Nazi Ideals Inch Toward German Mainstream-(party like its 1939)

the trumpet ^ | Wednesday, September 6, 2006 | na

[Flavius]

Neo-Nazis parade freely through Berlin and a far-right party may gain seats in another regional parliament. As dissatisfaction with the government grows, so do other unsavory elements.

Fringe Nazi ideals are inching toward the mainstream in Germany.

On August 19, the German government permitted neo-Nazi rallies in Berlin and across the nation to publicly celebrate the 19th anniversary of the death of Nazi war criminal Rudolph Hess. Hess was a close friend and deputy of Hitler and was a figurehead in the Nazi party.

Authorities not only tolerated the parades, but they provided police escorts to assist the neo-Nazis in their procession through Berlin and removed counter-demonstrators.

Germany’s political environment—once clouded by apprehension over any display that would resurrect associations with its war-making past—has changed drastically indeed. Under the guise of free speech, far-right extremism is gaining acceptance to the point now where police will escort a rally honoring a Nazi war criminal and arrest those who protest it! As Germany sheds its postwar guilt, it is now protecting people who spout the same ideology that led to Germany’s war crimes in the first place.

The government’s tolerance of hate is matched by the growing popularity of political parties that make such ideology their platform. While Germany’s two main far-right parties, the National Democratic Party (npd) and the German People’s Union (dvu), have not to this point been successful at the national level, they have long enjoyed great popularity at the local level and increasingly are breaking into state politics. This is a dangerous trend, as it signifies a transition of far-right extremism from the fringes of politics into the mainstream.

Germany’s post-war constitution contains safeguards specifically designed to prevent extremists from seizing power. In particular, in elections, a 5-percent threshold exists for a party to obtain seats in federal or regional parliaments. “The law is intended to keep extremists from either end of the political spectrum out of power” (Spiegel Online, September 4). In two states within the former East Germany, however, already far-right parties have gained enough votes for their candidates to be elected to parliament. Two years ago, the npd entered Saxony’s parliament with 9 percent of the vote and the dvu debuted in Brandenburg with the support of more than 6 percent of voters. Now, a far-right party is poised to take seats in the parliament of a third state.

A recent poll indicates that the National Democratic Party is in a strong position to garner enough votes in an upcoming regional election to enter the parliament of the northern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania for the first time. The npd is projected to poll well over 6 percent in the September 17 election. “In fact, every tenth person surveyed said they would either maybe or definitely be voting npd” (ibid.).

The campaign tactics of this far-right party highlight the danger of parties with neo-Nazi ideals becoming mainstream. Spiegel Online reports that the npd is carrying out “a campaign of intimidation against their political rivals and their supporters” and “is reported to be using increasingly hostile tactics” (ibid.).

“For example, on August 18 the Social Democrat politician Margret Seemann was at her information stand in the town of Hagenow when she was surrounded by npd supporters and threatened, she told Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

“The right-wing radicals told her, ‘When it’s our turn, then you socialists will disappear.’ She retorted that this had already been tried in 1933 and that her party was still there. Seemann said that the leading npd candidate Udo Pastörs then appeared, surrounded by muscular bodyguards, so that no one could approach her stand. The group only left when the police arrived on the scene.”

The German newspaper Tageszeitung confirmed that this was no isolated incident. Politicians of the major parties are saying it’s “part of the new npd modus operandi: a strategy of confrontation and intimidation.”

This is not how the party presents itself to voters, however. Spiegel Online reported, “While the traditional image of right-wing extremists is young men clad in the neo-Nazi garb of steel-toed boots, bomber jackets and shaven heads, the npd in Mecklenburg-Pomerania is cultivating a more respectable image, aiming to represent itself as being part of the fabric of society and getting involved in various citizens’ initiatives. In fact, the state prime minister Harald Ringstorff (spd) has described the party as a ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing.’”

Blending into the mainstream indeed.

The appeal of such groups tends to grow in direct proportion to general dissatisfaction with the political status quo among Germans. A survey conducted the week of August 21, revealed support for the conservative Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, had fallen to 30 percent, a drop of 13 points in a year to its lowest level in six years. “People can’t see which way this government is going,” Peter Grottian, a political science professor at Berlin’s Free University, said (Bloomberg, August 30). When Germans are unhappy with their current government or the direction of their nation, they take their worries to the ballot box.

While we don’t expect another Beer Hall Putsch or the npd to take over the German government, the direction Germany is heading in should be taken seriously. The German populace is not satisfied with the grand coalition and is increasingly looking to more radical alternatives.

[End Times Sentinel]

It's a sad commentary on Europe, that a bunch of socailist/fascist buffoons, who are essentially Germany's equivelent to D.U. are called "far right" due to the lack of any real Conservative movement.

I guess that's what a cultural heritage of being under the boot of a king, duke, or some other self-appointed channel for God, for thousands of years will do to a people.

Owl_Eagle

[Joe Boucher]

What with slime from the mideast and africa coming to Europe in droves I can see where folks there are turning to any faction that will stem the flow.
Why let in folks that are totally different and refuse to assimilate?
The mainstream parties are too big of pansies to make a stand. And I don't care to have 15 or 20 Islamofacists living next door.
If I were Say Dutch, I'd want my home to continue with the culture and not have North African cuture forced on me. So if right wing extremism is the only way then I'd support it.

[Pitmaster]

Excellent observation.

[samtheman]

Are there any Jews still living in Germany? They should get out. As should those living in France.

