Free Republic

These thoughts reflect the writer's concern about the worsening political and social conditions in Germany, a nation whose importance — for America, Europe, and the world — should require no laboring to a readership of politically sophisticated Americans. What's happening today in Germany is deeply disturbing. And it's not for the reason casual American observers, including many conservatives, might think based on information derived from the mainstream English-language media. Contrary to these purveyors of globalist, multi-cultural propaganda, the reason for growing unease about Germany is not the presence in the German parliament (Bundestag), and persistent electoral strength, of "Die Alternative...

The woman who was widely seen as German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chosen successor will not lead her crisis-racked CDU party into upcoming elections, a party source told AFP on Monday. Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, known as AKK, took over from Merkel as CDU chairwoman and presumed shoo-in for chancellor in 2018 but “has now said she will not be a candidate for the chancellery”, the source said. She made the surprise announcement after telling a crunch CDU meeting that the center-right party had “an unresolved relationship” with the far-right AfD party and the far left. It comes after an election debacle in...

A new poll carried out in the wake of a far-right scandal in Thuringia has shown impressive gains in support for the Left party and a significant tumble for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) in the eastern state. The poll was conducted by infratest dimap and commissioned by the public broadcaster MDR. The CDU in has been accused of colluding with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Thuringia to get a conservative candidate elected state premier, despite the fact that his party — the laissez-faire Free Democrats (FDP) — barely cleared the 5% hurdle to get into Thuringia’s...

The Palestinian Authority presented photographs of Holocaust victims as Arab victims of an Israeli massacre on official PA TV, Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reported. The official PA TV news presented a photograph of hundreds of bodies of Jews which was taken at the Nordhausen concentration camp in Thuringia, Germany, as a picture of Arabs massacred at Deir Yassin in 1948. The picture was taken soon after American forces liberated the camp in 1945. …

An Alternative for Germany (AfD) politician got himself in hot water over photos of his “pilgrimage” to Hitler-related sites. The politician was reportedly pictured with a candle in front of Hitler’s birthplace in the Austrian town of Brannau am Inn. He was also pictured near the Berchtesgaden Alpine retreat of the Fuhrer, as well as posing near swastikas and SS rune-bearing banners. While the scandalous pictures have not been released, the AfD acknowledged their existence. “The person concerned was clearly reminded by the state board that such incidents are unacceptable and incompatible with AfD membership,” Torben Braga, a party spokesman,...

White Double ALTHOUGH the blessed in heaven shine each with his own peculiar glory, God is pleased to group them in families, as he groups the stars in the material firmament. It is grace that presides over the arrangement of these constellations in the heaven of the Saints; but sometimes it seems as if God wished to remind us that he is the sole Author of both grace and nature; and inviting them, in spite of the fall, to honor him unitedly in his elect, he causes sanctity to become a glorious heirloom, handed down from generation to generation...

A left-wing party with communist roots now controls the levers of government in the German state of Thuringia, marking the first time a political party closely linked to East Germany’s communist leadership has gained power since German reunification in 1990. The party is, appropriately enough, the Left Party, reports The Telegraph. This week, the state parliament in Thuringia narrowly voted to authorize a new coalition with the Left Party at the helm. The three-way coalition also includes the Green Party. The Left Party is viewed as the successor to the Socialist Unity Party which controlled East Germany when it was...

Germany has moved closer to getting its first state governor from a party with communist roots as the 25th anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s fall approaches. Germany’s main center-left party, the Social Democrats, said Tuesday a party ballot in eastern Thuringia state showed 70 percent favoring negotiations to join a regional government led by Left Party candidate Bodo Ramelow. […] Ramelow himself wasn’t a communist, but his party is descended partly from East Germany’s communist rulers. …

The euroskeptic Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has taken big strides forward in regional elections in two eastern German states. Results are emerging from votes in Thuringia and Brandenburg. Results of exit polls released just before the close of voting on Sunday showed the Alternative for Germany (AfD), which was founded only last year, had gained 10 percent of the vote in Thuringia and 12 percent of the vote in Brandenburg, meaning it has won a place in the parliaments of both states for the first time. A fortnight ago the AfD was elected to the regional parliament in another...

A quarter-century after the Berlin Wall crumbled, an election this weekend may show whether Germany is ready for its first state governor from the party descended from East Germany’s communist rulers. The opposition Left Party hopes to end the 24-year grip of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives on the governor's office in eastern Thuringia state Sunday. While his party emerged from the old communist guard, Left Party candidate Bodo Ramelow is anything but a throwback to Soviet times. The 58-year-old, a practicing Protestant and West German native, went east when Germany reunited in 1990 as a labor union official and later...

Police and security services in Germany’s eastern state of Thuringia bungled the hunt for three neo-Nazis, who years later turned out to be the main suspects in a far-right murder spree, according to an official report published Thursday. A panel of lawmakers in the state assembly examined thousands of case files and interviewed dozens of former investigators, concluding that efforts to find the fugitive trio between 1998 and 2003 were a “complete disaster.” “In the best case, the comprehensive failure of many of those involved resulted from simple lack of interest,” the panel said in its 1,895-page report. But so...

Archaeologists have confirmed the presence of a long-lost Roman military camp deep in eastern Germany. The 18-hectare site, found near the town of Hachelbich in Thuringia, would have sheltered a Roman legion of up to 5000 troops. Its location in a broad valley with few impediments suggests it was a stopover on the way to invade territory further east... The Hachelbich site, along with a battlefield near Hannover uncovered in 2008, show... that the Romans were willing to cross their frontier when it suited their political or military needs. The encampment was discovered in 2010, during routine excavations as part...