Free Republic

German Finance Minister Says "No Alternative But To Borrow" Economics / Global Debt Crisis Dec 17, 2009 - 03:02 PM By: Mike_Shedlock Germany, the last of the stalwarts fighting to heed the European Union’s limit of 3 percent budget deficits, is about to throw in the towel. Please consider German Budget Plan Foresees Record Borrowing. The new center-right German government agreed Wednesday on a budget that would drastically ramp up borrowing — and the deficit — next year as the country emerged from its worst economic crisis in decades. The 2010 budget for Germany, the largest European economy, is 7.3...

The stolen body and coffin of a German billionaire, Friedrich Karl Flick, have been found in Hungary. The coffin and remains were handed over to Austrian authorities at the weekend, Austrian police say. Thieves stole the coffin in November 2008, after moving a slab of granite at the mausoleum in southern Austria where the industrialist was buried. Flick inherited German factories that employed slave labour during World War II. He died in 2006 at the age of 79. In December 2008 his widow Ingrid offered a 100,000-euro (£91,000) reward in an effort to recover the body. No ransom demand was...

Could you imagine being jailed simply because you decided to opt your children out of sex education? Well, this is exactly what is happening to a number of fathers in Germany. And, if certain forces in the United States have their way, such a policy could one day find its way to our shores as well. This story is unfolding in the German state of Salzkotten, where the government has decided that all children must be indoctrinated with a state-designed curriculum — including explicit sex education that most parents would agree is inappropriate for children. Bob Unruh reports on the...

12/13/2009 German-made submarines in latest US arms package The United States is preparing to sell German-made submarines to Taiwan as part of its latest arms package. That's according to the US-based Foreign Policy magazine, which was quoted on the website of Hong-Kong newspaper Singtao on Sunday. Foreign Policy reported that the United States may make an announcement on its latest arms deal to Taiwan before next Friday, when President Barack Obama will attend the UN Climate Change summit in Copenhagen. The package is not expected to include F-16C/D fighter jets but should include 60 Black Hawk helicopters. News agency Reuters...

Eurofighter will last 30 to 40 years: German envoy K.V. Prasad NEW DELHI: Eurofighter, one of the six contenders for the multibillion-dollar tender for 126 medium multirole combat aircraft (MMRCA), offers a cutting-edge technology without the End User Monitoring clause, German ambassador Thomas Matussek has said. “It is really a next generation plane and it will be in service for the next 30 to 40 years,” he told The Hindu. “It also comes without any End User Verification, complete transfer of technology and production.” End User Monitoring, which created a political controversy earlier this year, is a requirement the United...

THE land of Goethe and Schiller has become the nation of "yeah but, no but" as purists complain that the Germans have forgotten how to speak their own language correctly. Already irked by the influx of English words into their vernacular, defenders of the EU's most widely spoken first language are finding themselves driven to despair by the inability of their fellow citizens to master even basic German grammar. The world of Vorsprung durch Technik is already in turmoil over a controversial spelling reform which has been boycotted by many publishers and two German regions. To add insult to injury,...

Der Spiegel: Siemens supports Iran’s nuke efforts German magazine reports customs officials seize goods meant for Iran’s nuclear program Sarah Stricker Published: 12.12.09, 22:37 / Israel News Is Siemens helping Iran? German customs officials intercepted a Siemens shipment of compressors on its way to Iran, Der Spiegel reported Saturday. According to the German magazine, the compressors sent by Siemens are worth an estimated 16 million Euros and were apparently meant to be used as part of Iran's nuclear program. The German government is now weighing its next moves vis-à-vis Siemens, which has apparently violated international commerce regulations. However, a Treasury...

"Unlike American officials, German officials do not recognize the right of parents to opt their children out of offensive classes such as sex education which overrides the parent's beliefs or desires for their own children," "One of the reasons for this is that German officials view the children as belonging to the state, particularly during the time they are in school."

