Germany megathread

[Middle-aged Europe]

So, I kind of ran into Christine Lambrecht at my hairdresser today... I guess something like this was eventually bound to happen when you're frequenting the hairdresser who is geographically located the closest to the Chancellery.

Despite the image that emerged from her somewhat tarnished reputation, the gal seemed authoritative enough to me in person. But I suppose that does jack sh**t for you when you don't have a clue about defense policy in the end.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Boris Palmer: The scandal that broke (?) the camel's back

To cut a long story short, Palmer repeatedly used the N-word at a public event (including one instance where he adressed a black person IIRC). When this met with criticism he accused his accusers of wanting to put a yellow star on him.

Today, he officially terminated his membership in the Green Party, effective immediately, and announced an "leave of absence" from his mayoral duties to seek "professional help" to deal with his "destructive" tendencies.

Fun's over, folks.

[Middle-aged Europe]

A court in Berlin has dismissed a lawsuit filed by former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder where he attempted to get his office in the Bundestag (including the encompassing staff) back.

The Bundestag's appropriations committee had terminated Schröder's office in May 2022 as a sanction of sorts against the pro-Putin ex-Chancellor.

[Middle-aged Europe]

A court in Berlin has dismissed a lawsuit filed by former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder where he attempted to get his office in the Bundestag (including the encompassing staff) back.

The Bundestag's appropriations committee had terminated Schröder's office in May 2022 as a sanction of sorts against the pro-Putin ex-Chancellor.

Lol... interesting. Has Mr. Schroeder ever dennounced the war and admitted it was Russia's fault?

Not I keep myself up-to-date on his position much, but I think it generally amounts to the usual both-sideisms.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Yesterday there was an official reception commemorating "Victory Day" at the Russian Embassy in Berlin.

Naturally, most public officials avoided attendence. What's notable is who did attend:

- Gerhard Schröder (Of course!)
- Egon Krenz, final leader of East Germany's communist regime in 1989
- Incumbent AfD chairman Tino Chrupalla and his immediate predecessor Alexander Gauland
- Former Left Party chairman Klaus Ernst

[Middle-aged Europe]

- Gerhard Schröder (Of course!)
- Egon Krenz, final leader of East Germany's communist regime in 1989
- Incumbent AfD chairman Tino Chrupalla and his immediate predecessor Alexander Gauland
- Former Left Party chairman Klaus Ernst

What a lovely group of people.

It's Schröder and the horseshoe gang. When we send people to the Russian Embassy we always send our best.

This evening's Tagesspiegel editorial arguing that Schröder has become too much of a liability for the country and that, among other things, he needs to be finally expelled from the SPD:

https://www.tagesspiegel.de/meinung/altkanzler-feiert-mit-den-russen-9-mai--der-tag-an-dem-gerhard-schroder-alles-verlor-9798833.html

[Middle-aged Europe]

In a scaling down of diplomatic relations, the German government orders Russia to close four of their five consulates in Germany until the end of the year.

At the same time, the German foreign ministry plans to shut its own consulates in Kaliningrad, Yekaterinburg, and Novosibirsk down, leaving only the embassy in Moscow and the consulate in Saint Petersburg.


https://twitter.com/dwnews/status/1663874531583225858


https://twitter.com/Jerusalem_Post/status/1663889686765371394

[Middle-aged Europe]

In a scaling down of diplomatic relations, the German government orders Russia to close four of their five consulates in Germany until the end of the year.

At the same time, the German foreign ministry plans to shut its own consulates in Kaliningrad, Yekaterinburg, and Novosibirsk down, leaving only the embassy in Moscow and the consulate in Saint Petersburg.


https://twitter.com/dwnews/status/1663874531583225858


https://twitter.com/Jerusalem_Post/status/1663889686765371394

Russia threatens an "appropriate response" (https://www.spiegel.de/ausland/russland-kuendigt-angemessene-reaktion-auf-konsulatsschliessungen-an-a-d41ba823-edd8-45cf-90fa-4539267a4456) whatever the hell that means, considering that Germany is already closing three of its consulates in Russia on its own initiative.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Somewhat uncharacteristcally for him, Olaf Scholz gets pissed at peace protestors* at a SPD rally (English subtitles included):

https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1665072609120206852

(* =  who, judging by one of the t-shirts visible in the crowd must have come from the anti-vaxxer movement which is totally not surprising given the political dynamics in the country... the AfD is also opposed to supporting Ukraine and COVID vaccinations and this SPD rally did happen in the East)

[Middle-aged Europe]

Has population always been like that, or is the E being more sparsely populated a post-WW2 thing?

Between 1948 and 1990 the population of East Germany had dropped continously from originally 19 million to 16 million in the end. Prior to the erection of the Berlin Wall there had been sizable migration to the West and afterwards the country had suffered from low birth rates.

