X Close

How the AfD won over Germany The political mainstream is blind to their allure

A recent AfD demonstration in Berlin (Omer Messinger/Getty Images)

A recent AfD demonstration in Berlin (Omer Messinger/Getty Images)


July 27, 2023   6 mins

To understand how the far-Right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) became Germany’s second-largest party, consider the events of the past five days. In an interview with the state broadcaster ZDF on Sunday, Friedrich Merz, the leader of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), made the mistake of suggesting that he would be willing to work in a coalition with the far-Right party. Less than 24 hours later, after facing a barrage of outrage, he was forced into a humiliating U-turn. This is how Germany’s political class hopes to deal with the rise of the AfD: their political resonance is recognised, but any breaking of the cordon sanitaire around them is regarded as dangerous legitimisation.

Much as the mainstream parties have failed to stop it, liberal commentators have also struggled to comprehend the phenomenon. They blame the party’s rise on extraneous factors, from an insufficiently democratic culture in the east (where the AfD enjoys extensive support) to Russian disinformation. A new taboo seems to have been erected around even discussions of the AfD’s popularity, whereby attempting to understand their rise is seen as some kind of endorsement. But the reality is that the party has benefitted from saying out loud the ugly things that others won’t. It would be simpler if the AfD could be shrugged off as another evanescent populist movement. But while gaining from a generalised political dissatisfaction, in their language and rhetoric, they give voice to some fundamental objections to Germany’s political culture — some of which date back to the refounding of the modern nation in 1989.

There are more extremist elements in the party’s ranks which date even further back in Germany’s history. The party was bitterly divided during the pandemic over whether to expel Andreas Kalbitz, an influential former candidate for premier of Brandenburg, when it surfaced that he had been a member of a banned neo-Nazi organisation, German Youths Loyal to the Fatherland. Kalbitz held considerable sway over the party’s more extremist eastern division, whose members were staunchly opposed to his removal. But the AfD’s middle-class libertarian wing in the West insisted on kicking him out; in the end, this more moderate wing had the final say.

Yet today, the party still retains some odious figures. In June, prosecutors in Halle brought charges against Björn Höcke, the incendiary leader of the party’s Thuringia chapter and of its extremist Der Flügel faction, for using the Nazi stormtrooper line “Alles für Deutschland” at a public event in Saxony-Anhalt. And the extremist Right-wing elements within the AfD have increasingly been viewed as a security risk. In 2021, the AfD became the first post-war opposition party to be placed under surveillance by the domestic intelligence agency over fears of extremism.

Despite its Rightwards shift in recent years, the party has only grown more popular. And rather than attributing this to a tradition of neo-Nazi extremism, the reason for the AfD’s proximate rise is more straightforward — and for Germany’s ruling parties, self-inflicted. Above all, the AfD has successfully capitalised on widespread disenchantment with the ruling coalition.

This dissatisfaction is rich and various: there is ample discontent with the coalition’s immigration policies, energy and climate approach, economic policy and foreign policy, especially with respect to the war in Ukraine. Indeed, it seems there is very little that voters are not dissatisfied with, and the little support that the coalition still enjoys stems from simply not being the AfD. After the relative calm of the Merkel years, the back-to-back cataclysms of the pandemic and war in Ukraine have proven crippling for Germany’s political mainstream.

For many, then, the AfD is a simple protest party: two-thirds of AfD voters say their support derives from disappointment with conventional parties, and only a third say they vote for the AfD out of conviction for its programme. And this is in keeping with the party’s historic strategy. Since their foundation 10 years ago, the AfD has shaped itself into an adaptable and protean vehicle for oppositional politics. Prior to the 2015 refugee crisis, this primarily came in the form of economic frustration. Founded as a free-market Eurosceptic party at the pinnacle of the euro crisis in 2013, the AfD initially opposed bailouts for southern European states and criticised Germany’s role in the euro, bemoaning her lost economic sovereignty.

But the refugee crisis would forever change its course. In that year, Germany took in nearly one million migrants, and the AfD seized on the attendant controversy by embracing a virulent new anti-migrant politics. The shift paid off enormously in the following elections. In 2017, the party secured representation in 14 of the 16 state parliaments and won 94 seats at the federal level to become the third-largest party in Germany. Today, the party’s stance on immigration still provides its bedrock of support.

The AfD’s message has resonated especially well in eastern Germany, where many of the exalted promises of reunification never materialised. Its affluent west has long struggled to fully acknowledge that the unparalleled moment of liberal triumph had serious downsides in its east. Between 1989 and 1991, more than 2.5 million people lost their jobs, while the number of workers in the manufacturing sector fell from 3.3 million to 1.7 million. Over 90% of East German factories and firms were bought up by West German companies. Seizing on this phenomenon of democratic disappointment, recent AfD campaigns have invoked and repurposed the rhetoric of 1989 (the Wende or “turnabout” of reunification), with calls to “complete” the unfinished revolution. For the AfD, the “establishment”, embodied in the conventional parties, constitutes another undemocratic imposition that must be removed as the DDR leadership once was. For instance, the AfD borrowed heavily from the so-called “peaceful revolution” around the fall of the Berlin Wall for its 2019 campaign in the eastern state of Thuringia. Their campaign materials were headed “1989-2019: Be There When History Is Made” and posters spoke of a “Wende 2.0”. The local leader, Björn Höcke, made the appropriation more explicit: “We’re completing the revolution!” he shouted at one rally.

He was drawing on an widely unacknowledged thrum of despondency in Germany’s political firmament. For the country’s victorious liberals, 1989 and the next year’s unification were a moment of unparalleled triumph. “This is a day of undiminished rejoicing,” Nato Secretary-General and former Defence Minister of West Germany Manfred Worner said in 1990. With such a self-congratulatory historical record, few wish to discuss the limitations and broken promises of transition. Instead of acknowledging that the “peaceful revolution” failed to deliver on its assurance of prosperity, they opt to blame the AfD’s popularity on the east’s “anti-democratic culture” produced by the experience of the “two totalitarianisms”, and condemn them for their “misuse” of the memory of unification. They fundamentally see the AfD’s popularity in the former DDR as a symptom of East Germany’s political immaturity.

