, har, har, har, har, har – is that the unelected officials over at the EU Parliament’s Sozialausschuss (Social Committee) have just ruled that Germany has to keep on making these payments anyway or else face disciplinary action from the EU. Wow. When Brussels says “social” (something for free), they mean it. You wanted Europe, Germany. Now you’ve got it. And you can bet there will be more good stuff like this to pay for in the future.

Deutschland, Österreich und Dänemark hatten gefordert, dass das Kindergeld für Ausländer an das Preisniveau des jeweiligen EU-Landes angepasst wird. Der Vorstoß ist im Sozialausschuss des EU-Parlaments gescheitert.

German Of The Day: Tagesschnellsten

November 20, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Driving, German, Germans, Germany, Language, Speed, Speeding Leave a comment

That means the fastest of the day.

It took an eighteen-year-old kid from North Rhine Westphalia a mere 49 minutes to lose his brand now driver’s license. Thrilled by the thrill of it all, I suppose, he and some buds got caught by the cops doing 95 in a 50 kmh zone. Now that he’s had his driver’s license revoked he also gets to pay a big fine and go back to his driving school again for some more expensive retraining. At least he’s earned a lasting reputation with his friends (and everybody else who’s ever known him) for not being the fastest. When it comes to being fast, I mean.

Mit im Auto saßen den Angaben zufolge vier Freunde des 18-Jährigen. Die Polizei bezeichnete ihn in einer Pressemitteilung ironisch als “Tagesschnellsten”.

Conservative, Male, Wealthy?

November 19, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Helections, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: Angela Merkel, CDU, Envy, Friedrich Merz, German, Germans, Germany, Money, Political Parties Leave a comment

What has this guy been smoking? How could anybody with credentials like that ever hope to become the chairman of Germany’s conservative party?

Conservatives don’t exist in this country. It’s against the law or something. And if they did, they would have to be liberal, female and have a very modest income. Germans also have a big Neid (envy) problem, you see.

German businessman Friedrich Merz, who is running to replace Chancellor Angela Merkel as leader of the Christian Democratic (CDU) party, disclosed for the first time that he earns about one million euros (S$1.57 million) a year, Bild am Sonntag newspaper reported on Sunday (Nov 18).

Merz verrät sein gigantisches Einkommen, zählt sich aber nicht zur Oberschicht.

German Of The Day: Preiserhöhung

November 18, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hysteria Tags: CO2, Coal-Firing Power Plants, Consumers, Costs, Electricity, Energy, Government Intervention, Lignite, Nuclear energy, Renewable energy Leave a comment

That means price rise. For German electricity bills, in this case. Another big one on the way. Wonder why?

Keen to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and transform its energy sector, German leaders adopted a vast program called Energiewende eight years ago and the country prides itself on setting the pace for change in the European Union…

But earlier this year, officials admitted the country will not hit the 2020 goal, saying it would reach 32 percent at best (40 percent was the goal).

Greenhouse gas emissions in Germany have not decreased for the last nine years and emissions from the transportation sector have not fallen since 1990. In fact, the United States has reduced carbon emissions more than Germany, in both real and nominal terms…

The growing pains have led to higher prices, largely shouldered by residential power customers.

Between 2015 and 2017, Germany inched ahead of Denmark for the highest electricity prices for household customers (35 cents per kilowatt-hour, in U.S. currency), according to the statistical office of the European Union.

Viele deutsche Haushalte müssen im kommenden Jahr deutlich mehr für Strom bezahlen. Berechnungen von Online-Vergleichsportalen zeigen, dass die Preise in der Grundversorgung um durchschnittlich vier bis fünf Prozent steigen werden.

Shoot The Hoop

November 16, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Angela Merkel, Asylum Seekers, Chemnitz, Confrontation, Crime, Demonstrations, Migrants, Protesters, Refugees, Voters Leave a comment

Better late than never. Actually, maybe never would have been better than late this time but you never know about never. Before it’s too late.

Angela Merkel traveled to Chemnitz Friday to meet with residents, three months after the eastern city was the scene of violent, far-right protests that highlighted divisions in Germany — and the chancellor’s own party — on the issue of migration.

Merkel met with the Niners Chemnitz — a local basketball team — before heading to a town hall-style discussion with readers of the Chemnitz Freie Presse newspaper at which the recent unrest was expected to be a central issue.

