German middle finger, too

 Hans Modrow, the last Communist prime minister of East Germany, died at age 95. Many of today's news reports mention that he oversaw democratic reforms that opened the way to German reunification in 1989. However, they don't mention that in 1993 he was convicted of vote rigging in the municipal elections held in Dresden in May,1989. Or that he gave orders to destroy incriminating Stasi files.

It's quite interesting to consider Modrow's career path. He was a Nazi soldier in WW2 who the Soviets captured and sent to an anti-Fascist indoctrination camp. 

April 11. 2023

 Austria plans to extend checks at its borders with Slovenia and Hungary by another six months from May 11, when the current six-month suspension of free travel over those boundaries expires, and I bet Germany doesn't complain. Illegal immigration is a major world-wide issue regardless of the feelgood rhetoric.

April 20, 2023

"Flashes of Memory: Photography During the Holocaust" is an interesting exhibition that moved from Israel for the first time and is currently presented at Berlin's Museum of Photography. It's a reminder that photography during the Nazi era was used as a tool to manipulate the public opinion but also served to document atrocities for later war crimes trials. So kids, you gotta take the good with the bad. Learn from history, don't deny or erase it.

May 24, 2023

The Fehmarn Belt Tunnel, the world’s longest immersed tunnel, will link Denmark and Germany, and create a land route between Sweden and Central Europe that will be 160 kilometers shorter than it is today.

June 14, 2023

Germany boosts coal imports from Colombia while seeking to phase out fossil fuels at home.

July 12, 2023

 AfD, which is labeled the far right, has nationwide support in Germany of 20%., mostly due to the out of control migration problem. No one wants to work with them, nor address the migration problem. Demonization of AfD is not working.

July 24, 2023

Friederich Merz, the leader of center-right CDU in Germany, now claims he'll work with the AfD on the local level. His tune will change more.

Aug 7, 2023

AFD's polling numbers are on the rise in Germany while it calls the EU a failed project. Will CDU have to work with AFD?

Sept 22, 2023

Is Bavaria with its own border police, the "Texas" of Germany?

Oct 9, 2023

Free Voters and the AfD look set to claim around 30% of Bavaria's vote. Soder(CSU) needs an attitude adjustment. 1, 3, and 4 are center right to right. 

nov 18, 2023:

On November 12, the old 485s trains(Coke cans) took their last runs on Berlin streets. 

Jan 14, 2024

The Dortmund District Court in Germany is pressing forward with deportation proceedings for a Tajik national accused of planning the New Year's Eve terror attack on Cologne Cathedral.

I'm stunned.

Feb 21, 2024

Hamburg is testing debit card for asylum-seekers to prevent state benefits from being sent outside the country. And one recipient is mad because she can't send money back home to pay her debts.

Feb 23, 2024

Former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who is charged with making false statements to a parliamentary inquiry into alleged corruption, will receive the court verdict soon. He could get three years in jail.

April 9, 2024

Germany sends its first soldiers for a permanent Lithuania force to be named Panzerbrigade 45.

Lithuania has a border with the Russian Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad and Belarus.

Suwalki Gap is around the border between Lithuania and Poland, and centers on the shortest path between Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad Oblast on the Polish side of the border. 

April 18, 2024

Bavaria asks: Get drunk, not high at Oktoberfest. In my party days, I'd say why not both.

Earlier blog on Germany:  

German middle finger

Sour Krauts in Bedouin

I'm re-reading  One from the Other, #4 in the Inspector Gunther series, by Philip Kerr. The reader is taken back and forth from 1937 to 1949 in Germany & Austria.. In today's PC world historical novels  are the last refuge to type words such as krauts and kikes and not be hauled before a EU "Rights" Court. Also American are Amis, Russians are Ivans or Popovs. This is how people spoke and scrubbing  coarse language does not rid the world of evil.
Gunther, a private detecive in this novel, frequently mentions that Vienna and Munich were more fertile ground for Hitler's sickness than Berlin was.
We get a glimpse of  1937 Palestine & Egypt where a Muslim Brotherhood leader's plans for Jewish eradication  stunned two Gestapo agents. Have things changed much in 75 years in the Mideast?