[cartan]

Germany’s political environment—once clouded by apprehension over any display that would resurrect associations with its war-making past—has changed drastically indeed. Under the guise of free speech, far-right extremism is gaining acceptance to the point now where police will escort a rally honoring a Nazi war criminal and arrest those who protest it! As Germany sheds its postwar guilt, it is now protecting people who spout the same ideology that led to Germany’s war crimes in the first place.

Oh, come on! The Nazis have been holding those pro-Heß rallies every year already when Heß was still alive. There have always been counter-demonstrations (by equally crazy left-wing extremists), and of course the police is there to make sure they don't kill each other. As the violence always comes from the counter-demonstrators (who greatly outnumber the Nazis at such rallies), the police ends up having to protect the Nazis from the communists. Nothing has changed there.

[CzarNicky]

if the muslims are smart they'll bugger out too but smart is one thing muslims aren't.

[bkepley]

"If I were Say Dutch, I'd want my home to continue with the culture and not have North African cuture forced on me. So if right wing extremism is the only way then I'd support it."

If "right wing extremism" is in fact Nazism there I disagree.

[Flavius]

yes for sure, its not new

[ClearCase_guy]

I wish we had details as to the proposed policies of these "far-right extremists".

I'm guessing that Reaganesque economic policies are not what they're after.

[bill1952]

I'm right with you there. Those islamist types, along with the fevered Socialists, do have a cause and you can't beat something with nothing.

[FostersExport]

Excellent my foot. The big European country with the more free market policies still has the queen in place.

Proportional representation is the problem. Leads to the country being ruled by governments that can’t get anything done.

[Jabba the Nutt]

The Trumpet is from the Philadelphia Church of God, whoever they are. They're not my usual source for news of the political situation in Germany. The Trumpet is implying that the German Government is behind reviving Nazi Ideals. In fact, German neo-Nazis are the only targets of the German Government for extremism.

The article included not one word that both of these parties have been successful only in the former communist East Germany. The article included not one word about the former Communist party (pds) and their merger with West Germany leftwing parties, including their pick up of Oskar LaFontaine, former "conscience" of the Social Democrats (one of the governing parties).

The article contained not one word about the recently attempted 'suitcase bombing' of German trains by jihadis. The article contained not one word about the rising Islamic influence and anti-semitism among the immigrants. The article contained not one word about how the problems of socialism, don't lead to more socialism, but to fascism.

Nationally, Germany has 10-12% umemployment, in Eastern Germany, 20-25% unemployment, a rising emigration rate of the talented and ambitious are leaving to Denmark, Holland, England, Sweden, US, Canada and Australia among other destinations.

Focusing on the NPD and DVU is to fall into the German MSM trap that the only threat comes from the right. That's probably the easiest to solve problem, they totally ignore everything else.

[nathanbedford]

The author conveniently fails to advise us that the Supreme Court of Germany threw out an attempt by the left in Germany to outlaw this party because the government had so infiltrated the party with its own agents that it was impossible to determine who was responsible for the activities complained of, the party or the government? a classic case of entrapment.

It appears that this organization, THE TRUMPET, is a Philadelphia church which claims 400 million radio listeners worldwide but which seems to be prone to a classic error of biblical interpretation: to work backwards from the book of Revelation.

All this would not be worthy of note or of post if it were not for the fact that it is important to know that the real danger to American interests in Germany come from the left and not from the right. In Germany, Communists have morphed into greens and socialists and what have you and are no friends of America. They have a choke hold on real power. These skinhead neo-Nazi fools do not have any access to power and are denied respectability and are no factor.

[wolf78]

It's a sad commentary on Europe, that a bunch of socailist/fascist buffoons, who are essentially Germany's equivelent to D.U. are called "far right" due to the lack of any real Conservative movement.

Nah, it's just that capitalists are called "Liberals" here, to be more precise the exact german term would be "Liberalkonservatismus". ;-)

[tcostell]

-(party like its 1939)

LOL

[Graymatter]

So which is it, are they celebrating Hess or his demise? IIRC, Hess bailed on Hitler.

[mkjessup]

The fact is, there was nothing "right wing" about Nazism, the entire philosophy was nothing more than socialism (Communism) without Marx, Engels or Lenin, and in place of a hammer and sickle, there was the swastika and "Mein Kampf". And of course Herr Hitler was on hand to provide a source for the German version of the "Cult of the Personality".

Fast forward 60+ years and you have a dying generation too feeble to offer much in the way of protest, younger generations who remember only the threat of Soviet tanks on the other side of the Berlin Wall, economic uncertainty after the reunification of West Germany with the totally mismanaged and wasteful economy of East Germany, toss in the surging Islamofascist threat throughout Europe and it should surprise nobody if a resurgence of something resembling Nazism (minus Hitler) is taking root here and there.

However I tend to believe that there is (to paraphrase Nixon) a great German "Silent Majority" that will prevent any attempted revival of the bad old days of the 1930's and 40's.

[sergeantdave]

The barbarians who brought the world gulag concentration camps, the Berlin Wall and waiting in line for a day to get a roll of toilet paper are goosestepping on European streets again. Yes - the commies are back.

Proclaiming their contempt for “neo liberal Capitalism,” Communists in Germany declared their commitment to a “socialist society.”

The old East German communist party is leading the only growing political movement in the country and their voter share is growing rapidly.

Now known as the Leftists-Party for Democratic Socialism, the commies are gaining power in the legislatures of various German states.

And just like their Marxist Nazi brothers, the German communists denounce economic freedom and capitalism, diminish atrocities committed by governments in the Soviet empire and dismiss suffering under communism as a mere “socialist experiment.”

[sumocide]

Let them march and be called Nazis or make it verboten and be called Nazis. Lose-lose situation for Germans.