But it isn’t democracy — or the free market — that AfD supporters in the east are against, nor do they seek a return to the DDR. First, the AfD has always been a virulently anti-redistributionist party. This makes the AfD somewhat distinct from other far-Right populist parties in Europe: it has never adopted pro-welfare policies or rhetoric in an effort to court voters from lower socioeconomic strata. Even less affluent AfD supporters report a preference for lower redistribution than the most affluent non-AfD supporters. Meanwhile, whatever their political conditioning, East Germans are also overwhelmingly supportive of democracy. A recent survey by EFBI revealed that 91% of East Germans identify with democracy as an idea, though less than half find satisfaction with the everyday practice and experience of democracy. And even as AfD moves further Right, it is increasingly seen as a “normal democratic party”. According to a survey by the Allensbach Institute for Public Opinion Research, 17% of Germans described the party in those terms in 2016; today, that number has risen to 27%.

The subtlety that has been missed is that the language of democracy, along with the rest of the rhetoric of 1989, has proven ideologically malleable — as easily deployed in service of the far-Right as in service of socially liberal politics. A lurid example came with the recycling of the slogan “we are the people”, originally borne on the revolutionary streets of Leipzig in 1989. In 2016, a mob of demonstrators, some of them supporters of AfD, shouted the slogan to protest the arrival of a bus carrying migrants in Clausnitz.

Yet however odious the twin rise of the German far-Right and the country’s wartime remilitarisation might sound, it is also significant that the militaristic impulse is not being driven by the AfD. Instead, it is the once-pacifist Greens that are leading the hawkish charge on the war in Ukraine. Here, the AfD has positioned itself as the anti-war opposition, calling for peace negotiations and restraint on sending arms. And there is evidence that the AfD’s nose for popular outrage is still serving them well. The “traffic light” coalition’s Ukraine policies are increasingly unpopular with large swathes of the electorate. A recent YouGov poll revealed that 55% of Germans now favour peace negotiations to bring about an end to the war in Ukraine, while only 28% are opposed.

A secondary outcome of the Ukraine war has also helped to propel the AfD. As energy prices soared over the winter and German cities discussed turning off their streetlights, the AfD defined itself in opposition to the so-called “Green agenda”. A much-reviled government plan to phase out oil and gas-heating systems caused immense public backlash (a single heat pump costs between €11,000 and €25,000 per household). Even with a partial government subsidy of up to 40%, this is simply not affordable for many people in Germany. As a result, relatively poor AfD voters now regard the Green Party as the antagonist of working Germans; according to one poll support for the climate movement in Germany has halved from 68% to 34% in the last two years).

Added to this, of course, is a broader, more chastening realisation: Germany is no longer Europe’s economic powerhouse, no longer the continent’s workshop. Earlier this year, the country slipped into a technical recession, and the IMF now predicts the country’s economy will shrink by 0.3% this year, contradicting Olaf Scholz’s predictions. The heady days of unification, then, with the Deutschmark as an idol of West German affluence and a post-war pacifist tradition firmly intact, have given way to a much bleaker wartime reality. And as long as the AfD articulates this disenchantment the most powerfully, it will be the chief beneficiary of Germany’s fall from the heights of exception.


Lily Lynch is a writer and journalist based in Belgrade.


Join the discussion


Join like minded readers that support our journalism by becoming a paid subscriber


To join the discussion in the comments, become a paid subscriber.

Join like minded readers that support our journalism, read unlimited articles and enjoy other subscriber-only benefits.

Subscribe
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

99 Comments
Most Voted
Newest Oldest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
polidori redux
polidori redux
1 year ago

Yet another yelp from the “liberal left”. We reap as we sow, Lily.
You fail to understand that your definition of “far right” is so broad that it encompasses the views of anyone who disagrees with you, and so becomes meannigless.

Catherine Conroy
Catherine Conroy
1 year ago
Reply to  polidori redux

I do agree. When I see some of the ridiculous positions taken by ‘the left’, I suddenly find myself agreeing with the right. Most new insane ideologies have been politicised and those of us protesting are de facto ‘far right’ if not downright ‘Nazi sympathisers’ because the left, rather that look at where they’ve gone wrong, find it more expedient to insult their opposition.

Ted Ditchburn
Ted Ditchburn
1 year ago

I honestly think the Left/Right idea (and so extreme Left and Extreme Right attempts at demonisation) just doesn’t fit the political scene in the 21st Century.
I think David Goodhart’s model of ‘Somewheres and Anywheres’ is far more useful and effective idea.
It easily explains the rise of ‘Far Right ‘ parties and all the various manifestations of a very deeprooted sea change underway across the Wester democracies, e.g. like seeing a UK Labour party rallying to support the fattest of banking fat cats, because they don’t like the ‘victim’ in the case.
It explains the fracturing of support in Red or Blue Walls and the constantly shifting alliances in modern politics, often between supposed Far Left and Far Right…Uber Conservatives and Socialists.
The ludicrous situation in which Remainers routinely compare a centrist Conservative party here, with, say, the Sweden Democrats, New Dawn in Greece, AFD or VOX just shows how drained of meaning those Left/Right labels have become.

Peter Joy
Peter Joy
1 year ago

And to criminalise them, as has already happened in Britain, France, Germany, Canada and the US.

