German Of The Day: Heile Welt

March 4, 2016 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Higher Education, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hysteria Tags: Angela Merkel, German, Germans, Germany, Immigration, Language, Migrants, Refugees, The Economist Leave a comment

To grasp this trauma (the refugee crisis) it helps to understand the German zeitgeist that developed (mainly in the former West Germany) in the post-war years, and lingered in the reunited country. Germans call it Heile Welt. The term means something like “wholesome world”, and describes an orderly, idyllic state. It may connote the nurturing environment parents create for their children to protect them from life’s ugliness, or a private oasis of peace amid public chaos. It was a state of mind that Germans clung to after the second world war…

Foreigners were allowed into this Heile Welt, but not entirely accepted. To man its assembly lines, Germany invited workers from southern Europe and especially Turkey. The millionth arrived in 1964 and got a motorcycle as a gift. By the time the programme ended in 1973, 4m foreigners lived in West Germany. But they were called “guest workers” rather than immigrants, on the premise that they would ultimately leave again. Unsurprisingly, most stayed. Yet mainstream Germany continued to see itself as ethnically homogenous—a Heile Welt in a tribal sense…

Gnomic wisdom: Some Germans react by fleeing into ever tinier Heile Welten. “We are becoming ever more like our garden gnomes.”

German Of The Day: Durchwinken

March 1, 2016 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Higher Education, Home Cooking, Humor, Hurt Feelings Tags: Angela Merkel, EU, German, Germans, Germany, Immigration, Language, Migrants, Refugees Leave a comment

That means to wave through.

And Angela Merkel HERSELF has just learned, like just today, an entire new German sentence with the word Durchwinken in it: Die Politik des Durchwinkens muß beendet werden. That means: The policy of just waving refugees through from one country to the next must now be stopped.

Like I said, she just learned it. It is quite a mouthful, isn’t it? So it’s certainly easy to understand why it took her this long to learn it.

“A refugee does not have the right to say ‘I want to be granted asylum in a particular country’ in the European Union.”

“Es gibt eben nicht ein Recht, dass ein Flüchtling sagen kann, ich will in einem bestimmten Land der Europäischen Union Asyl bekommen.”

“There Is No Plan B”

February 29, 2016 By Hermann Observer in Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Angela Merkel, German, Germans, Germany, Immigration, Interviews, Migrants, Refugees, TV Leave a comment

When it comes to Angela Merkel’s refugee policy.

I can understand that and I value her candor. I would just really appreciate it if somebody could tell me what her Plan A is.

Speaking on German public television on Sunday, Chancellor Angela Merkel said the policy of open borders for migrants would remain. Merkel dismissed a “rigid limit,” saying, “There is no point in believing that I can solve the problem through the unilateral closure of borders…”

Merkel’s party faces elections on March 13 when voters elect new regional parliaments in three of Germany’s 16 states. It is the first poll since the migrant crisis began.

“Meine verdammte Pflicht und Schuldigkeit besteht darin, dass dieses Europa einen gemeinsamen Weg findet.”

Tank About It

February 8, 2016 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Helplessness, High Art, Higher Education, Home Cooking, Humor, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: Angela Merkel, Carneval, Cologne, Floats, Free speech, German, Germans, Germany, Mardi Gras, Parades Leave a comment

It’s that jolly, merry, drunken Karneval season again, folks.

And this tank float here got labeled the “Imtaler Asylum Defense.” Uh oh, we’re gonna get letters… Officials are even looking into hate crime charges.

For some reason, however, this float here is perfectly OK. I guess because Angie’s on it. It’s called “Refugee Wave.”

Ein Panzer-Motivwagen mit der Aufschrift „Asylabwehr“ hat bei einem Umzug in Bayern für Empörung gesorgt. Die Behörden ermitteln jetzt wegen Verdacht auf Volksverhetzung. Auch die Aktionen anderer Vereine wurden als fremdenfeindlich kritisiert.

This Is The Monster We Are Supposed To Hate

February 7, 2016 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hysteria Tags: AfD, Angela Merkel, Frauke Petry, German, Germans, Germany, Journalism, Media, Migrants, Political correctness, Political Parties, Refugees 2 Comments

Get used to her face, too.

Her name is Frauke Petry and Angela Merkel’s refugee policy fiasco, and her refugee policy fiasco alone, is virtually assuring her party’s entry and establishment in the German political landscape and it is unfortunately too late now to do anything about it.

Petry says outrageous things like “People must stop migrants from crossing illegally from Austria into Germany. If necessary, through the use of firearms. I don’t want this, but the use of armed force is there as a last resort.”

Imagine that, suggesting the use of firearms to protect your borders as a last resort. Unthinkable, right? Well it is here. But the real outrageous part is the first part of what she said. It is outrageous because that is precisely what most Germans want and Chancellor Merkel refuses to respect this. It’s time to close the borders. It’s been time to close the borders. And it will remain time to close the borders until the borders get closed – presumably following the next election.

Sehe ich so aus, als sei ich unter Druck?

