Dialog International

Nazis, Reichsbürger Storm the Reichstag

The monthly demonstrations of the "Caronavirus Truthers" seem to be growing in size.  This past Saturday approx. 35,000 protestors gathered in Berlin to protest any restrictions with respect to the spread of COVID-19.  New York Times guest columnist Anne Sauerbry attempts to explain this phenomenon to American readers:

On Saturday, around 38,000 people marched in Berlin, calling for an end to pandemic restrictions. It was a bizarre mix of people: families and senior citizens were joined by right-wing extremists, some sporting swastika tattoos. Protesters brandished signs reading “Take off the slave masks,” while others held up peace flags. Many shouted “We are the people” and others called on President Trump and President Vladimir Putin of Russia to “liberate” Germany.

In a scene bound to be inscribed in the country’s history, a group carrying the “Reichsflagge,” the black, white and red flag of the German Empire that served as the basis for that used by the Nazi regime, broke through a police barrier and attempted to enter the Reichstag, the Parliament building.

Why the protest?  Germany has managed to avoid the worst of the pandemic with aggressive testing and contact tracing. Germany is the envy of much of the world for its smart management of the health crisis.  Still, the protestors were filled with rage against the "totalitarian" policies of Chancellor Angela Merkel.  The journalist Kolja Reivhert points out that other European countries (or anywhere in the world)  have not seen protests anywhere near the scale of the ones in Berlin:

Auch in anderen Ländern wurde in den vergangenen Wochen demonstriert, aber nirgends bestreiten so viele Menschen öffentlich nicht nur die Verhältnismäßigkeit der Maßnahmen zur Eindämmung des Virus, sondern auch die Existenz des Virus selbst wie in Deutschland und den Vereinigten Staaten. Nicht in Spanien oder Italien, wo fast jede Familie die Seuche als greifbare Realität erfuhr. Nicht in den Niederlanden und Belgien, die lange einen ähnlichen Verlauf wie Deutschland erlebten. Nicht in Ungarn, wo Tausende maskentragend gegen die Einmischung der Regierung in das größte unabhängige Nachrichtenmagazin „Index“ durch Budapest zogen. Nicht in Österreich, nicht in der Schweiz. Schon gar nicht in Asien. Nicht mal in Frankreich, wo sicher Rechtsextreme, Antisemiten und Verschwörungstheoretiker unter den „Gelbwesten“ sind, deren Forderungshorizont sich letztlich aber doch auf soziale Gerechtigkeit reduzieren lässt, also innerhalb dessen liegt, was sich als Realität beschreiben lässt. Selbst in Brasilien tragen viele Anhänger Jair Bolsonaros, seit dieser aufgrund seiner Erkrankung die Gefährlichkeit des Virus nicht mehr leugnen kann, auf Demonstrationen Masken.

Why do educated Germans believe that Bill Gates and George Soros are trying to take over the world with a vaccine? Why are so many attracted to the bizarre pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory? Why do tens of thousands follow Ken Jebsen or listen to Xavier Naidoo?  For that matter why do millions of educated Germans believe to this day that the WTC 9/11 attacks were an "inside job" and so many flock to the "lectures" of 9/11 Truther Daniele Ganser?  Why do so many Germans place their trust in Vladimir Putin and hold Angela Merkel in contempt.  I've never heard a convincing explanation.

Salka Viertel and Greta Garbo: A Love Story

165 Mabery Road in Santa Monica is a modest, unassuming bungalow with a view of the Pacific Ocean, far from the mansions of Beverly Hills and the glamour of Hollywood.  But in the 1930s this house became a sanctuary for artists, writers, composers, film makers - the cultural elite of Europe who managed to escape the horrors of Hitler's Germany. The house was owned by Salka Viertel, a Polish-born Jewish actress and screenwriter who with little fanfare managed to create a European-style salon on the California coast.  The Catalan writer Núra Añó was kind enough to send me her book El Salon de los artistas exiliados en California (also in English: The Salon of Exiled Artists in California), based on years of research on Salka Viertel, her family and friends, and the emigré community in Pacific Palisades.  This community has always fascinated me ever since I discovered a copy of Salka Viertel's memoir The Kindness of Strangers (1969) in a Maine library.  I also discovered Salka Viertel again in Christopher Isherwood's Diaries: he was a close friend of Salka and her husband, the Austrian writer and director Bertold Viertel.  Even though Salka Viertel was such a pivotal figure in the exile community very little has been written about her, so Núra Añó's book is a corrective, and she fills in many of the gaps of The Kindness of Strangers. 