Ted Ditchburn
Ted Ditchburn
1 year ago

I honestly think the Left/Right idea (and so extreme Left and Extreme Right attempts at demonisation) just doesn’t fit the political scene in the 21st Century.
I think David Goodhart’s model of ‘Somewheres and Anywheres’ is far more useful and effective idea.
It easily explains the rise of ‘Far Right ‘ parties and all the various manifestations of a very deeprooted sea change underway across the Wester democracies, e.g. like seeing a UK Labour party rallying to support the fattest of banking fat cats, because they don’t like the ‘victim’ in the case.
It explains the fracturing of support in Red or Blue Walls and the constantly shifting alliances in modern politics, often between supposed Far Left and Far Right…Uber Conservatives and Socialists.
The ludicrous situation in which Remainers routinely compare a centrist Conservative party here, with, say, the Sweden Democrats, New Dawn in Greece, AFD or VOX just shows how drained of meaning those Left/Right labels have become.

Peter Joy
Peter Joy
1 year ago

And to criminalise them, as has already happened in Britain, France, Germany, Canada and the US.

Ethniciodo Rodenydo
Ethniciodo Rodenydo
1 year ago
Reply to  polidori redux

“however odious the twin rise of the German far-Right and the…”
Really?
From how the author described their policies they sound centre right

Last edited 1 year ago by Ethniciodo Rodenydo
David Yetter
David Yetter
1 year ago

Ah, but seem my earlier post. To be “far-right” on the Continent, it suffices to oppose mass immigration from the Muslim world.

David Jory
David Jory
1 year ago

Has she not noticed the human rights horrors of the sanctimonious WEFfers?

Peter Joy
Peter Joy
1 year ago
Reply to  David Jory

No, of course she hasn’t. In her metro-left world, it’s opposition to the suspension-by-decree of the rule of law and all the most elementary constitutional and human rights that counts as a ‘horror;.
Having netted a constituency of sceptical-minded, largely ‘Somewhere’ readers, UnHerd is now sliding further to the cosmopolitan halfwit far left every week.

Peter Joy
Peter Joy
1 year ago
Reply to  David Jory

No, of course she hasn’t. In her metro-left world, it’s opposition to the suspension-by-decree of the rule of law and all the most elementary constitutional and human rights that counts as a ‘horror;.
Having netted a constituency of sceptical-minded, largely ‘Somewhere’ readers, UnHerd is now sliding further to the cosmopolitan halfwit far left every week.

David Yetter
David Yetter
1 year ago

Ah, but seem my earlier post. To be “far-right” on the Continent, it suffices to oppose mass immigration from the Muslim world.

David Jory
David Jory
1 year ago

Has she not noticed the human rights horrors of the sanctimonious WEFfers?

Bernard Stewart
Bernard Stewart
1 year ago
Reply to  polidori redux

Oh come on, just resolve to take ‘far-right’ as a compliment. Then you can read the article properly and find that it actually contains a lot of good information and good sense.

Catherine Conroy
Catherine Conroy
1 year ago
Reply to  polidori redux

I do agree. When I see some of the ridiculous positions taken by ‘the left’, I suddenly find myself agreeing with the right. Most new insane ideologies have been politicised and those of us protesting are de facto ‘far right’ if not downright ‘Nazi sympathisers’ because the left, rather that look at where they’ve gone wrong, find it more expedient to insult their opposition.

Ethniciodo Rodenydo
Ethniciodo Rodenydo
1 year ago
Reply to  polidori redux

“however odious the twin rise of the German far-Right and the…”
Really?
From how the author described their policies they sound centre right

Last edited 1 year ago by Ethniciodo Rodenydo
Bernard Stewart
Bernard Stewart
1 year ago
Reply to  polidori redux

Oh come on, just resolve to take ‘far-right’ as a compliment. Then you can read the article properly and find that it actually contains a lot of good information and good sense.

polidori redux
polidori redux
1 year ago

Yet another yelp from the “liberal left”. We reap as we sow, Lily.
You fail to understand that your definition of “far right” is so broad that it encompasses the views of anyone who disagrees with you, and so becomes meannigless.

Peter Lee
Peter Lee
1 year ago

If there are no ‘far left’ parties then there are no ‘far right’ parties.

Samir Iker
Samir Iker
1 year ago
Reply to  Peter Lee

The fact that even this author relies on calling them “far-Right” is chilling and revealing.
As an immigrant, there is absolutely nothing in what’s said by AFD, or in case of UK, Farage, that is “far” right. If anything, even the policies they propose are MORE liberal than most countries in the world.

And, there are, ironically, genuinely far left parties around and increasingly in power.

Destroying the family, mass immigration, “victim” classes, critical race theory, pitting women against men, government and ideological control over media, education and corporates, expansion of the state, use of tactics such as closing bank accounts of political opponents or cancel culture……
Each and every one of these is a staple of “Leftist” parties. And all of these straight out of the book of extremist leftist groups, and commonly seen in communism and fascism.

Last edited 1 year ago by Samir Iker
Catherine Conroy
Catherine Conroy
1 year ago
Reply to  Samir Iker

Amen to that.

Benjamin Dyke
Benjamin Dyke
1 year ago
Reply to  Samir Iker

It’s the same in Sweden with the casual use of “far-right” to describe the Swedish Democrats who have recently become the second biggest party in parliament. It’s use as a not very subtle sleight in pretty much all mainstream journalism just adds to their popularity and the “us v the establishment” narrative. If the Swedish Democrats and AfD are far-right then so is at least 25% of the electorate in these countries!

Last edited 1 year ago by Benjamin Dyke
Peter Joy
Peter Joy
1 year ago
Reply to  Benjamin Dyke

And in France, by the same token, more than HALF the electorate (by current polls) are now ‘Far Right’. That’s hardly ‘extremism’ as I understand it.

Peter Joy
Peter Joy
1 year ago
Reply to  Benjamin Dyke

And in France, by the same token, more than HALF the electorate (by current polls) are now ‘Far Right’. That’s hardly ‘extremism’ as I understand it.

Catherine Conroy
Catherine Conroy
1 year ago
Reply to  Samir Iker

Amen to that.

