Dialog International

Trump's Weimar Moment

So President Trump has just declared a national emergency to build his border wall after Congress refused to allocate funds for this purpose.  In making this end-run around Congress Trump is establishing a dangerous precedence which, if upheld by the courts, brings the United States closer to autocracy.  What is truly pathetic, here, however, is that the leadership of the Republican Party essentially provided the president with a carte blanche to go ahead with his foolish plans, abdicating their responsibility of congressional oversight and sabotaging the separation of powers enshrined in the US constitution.  In failing to specify what constitutes a "National Emergency" , Congress has more or less given the Executive a "tool for tyranny":

But by failing to define crucial terms, legal standards and accountability rules, Congress has handed presidents an all-too-handy tool of tyranny commonly used by autocrats to amass more power, crush dissent and eviscerate democratic institutions. In Mr. Trump’s case, it has handed an unguided missile to an ignorant, impetuous man-child.

As has been pointed out, the Artikel 48 der Weimarer Verfassung ("Notverordnung" - Emergency Decree) allowed the Reichspräsident to take emergency measures without the prior consent of the Reichstag (parliament). The Nazis used the Reichstag fire (which they likely set themselves) to invoke Article 48 and hasten dictatorship in Germany. 

Das politische Gewicht verlagert sich mehr und mehr von den Parteien und dem Parlament auf den Reichspräsidenten und seine rechtskonservativen Berater. Nur mit Hilfe der Notverordnungen können die Minderheitsregierungen Gesetze durchsetzen, die zuvor im Reichstag keine Mehrheit gefunden haben. Die Innenpolitik in der Weimarer Republik ist nunmehr von der Diktaturgewalt des Reichspräsidenten und von Reichstagsauflösungen geprägt. Das Notverordnungsrecht ermöglicht die Bildung von Präsidialregierungen, die ohne Vertrauen des Reichstags regieren und charakteristisch für die Endphase der Weimarer Republik sind. So stehen 1931 den 34 vom Reichstag verabschiedeten Gesetzen 44 Notverordnungen gegenüber.

The problem with both Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution and The National Emergencies Act of 1976 is that the "emergency" is never defined.  Basically, the president has discretion to declare anything an "emergency" that he wishes.  Even though in this case - the situation on the US southern border - is clearly NOT a national emergency.

§1621. Declaration of national emergency by President; publication in Federal Register; effect on other laws; superseding legislation

(a) With respect to Acts of Congress authorizing the exercise, during the period of a national emergency, of any special or extraordinary power, the President is authorized to declare such national emergency. Such proclamation shall immediately be transmitted to the Congress and published in the Federal Register.

(b) Any provisions of law conferring powers and authorities to be exercised during a national emergency shall be effective and remain in effect (1) only when the President (in accordance with subsection (a) of this section), specifically declares a national emergency, and (2) only in accordance with this chapter. No law enacted after September 14, 1976, shall supersede this subchapter unless it does so in specific terms, referring to this subchapter, and declaring that the new law supersedes the provisions of this subchapter.

(Pub. L. 94–412, title II, §201, Sept. 14, 1976, 90 Stat. 1255.)

Hopefully, the courts will overturn Trump's bogus emergency declaration and put a check on the "ignorant, impetuous man-child."

Historian Götz Aly's Speech on International Holocaust Remembrance Day

On January 27, 1945 the Red Army liberated the death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau.  Since 2006, the date is recognized as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.  Several very moving speeches were held around Germany, including an address by historian Saul Friedländer to the Bundestag. But in my opinion, the best speech was delivered by historian Götz Aly to the Thuringia state assembly.  Like other eastern states, Thuringia is a stronghold of the right-wing extremist party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party.  And Aly takes aim at AfD party leaders in his strong speech.  I'll just quote and translate some excerpts, but I urge any and all readers of German to read the entire speech.

