Germany megathread

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

https://twitter.com/DPolGHH/status/1565679165197750272

Why did I know the person behind this crime was a migrant? Stats tell us that there is no difference in anti-Semitism between someone who learns about the Holocaust in school and someone who goes through the middle-eastern school system.

Not news, just something I found during one of my "research politics and history while pretending to work from home" days.

How 18 - 24 year olds voted in German elections from 1990 to 2021:


There are the obvious ever-present caveats about polling and sample sizes, but I think the general trend of younger voters leaning slightly to the left is indeed true also in Germany (or at least, the ones who bothered to show up to vote), if not to the same extent as in other countries.

Particularly interesting how young people liked the SPD so much under Schröder. Would be interesting to see all age groups going back as far back as possible, and of course split between West and East post-1990, but for some reason polling data in Germany is incredibly difficult to find for more than just the past few elections (e.g. table i previously created on age).

RIP Trans-Atlantic Alliance

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

Why is the German political class so hellbent on doing this fake balancing act between the United States and Russia? In Sweden the social democrats don't have nearly this same problem and, despite often criticizing the United States, still recognized Russia as a threat throughout the Cold War and in the current day. Why are so many German politicians so obsessed with trying to "understand" Russia's "concerns" and apologize for them? Baffling behavior.

I thought we'd have the usual suspects like Turkey and Hungary pulling this stuff (which to be fair, we do), not Germany.

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

I was reading an article from the Guardian about splits in Die Linke, and wanted to ask -
(https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/19/germanys-die-linke-on-verge-of-split-over-sanctions-on-russia)

Does this pose the kind of existential threat to the party that it looks like on the surface (to this outsider at least) and inferred by the article? Or will they limp on?

The big problem is that they barely got into the Bundestag last time, so any problem can become quite threathing.

This factional split is occurring among almost the same lines as that which earlier this year resulted in Die Linke being shut out of the legislature of Lafontaine's own Saarland (although of course they fell much further and had much further to fall), so we've already seen what could happen.

Still, the less Die Linke the better.

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

I really wonder who's behind that. I first thought of Russia, though there is no indication so far. Possibly a domestic group.

https://twitter.com/dwnews/status/1578704343716372483

What domestic group do you think it could be? Germany never struck me as a place with lots of domestic terrorism (even if there was some during the Cold War)

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

This just goes to show how much Chernobyl set us back on nuclear power. It was a disaster that was extremely avoidable if the Soviets followed safety standards (see Three Mile Island).

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

The Bundestag is planning to pass a resolution declaring the starvation of Ukranians under Stalin a genocide.

Germany’s Bundestag is planning to pass a resolution declaring the starvation of millions of Ukrainians under Joseph Stalin a genocide, a move that parliamentarians hope will serve as a “warning” to Moscow as Ukraine faces a potential hunger crisis this winter.

The resolution, which will be jointly brought to the vote next week by the three governing parties and conservative opposition leaders, will describe the 1932-33 Holodomor as part of “a list of inhuman crimes by totalitarian systems that extinguished millions of human lives in Europe in the first half of the 20th century”.

“People across Ukraine, not just in grain-producing regions, were affected by hunger and repression”, the resolution will say. “This meets the historical-political definition from today’s perspective for genocide.”

The victims of the Holodomor – Ukrainian for “death by starvation” – are traditionally commemorated in Ukraine on the last Saturday of November.

Kyiv regards the historical event as part of a deliberate campaign by Stalin’s regime to collectivise agriculture and root out Ukraine’s fledging nationalist movement. Historians estimate between 4 million and 7.5 million people were killed in the human-made disaster.

Moscow has rejected Kyiv’s version of history, placing the deaths in the broader context of famines that devastated regions of Central Asia and Russia.

“Putin is part of Stalin’s cruel and criminal tradition,” said Robin Wagener, the German Green party MP who initiated the resolution. “Today Russian terror is once again haunting Ukraine. Once again the plan is to use violence and terror to deprive Ukraine of livelihood, to subdue an entire country,” he told newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Oh boy I can't wait to see what reason the pro-China clowns on the German left find to oppose this!