WESTPHALIA, Germany, December 11, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - At least eight Russo-German families in Salzkotten, Germany, have suffered heavy fines and now their fathers have been sentenced to prison, because they have refused to send their elementary school-age children to mandatory sexual education classes. The International Human Rights Group, a Christian legal defense organization that defends religious liberty and the right to homeschool in Europe, reports that in addition to refusing to allow their children to attend sex-ed classes, the families also resisted having their children enlisted in a theatre production of "Mein Körper gehört mir" or "My Body Belongs to...

SNIPPET: "The NEFA Foundation has obtained a video recording released by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) paying tribute to a German national "Abu Safiyya" (a.k.a. Javaid Siddiqi) who was "martyred" in late October during fighting alongside mujahideen forces in Afghanistan. The video shows Siddiqi on the frontline along the Afghan-Pakistani border accompanied by other German recruits--and at a terrorist training camp that was organized last May."

Quote: 06 December 2009 "TO OUR BROTHERS STATIONED IN GERMANY..." Click to view archive of thread... Posted on 06 December 2009 @ 13:18

The LowdownCelebrating Nikolaus in Germany Published: 4 Dec 09 10:13 CETOnline: http://www.thelocal.de/lifestyle/20091204-15915.html Each December 6, German children celebrate Nikolaus. Why does the Santa look-alike come so early and why do all the children place their shoes outside their front doors on the evening before? The Local has the lowdown. Is Nikolaus the same as Santa Claus? Though they have similar outfits, Nikolaus is not to be confused with Santa Claus, who Germans call the Weihnachtsmann, or Father Christmas. They are two different people. In fact, many religious families try to focus more on Nikolaus earlier in December to insure that...

Bill reported earlier about a Global Warming/Hitler video which was released (10/3/2009) before the climategate scandal broke out: More Global Warming Fraud HumorA new improved video has been released to incorporate the climategate scandal. Version 2, is much better, imho.Hitler was behind global warming-climategateAlso, FoxNews reports:Comedy Central Scoops Network News on Climate-Gate Scandal Comedy Central Scoops Network News on Climate-Gate ScandalABC didn’t cover it. CBS didn’t either. And NBC apparently wouldn’t go near it.The network news broadcasts have ignored a growing scandal over evidence of a potential climate cover-up — and now they’ve even been scooped by the fake news...

At a settlement in what is now southern Germany, the menu turned gruesome 7,000 years ago. Over a period of perhaps a few decades, hundreds of people were butchered and eaten before parts of their bodies were thrown into oval pits, a new study suggests. Cannibalism at the village, now called Herxheim, may have occurred during ceremonies in which people from near and far brought slaves, war prisoners or other dependents for ritual sacrifice, propose anthropologist Bruno Boulestin of the University of Bordeaux... A social and political crisis in central Europe at that time triggered various forms of violence, the...

German intelligence reports that Iranian scientists have successfully simulated the detonation of a nuclear warhead in laboratory conditions, in an effort to sidestep an underground nuclear test like the one that brought the world down on North Korea's head earlier this year.

SINDELFINGEN, Germany — Thousands of workers at carmaker Daimler AG's Sinelfingen plant in southern Germany protested for a second day Tuesday against possible plans to move some production of the Mercedes C-Class line of cars to a plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. A decision on the matter, which threatens about 3,000 jobs in Germany, could come later in the day. "We will not let our jobs vanish to Nirvana without a fight," Erich Klemm, the workers' council president told about 12,000 protesters. Daimler, based in Stuttgart, is considering the move to take advantage of lower production costs in the U.S. and...

Never before has a speech by President Barack Obama felt as false as his Tuesday address announcing America's new strategy for Afghanistan. It seemed like a campaign speech combined with Bush rhetoric -- and left both dreamers and realists feeling distraught. One can hardly blame the West Point leadership. The academy commanders did their best to ensure that Commander-in-Chief Barack Obama's speech would be well-received. Just minutes before the president took the stage inside Eisenhower Hall, the gathered cadets were asked to respond "enthusiastically" to the speech. But it didn't help: The soldiers' reception was cool. One didn't have to...