Aly starts off the speech recognizing the significance of January 27:

Wir haben uns versammelt, um an den 27. Januar 1945

zu erinnern - den Tag der Befreiung des Konzentra-

tionslagers Auschwitz-Birkenau. Erst in der Nacht

zuvor hatten SS-Truppen das letzte der vier aus Er-

furt gelieferten Großkrematorien gesprengt; eines

war im Oktober 1944 bei einem Aufstand des „Sonder-

kommandos“ zur Leichenverbrennung zerstört, die

beiden anderen waren bereits im Dezember zerlegt

und Richtung Mauthausen verfrachtet worden. Dort,

am Rand der geplanten Alpenfestung, sollte unter

dem Codewort „Neu-Auschwitz“ ein gleichwertiges

Vernichtungslager entstehen. Bis Ende 1944 waren in

Auschwitz eine Million Menschen ermordet worden,

die allermeisten, weil sie Juden waren.

 

(We are gathered to remember January 27, 1945 - the day the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated. Just the night before, SS troops blew up the last of the four main crematoria that had been delivered from Erfurt; one had been destroyed in October 1944 during an uprising by the Sonderkommando tasked with burning the corpses; the other two had already been dismantled and shipped off to Mauthausen.  There, on the periphery of the planned Alpine fortress, a new death camp - code name "New Auschiwitz" - was to be constructed.  Up to the end of 1944 a million people were murdered at Auschwitz - the vast majority were Jews)

 

Alty then makes reference to a speech by Alexander Gauland, chaiman of the AfD, in which Gauland praised the performance of the Wehrmacht soldiers ("We are justified in being proud of their performance.")

 

Mit harter militärischer Gewalt mussten im Mai 1945

viele Zehnmillionen Deutsche dazu gezwungen werden,

ihr Werk des Hasses, der Zerstörung und Selbstzer-

störung zu beenden. Sie hatten Hitler gewählt, be-

jubelt oder geduldet und für ihn gekämpft. Insge-

samt mobilisierte die Wehrmacht von 1939 an 18 Mil-

lionen deutsche Männer - fast alle, die laufen

konnten -, um zerstörend, raubend und mordend über

Europa herzufallen: vom Nordkap bis zum Kaukasus,

von Marseille bis Leningrad. Weit überwiegend fühl-

ten sich die Landser als Herrenmenschen, zumal im

Osten Europas. Angetrieben hatte sie nazistische

Überzeugung, vaterländisches Pflichtgefühl, natio-

naler Dünkel, Abenteuerlust oder Gleichgültigkeit –

die Verrohung erzeugte die Art der Kriegsführung,

verstärkt von der begleitenden Propaganda vom „Un-

termenschen“.

 

("Only through hard military violence were tens of millions of German forced to put an end to their work of hate, of destruction, and self-destruction. They had voted for Hitler, cheered or tolerated him and fought for him. All told, the Wehrmacht in 1939 mobilized eighteen million German men - almost anyone who could walk - to carry out a campaign of destruction, robbery, and murder throughout Europe - from the North Cape to the Caucuses, from Marseille to Leningrad.  The grunts considered themselves the Master Race, especially in Eastern Europe.  They were driven by conviction in the Nazi cause, by patriotic duty, nationalistic arrogance, adventurism or indifference - the brutalization determined the conduct of war, intensified by the accompanying propaganda of Untermenschen - sub-humans.")

 

Aly then condemns Alexander Gauland for his "Bird Shit Speech" in which he called the Nazi era just a speck of Vogelschiss on 1,000 successful years of German history - citing Bach, Goethe and Thomas Mann.  But Bach would have faded into total obscurity if he hadn't been rediscovered by the Jewish composer Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (erased from musical history by the Nazis), Goethe was a multi-culturalist, and Thomas Mann never gave up his American citizenship after the war. 

 

Finally, Götz Aly pays tribute to the international armed forces that liberated the camps - and liberated the German people from themselves.

 

Am 19. Februar 1945 schworen die so vielen Nationen

angehörenden Überlebenden von Buchenwald, für eine

„Welt des Friedens und der Freiheit“ einzutreten.