Benjamin Dyke
Benjamin Dyke
1 year ago
Reply to  Samir Iker

It’s the same in Sweden with the casual use of “far-right” to describe the Swedish Democrats who have recently become the second biggest party in parliament. It’s use as a not very subtle sleight in pretty much all mainstream journalism just adds to their popularity and the “us v the establishment” narrative. If the Swedish Democrats and AfD are far-right then so is at least 25% of the electorate in these countries!

Last edited 1 year ago by Benjamin Dyke
Roland Fleming
Roland Fleming
1 year ago
Reply to  Peter Lee

There certainly are far left parties in Germany. Die Linke is the most mainstream of the far left parties, but near election time you will often see posters for the MLPD (Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany). Nobody shies away from calling these parties far left, because they are. Center left would be SPD and Greens.
On the right there is AfD and of course, further to the right, the NPD (National Democratic Party). In the center right there is the FDP and CDU/CSU.
So, pretty much the whole spectrum is covered.

Peter Lee
Peter Lee
1 year ago
Reply to  Roland Fleming

Unable to speak for Germany, but for the rest of Europe ??

Peter Lee
Peter Lee
1 year ago
Reply to  Roland Fleming

Unable to speak for Germany, but for the rest of Europe ??

Michael K
Michael K
1 year ago
Reply to  Peter Lee

Exactly my thoughts. Somehow, today we only have “center-right” (which is actually “center-left”) or we have “far-right” (which is actually just “right”).

Samir Iker
Samir Iker
1 year ago
Reply to  Peter Lee

The fact that even this author relies on calling them “far-Right” is chilling and revealing.
As an immigrant, there is absolutely nothing in what’s said by AFD, or in case of UK, Farage, that is “far” right. If anything, even the policies they propose are MORE liberal than most countries in the world.

And, there are, ironically, genuinely far left parties around and increasingly in power.

Destroying the family, mass immigration, “victim” classes, critical race theory, pitting women against men, government and ideological control over media, education and corporates, expansion of the state, use of tactics such as closing bank accounts of political opponents or cancel culture……
Each and every one of these is a staple of “Leftist” parties. And all of these straight out of the book of extremist leftist groups, and commonly seen in communism and fascism.

Last edited 1 year ago by Samir Iker
Roland Fleming
Roland Fleming
1 year ago
Reply to  Peter Lee

There certainly are far left parties in Germany. Die Linke is the most mainstream of the far left parties, but near election time you will often see posters for the MLPD (Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany). Nobody shies away from calling these parties far left, because they are. Center left would be SPD and Greens.
On the right there is AfD and of course, further to the right, the NPD (National Democratic Party). In the center right there is the FDP and CDU/CSU.
So, pretty much the whole spectrum is covered.

Michael K
Michael K
1 year ago
Reply to  Peter Lee

Exactly my thoughts. Somehow, today we only have “center-right” (which is actually “center-left”) or we have “far-right” (which is actually just “right”).

Peter Lee
Peter Lee
1 year ago

If there are no ‘far left’ parties then there are no ‘far right’ parties.

Allison Barrows
Allison Barrows
1 year ago

Twice this author uses the word “virulent” to describe “anti-immigration” and “anti-redistributionist”. Impugning those reasonably objecting to Merkel’s insane, suicidal immigration policies as “anti” is a smear tactic, i.e. anti-vaxxers, anti-trans, etc. Same thing with “denialists”.
They rightly saw their country being invaded by those who are culturally incompatible to it, and their government was confiscating the fruits of their labor, “redistributing” it to whomever was deemed favorable. If anything was virulent, it was – and remains – the government.

Charles Stanhope
Charles Stanhope
1 year ago

Slightly off-piste, but was the late Sinéad O’Connor victim of the virulent vax slaughter we hear so much about?

Ray Andrews
Ray Andrews
1 year ago

Anecdote: Just up the street there’s a young German immigrant couple who run an upholstery business. Got my motorcycle’s seat redone by them. Good work, classic German pride in arbeiterkraft. I asked them what they were doing in Canada. Mike answered that his wife was no longer safe in Germany. Why not? He hesitated to answer but confessed that it was because the black/muslim ‘refugees’ who now run unchecked in most German cities consider white women as free for the taking. What about the police? I asked. He said that the policy was to ignore immigrant crime since that kept the statistics where the government wants them. IOW, if it isn’t recorded it isn’t happening. Now, I’d not call Mike ‘virulent’, he’d probably be woke by most metrics, but he doesn’t want his wife raped, either.

Allison Barrows
Allison Barrows
1 year ago
Reply to  Ray Andrews

A couple of years ago, a pretty young woman made a video in which she discusses the danger to women in Germany. She tearfully asks “Where are all the men? Why wont they protect us?” I’d like to know the answer to that question.

Charles Hedges
Charles Hedges
1 year ago

Simple. In Britain a Labour woman MP Dr Edith Summerskill took boxing out of state schools in 1965. Traditionally boys would often receive boxing gloves on the fifth birthday when they started boxing. Then sports such as rugby were removed fom comprehensives.
Chivalry was mocked and ridiculed by left wing women from the 1960s.

Peter Joy
Peter Joy
1 year ago
Reply to  Charles Hedges

Quite so. Bloody Woy Jenkins and all that….
Old ‘enry Cooper once found himself on a TV debate – over banning boxing – with ‘Baroness’ Summerskill, who imperiously demanded: ‘Mr Cooper, have you ever looked at your nose.’
‘Ever looked at yours, Missus?’ he replied. ‘Boxing’s my excuse – what’s yours?’
The ghastly old bag was a member of the Fabian Society. She married one Dr Jeffrey Samuel and their grandson, Ben, became…. Chief Executive of Stonewall. Tickety tick tick tick.