FRANKFURT -- German car maker Daimler AG said Wednesday it will shift production of its best-selling Mercedes-Benz C-Class model from its core plant in Sindelfingen, Germany, to its Bremen and U.S. facilities, as part of a wider move to bring production closer to main sales regions and reduce exposure to currency fluctuation. "This step is essential for strategic and operational reasons, so that Mercedes-Benz remains competitive and can fully utilize future growth opportunities," said Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche. The move underscores a trend among auto makers to ramp up local production to reduce exposure to currency fluctuations and benefit from...

U.S. ARMY GARRISON WIESBADEN, Germany, Nov. 30, 2009 – For 102nd Signal Battalion telephone technician Alexander Weber-Fetscher, June 22, 2007, will be remembered as the day he welcomed a new life into the world and helped to save another. Maike Siemer meets Alexander Weber-Fetscher during a surprise visit by the stem cell donor. His donation helped her to recover from leukemia. U.S. Army photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. That's the day his son was born and also the day he learned he was an ideal match as a stem cell blood donor for a young leukemia patient. "The...

"Tourist Arrested In Disney Bomb Threat German Man Claimed He Was Joking, Deputies Say" ORLANDO, Fla. - SNIPPET: "According to the Orange County Sheriff's Office, Naumann was going through a security checkpoint at the entrance of the Magic Kingdom at about 10:22 a.m. and told a worker that he had two bombs in his backpack. The Disney cast member questioned Naumann, of Leipzig, Germany, and he again stated that there were two bombs in his backpack, deputies said."

Bundesbank fears relapse as German banks face €90bn fresh losses The Bundesbank has told German banks to take advantage of renewed confidence while they can to prepare for likely losses of €90bn (£81bn) over the next year, warning that the delayed shock waves of the economic crisis still pose a major threat to global recovery and bank finance. By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor Published: 5:23PM GMT 25 Nov 2009 The Bundesbank said German banks alone will have to write down 50bn to 70bn euros of loans over the next year The venerable bank said in its Stability Report that...

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold: Interviewed today by the Russia Today channel about problems in the world financial system, international journalist Max Keiser remarked that sources at Germany's central bank, the Bundesbank, have told him that the Bundesbank is about to join other central banks in announcing gold purchases. You can watch the interview at YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSWSwhn-AWc&feature=player_embedded#

Israel seeks discount on two German warships * German Meko preferred over U.S. rival vessel * Israel looks for discounted deal by end of year * Netanyahu, Barak due in Berlin next week By Dan Williams TEL AVIV, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Israel plans to buy two warships from Germany rather than rival U.S.-made vessels and is negotiating with Berlin in the hope of clinching a discounted deal by year's end, Israeli officials said on Wednesday. They said the Meko corvettes' purchase would be pursued by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Ehud Barak when they visit the...

EasyJet recalls magazine with Holocaust memorial fashion shoot Published: 24 Nov 09 10:14 CETOnline: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20091124-23481.html British discount airline easyJet has recalled some 280,000 copies of its in-flight magazine after complaints about a fashion shoot staged at Berlin’s Holocaust memorial, daily Financial Times Deutschland reported on Tuesday. ADVERTISING Heavy wind storms rage through Germany - National (24 Nov 09)Berlin plans 'integration contract' for immigrants - Politics (23 Nov 09)Antique car dealer finds Hitler's Mercedes - Society (23 Nov 09) The November edition of “easyJet Traveller,” which features a fashion section with fashion models in provocative poses amid the pillars of the...

A legal team is going to New York to prevent the use of evidence provided by Germany in seeking a death penalty. Berlin wants to ensure that promises made by the US are kept if the suspects are found guilty. Germany, which does not have a death penalty, provided evidence for the trial on the condition that it could not be used to support a death sentence. Several members of the al Qaeda cell that planned and executed the attacks of September 11 were previously based in the northern German city of Hamburg.

