Dialog International

Hitler's Ivy League Connection

What were the origins of the Nazi theory of the Master Race? Yes, by the 1920s there was a growing body of "research" from German biologists that dealt with racial differences. But by far the most influential and "advanced" work was coming from the American eugenics movement. 

Richard Conniff has a fascinating article on the key role of Yale University professors and alumni in this sad chapter of American academic history: 

"Proponents of eugenics included Yale president James R. Angell, celebrated football coach Walter Camp ’80, primatologist Robert Yerkes, and Yale medical school dean Milton Winternitz. Stewart Paton, who pioneered mental health services for college students during a two-year stint at Yale in the 1920s, was a eugenicist. So was Rabbi Louis L. Mann, a lecturer at Yale, who told an audience at a 1923 birth control conference that, even in ancient times, the wise men of Israel had realized the necessity of checking the multiplication of the unfit."

The seminal work of the American eugenics movements was a 1916 book by Yale graduate Madison Grant - The Passing of a Great Race - which extolled the superiority of Nordic stock and warned against its "corruption" by Jews, Blacks, Slav and any other race that lacked blond hair and blue eyes. In 1930 Madison Grant received a letter of thanks and appreciation from a rising political star in Germany - recently released from prison - Adolf Hitler.  His book Mein Kampf displays an intimate knowledge of Grant's theories, as well as anti-immigrant and racial legislation in the United States, which Hitler believed Germany should adopt immediately. 

And, once in power, Hitler implemented eugenic principles in ways the American proponents could only dream of.  While sterilizations were common in the US, the Americans watched in wonder and admiration as the Nazis introduced systematic euthanasia - and then extermination on a mass scale.

As a Harvard PhD, I wish I could take some pleasure on this terrible blemish on the history of Yale University - a dreaded rival.  But Harvard was also a hotbed of eugenics - indeed it was the center of eugenics research.  Charles Davenport, a Harvard-trained biologist, was the leading figure in the American eugenics movement, and a key advisor to the American Eugenics Society. 

Another, unrelated,  Harvard connection was Ernst "Putzi" Hanfstaengl, Hitler's early advisor and a Harvard man through and through (see Hitler's Piano Player) 

And Harvard's contribution to pseudo-science in Germany continues today. A profound influence on the best-selling eugenicist Thilo Sarrazin is Harvard graduate Charles Murray. 

Germany's solar power the equivalent of 20 nukes

Solar power production in Germany has reached a milestone: 22 gigawatts per hour:

German solar power plants produced a world record 22 gigawatts of electricity per hour - equal to 20 nuclear power stations at full capacity - through the midday hours on Friday and Saturday, the head of a renewable energy think tank said.

After the Fukushima disaster Angela Merkel shocked her own party by charting a course to phase out nuclear power in Germany.  That decision has accelerated the production and adoption of solar:

Norbert Allnoch, director of the Institute of the Renewable Energy Industry (IWR) in Muenster, said the 22 gigawatts of solar power per hour fed into the national grid on Saturday met nearly 50 percent of the nation's midday electricity needs.

"Never before anywhere has a country produced as much photovoltaic electricity," Allnoch told Reuters. "Germany came close to the 20 gigawatt (GW) mark a few times in recent weeks. But this was the first time we made it over."

The record-breaking amount of solar power shows one of the world's leading industrial nations was able to meet a third of its electricity needs on a work day, Friday, and nearly half on Saturday when factories and offices were closed.

This amazing production record didn't just happen on its own; it required government support in the form of legislation and subsidies:

Government-mandated support for renewables has helped Germany became a world leader in renewable energy and the country gets about 20 percent of its overall annual electricity from those sources.

Germany has nearly as much installed solar power generation capacity as the rest of the world combined and gets about four percent of its overall annual electricity needs from the sun alone. It aims to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2020.

Tomorrow is a national holiday in German (Pentecost) and yet another green objective could be achieved: for a few hours 100% of Germany's electriciy needs will be covered by renewable energy:

An Pfingstmontag könnte ein lang gehegter Traum der Ökostromer in Erfüllung gehen: Einen Tag lang wird vielleicht zum ersten Mal der gesamten deutschen Strombedarf fast ausschließlich mit Solar- und Windkraftanlagen gedeckt werden können – zumindest ein paar Stunden lang. 100 Prozent Ökostrom im Netz – hat die Energiewende schon funktioniert?

