Posted on 03/20/2014 6:18:09 AM PDT by C19fan
A simple plaque marks the forsaken spot where the Red Baron was buried in central Berlin but hardly anyone stops to remember the flying ace shot down in 1918. For Germans, the Great War holds so little interest.
The centenary of the outbreak of World War One has caught Germany off guard, while Britain, France, the United States and others mark it with battlefield tours, television programs, exhibitions and plans for ceremonies on the day, in August.
Germans aren't sure how, or even if, they should commemorate a war that cost them 13 percent of their territory, all their colonies, huge reparations and 2.5 million lives. The government is under fire for its inactivity.
"Most Germans don't want to have anything to do with the militaristic past," said Stefan Scheybal, a mason who tends graves at the Invalids' cemetery where Manfred von Richthofen was buried, a plot of land now bisected by a busy cycle path.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
The most important war in modern history.
No one’s asking what Austria’s plans are?
One from which Europe never recovered.
Agreed. This war delivered the death blow to Western Civilization, which has been a terminal case ever since.
Even to this day we’re dealing with the blowback from WW I and how the borders were redrawn afterward.
France and England's method of peace lasted barely 20 years. The peace of the "unsophisticated" Americans lasted over 60 years.
What would Austria celebrate? Going from the capital of Central Europe producing geniuses like Mahler, Klint, and Freud to a city that now serves more as a living museum living off the fumes of the past; think of Colonial Williamsburg writ large.
Ah yes, the Treaty of Versailles—punishment. That is always such a successful strategy, isn’t it? (rhetorical)
Wow. Was just watching a movie about the Red Barron the other day. Very interesting chap, apparently. Still a mystery how he died.
I guess the Austrians live off the reputation of their delicious pastries.
IMHO, the real problem is that they'll succeed in sweeping it under the rug. Nobody gives a hoot about history anymore...but our modern culture is obsessed with Miley Cyrus and the Kardashians.
WW I was the beginning of the end of European culture. The genetic losses of 1914-45 can never be replaced. Migrants from Africa and the Mideast are forever transforming Europe.
We did the same to Russia, at the end of the Cold War, and now the chickens are coming home to roost.
............................................George Santayana
It isn’t about payback, it’s about winning the war. By rebuilding and re-arming Germany after WW II, we helped turn them into a peaceful Parliamentary Republic (maybe too peaceful...now that we’ve shown them how to live at peace with their neighbors, I wouldn’t mind seeing them show some fight against possible threats from Russia).
When you replace 18 million Jews with 20 million Muslims, expect mayhem to ensue.
In fairness, both Britain and France paid a heavy price in men and materials. America’s level of sacrifice didn’t even come close to matching theirs. No wonder they were angry, and their populations could not have brooked to lenient a treaty.
France had also gotten a rough deal out of the 1871 Treaty of Frankfurt, in which they lost Alscace-Lorraine, and their idea was to break Germany so it could never threaten France again. Understandable really, although as we know, things didn’t work out that way. The allies might also have taken a much more punitive attitude towards Germany after WWII (remember that they completely disbanded the German armed forces after that war, which didn’t happen after WWI), but they also faced the threat of Communism from the Soviet Union, so it was particularly important not to drive the Germans into the arms of the Soviets. The Germans of that period were predisposed towards extremist ideologies, and Communism was the other side of the coin to Nazism.
Killing 10,000 men a day, every day, for 4+ years will do that.
It curdles the marrow of my bones just reading that.
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