German Of The Day: Hinterzimmer

That means backroom.

Backroom

You know, like backroom deals? Like the way EU technocrats decide who runs the show despite what the electorate says? Why even hold European elections in the first place?

Von der Leyen nomination: Germans criticise ‘backroom deal’ – “What was the point of all that?” German critics are asking, after the nomination of Ursula von der Leyen, Germany’s defence minister, for the top EU job of Commission president.

There were TV debates. There were election rallies. Germany’s streets were plastered with posters showing the faces of candidates for the EU’s top jobs.

But Mrs von der Leyen’s face did not appear on any posters. Instead her nomination was suddenly announced after weeks of difficult, behind-the-scenes wrangling between EU leaders.

This is European, I mean EU democracy in action, people.

Fifteen Years!

Fifteen years? That’s what a “life sentence” in Germany means.

Crime

In other words, in Germany you get away with murder when convicted of murder.

A failed Iraqi asylum seeker has been handed life in prison for the rape and murder of a 14-year-old German girl.

Ali Bashar, 22, had admitted in court in Wiesbaden that he strangled Susanna Feldman on 23 May 2018, but claimed he did not know how it happened…

Susanna’s mother, Diana, said that “part of my future and my heart disappeared” when her daughter died. “I have already received life imprisonment, although I am not guilty. I will never get a chance for a pardon.”

The Perfect Choice

This woman  has been in charge of the German Bundeswehr for what feels like decades and has accomplished absolutely nothing other than to stumble from one self-inflicted scandal to the other without ever having to face the consequences because, being one of Angela Merkel’s top girls (and therefore being more equal than the other girls), she is simply too good and too big to fail.

Leyen

That is why she is the ideal choice to head the European Commission. Un-freakin’-believable.

Germany’s Ursula von der Leyen nominated to lead EU Commission – EU leaders have put forward their nominations for the bloc’s top jobs, with a woman for the first time proposed as European Commission chief.

The surprise choice of German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen to replace Jean-Claude Juncker came after the main front-runners were rejected.

“Von der Leyen is a very good candidate and a very good choice to head the European Commission. Her capacities and competences totally qualified her.”

German Of The Day: Entlassungswelle

That means wave of layoffs.

Bank

Although the plural form would be more accurate these days. It’s the latest big thing in Germany. Everybody’s doing it – or in the process of planning it (see German automobile industry).

Take the Deutsche Bank, for instance. Give me 18,000 employees to go. The times they are a changin’.

Up to 20,000 jobs could be axed at Deutsche Bank in a radical reorganisation of Germany’s biggest bank.

The investment bank is expected to be particularly hard hit, with many of the cuts set to affect London and New York.

“I can assure you: we’re prepared to make tough cutbacks.”

Not If You Work For A Living

Is Germany’s health care system a model for the U.S.?

Health

Nope. Unless you want to pay a considerable amount of what you earn for your regular health insurance (15 percent – and climbing) – that’s the el cheapo insurance, by the way, the “private” insurance costs much more. Your husband/wife get to pay that fifteen percent, too. Then you get to pay extra for countless other things like dental work (1000 euros for a crown ain’t no big deal, for example) And if you’re a freelance, self-employed type you normally can’t even afford the regular insurance. You have no choice, however. You cannot opt out when it comes to insurance here.

However, if you’re on the dole and even openly admit that you have no intention of going back to work, everything is covered for you.

This is what “free health care” comes down to, folks.

“The ones who are able to pay more, pay more. And the ones who aren’t able to pay that much, don’t pay that much.”

Adis A.?

Maybe he’s Aris A.’s brother.

Bataclan

Bosnian arrested in Germany in connection with Paris Bataclan attacks – Dresden prosecutors say a Bosnian man linked to the 2015 attacks on the Bataclan nightclub in Paris, is under arrest in Germany’s state of Saxony-Anhalt. An extradition to Belgium is being considered.

Den Namen des Verdächtigen gab die Staatsanwaltschaft mit Adis A. an. Ob auch die internationale Suche wegen der Beteiligung am Terroranschlag mit Waffen zu tun hat, konnte zunächst kein Behördensprecher sagen.

Two Down, One To Go

After yesterday’s tragic crash of two Eurofighters during a training mission over Northern Germany, the German Luftwaffe is down to one operational plane of that design.

Air Force

But they are really, really good planes, we are told. Again and again. Top of the line state of the art. But state of the art isn’t even good enough these days, especially when most of them don’t even fly. That’s why the Eurofighter is now to be replaced with the “Future Combat Air System.” This one won’t have to leave the ground, either, I assume, which will make things a lot easier. It will just beam to the future and do its future combat fighting there.

Nach Unglück: Hat die Luftwaffe wirklich nur noch einen einsatzfähigen „Eurofighter“?

What Harm Could 160 “Islamic State” Combatants Cause?

Hey, see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil and no evil will come to you, right?

ISIS

Germany loses track of 160 ‘Islamic State’ supporters – About 1,000 Germans traveled to the Middle East to join the ‘Islamic State’ after 2013. A third of them have since returned to Germany. Some died on the battlefield, others are in prison, but many appear to be missing.

“In rare cases, these individuals could have succeeded in escaping and/or disappearing.” The ministry stressed it was unlikely IS followers would pass unnoticed in Germany, given “various measures (including wanted lists or entry bans), which make uncontrolled re-entry much more difficult.”

Who Makes This Stuff Up?

Oh, Al Jazeera makes this stuff up. Then it makes sense.

Germany

Germany welcomed refugees. Now it’s reaping the economic benefits – German companies need more skilled workers. Refugees are helping to fill the gap.

This is not the German reality. When Angela Merkel opened the floodgates in 2015, talk was soon everywhere (where talk like this was expected to be – see state television) that precisely this would happen; highly skilled engineers, doctors and other specialists from Syria would “fill the gap” in a booming German economy short on workers. This simply did not happen. The small number of specialists who did make it here were generally stymied by German bureaucracy or simply do not have the skills German companies expected them to have. Who did come? Armies of unskilled workers who are now a big burden on the German social system.

It’s not the Syrians’ fault that Germany does everything bass ackwards here, though. The Germans needed skilled workers so they let the unskilled in. They don’t even bother to introduce a comprehensive immigration law so they can decide who enters their country or not – haven’t gotten around to it to this very day. And on and on it goes. Al Jazeera’s fantasy Germany makes for good stories, I guess, but it has nothing to do with the real Germany. Not that anybody is interested. Just sayin’.

German Of The Day: Eigentum

That means property. But property doesn’t mean much in Germany anymore. At least not in Berlin under its current “red-red-green” city government.

Property

Another word you might be interested in here is Enteignung.

German officials facing protests and endless complaints about threats to affordable housing in the nation’s capital have decided the solution may be a five-year ban on rent increases and fines as high as $550,000 for violators.

Officials in Berlin, a city of about 3.7 million residents long known for its affordable housing options, announced this week that they plan to temporarily freeze the rents charged on publicly and privately owned apartments in a bid to halt runaway gentrification.

“It will scare away investors who will find alternative markets with less regulation. It’s a socialist and populist attack on the free market and it’s not going to lead to a single new apartment being built.”