(On Pentecost Monday the dream of the renewable energy advocates could become a reality: for the first time the entire electricity needs for an entire day could be met almost entirely through solar and wind power installations - at least for a few hours.  100% renewable energy in the grid - does this mean the great energy shift is working?)

And what is America's response to this achievement?  Drill, baby, drill!

Cross-posted at DailyKos.

Sarrazin attacks Euro in new book, endorsed by neo-Nazi NPD

Thilo Sarrazin's new book Europe Doesn't Need the Euro promises to be a blockbuster bestseller, just like his 2010 book Deutschland schafft sich ab ("Germany Abolishes Itself").  In the earlier book Sarrazin clained that inferior races (Arabs, Turks) immigrating to Germany were contaminating the gene pool of the German Volk.  With that book Sarrazin became a darling of the far right, and the neo-Nazi NPD plastered Berlin with campaign posters proclaiming "Sarrazin was right".

In his new book Sarrazin steers clear of eugenics, but advances some controversial ideas again using inflammatory language.  Here Sarrazin argues that the Euro zone is holding Germany to ransom over its past aggression, blackmailing it into agreeing to Euro bonds or mutualized debt. Supporters of Euro bonds in Germany “are driven by that very German reflex, that we can only finally atone for the Holocaust and World War Two when we have put all our interests and money into European hands,”

The idea that Germany is unfairly forced to atone forever  for the Holocaust and reliquish sovereignty to culturally lazy (and inferior) southern Europeans fits the worldview of the extreme right in Germany. 

The NPD celebrates Sarrazin's new book and sees him as a hero of the German Volk: 

Die NPD – und offenbar auch Thilo Sarrazin – setzt alles daran, diesem fast gebrochenen Volk seinen nationalen Selbstbehauptungswillen wiederzugeben. Die selbstbewußte Vertretung deutscher Gegenwartsinteressen ist aber nur durch einen Schlußstrich unter die irrwitzige „Vergangenheitsbewältigung“ möglich.

(The NPD - and evidently Thilo Sarrazin as well - is doing all it can to restore a sense of national confidence to the nearly-broken German Volk.  A confident representation of Gemany's national interests is only possible if we end once and for all this stupid "coming to terms with the past" (Vergangenheitsbewältigung))

But the more mainstream reviews of Europa braucht den Euro nicht have not been so enthusiastic. The Frankfurter Rundschau calls it "a repulsive book" - Ein widerliches Buch :

Sarrazin konstruiert den Gegensatz zwischen dem effizientem Nordeuropa und dem schludrigen Süden − fleißig gegen faul, weiß gegen braun. Club Med nennt er die Staaten, denen er unsolides Verhalten unterstellt. Wo verortet Sarrazin Frankreich? Im Club Med!

Klar, hier schreibt ein Eurogegner, der zu wissen glaubt, warum Deutschland bislang so europafreundlich agiert hat. Die anhaltende Begeisterung für Europa sei nicht zu erklären „ohne die moralische Last der Nazizeit“.

(Sarrazin constructs a dichotomy between the efficient northern Europe and the slovenly south - industrious vs. lazy, white vs. brown.  He labels the countries who behave unseriously Club Med.  Where does he position France?  In Club Med!)

Clearly we have here an opponent of Europe who claims to know why Germany has acted as a proponent of a unified Europe. The enthusiam for Europe can only be seen against the background of the "moral burden of the Nazi era.")

But one can point out every error, distortion and lie in Sarrazin's book and it won't make a bit of difference.  The book will be a bestseller, and Sarrazin will continue to spread his poison on television and every other public forum that will have him.

Facebook Billionaire Peter Thiel: It sucks that women have the vote

Peter Thiel was born in Frankfurt, but has made his fortune in Silicon Valley - first with PayPal (acquired by Ebay), and then he made a modest ($500M) investment in an obscure start-up called Facebook.  That investment is now worth more than $1.5 billion.

Thiel has used his fortune to fund a number of right-wing causes, including financial backing of Tea Party candidates.  Like his fellow German immigrant Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Thiel has adopted an extreme Libertarian philosophy and gave $millions to the failed presidential campaign of Ron Paul. But Thiel is basically indifferent to Ron Paul's success - or lack thereof.  Like Hoppe, Thiel has nothing but contempt for democracy and the democratic process.  His political views can be summed up in one sentence:

Most importantly, I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.