Im Sinne des Schwurs von Buchenwald danken wir den

Millionen ausländischer Soldaten, unter ihnen - ge-

rade hier in Thüringen - den vielen Soldaten afro-

amerikanischer Herkunft: Sie befreiten die Gefange-

nen der Konzentrations- und Vernichtungslager, die

todgeweihten Zwangsarbeiter, die Insassen der Heil-

und Pflegeanstalten - und nicht zuletzt befreiten

sie die Deutschen von sich selbst.

("On February 19, 1945 the survivors of Buchenwald - who came from so many nations - swore an oath that they would advocate for a "world of peace and freedom."  In the spirit of the oath of Buchenwald we give thanks to the millions of foreign soldiers, among them - even here in Thuringiz - the many soldiers of African-American descent.  They liberated the concentration and death camps, the slave laborers condemned to die, the occupants of the nursing institutions - and, not least, they liberated the Germans from themselves.")

AfD Leader Björn Höcke: Race Mixing Has Led to America's "Decline"

Interesting review in Die Zeit of "Nie zweimal in denselben Fluss", which is basically a 300-page interview with Björn Höcke, the leader of the far-right Alternative fūr Deutschland (AfD) party.  Based on the extensive quotes from the book, it is clear that Björn Höcke harbors a deep hatred of parliamentary democracy and envisions for Germany a revival of the Nazi concept of Volksgemeinshaft ( "Volk community").  This cult of the Volk was originally celebrated by Josef Goebbels in a 1933 radio address:

"Die neue Zeit nennt sich nicht umsonst Völkisches Zeitalter. Das Ein¬ 
zelindividuum wird ersetzt durch die Gemeinschaft des Volkes. Wenn ich 
in meiner politischen Betrachtung das Volk in den Mittelpunkt stelle, 
dann lautet die nächste Konsequenz daraus, daß alles andere, was nicht 
Volk ist, nur Mittel zum Zweck sein kann. Wir haben also in unserer 
öffentlichen Betätigung wieder ein Zentrum, einen festen Pol in der Er¬ 
scheinungen Flucht... das Volk als Ding an sich, das Volk als den Be¬ 
griff der Unantastbarkeit, dem alles zu dienen und dem sich alles unter¬ 
zuordnen hat."

To drive home this primacy of the VOLK Björn Höcke points to the United States as negative example. The integration of the races has resulted in "decline" (Abstieg).

"Die Weißen und die Schwarzen setzten sich vor ihrer Amerikanisierung aus mehreren hochdifferenzierten Völkern mit eigenen Identitäten zusammen. Jetzt sind sie in einer Masse aufgegangen. Diesen Abstieg sollten wir Europäer vermeiden und die Völker bewahren."

Höcke doesn't elaborate on the nature of this "decline"  - spiritual?  racial?

Here there is an echo of Adolf Hitler's negative view of America, which he called a "mongrel nation" because of the absence of racial cohesion. 

Anyone who doesn't believe that the AfD encompasses neo-Nazi viewpoints and tendencies should look into the speeches and writings of Björn Höcke.

Is Holocaust Denial Protected Speech?

Last week  a court in Munich found the Reichsbürger siblings Alfred and Monika Schaefer guilty of incitement and sentenced both to prison, although Monika was released for time served.

Der 63-jährige Antisemit aus Tutzing am Starnberger See verbreitete Ende vergangener Woche vor dem Münchner Landgericht eineinhalb Tage lang sein krudes und menschenverachtendes Weltbild. Er bestritt nicht, zahlreiche rechtsextreme Videos produziert zu haben, in denen er gegen Flüchtlinge und Juden hetzt und den Holocaust leugnet - er ist sogar stolz darauf. Der "Reichsbürger" nannte die Ermordung von sechs Millionen Juden durch die Nazis die "größte Lüge der Geschichte".

Holocaust denial is a crime in Germany - something the many fans of Alfred and Monika decry as a infringement of free speech.  The Web site wir-sind-Monika.com  denounced the court proceedings as a yet "another one of the machinations and plans of the Jews."  The brother and sister will join the "Nazi Grandmother" Ursula Haverbeck as martyrs for "the cause".