I don't really understand why plenty of normal leftists in Germany (the SDP is otherwise a sensible social democratic party, after all) have tankie-esque takes on these kinds of things, even if they (like Olaf Scholz) actually have decent relations with the US. Is it some kind of 'both sides' thing?

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

The fact that a country that committed genocide and invaded other countries less than a lifetime ago and has otherwise been quite good about grappling with it is now defending Russia is disgraceful.

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

Germany really needs to take lessons from the US on migrant integration.

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

Another day, another far-right plot to overthrow the government.

Five Germans have been charged with treason over an alleged far-right plot to overthrow the government that included plans to abduct the health minister, prosecutors have announced.

The four men and a woman were arrested in recent months over the plot, with the health minister, Karl Lauterbach – unpopular among far-right groups because of anti-Covid measures – confirming he was targeted.

They were charged on 16 January and face counts ranging from founding a domestic terrorist group to preparing a treasonous act and violating weapons laws, the federal prosecutor’s office said on Monday.

The group aimed to “trigger civil war-like conditions in Germany by means of violence … to cause the overthrow of the government and parliamentary democracy”, the prosecutors said in a statement.

What is it with Germany and the far right.

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

Why do these people think "giving Putin everything he wants" equals "Peace"?

Nathan had a good post on that a while ago about how Russia is still the USSR in the eyes of many European far-leftists.

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

https://twitter.com/TheresaAFallon/status/1630129964388343808?s=20

ungrateful bastards, should have dissolved their sh**thole country after the war

#morgenthauwasright

If Morgenthau was right, then we needed to march our troops onto the Moon to defeat Nazi space colonies.

Indeed.

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

Hasn't Die Linke gotten more than 5% support before? Particularly with polling showing that younger Germans are more opposed to Ukraine aid I don't see how they lose all of their seats.

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

Quite a bit of news this week on the legislative front:

1.) Immigration & Citizenship Reform

The Federal Council approved a draft law of the new Skilled Workers' Act, with the aim of transitioning Germany's immigration system to a Canadian-style points-based system and loosening citizenship rules and restrictions.

For the points-based system, points are awarded to immigrants for qualities such as educational attainment, relevant professional experience, being under the age of 35, speaking English at a C1 level (just 1 point though), speaking German at a B1 level (2 points) or B2 level (3 points), or demonstrating a strong connection to Germany in some way (marriage, business, long-residency, etc.). Immigrants will need a total of 6 out of 10 points to be approved to immigrate.

For citizenship, the current ban on dual-citizenship that only has a few exceptions will be abolished; instead dual citizenship up to the third generation will be allowed. And instead of requiring 8 years of permanent residency, the new requirement will be just 5 years, and if the applicant can prove they have taken strong measures to integrate (e.g. language proficiency), then this will be shortened to just 3 years.  

Finally, the law mandates that the process becomes faster and easier to apply for; there are large backlogs of citizenship applications that have built up over the past few years. The Federal Employment Agency also wants the process to become more digitized, explicitly calling for the end of fax machine-based communications.

However, after the Federal Council, the draft law must first be submitted to the Bundestag, where it only needs (and is virtually certain to get) a simple majority, but then must be sent to the Bundesrat, where the CDU technically has a blocking majority and can water down or force changes to the law. While the CDU has derided the Traffic Light coalition's proposed reforms as "cheapening German citizenship", they have not offered any specific counterpoints, nor have they rejected the reform entirely. We could see a situation similar situation to the Bürgergeld reform, where the CDU forces mostly cosmetic changes to the law before approving it. So stay tuned.

Have they considered adding requirements/bonus points for taking classes on women's rights and religious tolerance?

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

I've always thought three years would be a decent term length.

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

I've always thought three years would be a decent term length.

Like Australia and New Zealand? I think three years is too short. Imagine a US presidential election every three years, lmao. New York did have three-year gubermatorial terms for some time in the 19th century. They later switched back to two years before four year terms were adopted after the 1938 election.

Germany is closer in size to Australia than America. It also doesn't have an election focused on a powerful executive, rather it has more focus on political parties.

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

Peak American journalism:

https://twitter.com/jkass99/status/1673412289121198082?s=20

I mean it technically is. Germany under the Weimar Republic didn't have district elections.