But Wait...I Thought Europe Loved Obama

Der Speigel/The Lid ^ | 6/29/09 | The Lid

[Shellybenoit]

Gee, I thought Europe loved President Obama, especially the Germans. Less than a year ago, tens of thousands of Germans turned out to listen to the then candidate Obama speak in front of Adolf Hitler's favorite monument, the Victory Arch. And his campaign assured us the Rock concert that preceded his speech had nothing to do with the speech, the Germans simply loved Obama as much as the loved David Hasselhoff.

That was last year. Now that he is in office the Germans are not as enamored with the new president as they were with candidate Obama.

In this week's Issue of the German Newsweekly Der Spiegel, one op-ed writer "destroys" President Obama for his lack of fiscal responsibility and describes him as the puppet of Larry Summers, the head of Obama's economic council, in a similar manner to the way they claim President Bush was controlled by Dick Cheney :

[ViLaLuz]

The Germans I know were all hoping for Hillary. They don’t like Obama and never did.

[rabidralph]

[Republic]

yep. The emporer has no clothes.

[wolf78]

Less than a year ago, tens of thousands of Germans turned out to listen to the then candidate Obama speak in front of Adolf Hitler's favorite monument, the Victory Arch.

Sorry, but this is complete nonsense. First of all, Obama spoke in front of the Victory Column (aka. Giant Prussian War Dildo), not the "Victory Arch". Secondly, the column is from the 1860s, i.e. the Kaiserreich (Imperial Germany), not the Third Reich. Thirdly, Hitler didn't really like Prussian monuments all that much, as they were in the way for his giant remodelling plan to turn Berlin into WELTHAUPTSTADT GERMANIA ("world capital"). Hitler in fact had it moved from its original location at the Reichstag (also Reich- as in Imperial Germany, not Third Reich)

.

[Shellybenoit]

Wolf you are right about calling it an arch instead of column but you are wrong about the Hitler part,Hitler moved the column because he wanted it to be the centerpiece of his new Berlin. According to Der Speigel:

“The Siegessäule in Berlin was moved to where it is now by Adolf Hitler. He saw it as a symbol of German superiority and of the victorious wars against Denmark, Austria and France,” the deputy leader of the Free Democrats, Rainer Brüderle, told Bild am Sonntag.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,566920,00.html

[wolf78]

Wolf you are right about calling it an arch instead of column but you are wrong about the Hitler part,Hitler moved the column because he wanted it to be the centerpiece of his new Berlin

You are right in pointing out that Hitler didn't dislike the Victory Column, he might even have been quite fond of it. I may have involuntarily given the wrong impression here - bad phrasing.

However, the Victory column was never meant to be anything like a centerpiece, it was simply a part of the planned East-West-Axis. The more important one was the North-South-Axis with a new Triumphal Arch and the 1.000 ft Volkshalle (Great Hall). The chancellory at the intersection of the two axes was supposed to be the actual centerpiece. For the Nazis the Victory column was a minor monument to be dwarfed by their own designs (i.e. Speer's designs).