Today, November 24, it is exactly 150 years since Charles Darwin published his On the Origin of Species. The world has been gearing up for this “second echelon” of celebrations for this international “Year of Darwin”, following on from the 200th anniversary of his birth this last February. Atheists and humanist groups in particular have seemed to be relishing the thought of giving further prominence to the ideas of their patron saint. Their adulation is heightened by their knowledge that...

Israel, Germany to discuss missile ships By YAAKOV KATZ A German defense delegation will arrive in Israel next month for high-level talks to focus on an Israeli request to purchase two Meko-class missile ships. The delegation will be led by senior officials from the German Defense Ministry and the German Navy. Talks on the Israeli side will be led by Defense Ministry director-general Pinhas Buchris and Navy commander Vice Admiral Eliezer Marom. While the Navy has yet to finalize its order, it is working on a concept under which the 2,000-ton ship would be designed by the German company Blohm...

Germany’s new finance minister has echoed Chinese warnings about the growing threat of fresh global asset price bubbles, fuelled by low US interest rates and a weak dollar. Wolfgang Schäuble’s comments highlight official concern in Europe that the risk of further financial market turbulence has been exacerbated by the exceptional steps taken by central banks and governments to combat the crisis.

Most Germans—polls show, despite current economic difficulties, do not regret the fall of the Wall, the collapse of the Communist regime in the East, and the eventual reunification of their country. What doubts there are, however, come from the ranks of the Western Left, who seem to have the ability to regularly air their arguments in the op-ed pages of The New York Times. I read one such report in the paper’s pages while visiting Berlin, written by Katrin Bennhold and titled “Lessons From the Former East Germany.” Bennhold beings by noting that “Like most people, I had slept through...

Germany’s premier news magazine Der Spiegel has a hard-hitting piece by one of its own editors, Christian Schwaegerl, condemning Barack Obama’s handling of global warming. The article is significant because it demonstrates the depth of anger and sense of betrayal among Left-wing intellectuals in Europe over Obama’s failure to deliver what they expected in advance of next month’s UN Climate Change jamboree in Copenhagen. As I noted in a previous post, the disillusionment with Obama among European liberals is widespread and growing. Here are some excerpts from the Spiegel commentary: US President Barack Obama came to office promising hope and...

Ah, so nationalized healthcare doesn’t work, they’re essentially saying. And to make up for the gap, people will have to buy private insurance. Hmmm . . . isn’t private insurance allegedly “discriminating” against the poor and those with pre-conditions the thing ObamaCare is supposed to solve? It’s very clear it doesn’t solve that. Germany, with this move, is moving away from government healthcare toward private providers because government can’t afford it. And yet the ObamaCare proponents are citing Germany as an example of how government healthcare works better than private insurance? Someone’s not paying attention. And it isn’t the opponents...

Alex W., the man who stabbed pregnant Egyptian pharmacist Marwa al-Sherbini to death in a courtroom in Dresden in July, was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday. The judge imposed the harshest possible sentence under the German system by ruling that W. will not be eligible for parole after 15 years. A court in Dresden sentenced Alex W., a German man of Russian origin, to life in prison on Wednesday for murdering Marwa al-Sherbini, a pregnant Egyptian woman, by stabbing her 16 times in a courtroom in a case that caused outrage across the Arab world. The judge, Birgit...

UFO fever is sweeping through Germany, no doubt about it. The entire year has been pretty much one long UFO flap with around 500 sightings submitted to various UFO reporting agencies. Sightings have occurred throughout the country and a number of these have been the subject of serious government investigations. These two short films were allegedly taken in the last few days. The first of these (below) comes from the quiet town of Scheuditz in the Saxony district. The witness writes that he ‘I looked out my window and saw a UFO!’ and that he filmed it with a hand-held...

