National election in September 2021, and likely odds of a Green Party guy coming up as the next Chancellor. Economy-wise, I wouldn’t go expecting much out of Germany for the next five years.
This call for a “new world order” (read: empire) with Germany in the lead has been going on for more than just a few decades now.
WWI was a waste of time.
“We are moving at a faster pace....”
Typical kraut mentality. Why does there have to be a world order? How about minding your own business for a change and just interact with others the way they interact with you?
Too simple?
Once all the Germans were warlike and mean,
But that couldn’t happen again.
We taught them a lesson in 1918
And they’ve hardly bothered us since then.
— Tom Lehrer
I used to think the Germans should step up and carry their share of the load internationally. Having lived there twice and gotten to understand the political culture in Germany better now, I say no way.
Germans are often nice and quite capable individually. They are an unmitigated disaster collectively.
A long article of garbage. I spent a tour in Germany during the end of the Cold War always hoping our alerts were just a drill. Not one of us Army soldiers every stated that we wore the uniform and took an oath to protect Germany.
Two world wars stripped Germany of its soul and Alpha males but the Alpha Females and Beta Cuks regurgitate the same garbage of "new world order" that Hitler,Bush,Clinton and Obama pushed in their various ways.
Bring on the Fourth Reich.
Nein, danke ...
Regards,
Don’t let’s be beastly to the Germans
by Noel Coward
Don’t let’s be beastly to the Germans,
When our victory is ultimately won
It was just those nasty Nazies
Who persuaded them to fight
And their Beethoven and Bach
Is really far worse than their bite.
Let’s be meek to them,
And turn the other cheek to them
And try to bring out their latent sense of fun.
Let’s give them full air parity
And treat the rats with charity,
But don’t let’s be beastly to the Hun.
We must be kind, and with an open mind
We must endeavour to find a way
To let the Germans know that when the war is over
They are not the ones who have to pay.
We must be sweet, and tactful and discreet
And when they’ve suffered defeat we mustn’t let them feel upset
Or ever get the feeling
That we’re cross with them, or hate them.
Our future policy must be to reinstate them.
Don’t let’s be beastly to the Germans,
When we’re definitely got them on the run.
Let us treat them very kindly
As we would a valued friend
We might send them out some bishops
As a form of lease and lend.
Let’s be sweet to them,
And day by day repeat to them
That sterilisation simply isn’t done.
Let’s help the dirty swine again
To occupy the Rhine again,
But don’t let’s be beastly to the Hun.
We must be just and win their love and trust
And in addition we must be wise
And ask the conquered lands to join our hands to aid them,
That would be a wonderful surprise.
For many years, they’ve been in floods of tears,
Because the poor little dears have been so wronged
And only longed
To cheat the world,
Deplete the world,
And beat the world to blazes.
This is the moment when we ought to sing their praises.
Don’t let’s be beastly to the Germans,
For you can’t deprive a gangster of his gun.
Though they’ve been a little naughty
to the Czechs and Poles and Dutch
I don’t suppose those countries really minded very much.
Let’s, be free with them and share the BBC with them
We mustn’t prevent them basking in the sun
Let’s soften their defeat again,
And build their blasted fleet again,
Don’t let’s be beastly to the Hun.
Don’t let’s be beastly to the Germans,
When the age of peace and plenty has begun.
We must send them steel and oil and coal
And everything they need,
For their peaceable intentions
Can be always guaranteed.
Let’s employ with them and, sort of, strength through joy with them
They’re better than us at honest manly fun.
Let’s let them feel a swell again,
And bomb us all to hell again,
But don’t let’s be beastly to the Hun.
Er, yes, in the sense of "We win, you lose," (thank you Mr. Reagan). That was the same sort of "understanding" that Germany had to be brought to twice. It isn't a very optimistic pattern.
This business of the Holy Roman Empire of the German People (its full name) glosses over a couple of historical details - this was, with one divergence into the Wittelsbach family (Charles VII), an artifact of the Habsburg princes and the elections were mostly a matter of which one would rule. That got sticky in 1618 and they settled it in Westphalia after three full decades of burning Europe down. I'm not sure that's all that laudable a model.
Nowhere in this piece is the European Union mentioned, which strikes me as at least curious. Germany's hegemony over that organization is a source of constant complaint in the European media and one factor leading the British to vote to opt out of the EU. It is the EU, not Germany, that contains the impetus toward empire, and is notably suffering from a lack of investment in its own self-protection. That will be done at principally German expense especially in the absence of the UK, for that is the price of hegemony.