Germany’s Long Road to Liberty

The recent German election saw a new party, Alternatives for Germany, break through the established power structure and become the second strongest force in parliament. The AfD are libertarian-conservatives favoring less government and stricter asylum laws. They also call for an end to the NATO-sponsored wars of regime change that have generated waves of refugees fleeing the violence in their homeland.

Germany has taken in millions of these refugees, far more than any other country. This has created an enormous financial and cultural strain in a country that historically has had little immigration. It comes at a time when poverty is increasing and social services are being reduced. The once-generous welfare state is gradually being dismantled. This financial squeeze is worsening now because of expenses for the immigrants. The newcomers receive enough money to live on plus free healthcare, education and access to special programs. Some cheat on this, registering in several places under different names and getting multiple benefits. Many Germans resent paying for all this with high taxes while their own standard of living is declining.

The trauma of war and displacement has caused a few refugees to lose their moral compass. They do things here they wouldn’t do at home.

Two-thirds of them are young men, some of them convinced Allah has ordained males to dominate females. In their view, women who aren’t submissive need to be punished. Since being male is the only power many of them have, they feel threatened by women in positions of power, and they sometimes react with hostility. Thousands of women have been physically attacked — some murdered and raped and many aggressively grabbed on the breasts as a way of showing dominance. Tens of thousands of women have been abused — insulted, harassed, spat upon.

Many refugees are aware that Germany, as a member of NATO, supports these wars that have forced them to flee their homes. They’re not fooled by the rhetoric of “humanitarian intervention.” They know NATO’s motives are imperialistic: to install governments agreeable to Western control of their resources and markets. Although they are now safe, their relatives and friends are still being killed with weapons made in Germany and oppressed by soldiers and police trained and financed by Germany. Rather than a grateful attitude, some have come with a resentful one.

Crime has increased, especially violent crimes such as knife attacks. Hundreds of people have been killed and wounded by refugees. Organized criminal clans have become established in Germany’s lenient legal atmosphere. A few IS and al-Qaeda members slipped in with the refugees. They have bombed marketplaces, attacked synagogues, murdered Jews on the street, recruited new members in mosques. Although only a fraction of immigrants are criminals, they’re the ones who make the news.

Statistics on crime and asylum:

https://thecritic.co.uk/germany-is-acknowledging-the-unspeakable/

https://thecritic.co.uk/the-german-disillusionment/

https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/germany-violent-crime-climbs-to-historic-highs/

https://www.kas.de/en/kurzum/detail/-/content/wake-up-call-for-integration-policy

https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/54441/germany-net-migration-at-all-time-high

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_and_crime_in_Germany

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_Germany

In the past 80 years Germany has become a peaceful country. The current violence is profoundly disturbing to them. It brings back terrible memories.

The mainstream German parties and media are committed to these wars and therefore refuse to substantially restrict asylum. The AfD wants to end the NATO wars and limit asylum. This has found widespread support in the population. A fifth of the voters chose the AfD in the recent election, twice as many as four years ago.

The party is particularly strong in the former East Germany, which has endured three dictatorships: the Nazis, the Stalinists, and now the tyranny of the Middle. The German Establishment and their media move aggressively against any trends that threaten their power. They have shown themselves to be just another vicious ruling elite willing to do whatever it takes to maintain control.

Another success factor for AfD is its call to overcome the postwar guilt and shame that have been predominant in the country. For many years these were a necessary reckoning with past atrocities, but this burden of blame has increasingly lamed the country and become a handicap to its progress. The AfD’s emphasis on leaving them behind is part of a gradual evolution that has been going on since the 1990s.

When I came to Germany in 1993 as a guest professor, I noticed that many students were eager to express their dislike of their country: Germany had done terrible things, and they were ashamed of it. They took pride in this dislike, as if it were a virtue, and they seemed to be trying to win my approval with it. When I pointed out they were feeling guilty about crimes their grandparents’ generation had committed 50 years ago, they responded, “It might happen again!”

I left Germany after 2½ years and returned in 2000. The attitude of guilt was still there, but not so universal. In classroom discussions a few students defended their country, but they were quickly overruled by the majority. Sometimes after class some students would apologize to me for this minority. They were embarrassed by it, found it shameful.

The minority grew over the years. Discussions sometimes became heated arguments. The students who wanted to hold on to guilt seemed to do so out of civic duty. Those who wanted to abandon it had an impatient, enough-is-enough attitude.

In 2010 Shimon Peres, Israel’s president and Nobel-Prize-winner, told the German parliament the most important lesson to be learned from the Holocaust is, “Never again!” His statement implied that the Holocaust came not just out of the historical situation back then but out of something in Germans that is there even today. Germans have a personal responsibility for atrocities committed before they were born. This received widespread praise from the Establishment.

The pro-guilt students felt confirmed by this. They insisted present-day Germans have to guard against these tendencies. These students wore their shame like a badge of honor.

In 2017 Alternatives for Germany gained entry to parliament as the third strongest party. The mainstream parties and media went into full alarm, launching a defamation campaign with distorted news, character assassination andoutright lies,implying the AfD was full of neo-Nazis who would again turn Germany into a pariah in the family of nations. They portrayed its leaders as narrow-minded bigots who want to throw all foreigners out of the country.

But the facts speak otherwise. Their chancellor candidate, Alice Weidel, is a lesbian with a woman partner who came originally from Sri Lanka. The party’s platform clearly states their deportation program applies only to criminals and to people who have entered the country illegally, and then only if their home country is no longer at war.

Since foreign media get most of their information from the German media, it’s no wonder they present a false view of the AfD, claiming it is fascist. Fascism is not on the rise in Germany. That’s a perennial scare story. What is rising is public outrage.

The mainstream attack on the AfD polarized Germany. Discussions became much more emotional, loaded with anger, self-righteousness and defensiveness. The society has been going through a transition that has intensified in the past eight years, and the AfD is an important factor in it.

After the recent election the parties face the unwieldy task of building a coalition that can actually govern. The strongest force is the conservative Union with 28% of the vote. AfD is second with 20%, Social Democrats 16%, Greens 11%, and Left 8%. To isolate the AfD, the Union has refused to form a coalition with it, preferring to cobble together a coalition with the smaller parties. But the differences among them are so deep that agreements will be difficult to reach. The political process will be deadlocked at a time when Germany needs decisive action. The resulting chaos will strengthen AfD all the more, and it may end up the strongest party after the next election. If the government falls apart, that could be soon.

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