Water Now At Ankle Level

January 31, 2016 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Angela Merkel, CDU/CSU, German, Germans, Germany, Migrants, Politics, Polls, Popularity, Refugees Leave a comment

And rising, captain.

The chancellor and her party’s (and partner party’s) popularity poll ratings: Not wirklich (really) so good at the moment. Some think this might possibly maybe have something to do with her refugee policy.

A current election poll indicates that the popularity of the Union (CDU/CSU) has dropped to its lowest level since July, 2012. The weekly “Sunday trend” by the Emnid opinion research institute taken for the “Bild am Sonntag” newspaper indicates that the CDU and the CSU now have an approval rating of only 34 percent, two percentage points lower than the previous week.

Die Union kommt in einer aktuellen Wahlumfrage auf den schlechtesten Wert seit Juli 2012. Im Emnid-“Sonntagstrend”, den das Meinungsforschungsinstitut wöchentlich für die “Bild am Sonntag” erhebt, erreichen CDU und CSU nur noch 34 Prozent, zwei Prozentpunkte weniger als in der Vorwoche.

Germany Not Personality-Driven?

January 25, 2016 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Angela Merkel, German, Germans, Germany, Leadership, Migrants, Politics, Refugees Leave a comment

Not off the cliff yet, you mean? Let’s stay tuned.

One potential explanation for Merkel’s boldness is that the German political system offers more shelter from public opinion than some others, particularly the American one, according to David Art, a political-science professor at Tufts University who focuses on comparative politics. In Germany’s “plodding” parliamentary democracy, political parties stand between the public and politicians. They choose which politicians to place on the ballot rather than relying on primary elections as in the United States. “Germany did not want to have, after Hitler, any sort of [personality-driven political] system,” Art said…

“Merkel needs success in the European negotiations about how to split the immigrants to different countries. If they find a way to organize immigration … then she won’t have to pay a price.”

Good luck with that.

German Of The Day: Inszenierung

December 15, 2015 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hustle (Hoax) Tags: Angela Merkel, CDU, German, Germans, Germany, Migrants, Party Congresses, Political Parties, Politics, Refugees 1 Comment

Erich Honecker would be proud. Or at least a little envious.

Inszenierung means staging, or a political staging or production in this case.

Despite the incredibly deep division in Germany regarding the ongoing refugee crisis, the 1000 delegates at Angela Merkel’s CDU party congress yesterday honored her with enthusiastic applause and a 99% approval rating of open door policy. What they really think about it is of course another matter.

Meanwhile… The number of crimes committed against refugees in connection with their accommodation has risen drastically this year, nearly doubling to 1610.

Die CDU hat mit einem Leitantrag zu Flucht und Integration ihrer Parteivorsitzenden Angela Merkel deutlich den Rücken gestärkt. Der vom Bundesvorstand am Sonntagnachmittag noch leicht geänderte Antrag fand am Montag beim Bundesparteitag eine Zustimmung von etwa 99 Prozent der rund 1.000 Delegierten.

TIME Magazine To Shorten Its Name

December 10, 2015 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, History, Home Cooking, Hysteria Tags: Angela Merkel, Germany, Hype, Journalism, Migrants, Person of the Year, Refugees, Time Magazine 4 Comments

To “A politically left-intellectual group of high earners in a country that receives virtually no refugees” Magazine. I mean lengthen it, of course.

The American magazine’s decision to honour her (Angela Merkel) with the high-profile award went down less well in Germany itself, where there is deep unrest over the huge numbers of migrants streaming in every day from the Middle East.

Felix Steiner, an editor at state broadcaster Deutsche Welle, said writers in New York who were praising Mrs Merkel’s open door migration policy had no idea about the impact it has had on German communities.

“The haunted ones are the cities and municipalities that are being forced to take in ever more refugees and have no idea how they will ever be able to house and care for them.”

David Vance said (on Twitter): “Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was named runner-up to Merkel in Time “Person of the Year” Says it all, really.”

PS: Speaking of “a country that receives virtually no refugees,” somebody told me that Germany has taken in more “refugees” in 2015 than the United States of Amerika has in the past ten years. Should I believe that person or not?

“Tour Angela Merkel’s Germany”

December 9, 2015 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, History, Home Cooking Tags: Angela Merkel, Migrants, Person of the Year, Refugees, Time Magazine 4 Comments

Sound like Disneyland? It should. It is. Only different.

And ask any migrant here these days: The lines are even longer.

Die Kanzlerin ist die erste Frau seit 29 Jahren, die den Titel “Person of the year” bekommen hat. Hinter Merkel landeten IS-Führer Al-Baghdadi und Donald Trump.

Meanwhile… A popular attraction at Disneyland-Deutschland these days is apparently a ride called Arson Attack: 817 crimes have been committed against refugee centers in Germany this year – that’s a number four times higher than it was in 2014.

Observing Hermann

“Was interessiert mich mein Geschwätz von gestern?”

Tag Archives: Angela Merkel