Last edited 1 year ago by Peter Joy
Peter Joy
Peter Joy
1 year ago
Reply to  Charles Hedges

Quite so. Bloody Woy Jenkins and all that….
Old ‘enry Cooper once found himself on a TV debate – over banning boxing – with ‘Baroness’ Summerskill, who imperiously demanded: ‘Mr Cooper, have you ever looked at your nose.’
‘Ever looked at yours, Missus?’ he replied. ‘Boxing’s my excuse – what’s yours?’
The ghastly old bag was a member of the Fabian Society. She married one Dr Jeffrey Samuel and their grandson, Ben, became…. Chief Executive of Stonewall. Tickety tick tick tick.

Last edited 1 year ago by Peter Joy
Charles Hedges
Charles Hedges
1 year ago

Simple. In Britain a Labour woman MP Dr Edith Summerskill took boxing out of state schools in 1965. Traditionally boys would often receive boxing gloves on the fifth birthday when they started boxing. Then sports such as rugby were removed fom comprehensives.
Chivalry was mocked and ridiculed by left wing women from the 1960s.

Katalin Kish
Katalin Kish
1 year ago
Reply to  Ray Andrews

Turning a blind eye to crimes is not limited to lefty governments though. In Australia blocking crime reporting attempts, terrorising public servant witnesses and victims of crimes punishable by 10 years in jail/worse into silent oblivion as in my own experience in Melbourne 2009-current (July 2023) have been standard crime-statistics’ management methods ever since police existed.
Ignoring the crimes of migrants whom Australia imported (is still importing?) from African refugee camps in whole tribes fits into this seamlessly. The bigotry of low expectations combined with white guilt encourages tribes to keep practising their culture in the Australian context with predictable consequences. We are not even safe in our homes behind locked doors at night in million-dollar home suburbs of Melbourne, while our fake crime statistics have earned Melbourne a 3rd place in the list of the world’s most livable cities for 2023.

Katalin Kish
Katalin Kish
1 year ago
Reply to  Katalin Kish

PS: several of my public LinkedIn posts expressing angst about Australia never having had functional law-enforcement, bikies making billions $ in the drug-trade yearly, and our dismal prospects, given Clare O’Neil’s* incompetent hubris/vanity have disappeared without warning.
Tech, including cyber-tech far beyond what’s known to civilian experts at the time have been used against me since 2009 in an ongoing crime-spree in physical and cyber-space by an ex-coworker stalker organised-crime info source. I never even dated the stalker. Using tech not known to civilian experts in bizarre, seemingly pointless crimes is a long-established crime witness/victim discreditation strategy of Victoria Police officers and their accomplices. See Raymond T. Hoser’s brave publications about Victoria Police corruption.
The disappearance of my public LinkedIn posts that were possibly damaging to the ongoing risk-free operation of Australia’s bikie gangs has nothing to do with bikies doing victory-laps around my home since I discovered the disappearance. Of course not.
As a public servant witness to crimes punishable by 10 years in jail/worse, whom Victoria Police have been trying to silence since 2009, I will continue making public interest disclosures about Australia’s absurd crime reality via every possible platform, until I see positive, material changes to Australia’s crime fighting ability/willingness. Since Australia faked its way into Five Eyes, AUKUS, etc., and the Internet is everywhere, Australia’s lawlessness poses a significant global threat.
#ididnotstaysilent
https://www.linkedin.com/in/katalin-kish-38750b154/

* Australia’s Minister for Cyber Security AND Home Affairs no less since mid-2022.

Katalin Kish
Katalin Kish
1 year ago
Reply to  Katalin Kish

PS: several of my public LinkedIn posts expressing angst about Australia never having had functional law-enforcement, bikies making billions $ in the drug-trade yearly, and our dismal prospects, given Clare O’Neil’s* incompetent hubris/vanity have disappeared without warning.
Tech, including cyber-tech far beyond what’s known to civilian experts at the time have been used against me since 2009 in an ongoing crime-spree in physical and cyber-space by an ex-coworker stalker organised-crime info source. I never even dated the stalker. Using tech not known to civilian experts in bizarre, seemingly pointless crimes is a long-established crime witness/victim discreditation strategy of Victoria Police officers and their accomplices. See Raymond T. Hoser’s brave publications about Victoria Police corruption.
The disappearance of my public LinkedIn posts that were possibly damaging to the ongoing risk-free operation of Australia’s bikie gangs has nothing to do with bikies doing victory-laps around my home since I discovered the disappearance. Of course not.
As a public servant witness to crimes punishable by 10 years in jail/worse, whom Victoria Police have been trying to silence since 2009, I will continue making public interest disclosures about Australia’s absurd crime reality via every possible platform, until I see positive, material changes to Australia’s crime fighting ability/willingness. Since Australia faked its way into Five Eyes, AUKUS, etc., and the Internet is everywhere, Australia’s lawlessness poses a significant global threat.
#ididnotstaysilent
https://www.linkedin.com/in/katalin-kish-38750b154/

* Australia’s Minister for Cyber Security AND Home Affairs no less since mid-2022.

Samir Iker
Samir Iker
1 year ago
Reply to  Ray Andrews

I don’t know, judging by what I see in the media here, not wanting your wife raped by cultural enriches counts as pretty virulent these days.

Jerry Carroll
Jerry Carroll
1 year ago
Reply to  Ray Andrews

Ironically, Muslims are pouring into Canada as Fidel Castro’s love child beams in approval.

Allison Barrows
Allison Barrows
1 year ago
Reply to  Ray Andrews

A couple of years ago, a pretty young woman made a video in which she discusses the danger to women in Germany. She tearfully asks “Where are all the men? Why wont they protect us?” I’d like to know the answer to that question.

