Dialog International

Upstart Party: Alternative für Deutschland

Protest parties come and go in Germany.  The newest one to appear on the scene -  Alternative für Deutschland - may have legs:   

Germany’s newest protest party has a dramatic, crisis-era sales pitch to German voters. The euro was a “fatal mistake that threatens all our prosperity”, it says in its manifesto, thus a return to national European currencies and an “orderly dissolution” of the single currency is necessary.

Otherwise the party demands a change of EU treaties to allow Germany’s exit from the euro – vetoing further loans from the European Stability Mechanism bailout fund as leverage if need be. “We present an alternative to the so-called ‘no-alternative’ politics,” proclaims its manifesto.

It is a message that resonates with many Germans across the political spectrum.  Some have accused AfD of being a decoy for right-wing extremist elements, especially since it has been favorably discussed by the neo-fascist weekly Junge Freiheit.  But a look at the party's official platform on it Web site doesn't necessarily support that view. It is all about leaving the Euro behind; the party's social agenda is perfunctory and pretty much mirrors that of the CDU. 

In an interview for Der Spiegel, one of AfD's founders - Konrad Adam - claims that the party tries to weed out Nazis and other extremisits: 

Adam: Wir fragen bei der Aufnahme neuer Mitglieder nach früheren Parteizugehörigkeiten. Wer bei der NPD oder der DVU war, ist bei uns nicht willkommen. Wir haben schon Beitrittskandidaten abgelehnt und Mitglieder wieder ausgeschlossen. Das werden wir auch weiterhin tun.

According to Die Zeit, the upstart AfD is being taken very seriously in Berlin, precisely because it is not a party of fanatics.  And it could conceively cost Angela Merkel the election:

Trotzdem ist die Alternative für Deutschland die erste Protestpartei, die man in Berlin ernst nimmt. Offiziell wird sie von Union und FDP ignoriert. Aber im kleinen Kreis geben bürgerliche Politiker zu, dass sie die neue Partei fürchten. "Das ist Fleisch von unserem Fleische", sagen sie. Die Parteimitglieder seien keine Spinner oder Sektierer, sondern Menschen mit bürgerlichen Berufen. Und wenn die Euro-Skeptiker bei der Wahl nur ein bis zwei Prozent der Stimmen holten – dann könnten das genau jene Prozentpunkte sein, die Merkel am Ende fehlten.

(Even so, the Alternative for Germany is the first protest party that Berlin takes seriously. Officially it is ignored by the CDU and the Liberals (FDP). But inofficially the politicians admit that they are a bit afraid. "These are people of our own flesh and blood," they say. The Party members are not cultists or fanatics, but rather mainstream professionals.  And if the Euro-skeptics win just one or two percent of the votes in the next election - even that small margin could mean the end for Merkel.)

 

The German Fetish of Academic Titles

Fact: Germany's education minister, "Prof. Dr." Annette Schavan, plagiarized significant sections of her 1980 doctoral dissertation at the University in Düsseldorf. The documentation of her plagiarism is available online at the schvanplag Web site for anyone to see.  The fact that Schavan, among other things, copied sections of Hannah Arendt's 1959 work The Human Condition without attribution would seem to disqualify her for a cabinet position in Berlin. 

Fact: Schavan's thesis advisors and the faculty at the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf failed to detect the plagiarism of Arendt and the numerous other sources.  However, 33 years later, when confronted with the irrefutable evidence of plagiarism the university did the right thing and rescinded Schavan's doctorate.

Fact: Schavan was forced to resign her post, but intends to sue the university to win back her doctorate, despite the irrefutable evidence of her plagiarism.  Her good friend, Dr. Angela Merkel, accepted Schavan's resignation reluctantly and "with a heavy heart."