In one of the most scorching excoriations of a fellow Global Citizen Christian Schwägerl writes that Global warming energy strategists and environmentalist are accusing president Barry Hussein Soetoro of lying to Europe when he presented himself as a citizen of the world even above being a citizen of the United States of America when he spoke in Germany prior to his winning election for the U.S. presidency. In Schwägerl’s article, in the German Spiegel Online, it is quite apparent that Europe expected something from Mr. Soetoro—something that he has yet to deliver on and it’s apparent that Europe’s impatience is...

One night in August, the Taliban stormed a local police station in this once-peaceful province and shot dead the governor's younger brother. Since then, the governor has singled out a culprit: The German military, which he says refused to send a helicopter to rescue his brother as he bled to death. "I called them and they said that wasn't a mission they could do," said Gov. Mohammad Omar. "They don't like to go out at night." German officials said there was no way they could have saved his brother. They offered their condolences, and said the death is just one...

SNIPPET: "A 90 year old man, identified only as Adolf S., was indicted on Nazi war crimes in Germany. The former member of Hitler’s SS is charged with 58 counts of killing Jewish slave laborers in Deutsch Schuetzen, in Austria. According to prosecutors he, along with other members of the fifth SS Tank Division "Viking,” devised a plan to rob and murder the Jews. The following day they made good on their plan, taking 57 Jewish slave laborers into the woods, stealing their valuables, and firing bullets into their heads from behind. The final indictment comes from the allegation that...

A previously unknown militant group claims to be behind a series of arson attacks on banks in Frankfurt over the past two weeks. Police are still hunting for leads to the elusive group, while commentators are drawing links with Germany's notorious terrorist group the Red Army Faction. Until two weeks ago no one had heard of the Bewegung Morgenlicht. But now, they have thrust themselves onto the police's radar with a number of attacks on banks in Frankfurt. Two Saturdays ago, militants threw a petrol-soaked cloth into a Dresdner Bank foyer, setting fire to a cash machine. Just 24 hours...

Volkswagen Group has displaced Toyota for the first time as the world's largest car manufacturer in terms of production. The German carmaker produced 4.4 million vehicles in the first nine months of the year, overtaking its Japanese rival by 400,000 units, consulting firm IHS Global Insight said on Wednesday. Volkswagen Group owns a variety of models such as Skoda and Seat and high-end lines Audi, Bentley, Bugatti and Lamborghini. In July it expanded its stable by acquiring Porsche. HIS Global Insight said Volkswagen was able to beat Toyota thanks to increased sales in China, Germany and the U.K. even amid...

The President of leisure has a pretty slow day Monday, highlighting the point that no pressing business kept him from celebrating the fall of communism 20 years after the Berlin Wall fell. Jim Gerraghty of The Campaign Spot on National Review goes over the official schedule for our leader yesterday: Just look at the man's schedule: He had a 10 a.m. daily briefing from the intelligence community, a 10:30 a.m. economic daily briefing, an 11 a.m. meeting with senior advisers . . . and then, right after that, at 6:45 in the evening, he had to sign an executive...

There was one world leader absent for today’s commemorations marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Surprisingly enough, it’s President Barack Obama, who found time last year to give a campaign speech there last year, which Der Spiegel summed up as “People of the World, Look at Me”. The White House has cited a packed schedule, though looking at it he had nothing much on yesterday (brief chat to reporters about healthcare – by far his biggest priority) and just blah briefings and a bill signing today until a metting this evening with Benjamin Netanyahu. This...

Berlin - German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Monday for more cooperation between nation states and the transfer of power to multilateral organizations such as the UN, in a speech ahead of anniversary celebrations of the fall of the Berlin Wall. "This world will not be a peaceful one if we do not work for more global order and more multilateral cooperation," said Merkel, who was to great world leaders in Berlin later Monday. Compared with the European the Americans more problems would have to deliver authority. This is however necessary for a peaceful future. “One of the most exciting questions,...