In his statement of personal belief published by the Cato Institute, The Education of a Libertarian, Thiel pinpoints American capitalism's last hurrah - before everything went to the dogs:

To return to finance, the last economic depression in the United States that did not result in massive government intervention was the collapse of 1920–21. It was sharp but short, and entailed the sort of Schumpeterian “creative destruction” that could lead to a real boom. The decade that followed — the roaring 1920s — was so strong that historians have forgotten the depression that started it. The 1920s were the last decade in American history during which one could be genuinely optimistic about politics.

What put America on a downward spiral?  Women's suffrage:

Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women — two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians — have rendered the notion of “capitalist democracy” into an oxymoron.

And not just women.  Immigrants, too, are ruining America's chances for a achieving a libertarian order.  This anti-immigrant hate is another trait that Peter Thiel shares with fellow immigrant Hans-Hermann Hoppe: 

Thiel gilt als Libertärer, der sich dafür einsetzt, dass der Staat möglichst wenig in Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft hineinregiert. Politiker hätten gar nicht das Wissen, um zu erkennen, welche Probleme die dringendsten seien, sagt er. Als Student gründete Thiel eine konservative Studentenzeitung, die gegen Feminismus und Multikulti an der Uni wetterte. Im Präsidentschaftswahlkampf 2008 unterstützte er den Republikaner John McCain, auch Kandidaten der ultrakonservativen Tea Party bekamen Geld von ihm. Auch an eine Anti-Einwanderer-Organisation soll Thiel Geld gespendet haben.

(Thiel is seen as a Libertarian who wants to keep government out of the economy and society as much as possible. Politicians don't have the knowledge to see what the most pressing problems are, he says.  As a student Thiel founded a conservative student paper that agitated against feminism and multiculturalism.  In the 2008 presidential campaign he supported the Republican John McCain, and candidates of the ultra-conservative Tea Party received money from him.  And he donates money to an anti-immigrant organization.) 

But Thiel differs from Hoppe in one crucial aspect:  Hoppe hates gays and lesbians and would "expel" them from his "libertarian order"  (See Hoppe's book Democracy: The God that Failed).  Peter Thiel is an openly gay man. 

Cross-Posted at DailyKos. 

Sympathy for the Devil: Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Anders Breivik

(HT Politblogger) Darling of the Islamophobic right, fellow at the neo-conservative American Enterprise Institute and serial liar Ayaan Hirsi Ali was in Berlin last week to receive the Axel Springer Honorary Prize.  In her acceptance speech, which was delivered in English, she attacked the "advocates of silence" who censor the truth about Islam and the Muslim extremists who are destroying Europe:

The advocates of silence warn us that publishing these facts or debating them in the media and in parliament will transform the existing resentment towards Muslims into violent behavior. Censorship and silence, we are told, are the best preventive remedies against hatred and violence.

I believe that the advocates of silence are wrong, profoundly and dangerously wrong.

Just who these "advocates of silence" are Ayaan Hirsi Ali never says, but presumably they are anyone who rejects hate speech against Muslims or anyone who proposes peaceful dialogue and reconciliation among different faiths.

But Ayaan Hirsi Ali has a great deal of understanding for mass murder Anders Behring Breivik, who was forced to kill 77 mostly young people because of the treachery of the "advocates of silence":

Fourthly and finally, that one man who killed 77 people in Norway, because he fears that Europe will be overrun by Islam, may have cited the work of those who speak and write against political Islam in Europe and America – myself among them – but he does not say in his 1500 page manifesto that it was these people who inspired him to kill. He says very clearly that it was the advocates of silence. Because all outlets to express his views were censored, he says, he had no other choice but to use violence.

Yes, the "advocates of silence" left Breivik with no other choice than to hunt down teenagers systematically.  Who wouldn't be driven to desperate acts by this terrible "leftist" conspiracy?

Maybe because Ayaan Hirsi Ali was speaking English her words didn't provoke outrage among the German listeners.  On the contrary, her speech was met with a prolonged standing ovation.  The first to leap to his feet and clap was the writer Henryk Broder - cited by Anders Behring Breivik numerous times in his manifesto as an inspiration. 

Fortunately for us, however, a voice of reason was in the audience, and his reaction was reported in Cicero: 

„Träume ich oder passiert das gerade wirklich?“, fragt raunend Daniel Gerlach, Chefredakteur der Zeitschrift Zenith, der im Publikum sitzt. „So reden rechtsradikale Verschwörungstheoretiker. Das ist der Gipfel, den Massenmord durch Breivik damit zu erklären, dass die islamische Gefahr in Europa von dunklen Mächten verschwiegen worden sei.“ Gerlach scheint einer der wenigen Zuhörer im vollbesetzten Festsaal zu sein, die über die Rede entsetzt sind.