Fact: Germany awards 25,000 doctorates each year, but only a small percentage of the recipients intend to pursue academic careers.  The academic title seems to carry prestige in German business and politics, even though it is absurd to invest energy in writing a dissertation to pursue a career in an unrelated field.  From the New York Times:

In many countries, busy professionals with little interest in tenure-track positions at universities do not tend to bother writing dissertations. In Germany, academic titles provide an ego boost that lures even businesspeople to pursue them.

Prof. Dr. Debora Weber-Wulff, a plagiarism expert at the University of Applied Sciences in Berlin and an active participant in VroniPlag, suggested getting rid of superfluous doctoral titles outside of academia. “A doctor only has meaning at a university or in academia,” she told German television. “It has no business on political placards.”

Wolfgang Münchau has an excellent column in Der Spiegel on "title inflation" in Germany: Die Teutonische Titel-Teuerung. Münchau points out that a dissertation should make an original contribution to the specific field, to advance the research. But that is too often not the case at German universities:

Bei einer Doktorarbeit würde man erwarten, dass da jemand etwas Neues entwickelt hat. Ein halbwegs kompetenter Doktorvater müsste sofort erkennen, ob hier etwas Neues entsteht oder nicht. Offensichtlich ist genau das aber zu selten der Fall.

(One might expect that someone has hit upon something new with a doctoral dissertation. Any half-way competent thesis advisor could determine whether the work contributes something new or not.  But apparently that is all too often not the case.) 

Münchau actually read the (plagiarized) dissertation of the "Cut-and-Paste" Baron Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg and found that it was nothing more than a long- a very long -"Spiegel column".

The "title fetish" problem in Germany will only change if 1) the universities tighten the requirements for the doctoral dissertation and insist on original scholarship and 2) industry recognizes and promotes talent based on performance instead of academic titles. But I don't expect things to change soon.

Angela Merkel Believes in God

Is this a big deal? Here in the United States we are used to our politicians wearing their religion on their sleeves. And even though belief in God is diminishing among Americans - as it is everywhere else in the West - it would be nearly impossible for a confessed atheist to achieve higher office here. 

But things are different in Germany.  Germans are for the most part much more reserved about professing their faith, and Angela Merkel comes from eastern Germany - the most atheistic region on the planet (although her father was a Lutheran pastor).

In any event, here is Angela Merkel on her video podcast making an impassioned statement of faith:

 

For non-German speakers, here is a good article from Global Post on Angela Merkel and religion:         

But it was Merkel’s statements on a podcast broadcast on her website earlier this month that Resing said revealed the most about her personal views.

“I am a member of the Evangelical Church,” she told a young theology student. “I believe in God, and religion is also my constant companion, and actually has been my entire life.”

“I find it very liberating that as a Christian, one can make mistakes,” she added. “That one knows there is something higher than just human beings, and that we are also called on to shape the world in responsibility for others. This is a framework for my life, which I consider very important.”

Such statements from politicians may be commonplace in the United States, but not in Germany, where personal religious beliefs are largely kept under wraps.

The article also mentions a 2009 meeting between Angela Merkel and Barack Obama where the president and chancellor prayed together in the Dresden Frauenkirche.

Is the chancellor looking to put the "C" back in the CDU ahead of the national elections?

Yale Students Walk Out on Plagiarist Baron zu Guttenberg

This is funny.  Angela Merkel's favorite baron - Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg - showed up on the Yale campus this week to deliver a talk on "Myths of Transatlantic Relations,"  No doubt he thought that the students at Yale would be too dumb or ignorant to know about his shameful plagiarism episode in Germany.

But "Gutti" was in for a surprise: 

At the event, protesters began booing and heckling the former minister after Sophia Clementi ’14, executive director of the Yale International Relations Association — which organized the event — wrapped up her introduction of Guttenberg.

“You’re not welcome here!” some protesters shouted as they left.

Aaron Vanides GRD ’16, an American Ph.D. student in medieval studies and also a walkout participant, called Guttenberg “the scum of the academic Earth” and said Guttenberg should have been prevented from speaking “at a private university that claims to be very concerned with academic integrity.”