Does the threat of imprisonment curtail Holocaust denial?  Or does it inflame anti-Semitism and embolden the Reichsbürger and neo-Nazis?

If anyone should have a view on this subject it would be the American historian Deborah Lipstadt, who spent years of her life defending herself against libel charges brought by the notorious revisionist historian and Holocaust denier David Iriving.  In an interview  this week in Der Spiegel  Professor Lipstadt was asked how does one defeat the deniers without giving them more importance?

Lipstadt: It may surprise you, but I am against laws prohibiting the denial of the Holocaust. I understand very well why there is such a law in Germany and in Austria and in Poland. But I believe in freedom of expression. If anyone doubts the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, he should be able to say that.

DER SPIEGEL: You think it's OK to just let people claim that 9/11 never happened, or that it was some Jewish-controlled conspiracy?

Lipstadt: That's the price of freedom of speech. I find it more dangerous to let politicians choose what can and cannot be said. Just think of the U.S. at the moment and imagine President Trump and the new Supreme Court defining what you still can say! The media does have a special responsibility here.

And they do not have to spread such conspiracy lies. They can show that such claims are nonsense and entirely made up.

I recommend the 2016 feature film Denial about the Lipstadt-Irving libel trial in London (available in German as Verleugnung).

Right-Wing Mob Violence in Chemnitz Has Roots in Stalinist DDR

It is sad that the once-proud Free State (Freistaat) of Saxony has become synonymous with neo-Nazi violence.  Now the attention is focused on the city of Chemnitz, where the Nazis, together with their brethren - the Alternative for Germany (AfD) - seem to be in control.  At one time Saxony surpassed its rival Prussia as an industrial powerhouse.  Chemnitz was known for its highly-skilled workforce and technical innovation.  Even today the Technische Universität in Chemnitz attracts students from abroad - although, increasingly, anyone who looks "foreign" would think twice about walking around the city. But the fortunes of Chemnitz - and Saxony - turned following the end of the Second World War.  The industrial infrastructure was dismantled and transferred to the Soviet Union.  The city and region was sealed off from the West, with little exposure to modern business practices or outsiders.  Sixty years of totalitarian rule has left its mark on Chemnitz and Saxony - even now, nearly thirty years after "die Wende". 

The writer and former East German athlete Ines Geipel locates the problem on the failure of Saxony to come to terms with its Stalinist past: 

Die mühselige Diskussion, ob die DDR nun ein Unrechtsstaat war oder nicht, sollte vielleicht den sozialen Frieden wahren, aber am Ende hat sich die Lesart durchgesetzt: Der Osten war nur ein wenig schmuddelig. Nein, diese Frivolität im Umgang mit der DDR-Diktatur muss aufgebrochen werden. Was wir jetzt in Chemnitz sehen, ist das 1968 des Ostens. Es geht aber nicht ins Offene, sondern ins Dunkle. Der Osten braucht nicht mehr Geld, sondern ein gutes Modell. Mit Trabi-Safari, FKK, Schulspeisung und Ampelmännchen kommen wir halt nicht weiter.

And this failure to deal with its Stalinist past dovetails with the failure to acknowledge the part Saxony played during the Third Reich.  The people were told they were all "anti-fascist victims" of western fascists.  The perpetrators (Täter) were all on the other side (of the Schutzmauer ) :

Das, was der Westen nach 1945 geschafft hat – stark verzögert und mit großer Anstrengung, aber immerhin sich eine politische Lebenshaut zu bauen, was wir antitotalitären Konsens nennen und damit auch die Anerkennung des Holocaust und seiner Opfer meinen –, das gibt es im Osten nicht. Dort gibt es ein heilloses geistiges Schreddersystem, wo jeder meinen und tun kann, was er will. Täter? Gab es nicht. Opfer? Nie gesehen. Auch aus dieser politischen Leere heraus entlädt sich letztlich jetzt die Gewalt.

Until the population is forced to deal with its past (Vergangenheitsbewältigung) it will remain a stunted rump-appendage on the Federal Republic. 

