Oversimplification alert. There has been effectively no right, hence no "far-right" in Germany for a century. Nazi's were far left, to say the least. IMO the lack of a "right" is the reason they're melting down now.
Every other generation, the Germans seem to go off-the-rails pursuing some utopian political-religious scheme, and Europe pays the price.
Either you are on top of them or they are on top of you.
I have always felt that this is why we have maintained a military force in Germany long after Germany was restored and rehabilitated and why we never pushed (actually rather than rhetorically pushed)Germany to take up its full Defense responsibility as a rich Western nation. The cost of defending Europe and giving European nations, primarily Germany, a free defense ride is the price of preventing rather than having to go to war against resurgent Germany.
Ha! I knew it was Hansen even before I clicked on it. As usual he gets the history wrong.
In 1870 Germany was not united and it was France which declared war on Prussia, not vice versa. The other minor states in the German Confederation allied to Prussia then joined in in kicking the crap out of France. Germany was then reunified in 1871.
In 1914 it was not German aggression which started the war. Germany was not seeking territorial aggrandizement. They felt - with considerable justification - that they were being surrounded. Russia insisted on going to war to protect Serbia after Serbia committed an act of war against the Hapsburg Empire, assassinating the heir apparent to the Hapsburg throne via state sponsored terrorism. The Russians then mobilized all along their border - including the German border, AFTER the Germans told them that this would force them into war and AFTER promising the Germans that they would not do so. When the French were asked point blank if they would attack Germany in the event that Germany and Russia went to war, instead of assuring the Germans that they would not attack, they said they “had to consult their interests”.....which obviously meant they were going to attack. That’s how the war started. Germany was fighting a defensive war, not trying to conquer Europe.
He is spot on in his analysis of present day Germany though. I don’t think they will ever be a military threat to anybody. They have no spine at all. I think the real danger is their collapse which is not as fanciful as it seems. The Southern Europeans can’t buy much of their stuff since the collapse of their economies. Saddam is gone. The hoped for windfall from pocketing more of the mullah’s blood money has vanished with the US withdrawal. The UK withdrew from the EU and they’ll have to be careful about trade negotiations there since they run a trade surplus and would be hurt worse than the Brits by any trade dispute. Just imagine if the US stop subsidizing their national defense and starts tightening the screws on them a little more in trade terms.
Oh and their population is aging and now they have well over a million new leeches to pay for.
All the German Christians came to America. Everything they do is done with an anti Christian worldview and the results over the last 100 years are clear. They can still engineer stuff but they are morally bankrupt.they still hate jews, they just do it now by proxy....import muslims
Napoleon coined a saying “if you set out take Vienna, take Vienna”. If Germany really, genuinely wants to make amends to Jews and Slavs, it should make amends to Jews and Slavs. I think Germany can’t actually stomach the thought of doing this with respect to Jews and Slavs since, deep down, they don’t really think there was anything wrong with the Final Solution, so they’re importing masses of Arabs and Africans as a kind of virtue-signaling exercise.
I take issue with the 1870 thing. That was not Germany going off the rails that was the great Bismark creating modern Germany.
Yes, but what military it even has now is laughable. Total keystone capers.
What Hanson is pointing out here is symptomatic of a national case of passive-aggressive disorder, not any chronic pacifism. Germany has, since reunification, used its resources well. Unfortunately some of those resources happened to be other countries', who are now impatient at Germany's stubborn self-satisfaction at its own prosperity, earned, to be sure, and its resentment at being reminded of the sources not always her own, and met by an ostensibly altruistic desire to address it by importing the disadvantaged who, unfortunately, also happen to be antithetical to the German culture responsible for the prosperity. The result is a net drain on the welfare state. Milton Friedman famously stated that one cannot have open borders and a welfare state at the same time. Germany is demonstrating why not.
It isn't up to the United States or any country other than Germany herself to cure this set of misconceptions and false cures. Disengagement will help. And for her neighbors, vigilance and preparation for what are likely to be some difficult times across the border. The Muslim is now far larger than the Jewish population ever was, and that's going to cause some real problems in the place of those that were once imaginary.
“The Hun is either at your feet or at your throat’’.
What an intelligent, well-written article, wide in scope and knowledge of European history.