Another student complained "that not only (had) Mr.Guttenberg violated the basic rules of academic integrity, but it was his audacity that made the case so shocking: it was plagiarizing to an extent that I couldn't even believe when it when I first read about it(his dissertation mainly consisted of copy-paste of whole pages of books including the footnotes etc.)and his audacity of banalizing his actions when it first came out."

If this event at Yale was supposed to kick off zu Guttenberg's triumphant "comeback" to the political arena, it wasn't a very promising start.

I do hope he gets the same treatment - or worse - if he shows up on the Harvard campus.

German Left Stands With Syrian Dictator Assad

Anti-Americanism is a chronic disease of the German left.  If the United States backs an opposition group anywhere in the world, then it must be a CIA plot - or better, a CIA-Israeli plot. America and Israel are the twin bogeymen for the left; their influence is always evil. 

And so it is with Syria.  The United States, along with the EU, Canada, Japan - and, yes, Israel - have called for the Syrian dictator Bahar al-Assad to step down and to stop the massacre of his own citizens.  In the logic of the German left this makes Assad a hero of the the forces of liberation.  The fact that Assad enjoys the full support of an autocrat like Vladimir Putin makes support for the repressive regime in Damascus all the more compelling (see my post The Putinization of the German Left).The left-wing blog NachDenkSeiten published a translation of an interview with MIddle East expert Günter Meyer, who blames the internal strife and violence in Syria on meddling by the United States and Israel. The US support for the Free Syrian Army has nothing to do with supporting democratic forces or humanitarian intervention but rather is a calculated strategy to realize geopolitical objectives in the region (original interview in English here):  

GM: There are numerous statements from the US government which stress the geostrategic importance of the ousting of the Syrian regime so that both Iran and Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon will loose their most important ally. The Iranian and Syrian supply of military equipment to Hezbollah will no longer be possible. The weakening of the military force of this Shiite organization means that its impact on the power structure of Lebanon and especially its ability to attack Israel will dramatically decline. [8] The fall of Bashar Al-Assad will also weaken the influence of Russia and China in the Middle East and strengthen the role of the US and Saudi Arabia in this region.

As to the question Cui bono? - who stands to gain from the bloodshed in Syria, Meyer has a clear answer: the United States and Israel.

GM: So far, Israel and the US have been the main winners. The government in Jerusalem has been able to rally significant support for its fight against Iran from Washington and the European capitals. This does not apply to the military intervention demanded by Netanyahu and Barak, but in respect to a significant increase in sanctions against Teheran which cause more and more serious problems for the economic development of Iran.

The US is profiting from the growing dependency of the GCC countries on military protection by US troops combined with record sales of weapons by arms manufacturers in the United States, where tens of thousands of new jobs are created and hundred thousands of old jobs are secured.

The journalist Karin Leukefeld reports for the left-wing newspapers Neues Deutschland and Junge Welt from inside Syria, and her "reporting" could be described as pure propaganda for the Assad regime.  In fact her journalistic "work" is routinely cited by the official SyriaNews agency.  In Leukefeld's view, the US wants control of Syria's gas reserves and the opposition forces are nothing more than mercenary "death squads" financed by the CIA.  All of the atrocities reported in the Western press are, in fact, committed by these CIA-funded para-military groups:

Es geht darum, eine Destabilisierungspolitik zu betreiben… Wo man nicht die eigenen Truppen hinschicken will. Weil diese Art der Intervention auch keine politische Legitimität hat. Ich denke, das ist ein „Undercover-War“, also ein Krieg, der illegal geführt wird. Man spricht auch von einem „schmutzigen Krieg“, weil er sich auch jenseits von völkerrechtlichen Vereinbarungen abspielt. Die USA haben immer zu solchen Gruppierungen gegriffen, wenn es um ihre strategischen, politischen Interessen in bestimmten Regionen gegangen ist. Um sie durchzusetzen bzw. durchzudrücken…

(The goal is to destabilize the region. When you don't want to send your own troops. Because an intervention like this has no political legitimacy. I call this an "undercover war" - a war that is being conducted illegally.  You can also call it a "dirty war", because it violates all human rights treaties. The US has always relied on groups like this to protect its strategic geopolitical interests in certain regions. In order to achieve - or force - them.)