It's a bit hard to separate East Berlin and West Berlin nowadays, but the five eastern states plus former East Berlin account for maybe 14 million people at the moment, mainly because the migration to the West had resumed after the Wall was gone (albeit this time for purely economic reasons).

[Middle-aged Europe]

AfD is doing really well at the moment, polling at record highs. On Sunday, they elected their first full time Mayor, Hannes Loth, in Raguhn-Jessnitz.

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) has surged to record highs in opinion polls, and the latest result comes just a week after they won their first district election.

Hannes Loth was elected mayor of the small town of Raguhn-Jessnitz, in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, in a run-off against independent candidate Nils Naumann, according to results on the town’s Facebook page.

Loth, reportedly a 42-year-old farmer who was already a member of the local parliament, won 51.1 percent of the vote against 48.9 percent for Naumann in the town of about 9,000 inhabitants.

It marks the first time the party has won an election race for a full-time mayor’s position, German media reported.

Pretty "decent" fellow too, who manages to unite his party's anti-refugee stance with his party's pro-Putin stance.

"Home at heart. Only every tenth Ukrainian is working!!"

His attack on Ukrainian refugees does come across as a bit... "off", considering that the AfD higher-ups at the federal level don't usually consider that particular group as an "acceptable target". They tend to focus on Muslims and Africans there.


(Fact check: I haven't managed to find any recent numbers on Google right now, but in October 2022 the number had been closer to almost twice as much. Naturally you need to learn the language first in order to work. And there's a lot of red tape to cut through even when you are extremely eager to work, for example Ukrainian degrees and qualifications are not always easily accepted by the authorities or by employers. Male refugees from Ukraine also tend to be either minors or pensioners in  overwhelming numbers.)

[Middle-aged Europe]

I guess Linke saw AfD's successes and decided to drop the "we don't support Russia, but..." theatre and just go full Z.

https://twitter.com/Linksfraktion/status/1677002723114221579

NATO is a warmongering, expansionist alliance that tramples on international law and human rights. High time to dissolve this military pact. After 78 years, it is time for the US to withdraw its troops and nuclear weapons from Germany.

Bucha, Mariupol, Kakhovka, apartment bombings or kidnapped children? Not a word about it.

As an aside, it's fascinating how German far-right and far-left are indistinguishable in their borderline imperialist attitude towards the countries between Germany and Russia. In 1959, philosopher and Wehrmacht soldier Johannes Barnick wrote a book called German-Russian Neighbourhood. It was republished last year after the invasion. Fittingly so, as it perfectly describes not just AfD and Die Linke, but also many important figures in "mainstream" parties.

Between Germany and Russia there is the well-known "buffer zone" from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea as the "most serious world political trouble spot". More than sixty years ago, Barnick warned that "an alliance of liberal West and East European nationalism" would mean a new encirclement for Germany - and, moreover, the danger of a Third World War. Germany is the tipping point when it comes to the balance between East and West. For Barnick, the order of the day in German-Russian relations would not be self-indulgent warmongering, but neutrality in the sense of backing. In a favorable case, the contested "buffer zone" is the mutual shield that belongs to no third party. The thesis of this brilliant stylist and prudent statistician of international power relations is: Europe is always doing well when German-Russian relations are doing well.

Sevim Dagdelen is a full-on Wagenknechtian, so no surprise here. Still doesn't explain why the Left Party caucus' social media team decided to feature her so prominently.

[Middle-aged Europe]

A map I saw on twitter:

https://twitter.com/simongerman600/status/1672955310066073601?s=20

Bonn isn't even labeled.  Truly remarkable for being a former Capital.

A history youtuber I enjoy made a short video about why Bonn was chosen as the FRG's capital:


- Bonn wasn't heavily damaged in the war unlike nearly all larger cities in the Allied occupation zone, so it was established as the temporary capital when the FRG was established in 1949 .

Eventually it was decided to keep the capital in Bonn because:

. Adenauer didn't want to move the capital to a larger city in order to avoid making Germany's division appear permanent.

- The city had no strong assocaition with Nazism or Hitler (unlike Munich for example).

- There was little (and soon none because the British had no money) foreign military presence in the city

- I kid you not: it was only 20 minutes from Adenauer's house.

- Since the government was already established there, it was decided it wasn't worth the effort and expense to move the capital to a larger city.

To this day, Bonn functions as the primary seat for six of the federal government's ministries (defence, agriculture, health, environment, education, foreign aid) as well as the secondary seat for all the other ministries. As such, Bonn is officially designated as a "federal city" as opposed to Berlin's status as a federal capital.

[Middle-aged Europe]

A map I saw on twitter:

https://twitter.com/simongerman600/status/1672955310066073601?s=20

Bonn isn't even labeled.  Truly remarkable for being a former Capital.