Semi-literate / halbgebildet

While reading a history book I came across this description of a leader that also perfectly captures our very stable genius 45th president:

"Er blieb sein Leben lang der typische Halbgebildete - einer, der alles schon immer besser wusste und mit zusammengelesendem Halb- und Falschwissen um sich warf, am liebsten vor einem Publikum, dem er damit imponierte, weil es gar nichts wusste [...] Sein Charakter ist früh festgelegt - ein besseres Wort wäre vielleicht: arretiert - und bleibt sich auf eine erstaunliche Weise immer gliech; nichts kommt hinzu. Kein einnehmender Charakter. Alle weichen, liebenswürdigen, versöhnlichen Züge fehlen."

("He remained the typical half-educated person all his life - one who knew everything better and tossd around bits of half-truths and outright lies, preferably before of an audience whom he impressed because they themselves knew nothing [...] His character is set early - a better word might be: arrested - and incredibly always remained the same;  nothing is added. No engaging character. All soft, amiable, conciliatory features are missing. ")

(Quote from Sebastian Haffner : Anmerkungen zu Hitler (1978))

 

Harvard University's 1939 "Prize for Nazi Stories"

I've written about the scandalous role Harvard University played in promoting the "science" of eugenics at the turn of the 20th century - the research of which found its way into Nazi ideology and ultimately Mein Kampf.  Certainly a university as old and influential as Harvard - a institution I love dearly - has many skeletons in its closet. But there were also Harvard students and alumni who recognized the threat of Nazism and risked their lives to combat it.  I've written about Varian Fry - the young Harvard graduate who single-handily secured safe passage to America for Alfred Döblin, Heinrich and Golo Mann, Lion Feuchtwanger, Hannah Arendt, and scores of other writers, artists and intellectuals.  But there were other Harvard students and faculty who did what they could to ward isolationist America in the 1930s and early 1940s about Nazi Germany.

One of the great things about subscribing to the New York Times is having access to its "Time Machine" - access to all issues of the newspaper dating back to the 1890s.  For August 6, 1939 one comes across this short article:

The competition was organized by Harvard sociologist Dr. Edward Hartshorne, who had written his doctoral thesis on Germany universities under National Socialism. Hartshorne received over 200 manuscripts - mostly from Jews who were forced to flee Germany - from the US, Great Britain, Palestine, and Shanghai.  Many of the "Nazi Stories" dealt with the events surrounding Kristallnacht - the November 1938 pogrom that resulted in the destruction of Jewish-owned businesses and synagogues throughout Germamy.  Hartshorne selected 34 manuscripts for publication for a book - Nazi Madness. November 1928 - which however was not published until 2012 (The Night of Broken Glass: Eyewitness Accounts of Kristallnacht by Uta Gerhardt). The recollections of that terrible night are indeed chilling: 

For Hugo Moses, a former bank official, the behaviour of the drunken mob of stormtroopers who broke into his apartment on the night of 9 November, overturning his furniture and smashing his ornaments and pictures, while an SS man held a loaded revolver to his head[...]Sofoni Herz, a teacher at a Jewish orphanage in Dinslaken, a mining town in the Ruhr, hurriedly took 32 children outside while a gang of 50 men systematically destroyed everything in the building, "shattering window panes, throwing books, chairs, beds, tables, linens, maps, valises, piano parts, etc out of the windows and doors" before setting the orphanage's synagogue on fire. A Nazi official announced "that we have ordered that the cow belonging to the orphanage, which is taken care of by a German farmer, will continue to be fed. Animals must not suffer on this day." [...] A Nazi teacher persecuted Hugo Moses's nine-year-old son in the classroom, making him sit on a bench on his own, refusing to correct his work and banning him from using the school swimming pool: "You are not allowed to contaminate German water." The boy later told his father he would have thrown himself under a train had this continued much longer. The head teacher, though sympathetic to the father's protests, confessed he could do nothing, because he would lose his job if he did. [...] particularly harrowing are the stories of what happened to the Jewish men arrested and taken off to the camps. The shopkeeper Karl Schwabe endured "a series of endless physical and mental sufferings" at Buchenwald. In the first days they were deprived of food and drink – "our mouths dried out completely, our throats burned". They were forced to stand outside in rows for hours, with the SS mercilessly hitting and kicking anyone who fell over. Many were beaten to death; others, unable to bear the torture, ran into the electrified barbed wire fences. Elderly men were forced to do squats until they dropped from exhaustion. "The sanitary conditions", Schwabe wrote, "defy description."