It is grotesque to see the German left align itself with the reactionary theocracy in Tehran - because it represents a threat to Israeli- American interests in the region.  One left-wing publication calls for solidarity with the "Axis of Resistance" (die Achse des Widerstands) consisting of Iran, Syria and Hezbollah.  

In light of the German left's support forthe bloody dictatorship in Damascus - as well as the corrupt, authoritarian rule in Moscow -its embrace of 9/11 "Trutherism" seems almost benign by comparison.

Bettina Wulff sues Google

I never was a fan of Christian Wulff, Germany's former president who earlier this year was forced to resign in disgrace.  Wulff and his wife Bettina were always more interested in the perks of the office instead of serving their country.  Ever since Christian Wulff was nominated for the office in 2010 there have been whispers concerning Bettina and her alledged previous work as a call girl.  The rumors persist even today, and instead of just ignoring the allegations Frau Wulff has decided to fan the flames by suing eveyone in sight for defamation and slander. 

I've always been a critic of Germany's libel laws, which have a chilling effect on press freedom, but Bettina Wulf has now crossed the line completely by suing Google for its auto-complete function: 

When you search for “Bettina Wulff” on Google, the search engine will happily autocomplete this search with terms like “escort” and “prostitute.” That’s obviously not something you would like to be associated with your name, so the wife of former German president Christian Wulff has now, according to Germany’s Süddeutschen Zeitung, decided to sue Google for defamation. The reason why these terms appear in Google’s autocomplete is that there have been persistent rumors that Wulff worked for an escort service before she met her husband. Wulff categorically denies that this is true.

German’s former first lady now wants to ensure that Google stops autocompleting searches for her name with these terms. The rumors, she claims according to the German newspaper’s report, are “defamation” and have “destroyed her reputation.” For the most part, of course, Google suggestions just reflect how widespread these rumors are on the Internet. Google’s algorithms, after all, make these suggestions based on its analysis of what the majority of Internet users search for.

Going after Google is absurd, since the technology simply reflects the search engine's user behavior.  The lawsuit is also counterproductive, since the publicity only ensures that the search term "Bettina Wulf" will always be linked to "Prostitute", just as "Rick Santorum" will always be linked to ....uh, whatever. 

In general, I agree with Jakob Augstein's comment in Der Spiegel:

"Die Logik der Suchmaschine darf nicht von den Interessen des Einzelnen gebeugt werden"

("The logic of the search engine shouldn't be influenced by the interests of the individual.") 

Washington Post on growing neo-Nazi threat in Germany

The scandal surrounding the bothched police investigation into the NSU (National Socialist Underground) murders puts a spotlight on neo-Nazi activities in Germany.  Now the Washington Post is sounding the alarm: 

"Although security services were keeping an eye on neo-Nazi groups, official assessments declared that the threat of right-wing terrorism was insignificant. But while resources were being concentrated on Islamist extremism, a small cell of neo-Nazis went undetected while it killed 10 people, nine of them with immigrant backgrounds, over seven years.

Police never suspected a right-wing connection — they found it only after the neo-Nazis virtually dropped into their laps after a bungled bank robbery. Last week, Germany installed a new head of its equivalent to the FBI. He has sworn to overhaul the country’s intelligence services."

The most prominent neo-Nazi group in Germany is the National Democratic Party of Germany - The People's Union (NPD). The party, which was founded in 1964, promotes a racial kind of nationalism and calls for Germany's borders in 1937 to be reinstated. For some time there have been calls to ban the party (Parteiverbot).  Should that happen, the neo-Nazi activist Christian Worcht has founded a new party - Die Rechte  - The Right Party.  Worcht hopes to replicate the success of Die LINKE - the Left Party, which has won state and municipal elections in eastern Germany.  