A history youtuber I enjoy made a short video about why Bonn was chosen as the FRG's capital:


- Bonn wasn't heavily damaged in the war unlike nearly all larger cities in the Allied occupation zone, so it was established as the temporary capital when the FRG was established in 1949 .

Eventually it was decided to keep the capital in Bonn because:

. Adenauer didn't want to move the capital to a larger city in order to avoid making Germany's division appear permanent.

- The city had no strong assocaition with Nazism or Hitler (unlike Munich for example).

- There was little (and soon none because the British had no money) foreign military presence in the city

- I kid you not: it was only 20 minutes from Adenauer's house.

- Since the government was already established there, it was decided it wasn't worth the effort and expense to move the capital to a larger city.

To this day, Bonn functions as the primary seat for six of the federal government's ministries (defence, agriculture, health, environment, education, foreign aid) as well as the secondary seat for all the other ministries. As such, Bonn is officially designated as a "federal city" as opposed to Berlin's status as a federal capital.

Would it be fair to say that the vibe of the city is still dominated by its role as a major governmental center?

Never been there myself, but currently the city is mostly known for housing a couple of government ministries.  Nobody really knows what else is there.

[Middle-aged Europe]

A map I saw on twitter:

https://twitter.com/simongerman600/status/1672955310066073601?s=20

Bonn isn't even labeled.  Truly remarkable for being a former Capital.

A history youtuber I enjoy made a short video about why Bonn was chosen as the FRG's capital:


- Bonn wasn't heavily damaged in the war unlike nearly all larger cities in the Allied occupation zone, so it was established as the temporary capital when the FRG was established in 1949 .

Eventually it was decided to keep the capital in Bonn because:

. Adenauer didn't want to move the capital to a larger city in order to avoid making Germany's division appear permanent.

- The city had no strong assocaition with Nazism or Hitler (unlike Munich for example).

- There was little (and soon none because the British had no money) foreign military presence in the city

- I kid you not: it was only 20 minutes from Adenauer's house.

- Since the government was already established there, it was decided it wasn't worth the effort and expense to move the capital to a larger city.

To this day, Bonn functions as the primary seat for six of the federal government's ministries (defence, agriculture, health, environment, education, foreign aid) as well as the secondary seat for all the other ministries. As such, Bonn is officially designated as a "federal city" as opposed to Berlin's status as a federal capital.

And yet it doesn't get a separate Bundesland like Bremen or Hamburg [let alone Berlin].

Bonn would by far be the smallest state, both area and population-wise.

Despite its small population, Bonn would be entitled to three votes in the Bundesrat, the same number as Hamburg or Mecklenburg-Vorpommern... and half as much as North Rhine-Westphalia, the state it currently belongs to.

According to the constitution, changes in the make-up of the German states are subject to a referendum in the affected state(s), this means the majority of the population in the current state of North Rhine-Westphalia would need to approve of the change.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Of course, if there was really a political desire for a "state of Bonn", there would probably be a new article in the constitution defining special rules (as was done with the planned Berlin/Brandenburg fusion).

I don't know if it was addressed in the video (it wasn't mentioned in the poll), but fake news and bribery played a part in making Bonn seat of government instead of Frankfurt.

To be honest, the only reason why Berlin is even a state (historically) is because the city was places under a form of special administrative control by the Allies after WWII. It used to be a part and capital of Prussia. Although one could certainly speculate that any dissolution of Prussia would have led to a creation of a state of Berlin. It certainly makes sense in retrospect given it has a bigger population than half the other states including Schleswig-Holstein or Brandenburg.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Groß-Berlin was carved out of the province of Brandenburg in 1920. So it makes sense, that a dissolution of Prussia and an earlier reunification would have led to a Land or Free City of Berlin, too, as it would almost always have been more populous than the rest of Brandenburg.

Some of the Prussian provinces were merged with other provinces or states post-1947 though.

In practice, a "state of Bonn" would have contained rather more than the city itself I suppose.

Cologne-Bonn, I guess... which is indeed considered a single metropolitan area in the south of NRW with a total population slightly smaller than Berlin's.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Of, course there was no need for a "State of Bonn" as Europeans don't have this weird "The capital must not be in a state or at least in its own state" fixation of colonial settler nations.

Berlin hasn't even a special legal status except for the state-is-concurrent-with-municipality rule that is also followed by Hamburg (the state of Bremen however consists of two distinct municipalities). Given the sheer size of the city's population - which is approaching that of Saxony, the largest of the eastern states - Berlin's "independence" is certainly jusitified though.