(Am I dreaming, or did this really just happen?" asked an astonished Daniel Gerlach, editor-in-chief for the magazine Zenith, who was sitting in the audience."This is how right-wing conspiracy theory believers talk.  This really takes the cake, explaining Breivik's murderous rampage as the result of mysterious dark powers keeping quiet about the dangers of Islam in Europe."  Gerlach seems to be one of the few listeners in the packed hall who is shocked by the speech.) 

In his 1500-page manifesto, Breivik expresses his deep admiration for Ayaan Hirsi Ali, writing that she deserves the Nobel Prize.  For the time being, she will have to make do with the Axel Springer Bild-Zeitung Prize. 

 

Hans-Hermann Hoppe: Public Sector Employees are "Parasites"

German-American libertarian philosopher and Austrian economics expert Hans-Hermann Hoppe(I use his full name to distinguish him from the Georg-Büchner-Preis winner Felicitas Hoppe) was interviewed recently in connection with the publication of his book Wettbewerb der Gauner in Germany.  In the interview Hoppe attacks the evils of democracy, which for him is just a form of communism:

Und vielleicht setzt sich dann auch endlich die Einsicht durch, dass die Demokratie, in deren Namen all diese Sauereien geschehen sind, nichts anderes ist als eine speziell hinterlistige Form des Kommunismus; und dass die Politiker, die diesen moralischen und wirtschaftlichen Irrsinn angerichtet haben und sich an ihm persönlich bereichert haben (und doch nie für den von ihnen angerichteten Schaden haften mussten!), nichts sind als ein verachtungswürdiger Haufen kommunistischer Gauner.

(And perhaps finally it will sink in that all of these awful things are done in the name of democracy, the most insidious form of communism. And the politicians who enrich themselves with this moral and economic madness (and for which they are never held accountable( are nothing more than a contemptible band of communist crooks.)

Anyone who earns a paycheck from the public sector - public school teachers, fire fighters, police officers, town managers, etc. - are "parasites" who are stealing the wealth of the property owners - the natural elite.  Once again it is democracy that is at the root of this monumental fraud and theft:

Ich behaupte und habe dies in meinen Werken auch vielfältig zu belegen versucht, dass die Demokratie für diesen fatalen Zustand sogar ursächlich verantwortlich ist. Die Zahl produktiver Personen nimmt ständig ab, und die Zahl derjenigen Personen, die von dem durch die ersteren erarbeiteten Einkommen und Vermögen parasitär zehrt, nimmt ständig zu. Das kann auf die Dauer nicht gut gehen.

(I have attempted to show in my work that democracy is responsible for this fatal situation. The number of productive individuals is on the decline, while the number of people who are parasites on the income created by the former continues to grow.  That can't be good in the long run.)

The joke of course is that Hoppe's salary and pension are paid for by the taxpayers of the state of Nevada. 

What would replace democracy in Hoppe's brave new world?  In his book Democracy: The God that Failed, Hoppe extols the virtues of feudal monarchies over the modern pluralistic states and societies.  The natural elite aristocrats of yore had a superior, long-term "time preference" in contrast to the parasitic political class that control democracies.  I'm guessing then that Hoppe's contempt for Germany and the United States is matched with admiration for Saudi Arabia, whose royal family certainly has a long-term "time preference."

Hoppe's diatribe against democracy is echoed again this month in the libertarian magazine eigentümlich frei which includes an editorial by Andreas Tögel attacking democracy:

Wahr ist vielmehr: Freiheit und Demokratie passen schlecht zu einander, ja – sie schließen einander aus!

(The truth is: freedom and democracy don't belong together - indeed, they cancel each other out. ) 

 

Review: Hermann Broch's Die Schuldlosen

Hermann Broch's last work, Die Schuldlosen: Ein Roman in elf Erzählungen (1950) ("The Guiltless Ones: A Novel in Eleven Stories") is a challenging book for any reader, which is why it is probably Broch's least-known - and least-examined - novel. The 11 stories were written over 3 decades, but 5 were completed while Broch was in exile at Yale University, and the novel was published just months before Broch's death in 1951. 