The names of Weimar luminaries who frequented Salka Viertel's salon are far too many to list here.  She had a talent for making visitors feel at ease, they could speak German and enjoy German meals and Apfelstrudel, all prepared by Salka herself.  Writers who couldn't stand one another back in Berlin - such as Bertolt Brecht and Thomas Mann - would often encounter each other at 165 Mabery Road.  And it wasn't only German speakers who would meet there:  Hollywood royalty - both actors and directors  - were frequent guests.  Charlie Chaplin could often be found there and became a close friend with the hostess.  It is amazing that Salka was able to put on these lavish parties while earning very little as a screenwriter and all the while raising three sons on her own - her husband was rarely around. 

The heart of Núra Añó's book her research into the relationship between Salka Viertel and Greta Garbo.  By the time the two of them met at one of Salka's parties in 1930 Greta Garbo was already an international film sensation - adored by millions of fans for her great beauty and acting talent.  Something immediately clicked between the two of them.  Garbo was an intensely private - even introverted  - woman, but she could let her guard down with Salka.  During Hollywood's glory years in the 1930s and 40s sexuality was quite fluid - even though this was kept from the tabloids and gossip columns.  Many of the great stars were lesbian or bi-sexual: besides Garbo there was her erstwhile rival Marlene Dietrich as well as Tallulah Bankhead, Louise Brooks and many others.  Salka Viertel herself had affairs with both men and women.  But her relationship with "G.G." was more than just a fling - they remained close and, to a large extent, dependent on each other for the rest of their lives.  For Salka Viertel's career as a screenwriter her devotion to Garbo was both a blessing and a curse. Núra Añó lists the numerous treatments and screenplays she wrote for Garbo, but most of them were rejected or never made it into production.  Garbo herself was quite fickle when it came to screen roles, and her studio and agents were very protective of her persona as a sex goddess.

As an American, it is infuriating to read how Salka Viertel's story ends.  After the war, Salka was accused of having communist sympathies since she had helped so many European exiles, regardless of their political views. But inevitably there were some people deemed "undesirable"  - such as Hanns Eisler - by the House of Un-American Activities.  Salka was blacklisted and unable to get screenwriting work in Hollywood.  Of course, she was not alone:  America had provided sanctuary to so many Europeans of great talent, and now was turning against them.  Thomas Mann, Bertolt Brecht, Charlie Chaplin and many, many others realized that America had changed and it was time to return to Europe.  Salka was extremely proud that she had become an American citizen, but now she was nearly destitute - unable to earn a living.  She left 165 Mabery Road behind and fled to Switzerland, where she could be closer to her sons and grandchildren.  In Kloster she was able to find a measure of peace and could write her memoir.  And occasionally her great love - G.G. - would come to visit. 

See also some related posts:

Review: Salka Viertel's "Kindness of Strangers"

Christopher Isherwood on Thomas Mann

Review: Pazifik Exil by Michael Lentz

Review: Christa Wolf's Stadt der Engel oder The Overcoat of Dr. Freud

 

Anti-Semitic Roots of the QAnon Conspiracy Cult

The QAnon Conspiracy began as a crackpot "theory" of supporters of Donald Trump in the United States but now has found new followers among Corona protesters in Germany.  Last week there was a massive demonstration of 20,000 people protesting against mask-wearing or any restrictions imposed by the government to prevent the spread of COVID-19.  This was a highly diversified group of protesters including neo-Nazis, "corona-deniers", anti-Semites, anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists.  There were also a number of Q-T-shirts and Q banners in the crowd.  Spiegel TV interviewed one Q-follower at the demo who passionately spoke about how UNICEF is kidnapping young children and bringing them to "the elite" - who either eat the children or drink their blood.  The video of the interview can be viewed here:

SPIEGEL TV: "Glauben Sie denn, dass es eine Elite gibt, die Kinder entführt?"
Teilnehmer: "Ja natürlich gibt es die ... Unicef holt die Kinder und bringt sie den Eliten."
SPIEGEL TV: "Und was machen die dann damit?"
Teilnehmer: "Essen. Essen, quälen die, trinken das Blut, wenn sie es vorher gequält haben, lassen Kinder gegeneinander kämpfen, der Verlierer wird gefressen. Also, warum wisst Ihr davon nichts?"