But the events - as awful and chilling as they are to read - are just a taste of horror that would soon follow. 

As for the Harvard sociologist Hartshorne, he was instrumental in the de-nazification of German universities just after the war ended, but was assassinated while driving on the Autobahn from Munich to Erlangen in August 1946.  His killer was never identified.

Brauner Sumpf: Saxony sinks into the Brown Swamp

This is sad and alarming.  The journalist Michael Kraske writes in Die Zeit what is happening in his adopted home - Leipzig - where he has lived for over 25 years.  Like many enterprising young west Germans, Kraske left his home in in the early 1990s to join in the rebuilding and reinvention of eastern Germany.  Back then a "Spirit of Optimism" (Aufbruchstimmung) prevailed: it was a time of new beginnings:

Als ich Anfang der 1990er Jahre nach Leipzig kam, war die DDR noch nicht verschwunden, und der Westen hatte sich noch nicht breitgemacht. In den Ruinen dieser Zwischenzeit probierten sich Träumer, Pioniere und Eigenbrötler aus, eröffneten Bars und Läden und mussten sie wieder dichtmachen. Nichts war sicher, alles möglich.

Of course, he heard about, and reported on, groups of neo-Nazis attacking foreigners and anti-Nazi youth in parts of Saxony. 

Nach und nach begann ich, auch über Orte zu berichten, in denen Neonazis alternative Jugendliche jagten und schlugen. Über Orte, in denen Jugendclubs sich hinter Bretterverschlägen verbarrikadieren mussten, um nächtliche Angriffe zu überstehen, und über Nachbarn, die darüber schwiegen. Ich saß in den Küchen von Müttern, die fürchteten, ihre Kinder könnten nachts auf dem Nachhauseweg wieder einmal überfallen werden, weil diese es wagten, bunte Kleidung und bunte Frisuren zu tragen. Wer sich gegen jene stellte, die "Sieg Heil" riefen, galt als Nestbeschmutzer.

But Kraske felt that these incidents were "exceptions" (Ausnahmen) - limited to smaller towns like Görlitz or more rural areas in Saxony.  A cosmopolitan urban center like Leipzig was surely immune to this right-wing hate.  But now Kraske is not so sure.  The title of his piece is "Das laute Schweigen" - "The Loud Silence".  Now even many people he encounters in his city are reluctant to speak out against the hate, but tacitly - or not so tacitly - even agree with the sentiment:

Das laute Schweigen macht mich fertig. Mein Gefühl ist, dass sich die kategorische Trennung in "wir" und "die", für die anfangs vor allem Pegida stand, seit der Flüchtlingsfrage nicht nur verschärft hat, sondern dass Pegida-Befürworter immer unverhohlener auftreten, auch in Leipzig, meiner Stadt, die ich stets für wenig anfällig gehalten hatte. Auch den Wahlerfolg der AfD in Sachsen bei der Bundestagswahl halte ich für den Ausdruck einer Radikalisierung. Er fand statt, nachdem Leute wie der Richter Jens Maier ein Ende des "Schuldkults" um das NS-Regime forderten und gegen eine vermeintliche "Herstellung von Mischvölkern" polemisierten. Und trotzdem wird überall Verständnis gezeigt für AfD-Wähler. Auch von Kollegen, die sagen: Es sei doch gut, dass endlich ausgesprochen werde, was ja immer da war. Ist es das wirklich? Es stimmt ja, dass man die laute Wut nicht einfach überhören darf. Aber kaum einer fragt noch, wie diese Abwehrreflexe eigentlich wirken. Hätten diese Leute recht – müsste es von Görlitz bis Leipzig dann nicht langsam wieder friedlicher, harmonischer, zufriedener zugehen als anderswo? Weil dann jetzt mal alles raus ist? Das Gegenteil ist der Fall. Wo ich auch hinhöre: Es rumort. Freunde, Bekannte erzählen mir, wie unversöhnlich in ihrer Familie über Flüchtlinge gestritten wird. Eine Flüchtlingshelferin aus Dresden vertraute mir an, dass einige ihrer ehrenamtlichen Kolleginnen zu Weihnachten von der eigenen Familie beschimpft worden seien. Beschimpft, weil sie anderen helfen.