Die Schuldlosen lacks the epic sweep and narrative cohesion of Broch's masterpiece trilogy Die Schlafwandler; the novel follows just half a dozen characters in ten-year intervals beginning in 1913.  But Die Schuldlosen deals with Broch's grand theme of individuals who are both the pawns, but also the unwitting agents, of historical forces.  In some ways Die Schuldlosen is the sequel to Huguenau oder die Sachlichkeit, the final novel of Die Schlafwandler, with Broch's philosophical musings on Der Zerfall aller Werte - the disintegration of all values.  Die Schuldlosen depicts the world that comes after the collapse of values - the immoral age and triumph of Kitsch which leads inexorably - as Broch writes in the 9th story, entitled 1933, to the concentration camp (the Nazis briefly held Broch  in a concentration camp in 1938). 

In the immediate postwar period and in the aftermath of the Nuremberg Trials Broch was preoccupied with the questions of justice and guilt - especially the concept of collective guilt.  Who or what was to blame for the rise of the Nazis?  So the title of the book - Die Schuldlosen / The Guiltless Ones - is bitterly ironic.  For all the key characters in the novel - with the exception of the Old Beekeeper and his granddaughter Melitta - are guilty. The novel is typology of guilt - ranging from A to Z, from the central figure Andreas  - or A., as he is also called - to the math teacher Zacharias and the maid Zerline. 

Andreas is a young, successful diamond dealer who, at the height of the Weimar hyper-inflation, turns up in an unnamed central German city and moves in with the Baroness and her unwed daughter who are forced to take in boarders after the inflation wiped out their fortune.  They still employ the services of Zerline, a middle-age, scheming maidservant who had joined the household already as a young woman.  From Zerline Andreas learns of the sordid past of the Baroness, her adulterous affair with a playboy that produced the daughter Hildegard. 

In one story (DIe vier Reden des Studienrats Zacharias) Andreas encounters the prototype Nazi (and, ironically stalwart Social Democrat) Zacharias and is subjected to his reactionary tirades. 

While Zacharias is the only overtly political  and therefore the most obviously "guilty" figure in the novel with respect to the German debacle, he is a pathetic character who evidently enjoys being beaten by his wife.  The most fully-realized character is the maid Zerline, a force of nature who effortlessly manipulates or dispatches anyone to get what she wants.  She procures and then corrupts the innocent young Melitta, and then engineers her suicide.  Eventually she tricks her employer - the Baroness - into taking a fatal overdose and takes her place as mistress of the house.

 In the climatic 10th story (Steinerner Gast) which takes place after the Nazis have seized power, we find Andreas living in a mother-son relationship with the Baroness.  He has grown grotesquely obese thanks to Zerline's cooking and spends his days managing his money.  Only with the sudden appearance of the blind beekeeper is he finally forced to admit his guilt - for his role in the death of Melitta but also for the general drift of his world into brutal fascism.  It is the guilt not of action, but inaction, the guilt of apathy (Gleichgültigkeit) and moral lassitude:

Das politische Untier Hitler kam vor meinen Augen Schritt für Schritt zur Herrschaft, und ich machte Geld. Das war meine Mannesleistung, faslche Härte und echte Schuld. Wahrlich, selbst wenn Nicht-Arbeit keine Schuld wäre, die Heuchelei ist es. Und das habt ihr zu begreifen.

(The political monster Hitler came step by step to power and I made money.  That was my big achievement, fake rigor but genuine guilt.  Honestly, even if not-working is not guilt it is hypocrisy.  You must understand this.)

The beekeeper/grandfather gently encourages Andreas to take responsibility for his guilt; he promptly puts a bullet through his temple and collapses in the form of  the St. Andrew's Cross, a recurring image in the novel. But Andreas is the exception; the only one who achieves a measure of insight into his guilt.  The other "guiltless ones" live on triumphantly, perhaps reflecting Broch's pessimism for the postwar era. 

Die Schuldlosen is a complex work of fiction comprised of parables, verse, philosophical digressions, layered with symbolism.  A complete analysis and interpretation would require a book-length study.  But, as with Die Schlafwandler and Tod des Vergil, readers willing to invest the time and effort are richly rewarded. 

NY Times Profiles NRW Leader Hannelore Kraft

Evidently Hannelore Kraft and teh Social Democrats scored a decisive victory in today's state elections in North Rhine-Westfalia (NRW), whcih means that the governing Red-Green coalition will remain intact (the Pirates also did well with 8% of the vote). 

The New York Times continues its good coverage of German politics with a profile of NRW minister Kraft and the importance of NRW in assessing the future direction of Germany: 

It is difficult to overstate North Rhine-Westphalia’s importance in German politics. With a population of nearly 18 million, it is home to more than one out of every five Germans (California, by comparison, is less than one-eighth of the American population). Ms. Merkel has not forgotten that it was a stinging defeat here for the Social Democrats in 2005 that led to the unseating of her predecessor, Gerhard Schröder, and her own ascension as leader of Germany.