[Middle-aged Europe]

The AfD has retracted a platform plank for their 2024 European election platform calling for a "dissolution" of the European Union. It seems some people in the party had noticed that they had accidentally pushed things too far, an easy mistake to make in the AfD nowadays, I guess.

https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/afd-eu-100.html

[Middle-aged Europe]

German centre-right leader says he is willing to work with far-right AfD at local level

Comments by CDU leader Friedrich Merz could see erosion of political ‘firewall’ separating conservatives and far right

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/24/german-centre-right-leader-says-he-is-willing-to-work-with-far-right-afd-at-local-level

"Therefore Friedrich Merz is not suitable as Chancellor-candidate for the CDU/CSU." - Christian Gräff, CDU spokesperson for economic policy in the Berlin state parliament.

This was probably the harshest response Merz received today (or yesterday evening) from within the ranks of his own party. Other reactions, like the one from Gräff's boss, the Governing Mayor of Berlin, were usually more reserved, restricting themselves to statements that they disagree with Merz' position in accordance with standing party rules forbidding any cooperation with the AfD.

Naturally, if you have maybe a couple of dozen politcians from your own party publicly disagreeing with you it stands to reason that you just had a pretty sh**tty day as party leader nonetheless. As media commentators have pointed, two of Merz' most prominent intra-party rivals/critics - NRW minister-president Hendrik Wüst and Schleswig-Holstein minister-president Daniel Günther- were notably quiet on the issue though. That's because there was no need for them to do so. In Wüst's case, whose ambitions for the Chancellery is an open secret around here, it was regarded as a smart move not to give up the higher ground by getting himself into turf fight with Merz right now, instead letting everyone else do the job for him.

In other words, Merz has just moved himself in the kill zone and if Wüst hasn't sealed the deal for himself today already he at least came one hell of a step closer.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Can't wait for Wüst to be elected, the CDU being CDA'd and for AfD to reach 30%. For CDU, the smartest would be to move right. But they don't deserve another shot at running/ruining the country so it's better this way.

Now, now, now... not so fast young grasshopper. Hendrik Wüst was a founding of the so-called Einstein connection, a cabal of conservative CDU/CSU politicians including Markus Söder (who has also distanced himself from Merz' statement btw), Philipp Mißfelder, and Stefan Mappus who wanted their party move further to the right again... well, not just that right. But I guess in a time when the Overton window has been pushed that far all over the democratic nations that the likes of Brian Kemp have now almost become regarded as tree-hugging commie liberals, I guess it is only natural to incorectly assume that Wüst must be one too.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Tobias Hans, former minister-president of Saarland, has also come out against Friedrich Merz as Chancellor-candidate now.

I'm getting the popcorn.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Saxony minister-president Michael Kretschmer is a rare voice coming out in support of Merz.

Probably the least surprising development ever, considering that Kretschmer is a bit of an outsider himself who has been under criticism for being a (post-Ukraine invasion) Putin appeaser in the past, among other things.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Friedrich Merz has urged his party to end the "personnel debates", obviously referring to himself and the recently self-fueled dispute regarding his future Chancellor-candidacy.

The fact that he made a statement on Sunday that was highly controversial within his own party without (apparently) making sure first that he has sufficient political support for changing that stance in the first place, leading to a public intra-party debate whether he his suitable as Chancellor is perhaps in itself a sign that he is in over his head as party leader and obviously would also be so as Chancellor. Quod erat demonstrandum.

[Middle-aged Europe]

What’s behind the recent AFD rise to ~20% nationally? I can understand a rise to say 15%, but what’s caused them to battle for 2nd place? Is there an issue they have the sole popular stance on or have their signature issues became a lot more salient?

Everyone in Germany seems to have a different opinion on that, which usually amounts to the right blaming the left and vice versa.

My personal assessment is that it is - for the most part - a belated reaction to Ukraine and the subsequent inflation and energy crisis. Everything held together reasonably well in that regard as long as the traffic light coalition had managed to maintain a front of unity.

After the FDP failed to pass the 5% threshold in the Berlin state election in February the party quickly started to publicly question and attack previously agreed upon legislative projects though, most notably the heating law reform that it is important to the Greens. This led to an steady increase in intra-coalition infighting which most people were quickly fed up with.

It didn't help that certain right-wing media (Axel Springer) came to the support of the FDP in attacking the Greens. It didn't help either that some attempts to communicate and justify legislative projects by Green economics minister Robert Habeck failed to pass the bar of what would have been necessary in that situation.

Then the AfD started to climb in the polls. Instead of everyone attacking the AfD, CDU/FDP started to blame the Greens and the Greens started to blame CDU/FDP for the AfD's rise.

TL;DR... We're in a situation of (inter)national crisis(es). The major democratic parties in the country are mostly busy fighting each other, even the ones who are nominally part of the same governing coalition. Naturally, right-wing extremists are thriving.