The protests were triggered after the killing in August of a German man that authorities blamed on recent migrants. Far-right groups flocked to the city, about 200 kilometers (124 miles) south of Berlin, clashing with counter-protesters in scenes that drew widespread condemnation.

Ludwig warf der Kanzlerin eine „praktisch seit drei Jahren währende Sprachlosigkeit“ vor, deren Folgen sich besonders beim Thema Integration zeigten. Die Debatte werde viel zu oft denen überlassen, die Ängste oder tatsächliche Probleme instrumentalisierten.

I Shall Call Her… Mini-Me!

November 14, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Helections, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: AKK, Angela Merkel, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, CDU, Dr. Evil, Germany, Mini-Me, Politics, Refugees Leave a comment

‘Mini-Merkel’ calls for Syrian migrants to be returned home as CDU leadership rivals jostle for position.

Heel, Mini-Me! Heel!

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said asylum-seekers whose claims are rejected or who commit crimes could be returned to the war-torn country…

Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer, popularly known in Germany as “mini-Merkel”, is widely seen as Mrs Merkel’s preferred successor. But she has been at pains to distance herself from the chancellor’s controversial migrant policy in her bid for the leadership of the Christian Democrat party (CDU).

“Certain regions of Syria could be secure enough in the foreseeable future.”

SPD Ready To Abolish The One Reform They Accidentally Did Right

November 12, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Heconomy, Helections, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: Employment, German, Germans, Germany, Political Parties, Reform, SPD, Welfare, Welfare State Leave a comment

It took them fifteen years to sink this low but better late than never, I guess.

The SPD, clutching for any straw it can still find before going under completely, is now prepared to do away with the infamous Hartz IV reform introduced by the SPD-lead government under Gerhard Schroeder in 2003. Never popular because it made major demands upon the unemployed, it nevertheless brought a considerable reduction in short- and long-term unemployment and contributed to making Germany the employment powerhouse it is in Europe today. Back to the future. As in living in the past.

AUSGERECHNET IHR GRÖSSTES ERFOLGSPROJEKT – SPD will Hartz IV abschaffen!

When’s The Next Whammy?

November 9, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, History, Humor, Hurt Feelings Tags: Dates in History, German, Germans, Germany, History, November 9 Leave a comment

November 9 in Germany is kind of, I dunno, creepy or something. Is there a pattern developing here?

1918: On November 9, 1918 the Social Democrats’ deputy chairman Philipp Scheidemann rushed to the balcony of Berlin’s Reichstag parliament to announce the birth of what would become the Weimar Republic.

1923: Adolf Hitler, the then relatively unknown Nazi Party leader, and his cronies tried to seize power with a coup that started in a crowded Munich beer hall on November 9, 1923.

1938: Nazi thugs torched synagogues, smashed Jewish-owned shops and rounded up Jewish men across Germany on November 9, 1938, in what became known as “Kristallnacht” or the “Night of Broken Glass.”

1989: The fall of the Berlin Wall in a bloodless revolution on November 9, 1989 is a joyous milestone in German history, ending 28 years of Cold War separation.

2016: Donald Trump was elected President of the United States of America. OK, the election was on November 8 but the Germans didn’t get the results until November 9.

So are we overdue here again, Germany? Maybe the Merkel regime will be ousted later tonight in a bloodless coup. Maybe not. Maybe there might be a little blood, too. Hard to say for sure. Stay home, stay tuned and keep your doors bolted shut.

German Of The Day: Unerklärlich

November 8, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Angela Merkel, Asylum Seekers, Crime, German, Germans, Germany, Islamist Terror, Islamophobia, Language, Migrants, Muslims, Polls, Prejudice, Rape, Refugees, Surveys, Terror, Terrorists, Xenophobia 1 Comment

That means inexplicable.

You know, inexplicable like of all places on earth it’s inexplicable that Islamophobia and xenophobia could be on the rise in Germany. But it is. What could possibly be behind it?

Prejudice towards Muslims and foreigners is rising in Germany, a study has revealed.

More than 44 per cent of Germans believe Muslims should be banned from immigrating, compared to 36.5 per cent in 2014, the Competence Centre for Right-Wing Extremism and Democracy Research found.

The poll found more than one in two (55.8 per cent) said the number of Muslims made them feel like strangers in their own country, while 43 per cent gave the same answer four years ago, the Die Welt newspaper reported.

“We want a leader who governs the country with a firm hand for the good of all.”

Observing Hermann

“Was interessiert mich mein Geschwätz von gestern?”

Category Archives: Hurt Feelings