Frau Kraft owes much of her success to her very effective campaigning skills:

Hildegard Ocklenburg, 59, who came out in Vingst to see Ms. Kraft speak, used the same word as numerous other voters when asked to describe her, “volksnah,” which translates as “down to earth,” but literally means “near the people.”

“She can talk to people in a very uncomplicated manner,” Ms. Ocklenburg said, “open and personable.”

On the campaign trail, this native daughter of Mülheim in the state’s industrial Ruhr Valley jokes, argues and commiserates with voters in the thick Ruhrpott dialect of the state’s mining and industrial region. She presents herself as “Hannelore from the Ruhr,” as Der Spiegel, the weekly newsmagazine, put it, still living in Mülheim with a pinball machine in her basement recreation room, but whose folksy accent vanishes during closed-door political negotiations.

Whether the NRW election results reflect a shift in politics that would make the Social Democrats once again relevant on the national stage remains to be seen.  With the collapse of "Merkozy" it doeas appeat that Angela Merkel is increasingly isolated - in Europe, but also in Germany.

Germany a Nightmare for the National Rifle Association

The National Rifle Association (NRA) is the premier organization in the United States that promotes gun ownership.  No doubt the NRA would dearly like to set up a branch in Germany, for there is entirely too little shooting and killing taking place in the Federal Republic.  Last year German police fired off 85 bullets in total - in a nation of 85 million people: 

85 Patronen verfeuerten Polizeibeamte in Deutschland im Jahr 2011 bundesweit auf der Jagd nach Verbrechern, 49 davon waren Warnschüsse. 36-mal gaben die Polizisten gezielte Schüsse ab. Dabei wurden 15 Personen verletzt und sechs getötet, wie aus einer Statistik der Deutschen Hochschule der Polizei im westfälischen Münster hervorgeht.

(Police officers in Germany fired 85 bullets in 2011 in the entire country while pursuing crminals; 49 of these were warning shots.  The police fired targeted shots at individuals 36 times, during which 15 people were wounded and six killed, according to statistics provided by the Police College in Muenster)

Meanwhile the New York City police fired slightly fewer bullets - 84 bullets, to be exact - at one man, while their colleagues in Los Angeles fired 90 times at an unarmed teenager.  Still, there is far too little bloody mayhem in the United States to satisfy the NRA; the organizaiton is pushing to allow concealed weapons in schools, churches, hospitals, and even courtrooms. 

Read Battleground America: One Nation Under the Gun. 

East Germany the "most atheistic" of any region

The University of Chicago recently completed an international  survey on belief - Belief About God Across Time and Countries - and discovered that the eastern states of Germany -which comprised the former DDR - are today  hotbeds of non-belief:

"Atheism is strongest in northwest European countries such as Scandinavia and the former Soviet states (except for Poland). The former East Germany had the highest rate of people who said they never believed in God (59 percent); in comparison, 4 percent of Americans had that response."

Could this be a legacy of communist rule? No, because belief in God is growing in Russia.  The United States - a country that incarcerates and executes more of its citizens than any other developed county - remains a nation of believers.  Americans, furthermore, have a childlike belief in a "personal relationship" with God, while eastern Germans reject that notion:

Support for the concept that God is concerned with people in a personal way ranged from 8 percent in the former East Germany to 82 percent in the Philippines. In the United States, 68 percent of people surveyed held that view.

What could explain this stubborn refusal to believe among Germans in the east?  The ultra-conservative Catholic writer Martin Mosebach sees this as the perniciuos effect of Protestantism in the east Germany:  

Aber tatsächlich ist es so, dass der Protestantismus, so wie er sich im Osten entwickelt hat, mit seinem Hang zur Säkularisierung fast notwendig zur Schwächung des Glaubens geführt hat. Sonst hätte der Kommunismus den Glauben dort nicht so nachhaltig zerstören können.

(But it's a fact that Protestantism - as it developed in the east - with its secularizing tendencies resulted in a weakening of belief in God.  Otherwise communism never could have destroyed faith there so permanently.)

Mosebach is silent about how the child sexual abuse scandal has virtually destroyed the Roman Catholic Church in Germany.  Could it be that east Germans, who lived through the terror of war and more than 50 years of authoritarian rule - first under the Nazis and then under the Stalinists - find the notion of a loving and forgiving God patently ridiculous?