If even a vibrant city like Leipzig is slowly becoming contaminated with this thinking, how soon before this hateful ideology is no longer just an eastern German phenomenon?  Can this begin to take root in western cities like Cologne, Bremen, or Stuttgart?  It already has apparently infected Dortmund...

AfD in Saxony: Where are the Women?

Things are bleak in Trump's America, but there is also very distressing news coming out of Germany.  Der Spiegel has a long piece on its English site about the demise of the "big-tent parties" which is how they translate Volksparteien - namely the CDU and SPD.  For the entire post-war era, these two political parties have formed the foundation of stability and democracy for the German nation.  But this era of stability appears to be coming to an end:

The stability of the country's big-tent parties was a guarantee of a stable political landscape. Their ability to integrate a wide variety of political opinions prevented the radical fringes from growing too strong. That reality, though, has now come to an end. Cool heads, to borrow Merkel's plea in Demmin, are few and far between.

The situation with the Social Democrats (SPD) is especially dire, and catastrophic in eastern Germany.  An article in today's Welt reports that the SPD has been overtaken by the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD)  - the party that I can only describe as neo-fascist - in seven of Germany's sixteen states ( Bundesländer ) according to the most current polling of voters:

Auf Basis des aktuellen Deutschlandtrends verlöre die SPD 33 ihrer derzeit 153 Mandate im Bundestag, wie sich aus Projektionen der Plattform mandatsrechner.de ermitteln lässt. Dieser Verlust ist umso gravierender, weil der Bundestag dieser Projektion zufolge noch größer wäre als das schon jetzt erheblich aufgeblähte Parlament.

And the situation is most alarming in the east:

Dramatisch ist die Lage für die Sozialdemokraten vor allem in Sachsen und Thüringen. Wäre am Sonntag Bundestagswahl, holte die AfD in Sachsen 13 Mandate, die SPD drei. In Thüringen käme die AfD auf sechs Sitze, die SPD auf zwei. Selbst die Grünen schnitten zurzeit bei einer Bundestagswahl in einigen Ländern besser ab als die SPD, so in Baden-Württemberg, Bayern und Berlin.

In Saxony, the AfD is now running neck-in-neck with the CDU in terms of popularity.  Why this disillusionment, if not outright hatred of democracy, in the east?  The New York Times published an article last week on the failed reunification (Wiedervereinigung) of east and west.  Here is one important clue: 

Eastern women, who were part of the work force and with free child care, were more emancipated than their western sisters, and proved to be more mobile than their male counterparts. Some eastern villages now have two or three men for every woman — the kind of ratio one otherwise finds near the Arctic Circle, demographers say.

The absence of women at AfD rallies is striking. Check out this speech by the AfD representative Andre Poggenburg.  A sea of men roaring in approval as Poggenburg shouts out his racist rant. Can you spot any women?

Der Spiegel sent a female reporter - Melanie Amann - to cover the AfD rally.  She also had a hard time finding any women - other than a couple of Russian blondes:

Die meisten Herren dürften um die 60 Jahre alt sein, wohlgenährt und an diesem späten Nachmittag schon auf Betriebstemperatur für einen politischen Aschermittwoch. [...] "Komm, setz Dich, Sonnenscheinchen!" Jürgen zieht einen Stuhl heran, spendiert einen Sekt. Frauen trinken doch immer Sekt. Der Rest der Runde trinkt Bier, und auf dem Tisch steht eine Flasche Absolut Vodka. Nur ein Unternehmer hat seine Frau mitgebracht, sie wird als einzige auf der Tribüne fasziniert allen Reden lauschen. Für die anderen ist der Abend eher wie ein Fußballspiel, das vorbeirauscht, und dem man sich nur zuwendet, wenn der Jubel der Fans einen neuen Höhepunkt ankündigt. Wenn die Menge "Abschieben! Abschieben!" ruft, oder "Wir sind das Volk!".