There's plenty of information on Die Rechte on the party's official Web site - including an eighteen-page position paper(pdf warning).  The primary concern of Worcht and Die Rechte appears to be preservation of German identity - with the greatest threat coming not from Muslim immigrants but rather from America:

Die Deutsche Kultur mit seinen zahlreichen Prägungen ist in der ganzen Vielfalt zu erhalten und zufördern. Insbesondere Vereine, die sich mit der Pflege von Traditionen, regionaler oder gesamtdeutscher Geschichte, Kunst und Musik verdient machen, sind staatlich zu fördern. Gleichzeitig sind übermäßige fremde Einflüsse, wie z.B. die Amerikanisierung zurück zu drängen und durch ein Wiederentdecken der eigenen Kultur zu ersetzen.

(German culture in all its splendor and manifestations must be preserved and advanced. The government must support especially those local clubs whose mission is to foster the pan-German traditions in history, art and music.  At the same time, we must do everything in our power to suppress foreign influences - especially the Americanization - and replace it by rediscovering our own heritage.)

It is interesting that the anti-Americanism of the RIght Party mirrors the anti-Americanism of the Left Party. 

The Lies of Angela Merkel

Angela Merkel may be despised on the streets of Athens, but she is riding high in the recent polls conducted in Germany.  Germans apparently feel that Angie is looking out for German interests as she admonishes the rest of Europe to cut spending.

The new president of Germany, Joachim Gauk, rained on her parade with some (admittedly mild) criticism that the chancellor "has a duty to explain in a very detailed way" what the policies designed to save the single currency meant for the average person.

But Stephan Hebel in the Frankfurter Rundschau has a much harsher assessment of Angela Merkel's crisis management.  The Eurozone in its present form cannot survive, and the chancellor's Germany-centric policies that play well to German electorate are dishonest:

Die Euro-Krise sagt uns also vor allem eines, und genau das sagt die deutsche Kanzlerin nicht: Schon die gemeinsame Währung selbst trug Züge einer imperialen, am vordergründigen nationalen Interesse ausgerichteten Politik der deutschen Regierungen. Und es ist genau diese deutsche Vorherrschaft, die Merkel retten will, wenn sie sagt, sie rette den Euro.

Wollte sie aber eine Politik betreiben, die sie ehrlich erklären kann, dann müsste sie die Arbeit an einem solidarischen und deshalb zukunftstauglichen Europa jetzt beginnen. Sie müsste sich an die Spitze derer stellen, die Strategien und demokratische Institutionen für eine echte gemeinsame Wirtschaftspolitik entwickeln. Für ein Europa, in dem der Kampf um ausgeglichene Haushalte und gegen Verschwendung sehr wohl Platz hat, nicht aber die Macht des Stärksten, sich auf Kosten der Schwächeren zu bereichern.Sie hat sich anders entschieden.

Merkel betreibt einseitige Interessenpolitik – ohne Rücksicht auf Verluste und immer gerade so lange, bis Frankreich oder das Bundesverfassungsgericht sie ein bisschen bremst. Und sie erzählt uns, dieses Spiel mit dem Feuer sei im deutschen Interesse. Das ist die Lüge der Angela Merkel.

("The euro crisis tells us one thing above all, and that's precisely what the German chancellor does not tell us: the common currency has always borne the traits of an imperialist, primarily nationally-oriented policy on the part of the German government. And it is exactly this German dominance that Merkel is attempting to salvage when she says she's bailing out the euro. ... If what she wanted was to implement a policy that she can explain in all honesty, she'd have to start working right away on a Europe that can withstand the passage of time, a Europe of solidarity. She would have to represent those who are developing strategies and democratic institutions for a true common economic policy. For a Europe in which the battle for balanced budgets and against profligacy have a firmly established place. And one where the strongest cannot enrich themselves at the expense of the weakest. But she has decided on a different course. Merkel's policy is based on special interests - without regard for losses and for as long as she can get away with it, until France or the Federal Constitutional Court slow her down somewhat. And she tells us that this playing with fire is in the interest of Germany. That is Angela Merkel's lie.")