Katalin Kish
Katalin Kish
1 year ago
Reply to  Ray Andrews

Turning a blind eye to crimes is not limited to lefty governments though. In Australia blocking crime reporting attempts, terrorising public servant witnesses and victims of crimes punishable by 10 years in jail/worse into silent oblivion as in my own experience in Melbourne 2009-current (July 2023) have been standard crime-statistics’ management methods ever since police existed.
Ignoring the crimes of migrants whom Australia imported (is still importing?) from African refugee camps in whole tribes fits into this seamlessly. The bigotry of low expectations combined with white guilt encourages tribes to keep practising their culture in the Australian context with predictable consequences. We are not even safe in our homes behind locked doors at night in million-dollar home suburbs of Melbourne, while our fake crime statistics have earned Melbourne a 3rd place in the list of the world’s most livable cities for 2023.

Samir Iker
Samir Iker
1 year ago
Reply to  Ray Andrews

I don’t know, judging by what I see in the media here, not wanting your wife raped by cultural enriches counts as pretty virulent these days.

Jerry Carroll
Jerry Carroll
1 year ago
Reply to  Ray Andrews

Ironically, Muslims are pouring into Canada as Fidel Castro’s love child beams in approval.

Andrew E Walker
Andrew E Walker
1 year ago

Hear hear!

Jerry Carroll
Jerry Carroll
1 year ago

Now that the author knows Unherd readers are smart enough to see what she is doing, I wonder if she will drop the dog whistling.

Last edited 1 year ago by Jerry Carroll
Charles Stanhope
Charles Stanhope
1 year ago

Slightly off-piste, but was the late Sinéad O’Connor victim of the virulent vax slaughter we hear so much about?

Ray Andrews
Ray Andrews
1 year ago

Anecdote: Just up the street there’s a young German immigrant couple who run an upholstery business. Got my motorcycle’s seat redone by them. Good work, classic German pride in arbeiterkraft. I asked them what they were doing in Canada. Mike answered that his wife was no longer safe in Germany. Why not? He hesitated to answer but confessed that it was because the black/muslim ‘refugees’ who now run unchecked in most German cities consider white women as free for the taking. What about the police? I asked. He said that the policy was to ignore immigrant crime since that kept the statistics where the government wants them. IOW, if it isn’t recorded it isn’t happening. Now, I’d not call Mike ‘virulent’, he’d probably be woke by most metrics, but he doesn’t want his wife raped, either.

Andrew E Walker
Andrew E Walker
1 year ago

Hear hear!

Jerry Carroll
Jerry Carroll
1 year ago

Now that the author knows Unherd readers are smart enough to see what she is doing, I wonder if she will drop the dog whistling.

Last edited 1 year ago by Jerry Carroll
Allison Barrows
Allison Barrows
1 year ago

Twice this author uses the word “virulent” to describe “anti-immigration” and “anti-redistributionist”. Impugning those reasonably objecting to Merkel’s insane, suicidal immigration policies as “anti” is a smear tactic, i.e. anti-vaxxers, anti-trans, etc. Same thing with “denialists”.
They rightly saw their country being invaded by those who are culturally incompatible to it, and their government was confiscating the fruits of their labor, “redistributing” it to whomever was deemed favorable. If anything was virulent, it was – and remains – the government.

Peter Kwasi-Modo
Peter Kwasi-Modo
1 year ago

Thanks to Ms Lynch for the analysis. There is nothing in the article to explain why the author considers AfD to be “far” right. Non-redistributive, anti-immigration and pro negotiated settlement policies are all right-of-centre.
The article says “the little support that the coalition still enjoys stems from simply not being the AfD.” But does this not work both ways? There is so much cosy consensus between the coalition parties that some AfD support stems from simply not being a “traffic light”.

Tiaan M
Tiaan M
1 year ago

Everyone who wants to put the indigenous population first and stop illegal migration (especially if you are white) is considered far right these days by the luvvies.

Tiaan M
Tiaan M
1 year ago

Everyone who wants to put the indigenous population first and stop illegal migration (especially if you are white) is considered far right these days by the luvvies.

Peter Kwasi-Modo
Peter Kwasi-Modo
1 year ago

Thanks to Ms Lynch for the analysis. There is nothing in the article to explain why the author considers AfD to be “far” right. Non-redistributive, anti-immigration and pro negotiated settlement policies are all right-of-centre.
The article says “the little support that the coalition still enjoys stems from simply not being the AfD.” But does this not work both ways? There is so much cosy consensus between the coalition parties that some AfD support stems from simply not being a “traffic light”.

Walter Lantz
Walter Lantz
1 year ago

About this time of year Canadians(that can still afford it) tend to pause incessant complaining about the oppressive summer heat to book their winter vacations in the Caribbean where they enjoy a week or two pause from incessant complaining of the oppressive winter cold. After laying claim to a sun lounger in the pre-dawn hours and in between trips to the buffet and bar (all included naturally), many will make time to frequent the tacky gift shops where one may almost certainly find an ersatz pirate t-shirt that best sums up the insidious tyranny of progressive Know-Betters.
“The beatings will continue until morale improves”
The Leftwaffe bemoans roadblocks on their enlightened journey to unassailable centralized power: Brexit, Trump, Freedom Convoy and the rise of the AfD to name a few. They present these events as an impetus to double down on their ruinous and divisive policies rather than what they really are, a result of their refusal to listen.

Last edited 1 year ago by Walter Lantz
Adrian Clark
Adrian Clark
1 year ago
Reply to  Walter Lantz

Leftwaffe, brilliant.

Michael K
Michael K
1 year ago
Reply to  Adrian Clark

the whole comment is brilliant

Michael K
Michael K
1 year ago
Reply to  Adrian Clark

the whole comment is brilliant

Adrian Clark
Adrian Clark
1 year ago
Reply to  Walter Lantz

Leftwaffe, brilliant.