Kerr drives homes further a point that Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett often mentioned. Cops and private detective that find answers can be as nasty as the filth they pursue. Prague Fatale, the  8th Gunther novel, takes us back and forth between his pre-WW2 and post-WW2  days.

Did I forget to mention Vienna Sausage?

5/9/13

 Are current neo-Nazi groups still interested in working with Muslims extremists in their battle against Jews. I know terrorism makes  interesting bedfellows. The IRA of the 1970's & 80's spent some time training in the MidEast, particulalrly Libya.

Leon Uris mentioned  Hitler's Germany and Muslim extremists joint efforts in the book Haj.

7/29/13

 One of the important centers for the 9/11/01 terrorists was located in Hamburg, Germany.

10/5/13

Is Hamburg still a hub for Muslim extremists? I wonder if Mein Kampf has been translated into Arabic languages. Who gets the royalties?

12/10/13

I've read about  one-fourth of Kerr's latest , A Man without  Breath . Inspector Gunther is sent to Smolensk, Russia in 1943 to  look for Russian war crimes so Goebbels can crank up a propaganda  campaign. Who was more evil Stalin or Hitler?
I was unaware that Germany had a War Crimes commission during the war. Those old guard Prussians were playing CYA before the war ended.

12/16/13

Kerr's latest wasn't his greatest but it was solid. Beware of Prussians and Russians.. Gunther may have been at his seediest in this one, particularly for committing cold-blooded murder.. It's interesting how Kerr  takes Gunther from the 1930's to 60's then  back to the 40's in his series and doesn't miss a beat. Thank you, Mr Kerr. Gunther beats himself up from time to time but his loss of Ines Kramsta, the  visiting coroner, as a lover  because he suspected her of murder is a tough pill to swallow because it would've been difficult to not suspect her. 

2/27/14

I've focused on the Nazis  and radical Muslims WW2 connections. Would Hitler ban Aryans from going to Mars?  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/unitedarabemirates/10649939/Muslims-warned-in-Fatwa-not-to-live-on-Mars.html

5/4/14

I posed this ? in October and read that the Bavaria, which has banned publication of Mein Kampf,  will see its rights expire.  Various charities have received funds from the royalties and some have returned them.

7/17/14

Missed this column in Jan 2014.  ebook sales of Mein Kamp are way up. Read but not seen . link

"People might not have wanted to...have it delivered to their home or displayed on their living room bookshelf, let alone get spotted reading it on a subway

7/10/15

Hitler  stuff sells. Apparently the telegram from Goring sent Hitler into a tizzy. Goring

Nazi telegram that sent Hitler into a rage sells for over £35,600 at auction

7/26/15

Reading Kerr's latest, the Lady from Zagreb, and rolling around the notion of a German-trained Bosnian Muslim SS unit  at the end of WW2.

4/14/16

The Austrian government method of dealing with Hitler's birthplace is scary: hitler's birthplace

"We are currently examining the creation of a law, which would force a change of ownership and pass the property to the Republic of Austria.

4/19/16

Kerr's latest, the other side of silence ,  is solid. Gunther is as wily as ever  dealing with Somerset Maughm, and the queers in the MI5 & 6 . One questions pops up in each in the Gunther book: Were Russians troops more brutal than German troops during WW2 ? Don't forget blackmail never ends.

4/25/16

I see a trend: Hofer Freeedom Party on the right  Independent supported by Greens on the Left. For the first time since World War Two, the candidates from Austria's two main parties did not make it to presidential the run-off.