Of course, there are women in  the AfD; two of the party's leaders are women: Alice Weidel and Beatrix von Storch.  But unless there is a reverse migration of women into Saxony and Thuringia the entire region will become just a brown swamp of right-wing extremism.

How quickly democracies can die

Watching the Republican Party in the US marching lockstep with President Trump down the path of lawlessness should concern anyone concerned with preserving our democratic system. 

As a subscriber to the New York Times, I love going through the archives to see how historical events were covered at the time.   On January 31, 1933 the NYTimes reported on the appointment of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany with the following headline: Hitler Made Chancellor of Germany; Coalition Cabinet Limits Power.  Observers were convinced that the Nazis would be constrained by the realities of governing within a parliamentary democracy.  It is interesting to read the rosy assessment of the NYT reporters as well as the party officials they interviewed for this front-page piece:

"The National Socialists are in the minority in the Cabinet.  The Chancellor's activities are severely limited due to the presence in his Cabinet of Colonel von Papen, Baron von Neurath [(etc.) ...] Some Liberals welcome the new Cabinet. They reason that Herr Hitler has been removed from the street and saddled with the responsibility of office which will severely circumscribe his liberty of action.  {...} The Socialists are confident that Hitler "will blow up and be disposed of definitely.  They count on the Reichstag being dissolved if Herr Hitler meets a no-confidence vote next week."

 "Next week" turned into 12 years and the total destruction of Germany with the loss of tens of millions of lives.  But in January 1933 the NYT's editorial staff was impressed that "Herr Hitler swore obedience to the Constitution of the (Weimar) Republic." 

One aspect of the Weimar Constitution Hitler swore to uphold was the independent judiciary ( "Artikel 102. Die Richter sind unabhängig und nur dem Gesetz unterworfen.)  But the rule of law lasted exactly 28 days. On February 27, 1933 the Reichstag was gutted by a massive fire (likely started under orders from Hitler).  The next day the government issued the Reichstagsbrandverordnung ("Reichstag Fire Decree") which essentially nullified the Weimar Constitution and ended the rule of law in Germany.

Die Artikel 114, 115, 117, 118, 123, 124 und 153 der Verfassung des Deutschen Reichs werden bis auf weiteres außer Kraft gesetzt. Es sind daher Beschränkungen der persönlichen Freiheit, des Rechts der freien Meinungsäußerung, einschließlich der Pressefreiheit, des Vereins- und Versammlungsrechts, Eingriffe in das Brief-, Post-, Telegraphen- und Fernsprechgeheimnis, Anordnungen von Haussuchungen und von Beschlagnahmen sowie Beschränkungen des Eigentums auch außerhalb der sonst hierfür bestimmten gesetzlichen Grenzen zulässig.

(Article 1
Sections 114, 115, 117, 118, 123, 124, and 153 of the Constitution of the German Reich are suspended until further notice. Therefore, restrictions on personal liberty, on the right of free expression of opinion, including freedom of the press, on the right of assembly and the right of association, and violations of the privacy of postal, telegraphic, and telephonic communications, warrants for house searches, orders for confiscations, as well as restrictions on property, are also permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed.)

The Gleichschaltung of the German legal system happened very quickly after this. Just two months later, Hitler passed one of the earliest antisemitic laws, purging Jewish and also Socialist judges, lawyers, and other court officers from their professions. Further, the Academy of German Law and Nazi legal theorists, such as Carl Schmitt, advocated the nazification of German law, cleansing it of "Jewish influence." Judges were forced to let "healthy folk sentiment" (gesundes Volksempfinden) guide them in their decisions.

From a constitutional democracy to a dictatorship in 90 days.