Thank-you Great Communicator,Pope John Paul II The Great,And Margaret Thatcher for planting the seeds that realized a harvest on this day in history. On November 9, 1989, the East German Government announced that its citizens could freely visit West Germany and West Berlin. It came after several weeks of protests by East German citizens who yearned for the kind of freedom that the west enjoyed. It also marked the end of a 28 year old blockade that was the result of some 3 and a half million people fleeing communism to the west. After its erection, numbers vary, but it...

President Ronald Reagan's demand that the Berlin Wall be torn down became a reality. Video with his actual words.

The Berlin Wall anniversary is a reminder that people smugglers were once regarded not as the scum of the earth but as heroes. Hartmut Richter was one. He fled East Berlin five years after the wall was built by swimming across one of the canals that separated the city. He then helped another 33 people escape by smuggling them across the border in his car. Twenty years on, he worries about what is called Ostalgie - nostalgia for the old East Germany. The former German Democratic Republic has largely been romanticised in film, fashion and design. But Mr Richter warns...

Twenty years ago, on Nov. 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall fell, as protestors on both sides began chipping away with sledgehammers, picks and hands. But the first crack in the wall appeared two years before that — on June 12, 1987 — when President Ronald Reagan stood at the Brandenburg Gate and gave his ultimatum to the Soviet leader: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”In his new book, “Tear Down This Wall” (Simon & Schuster), Romesh Ratnesar, deputy managing editor at Time magazine, traces the origin of Reagan’s remarks, noting how administration officials disagreed over whether the president should be...

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle (R) introduces his partner Michael Mronz (L) to his U.S. counterpart Hillary Clinton during the Atlantic Council Awards ceremony at the Adlon hotel in Berlin, November 8, 2009, one day ahead of the celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach (GERMANY ANNIVERSARY POLITICS)

By 1939, more than 10,000 Catholic schools had been closed and the Catholic boys and girls sent to Nazi public schools for indoctrination. Catholics are constantly confronted with the claims that Pope Pius XII was complicit in the Holocaust, that vast numbers of Catholics collaborated with Hitler's diabolical regime, and that Catholic priests, nuns, and bishops were ardent members of the Nazi Party and supporters of its policies. It is true that many Catholics turned a blind eye to the Holocaust, and others remained silent out of fear for their lives and the safety of their families. There were certainly...

Europe Cracks Down on Home School Parents MUNICH, Germany - Increasing custody cases in Europe are proof that officials there have declared war against home schooling and parental rights, according to some residents.In Sweden, police burst onto a plane and took 7-year-old Dominic Johansson from his parents as they were about to leave the country.Months earlier, they told school officials they were going to home school Dominic, prompting officials to open an investigation. In a similar case in Germany, the government abducted 7-year-old Dan Schulz while the family was sleeping. He can be heard on tape screaming that he...

Special Navy forces discovered weapons and ammunition on a cargo ship overnight Tuesday, after boarding the Francop some 100 nautical miles west of Israel flying an Antiguan flag. Defense officials said the 140-meter long Francop, captured near Cyprus, was carrying arms sent by Iran and destined for Syria and Hizbullah. More than 60 tons of weaponry were on board, in dozens of containers. The Francop carried hundreds of containers. A significant amount of 122 mm. Katyusha rockets, likely made in Iran, assault rifles, mortar shells and grenades were found on board. Israel Radio reported that advanced anti-aircraft platforms not before...

In the summer of 2008, then presidential candidate Barack Obama delivered a historic campaign speech in Germany. With the Berlin Wall as a back drop, Obama proudly informed the masses that he was not there as a candidate, but as "...a fellow citizen of the world." The crowd went crazy and the world rejoiced. Finally, the United States was ready to join the community of man. In what former U.S. ambassador to the UN John Bolton calls our first post-American President, Obama has bestowed instant cachet on the growing ranks of Americans who revel in the thought of being the...