9/25/16

Italians messy defeat of Ethiopia in 1935 was one of the stepping stones to WW2.
The Germans tried to work with Ethiopia in WW1. #suezcanal #hornofafrica #mussolini

"A hundred years ago, the Ethiopian prince Lij Iyasu was deposed after the Orthodox church feared he had converted to Islam. But it also scuppered Germany's plans to draw Ethiopia into World War One, writes Martin Plaut."

link

1/3/17

Dear #angelamerkel :  the majority of more than 300 cases of welfare fraud in the nothern city of Braunscheig are related to Sudanese refugees.  Most of them succeeded by using basic disguises,
growing a beard, or putting on a pair of glasses,  and ,of course,  different surnames,

2/22/17

All I can say is why: #Hitler 's red phone, complete with Nazi party symbol,  sells for $240,000 at auction.

2/28/17

Something positive: Horst von Waechter, the son of a Nazi official, has returned three artworks that his family had looted from the southern Polish city of #Krakow during World War II.

3/11/17

Who says Noir fiction isn't good for you? While reading #Ambler 's Schimler Inheritance, I wasn't prepared for  a passage about a WW2 German soldier being wounded in #Benghazi. So I did some research. The West has a history of lax security in Libya. The British were forced out of Benghazi on April 3, 1941 and a few nights later the Germans captured two British  generals from their unescorted staff car.

3/15/17

Germany's justice minister #HeikoMaas has drafted a law that seeks to impose the fines as part of efforts to police toxic chat. #hitler is giggling in his grave at one of his tactics being used against "hate speech".

4/16/17

#prussianblue by Philip Kerr.  Another installment of Inspector Gunther -this time snorthing meth in 1939 to finish a difficult investigation of top Nazi officials quickly.   "got the jelly" referred to gonoreah.

5/15/17

Holocaust denial smacks of stupidity  and /or demagoguery, but why it's a crime in Germany is insanity. #HorstMahler is seeking asylum in  #hungary to avoid prison as a Holocaust denier.

5/31/17

#Germany, France, the Netherlands and Denmark are attempting to block next year's NATO leaders summit from taking place in Turkey, due to #Ergodan's internal crackdown. Will #Merkel support this or wilter again to Muslim pressure?

6/20/17

It's been 72 years since WW2  ended and many #Nazis fled to South America. Some 75 Nazi artifactswere found in a collector's home in #Beccar, a suburb north of #BuenosAires on June 8, 2017.

7/24/17

Iceland claims ownership of a recovered shipment which could include gold from South American banks,  shipped from Brazil to Germany in the autumn of 1939.

9/15/17

Are German pollsters ignoring #AFD  party? Will #Merkel 's pro-refugee stance hurt her more than pollsters think? Pollster blew it on #trump and on #brexit ? I say #AFD will outperform its poll numbers, but I'm not a German voter.

9/25/17

#merkel didn't listen  and got slapped down but not enough in yesterday elections in #Germany.  #AFD won 13% of the vote and became first far-right party to enter parliament in more than half a century. And, she still think she has a mandate.

10/17/17

I noticed a CNN op-ed , #kurz election in Austria should terrify Europeans. As if the migrant dump hasn't? Perhaps CNN should take in all the migrants from the Middle East.Yes, I know #CNN is not a country.

11/5/17

#merkel kisses #ergodan 's butt and attempts to remove  Kurdish PKK symbols from a parade in #frankfurt. Why is she letting the Turkish dictator run domestic policy in Germany? And , in general, why are so many symbols banned in Germany.

11/21/17

#merkel is unable to form a government and the refugee influx is the key sticking point. Meanwhile, 
 German court rules Kuwait Airways can bar Israeli passengers, while Germanys mainstream press claims Israel fears the rise of the #AFD.

12/18/17

I suppose the  like #Hitler chatter will rev up in Austria as the consevative coalition, which includes the so-called far right #FPO, has been sworn in.

1/27/18

It takes me awhile to catch up with movies but I was riveted by the 2004 movie #downfall about Hitler's last days in the Bunker, yet another reminder of what a creepy bastard he was. 

Alexandra Maria Lara was fantastic.