Roubini: "I give the Euro three to six months"

New York economist-seer Nouriel Roubini (aka "Dr. Doom") predicted the global economic meltdown in 2008.  Now, in a gloomy interview in the Handelsblatt, he sees bad things happening to the Euro unless emergency pan-European measures are taken: 

 Europa hat aber doch keine Zeit mehr. Europa ist wie ein Auto, das auf eine Mauer zurast. Jetzt muss man abbiegen. Die Euro-Zone muss sich stärker integrieren. Das heißt: Fiskalunion mit gemeinsamer Schuldenlast wie Euro-Bonds, Bankenunion und gemeinsamer Einlagensicherung. Und: Es braucht eine Transferunion für Länder wie Griechenland. Es muss ein Wachstumspakt her, der die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit wiederherstellt. Immer weiter zu sparen würde die Rezession nur verschlimmern

(Europe has run out of time.  Europe is like a car that is racing headon into a wall. It needs to turn now.  The Euro-zone must be more tightly integrated.  That means a fiscal union with a common sharing of debt obligations such as Eurobonds, a union of the banks and a common deposit insurance. And: there needs to be a transfer union for countries like Greece.  There needs to a growth pact that restores competitiveness.  Just focusing on savings would make the recession much worse.)

Germans like to point their finger at the Greeks for their profligate ways and non-existant work ethic, but Roubini sees plenty of blame to go around:

Deutschland ist mitschuldig. Es wollte um jeden Preis seine Exporte absetzen, ob sich das Land diese leisten konnte oder nicht. Fahren Sie mal nach Griechenland, fast jeder Taxifahrer hat einen BMW oder Mercedes, brandneu, modern und schick, wie man sie sonst nur in New York und anderen reichen Städten sieht. Konnten sie sich die Fahrzeuge leisten? Nein. Das war ein System des Lieferkredits. Das funktionierte so lange, wie die Zinsen niedrig waren und die Märkte offen. Jeder Grieche konnte einen BMW kaufen. Aber braucht man den, um die Menschen in der Stadt herumzufahren? In New York haben wir die gelben Taxen, das sind keine BMWs. Aber solange ein Banker in Frankfurt ihnen das Geld lieh, haben sie sich die Autos gekauft. Wer trägt hier die Schuld, die Griechen oder Deutschen?

(Germany is also to blame. It wanted to sell its exports whether or not the country could pay for them.  Just go to Greece; practically every taxi driver has a BMW or a Mercedes, brand new, modern, fashionable - something you would normally just see in wealthy cities like New York.  Could they afford these cars?  No, it was just the supplier loans. And that worked well as long as the interest rates were low and the markets open.  But do you need these cars to drive people around town?  In New York we have Yellow Cabs - those aren't BMWs.  But as long as a banker in Frankfurt was willing to lend them money, they bought the cars.  So who's to blame here, the Greeks or the Germans.)

Roubini sees that Europe must find its own way out of the crisis.  Political paralysis prevents the United States from playing a constructive role.  And the US has its own fiscal problems.  In fact, Dr. Doom paints a "perfect storm" doomsday scenario:

Im nächsten Jahr kommt es vielleicht zum perfekten Sturm. Die Euro-Zone könnte sich auflösen, die USA die Fiskalklippe herunterfallen, Chinas Wachstum abrupt schwächer werden, wie schon in Brasilien oder Indien.

(We may have a perfect storm next year.  The Euro-zone could unravle, the US could fall off a fiscal cliff , and China's growth could weaken as has alreadry happened in Brazil or India.) 

 

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.