Posted on 05/26/2005 12:16:26 PM PDT by quidnunc
German young people, faced with liberal parents who are tolerant about sex, drugs and rock and roll, are increasingly rebelling by turning to right-wing extremism. Neo-nazi fashion, music and ideology have become an ever important part of German youth culture.
Where did this "German" image come from? It's hard to say who the first person was to show up to a party in a Lonsdale shirt, curse "the Russians" or download the latest CDs by Bremen's Germanic renegade heavy metal band Kategorie C.
But Christian, Stefan and Andy don't really care how it all started. They see just themselves as good kids, living in decent families in a small city west of Munich. They're in their late teens, about to graduate from high school. And they say that there are too many foreigners "in our country." They say that "they" should leave, and that then things would be sure to get better.
They believe that if foreigners left there would be more jobs and fewer unemployed Turks getting money from the government. There would be no Albanian drug dealers on the streets and no macho Islamic guys hitting on their girlfriends. They would also no longer run the risk of being beaten up by large groups of "Russians" on a Friday night in front of their favorite bar. They say it is always "the Russians" who attack first.
Christian, Stefan and Andy aren't the fighting types. They repeat stupid xenophobic language, but aren't just dim-witted thugs. They say that they would never vote for the NPD — or not yet at any rate. They say they're afraid. Afraid of violent foreigners in their own home town. So afraid, in fact, that they wouldn't even give us their real first names.
To avoid getting bloody noses, they've discovered a detour through back yards when they go out on a Friday night. Ever since the neighborhood near the train station became a ghetto for immigrants, drunk young Russian-born Germans (the descendants of Germans who were deported to the Soviet Union after World War II) have been cruising the city's downtown streets and alleys, looking for a fight. First, says Andy, they surround their victim, then start pushing him around, and finally descend on him with their fists. Since then the three teenagers, all tall and athletic, have been avoiding the gas station and the athletic club's parking lot, places where the Russians hang out.
-snip-
"What's wrong w/ protesting against globalization? Preservation of national sovereignty should be promoted."
It's the combination of socialist politics and anti-globalization that amused me, precisely because International Socialism has been attempting to impose supra-national governance; it is their stated objective and has been for, oh, close to a century. Socialism without globalization is like a.... well, like a bunch of Nazis, really. That is the point I was trying to make. Nationalism combined with socialism does not exactly have a stellar reputation in the world, know what I mean?
Unfortunately I don't think its Wagner they like. Some sort of skinhead punk more likely.
Oh, okay! I fully understand what you're getting at now. Thanks, for the explanation!
Hitler was also a vegetarian & banned smoking. That is very LEFT WING.
"Hitler was also a vegetarian & banned smoking. That is very LEFT WING."
He also went to art school, was rumored to have had a gay affair, didn't have a full set of testicles and farted uncontrollably (due to the vegetarianism, no doubt). All very leftwing also, LOL.
It's been a while since I spent any time with Germans in Germany. My experience was that many of those who didn't live through WWII didn't know very much about it. I got the impression that they learned that Hitler was bad, end of subject. Several times my German acquaintances were embarrassed when discussions came up about WWII with other Europeans. Not because of what happened during the war but because they didn't know enough to participate in the discussion.
"A lot of the younguns causing trouble are really big into LaRouche."
Good god, Lyndon LaRouche is still around? I thought he died a long time ago. Xenophobic, cryptofascist Democrat, right? Sort of like a more extreme George Wallace without all the southern baggage?
Well, now you can use it on new friends....or foes.
It's a little deeper than that.
Hitler was an antisemite, Wagner was an antisemite.
Nonetheless, a lot of Wagner's music is beautiful. I personally like Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, although all of you know Ride of the Valkyries from Apocalypse Now, another great piece.
I like some Elton John songs, that doesn't mean I would let him within a mile of my kids!
"You mean without Southern manners. He's a Northern Virginian, one of the ones that gives that part of the state the nickname "Occupied Virginia."
I was really hoping he was one of those midwestern-populist-gone-round-the-bend types. We've had our share down here already.
He was also a hypocritcal one....no big surprise as many vegetarians are:
Otto D. Tolischus in 1937 in The New York Times pointed out that the Führer was a vegetarian who 'does not drink or smoke' but who also 'occasionally relishes a slice of ham' along with delicacies such as caviar and chocolates." (Ibid.) Proctor is content to state that Hitler was a vegetarian who "occasionally would allow himself a dish of meat," (p. 135) and quotes The New York Times as stating that in addition to ham and caviar Hitler also occasionally ate squab. Whatever kind of vegetarian Hitler was, he was not the kind that Gandhi was.
And Adolf had a prickly personality, but he made his own uniforms and the SS really liked him . . . he once chastised a dinner companion enjoying a beef soup for eating 'scheiss-soup'.
But it's a good thing that this vegetarian, animal loving monster chased off German and Hungarian jewish physicists to the Greatest Country on Earth, or we might have had an unresolvable problem with these mid-20th century German leftists.
Hugo Boss was the designer of the uniforms.....
"I'm not sure where he hatched originally."
Born in NH, educated in Boston (good, they can't hang him around our neck, at least).
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