4/5/18

 #phillipkerr died about two weeks ago. His latest book in the Inspector Gunther series was just . released. The series  jumps from the 1930's to the late 50s then back to WW2. A comment from the Gunther character in the book "A pale Criminal"

 "I had discovered myself to be as temperamentally unsuited to partnership as I would have been to the presidency of the Deutsche Bank."

4/8/18

Catching residue from the Ottoman Empire  while reading Kerr's latest book Greeks bearing gifts, particularly the population swap in  currently named #Thessaloniki. Then trying to take in the  Prussian arming of the Sultans from 1876  through WW1 while reading July 1914: Countdown to War . Who said history is dull?

6/1/18

Has #merkel received the  migrant memo? Germany and #Austria began tightening security at their joint border with measures including three-member police patrols and increased scrutiny underneath freight trains.

6/8/18

#Kurz, the Austrian chancellor, has riled #ergodan  by shutting down seven political mosques. The Gallipoli re-enactment performance, in which  child actors played dead and were covered with Turkish flags, took place in a mosque run by the Turkish ultra-nationalist #GreyWolves (True Turks) group, in Vienna-Favoriten district. Some Imams may be booted out the country.

7/5/18

Gudrun Burwitz- #Himmler (1929-2018), Heinrich's daughter, worked as a secretary  using an assumed name at the #BND , West Germany Foreign Intellegence Agency, from 1961-63.

7/25/18

#Austria will stop offering driving tests in Turkish. It is is obligated to offer tests in Croatian and Slovenian due to a post-WWII treaty, the Austrian State Treaty.

aug 14, 2018

 Berlin residents on a walking tour discovered a 20-meter section of the #BerlinWall near the seat of Germany's BND intelligence agency iin the northwest section of Berlin. Do you think the #BND folks havepoor vision ?

sept 13

 The western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia #NRW has ordered the illegal treehouses in #HambachForest  occupied by anti-coal activists to be taken down because they are a fire hazard ,do not have emergency stairs,  and lack access routes for fire brigades and ambulances.

oct 2

#merkel just got played a day after #ergodan  pompous visit to Germany ended.  Hüseyin M., a resident of Brunswick, Germany was reportedly on holiday near the western Turkish city of #Izmir when he was detained in August on charges for defaming Turkish President  Erdogan on social media in 2014 and 2015. He had been on release but was put back in  jail yesterday.

oct 25, 2018

Good advice for all from #Germany's foreign ministry:   If you're in  #Turkey you  might get arrested for criticizing the #Erdogan regime on social media.  "Liking" an anti-government post could cause serious trouble.

oct 31

I doubt if #merkel will follow her neighbor #Austria  in withdrawing from the UN Migration Treaty . Chancellor Kurz administration objected to the creation of migrant as a category that does not exist in public law.  USA and Hungary withdrew earlier from the treaty.

nov 12, 2018

#LouiseArbour ,U.N. Special Representative for International Migration,  has described moves to shun the Migration Treaty as mistaken and said the compact simply aimed to improve the management of cross-border movements of people.  What a load of bullsh^t !

feb 26, 2019

#austrian  Chanceller Lurz is trying to get serious on asylum seekers: Refugee reception centers will be renamed "departure centers" starting March 1.
 A proposed constitutional amendment that would enable Austrian authorities to detain asylum-seekers without first securing a court order.

feb 27

Meanwhile Germany is creating Welcome Centers specifically to help employers get residency permits for skilled migrants, and toseparate employment immigration from humanitarian immigration. Doesn't that sound nice?

march 10

I thought this was common knowledge ,but the German Foreign Ministry has finally issued this advisory on travel to Turkey:   anyone who made, or endorsed, social media comments critical of the Turkish government, risks arrest.

april 16

 Police carried out raids across #Germany on April 10 targeting charities suspected of providing "financial and propaganda" support to the Palestinian Islamist movement #Hamas
The  focus of the raids were the charities WWR Help and Ansaar International in North Rhine-Westphalia.

july 26

   #NorbertRoettgen , a German lawmaker and ally of Chancellor  #Merkel ,  warned #Boris Johnson that the EU won't be bullied into  compromising on a Brexit deal. Bully has become the new favorite verb of the whiners.