Spiegel columnist Sascha Lobo nails it in his most recent column in pointing out how anti-Semitism is at the heart of the QAnon conspircacy:

Die strukturell antisemitische Basis ähnelt vielen anderen Verschwörungserzählungen, eine Elite beherrsche die Welt und wolle die Menschheit versklaven, die Medien seien Handlanger der Mächtigen. Das uralte judenfeindliche Motiv der Kindstötung ist bei QAnon modern aufgeladen. Die Eliten würden weltweit Kinder nicht nur sexuell missbrauchen, sondern auch quälen, weil durch die Folter bestimmte Inhaltsstoffe in ihrem Blut freigesetzt würden. Damit wiederum ließe sich das Leben verlängern - wenn man das Kinderblut trinke. Oder eben die Kinder esse.

Any mention of a global elite that controls the world - unleashing a deadly virus to bring down Donald Trump - inevitably leads back to anti-Semitism:

When you see references to a global cabal or a global deep state of elites, these are clearly associated with Jewish control by elites, bankers and globalists — all elements that smack of anti-Semitism.” How anti-Semitic are QAnon followers? A search engine known as QResear.ch provides tools to find everything posted on 8chan/8kun, its former and current hosting platforms, culled from 14.5 million QAnon data sources. Type in “Jews” as a search term and it generates more than 86,000 retrievable posts. But don’t read them. They’re not nice.

In the US, Q-cult followers have volunteered to murder George Soros "if and when Q gives the order." (No-one knows exactly who "Q" is - perhaps Donald Trump, or someone else embedded in the "Deep State". 

Sascha Lobo sees the QAnon Conspiracy as a modern "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" for the Internet age:

Wir erleben mit QAnon potenziell die Entstehung der "Protokolle der Weisen von Zion" des vernetzten 21. Jahrhunderts. Diese gefälschten, fiktionalen, zutiefst antisemitischen Texte wurden 1903 zum ersten Mal veröffentlicht und gelten als eine Art Bibel des Antisemitismus. Die "Protokolle" waren nachweislich eine ideologische Grundlage des Judenhasses der NSDAP. Deshalb ist so überaus gefährlich, dass Donald Trump regelmäßig QAnon-Inhalte verbreitet.

Wirecard Scandal: Mistakes were made

For the biggest financial scandal in years - the collapse of Wirecard due to massive fraud - there is plenty of blame to spread around: from the total lack of oversight by BaFin (Federal Financial Supervisory Authority) to the mind-boggling mistakes by the auditors Ernst&Young.  The business journalist Stephan-Götz Richter recently listed seven reasons for the collapse in Der Spiegel: Die sieben Fehler im Umgang mit dem Wirecard - Scandal.  One of the reasons Richter catalogs in particular resonated with me.  The German banking sector has been in free fall ever since the global financial collapse of 2008.  Deutsche Bank has been rocked by endless scandals and is now just a shadow of what it was 20 years ago.  Commerzbank remains crippled and is now in the hands of an American private equity group.  The Landesbanken were always a joke, and now are consolidating.  All this as financial institutions across Europe are beginning to face massive defaults due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Compared to this wreckage Wirecard seemed like a savior - a leader in financial innovation that was growing at breakneck speed.

Mit anderen Worten: Dem Bankensektor droht in Deutschland ein schleichender Kollaps. Kein Wunder, dass man unter diesen Umständen geneigt war, sich kollektiv am Aufstieg von Wirecard wie an einer Partydroge zu berauschen. Aber diese Form der Ekstase führte zu dem für Partydrogen bekannten Ausgang.

("in other words, the German banking sector is facing creeping collapse.  No wonder that in this situation the rise of Wirecard was greeted with the collective exhilarating high of a party drug.  But this kind ecstasy has the usual outcome of all party drugs.")

By the way, the German banks only compounded their misery by lending to Wirecard.  Commerzbank alone has to write down $200 million in loans to the scandal fintech group:

The lender said Wednesday that it wrote off €175 million ($207 million) in the second quarter related to a large single case. While it didn’t name the case, a person familiar with the situation said it was Wirecard. The charge came on top of €131 million it took from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We will do lessons learned on cases like that,” said Commerzbank Chief Financial Officer Bettina Orlopp in an earnings call with analysts. She added that there needs to be a wider debate in Germany on how to interpret red flags in the future.

"Lessons Learned" indeed.  The banks in Germany have learned nothing since the global crisis of 2008.  With respect to Wirecard, all the pain could have been avoided if people had taken seriously the explicit warnings of the Financial Times.