Posted on 09/04/2013 5:24:10 AM PDT by markomalley
Recently, I wrote about a ban on the use of Christian symbols in the public celebration of Christmas in the German city of Solingen. Now the virus has spread to Berlin.
As of now, Christmas is banned in Berlin's Kreuzberg - at least as far as celebration in public places is concerned. Christmas is only allowed in the home, so that the religious feelings of others are not injured.Source: MMNews.de
No April Fool: the district office of Berlin Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg is doing away with Christmas. The authorities are allowing no more Christmas celebrations in public places or streets. A Christmas tree may only be set up in a central location, allocated by the authorities in advance - so reports the "Berliner Zeitung". The ban on celebrations was decided by the Greens, the Left and the Pirates. The SPD [Socialists] and CDU [Merkel's party, mainstream right] were apparently against it.
The responsible city councilman Peter Beckers (SPD) responded to protests against the ban on the public celebration of Christmas to the BZ: "Why do religious celebrations need to be celebrated in public?"
Background to the Christmas ban: In August Muslims wanted to celebrate the end of Ramadan on Berlin's streets. There were complaints from locals worried about the noise. The District Office made "short work" of these and immediately banned all religious celebrations - including Christmas, on the grounds of "equal treatment".
I’ve been to Kreuzberg... this doesn’t surprise me, as it’s Berlin’s answer to Greenwich Village.
We in 1945 should have saved some nukes for Berlin and Munich.
Interestingly, Kreuzberg is west of the old Berlin Wall.
Next they’ll ban Hanukkah and Ramadan.
Well , maybe not Ramadan. Could be bad for your health.
I suppose Germany will never stop being Germany.
Do the mosques blast their call to prayer over high volume loud speakers, five times each day?
It was named by King Frederick William III of Prussia after the Iron Cross crowning the top of the Prussian National Monument for the Liberation Wars on the occasion of its inauguration on 30 March 1821.
Now where exactly did the Iron Cross come from? You see where this is going.
Then again they used to call America "The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave"... Anymore? Not so much.
And some years back I understand they tried banning Chanukah too. It’s just a German thing.
Doesn’t ‘Kreuzberg’ mean Town of the Cross?......
These days, I’m thinking more about DC and Chicago.
“The borough is known for its very large percentage of immigrants and second-generation immigrants, many of whom are of Turkish ancestry. As of 2006, 31.6% of Kreuzberg’s inhabitants did not have German citizenship.
“While Kreuzberg thrives on its diverse culture and is still an attractive area for many, the district is also characterized by high levels of unemployment and some of the lowest average incomes in Berlin.
“The counterculture tradition of Kreuzberg led to a plurality of votes for the Green Party, which is unique among all Berlin boroughs. The local MP Hans-Christian Ströbele is the only Green politician directly elected to the federal Bundestag parliament.”
Probably the inverted variety, in this case.
It is also home to about 200,000 Turks. I lived four years in Berlin. Kreuzberg is heavily Muslim. There have even been honor killings there. The Turks came there generations ago a guest workers. They have still not assimilated.
It is.. and during the Cold War, Kreuzberg was full of anti-Western leftists who longed for life in the enlightened utopia of the east zone. But, when presented with the opportunity to actually move over to it, they -- like most lefties -- realized that longing wasn't quite so intense as they'd thought.
Were at Tempelhof AB or the Berlin Brigade?
What do you mean by that? I can tell you from personal experience that very few countries in the world celebrate Christmas as much as Germany. The Christmas markets are all over the country in every city and village. It is a very festive atmosphere, which is why this ban in Kreuzberg is the exception and so un-German. Unlike the US, Germany has not banned religion and Christian holidays from the public square.
US Mission Berlin on Clayallee 1983-87. I was with the State Department.
I went to Berlin in 1990 over Labor Day weekend, and chiseled off parts of the wall. It was a fascinating time. I was assigned with HQ European Command from 1989-1992.
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