aug 31 2019

#afd is set to gain in the upcoming elections in Germany, particularly in the East, and the center and left parties call them racists and  refuse to adjust

sept 1

Lighter news:  Austrian public transport company #WienerLinien  dropped the idea to make fragrant trains a regular feature for now after 21k out of 37k participants voted against the plan in an online survey.

sept 3

 AfD took 27.5% of votes in Saxony and 23.5% in Brandenburg  with the party almost tripling its share in Saxony and doubling it in Brandenburg.
Deutsche Welle's Editor-in-Chief #InesPohl. response to the results:
"And they must look and listen more closely to what drives voters into the arms of populists."  It's taken them this long to acknowledge that or they just refuse to believe it.

sept 23

A Berlin Court Judge told German politician #RenateKünast to put up with derogatory online comments  calling her a "piece of shit" and an "old, filthy Green pig" because they are allowable in certain contexts. and refused her request for Facebook to release personal data on 22 users who made those comments about her.
sept 27
Kurz wins the Austrian election and may wind up partnering with the FPO again

Oct22: 

A Coke and a smile:  'Cocaine taxis' are a growing problem in #Berlin . Customers order a "taxi" by placing a phone call or sending a text with the address to a private number, and the  exchange  takes place inside the vehicle

oct 30

 Germans are not too happy with the Turks according to polls. They want economic sanctions against  # Erdogan 's country and a complete ban on arms exports. I ain't surprised.

nov 16

Sidetracking from politics: # LeonDraisaitl , the native of Cologne, Germany and a member of the Edmonton Oilers finished second in the NHL in goal scoring in the regular season with 50. Marco Sturm held the previous record for a German in a single NHL season with 29 goals.

dec 16

 Berlin police are trying to find out who opened the unmarked grave of former SS officer, Reinhard Heydrich, at Invalids' Cemetery in central Berlin. Was it a prank or did someone know it was Heydrich's grave?

dec 23

 In western Poland, a network of underground tunnels and fortifications originally built as a defensive line for Nazi Germany is a part of Nietoperek Nature Reserve, and  has become the largest hibernation site for bats in Northern Europe.

jan 27

  Seven WW2 bombs were defused safely on the outskirts of Berlin, where #Tesla plans to build the first "Gigafactory" in Europe.

feb 8

 #kemmerich , a member of the FDP and the leader of the German state of Thuringia,  gained the position with far-right AfD party help, and has said he won't resign immediately.
 Merkel called the MPs' vote in the eastern state "unforgivable" and said it must be reversed but doesn't wants the public to vote in fresh regional elections.   Merkel got out-foxed and refuses to moved her CDU away from the left and pro immigration policies  which has enabled the AFD to grow.

april 19, 2020

 In other news, German authorities arrested 5 men residing in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia for a  suspected Islamic State plot targeting U.S. military facilities. They are natives of Tajikistan, a small country in Central Asia.

april 28, 2020

This a huge move by Germany.  Horst Seehofer, the interior minister, banned #hezbollah , the Iran-backed militant group, calling it a "Shiite terrorist organization."The police conducted raids targeting the group in several states this morning.

may 22, 2020

 Mock tombstone with this inscription placed at Merkel's electoral office in #Stralsund, by the Baltic coast: "Freedom of the press, freedom of opinion, movement and assemblies – Democracy 1990-2020"

June 8, 2020

Germany will not meet the NATO threshold, agreed in 2014, of spending 2% of gross domestic product on defense by 2024 so Trump is pulling 9500 troops from Germany  and sending some of them to Poland.  Quite a few journalists in German newspapers appear to be stunned and are upset. Trump campaigned on this issue and has kept it on the front burner since taking office in 2017.

June 9

#AfD lands major victory in  the German Constitutional Court. In 2018 Interior Minister Seehofer charged the AfD with "undermining the state." on the interior ministry's homepage which violates due objectivity.