Walter Lantz
Walter Lantz
1 year ago

About this time of year Canadians(that can still afford it) tend to pause incessant complaining about the oppressive summer heat to book their winter vacations in the Caribbean where they enjoy a week or two pause from incessant complaining of the oppressive winter cold. After laying claim to a sun lounger in the pre-dawn hours and in between trips to the buffet and bar (all included naturally), many will make time to frequent the tacky gift shops where one may almost certainly find an ersatz pirate t-shirt that best sums up the insidious tyranny of progressive Know-Betters.
“The beatings will continue until morale improves”
The Leftwaffe bemoans roadblocks on their enlightened journey to unassailable centralized power: Brexit, Trump, Freedom Convoy and the rise of the AfD to name a few. They present these events as an impetus to double down on their ruinous and divisive policies rather than what they really are, a result of their refusal to listen.

Last edited 1 year ago by Walter Lantz
Andrew Horsman
Andrew Horsman
1 year ago

It’s odd how many of those mainstream politicians with a self-avowedly liberal progressive Weltanschauung (quite rightly) despise Nazi rhetoric and ideology, but see fit to roll out discriminatory policies, such as a Gesundsheitpass that relies on numbering people individually in single unified system in order to define a reviled out-group; proudly declare their support for every victimised Volksgemeinshaft under the sun based on an apparently unshakeable belief in a racial hierarchy; and trumpet the “common good before the individual good”, invoking fears of an impending apocalypse to justify the overriding of property and other basic human rights for the greater good of future generations. It certainly ain’t totalitarianism’s first rodeo.

Those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. In Germany, as elsewhere, unless our so-called mainstream political elites wake themselves up out of this stupor and their mindless, unthinking, banal evil, the “extreme” end of the AfD and their ilk of today are going to look like wanton children smashing up their toys compared with what comes next.

Andrew Horsman
Andrew Horsman
1 year ago

It’s odd how many of those mainstream politicians with a self-avowedly liberal progressive Weltanschauung (quite rightly) despise Nazi rhetoric and ideology, but see fit to roll out discriminatory policies, such as a Gesundsheitpass that relies on numbering people individually in single unified system in order to define a reviled out-group; proudly declare their support for every victimised Volksgemeinshaft under the sun based on an apparently unshakeable belief in a racial hierarchy; and trumpet the “common good before the individual good”, invoking fears of an impending apocalypse to justify the overriding of property and other basic human rights for the greater good of future generations. It certainly ain’t totalitarianism’s first rodeo.

Those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. In Germany, as elsewhere, unless our so-called mainstream political elites wake themselves up out of this stupor and their mindless, unthinking, banal evil, the “extreme” end of the AfD and their ilk of today are going to look like wanton children smashing up their toys compared with what comes next.

Andy Iddon
Andy Iddon
1 year ago

Far Right? How is wanting to stop rapid societal change far right? You’re losing my respect fast as a source of valid journalism. Slack, lazy and trite.

Andy Iddon
Andy Iddon
1 year ago

Far Right? How is wanting to stop rapid societal change far right? You’re losing my respect fast as a source of valid journalism. Slack, lazy and trite.

John Galt Was Correct
John Galt Was Correct
1 year ago

The establishment party’s across the West will be in denial to the last voter, and then wail that the voters just didn’t understand.

Andrew Wise
Andrew Wise
1 year ago

As a last resort – always blame the voters 🙂 Much the same as those fools who voted for Brexit, they need to be taught a lesson for voting the wrong way?

Wynn Wheldon
Wynn Wheldon
1 year ago

parties

Simon Tavanyar
Simon Tavanyar
1 year ago

Ah the naive concept of “voters” deciding anything! Perhaps you are right. The $billion business of election-rigging may not be as finessed as it is in the USA.

Andrew Wise
Andrew Wise
1 year ago

As a last resort – always blame the voters 🙂 Much the same as those fools who voted for Brexit, they need to be taught a lesson for voting the wrong way?

Wynn Wheldon
Wynn Wheldon
1 year ago

parties

Simon Tavanyar
Simon Tavanyar
1 year ago

Ah the naive concept of “voters” deciding anything! Perhaps you are right. The $billion business of election-rigging may not be as finessed as it is in the USA.

John Galt Was Correct
John Galt Was Correct
1 year ago

The establishment party’s across the West will be in denial to the last voter, and then wail that the voters just didn’t understand.

AC Harper
AC Harper
1 year ago

I suspect that it was a major political mistake for the other parties to refuse to work with the AfD. Firstly because the AfD could have become somewhat moderated from their more ambitious policies, and secondly the cordon sanitaire won’t hold while the AfD maintain sufficient voter support. It’ll be too tempting for another party to grab some additional political power over their rivals in a coalition.
It would be so easy for the AfD to claim (with some justification) that their supporters’ representation has been frozen out by a cosy political elite.

Helen Hughes
Helen Hughes
1 year ago
Reply to  AC Harper

The Germans are too spooked by what happened when a mainstream party agreed to work with the National Socialists in 1933. It there’s one thing they can’t be seen doing again, it’s that, because of the fears of where it would lead. And back then few people saw what cooperating with Hitler really meant. However the AfD is different from the Nazis, it’s just a big No-No for Germany. And their fear of people being “blind auf der rechten Auge” blinds them to any danger from anywhere else. It’s understandably tricky.

Helen Hughes
Helen Hughes
1 year ago
Reply to  AC Harper

The Germans are too spooked by what happened when a mainstream party agreed to work with the National Socialists in 1933. It there’s one thing they can’t be seen doing again, it’s that, because of the fears of where it would lead. And back then few people saw what cooperating with Hitler really meant. However the AfD is different from the Nazis, it’s just a big No-No for Germany. And their fear of people being “blind auf der rechten Auge” blinds them to any danger from anywhere else. It’s understandably tricky.

AC Harper
AC Harper
1 year ago

I suspect that it was a major political mistake for the other parties to refuse to work with the AfD. Firstly because the AfD could have become somewhat moderated from their more ambitious policies, and secondly the cordon sanitaire won’t hold while the AfD maintain sufficient voter support. It’ll be too tempting for another party to grab some additional political power over their rivals in a coalition.
It would be so easy for the AfD to claim (with some justification) that their supporters’ representation has been frozen out by a cosy political elite.

rob clark
rob clark
1 year ago

“Cordon Sanitaire” indeed, The Far-Right label has been quite effective (and often used by the MSM) in protecting “progressive” sentiments and policy for decades now. I welcome this ideological wall crumbling away.

rob clark
rob clark
1 year ago

“Cordon Sanitaire” indeed, The Far-Right label has been quite effective (and often used by the MSM) in protecting “progressive” sentiments and policy for decades now. I welcome this ideological wall crumbling away.

Charles Hedges
Charles Hedges
1 year ago

It would appear that west Germany did not appreciate that the education and technical skills of the vast majority of East Germans would make it very difficult for them to find employment in high tech precision manufacturing. The same mistake was made with immigrants.
When the Huguenots who were silk weavers and bankers fled France for Britain, they wereProtestants who were the most highly skilled workers in Europe, hence they prospered.
In order to train someone to work in high tech manufacturing that person must realise the vital importance of precision, accuracy and repeatability. Those with a slap dash approach, near enough is good enough mentality cannot be trained. East Germany was Prussia, a rural province and then was ruled by the communists: there has never been a tradition of precision engineering. If one looks at Bavaria, they were making precision clocks long before they made cars.
People can change but they need have the benefit explained to them and the consequences of not changing.

N Satori
N Satori
1 year ago
Reply to  Charles Hedges

Ben Rich complained about a very similar problem in his book Skunk Works. As is well known the Skunk Works was the high end R&D unit of Lockheed founded by Kelly Johnson, staffed by a true technical elite and credited with world beating aeronautical innovation.
Unfortunately, political interference was all but inevitable and during Ben Rich’s time as head of the Skunk Works he was pressured into lowering its very high standards in order to provide career opportunities for sub-par immigrant technicians.

Charles Hedges
Charles Hedges
1 year ago
Reply to  N Satori

Thank you. I will look out for Skunk Works. The result of the Schneider Trophy was that J R Mitchell at Supermarine had the best group of engineers in the World who understood high speed aircraft design.
It is quality not quantity which counts when one is at the forefront of anything, be it technology or the armed forces.

Charles Stanhope
Charles Stanhope
1 year ago
Reply to  Charles Hedges

Plenty of rather second rate T-34’s & Shermans managed to “see off” the few Tigers and Panthers that opposed them.
A clear triumph of quantity OVER quality.

Charles Hedges
Charles Hedges
1 year ago

The T-34s were well designed , the sloping armour in particular and they were easy to maintain. Until the Shermans carried the 17 pounder they were fairly hopeless. The 17 pounder was one of the few pieces of British army equipment which was well designed.
The Tiger was too heavy and over designed, it needed vast amounts of repair facilities.Most generals would have preferred more Mark IVs or Panthers to The Tigers. What is ignored is the mintenance aspects, fuel consumption and the logistics required to supply the parts.

Charles Stanhope
Charles Stanhope
1 year ago
Reply to  Charles Hedges

Despite what say the T-34 was no real march for either the Tiger or the Panther.

As to the Allies in Norman, according to Oberst Schneider* the Tiger ‘knocked out’ about 500 allied tanks for the loss of about 40 of its own, in ‘Tank on Tank’ actions.

The Sherman ‘Firefly’ was, as you imply, the equal the Tiger but ‘we’ didn’t have nearly enough of them.

(* Tigers in Normandy.2011.)

ben arnulfssen
ben arnulfssen
1 year ago
Reply to  Charles Hedges

The Sherman was a triumph of design. Its cast hull in particular.

Charles Hedges
Charles Hedges
1 year ago
Reply to  ben arnulfssen

It was powered by petrol and caught fire easily when hit.” Brewed up ” was the expression.

Charles Stanhope
Charles Stanhope
1 year ago
Reply to  Charles Hedges

Wasn’t it nicknamed the ‘Ronson’ :

“LIGHTS FIRST TIME”?

Charles Stanhope
Charles Stanhope
1 year ago
Reply to  Charles Hedges

Wasn’t it nicknamed the ‘Ronson’ :

“LIGHTS FIRST TIME”?

Nicky Samengo-Turner
Nicky Samengo-Turner
1 year ago
Reply to  ben arnulfssen

And it took The Foot Guards and the formation of The Guards Armoured Division to show the cavalry and tankies how it should be done…

Charles Hedges
Charles Hedges
1 year ago
Reply to  ben arnulfssen

It was powered by petrol and caught fire easily when hit.” Brewed up ” was the expression.

Nicky Samengo-Turner
Nicky Samengo-Turner
1 year ago
Reply to  ben arnulfssen

And it took The Foot Guards and the formation of The Guards Armoured Division to show the cavalry and tankies how it should be done…

Charles Stanhope
Charles Stanhope
1 year ago
Reply to  Charles Hedges

Despite what say the T-34 was no real march for either the Tiger or the Panther.

As to the Allies in Norman, according to Oberst Schneider* the Tiger ‘knocked out’ about 500 allied tanks for the loss of about 40 of its own, in ‘Tank on Tank’ actions.

The Sherman ‘Firefly’ was, as you imply, the equal the Tiger but ‘we’ didn’t have nearly enough of them.

(* Tigers in Normandy.2011.)

ben arnulfssen
ben arnulfssen
1 year ago
Reply to  Charles Hedges

The Sherman was a triumph of design. Its cast hull in particular.

Charles Hedges
Charles Hedges
1 year ago

The T-34s were well designed , the sloping armour in particular and they were easy to maintain. Until the Shermans carried the 17 pounder they were fairly hopeless. The 17 pounder was one of the few pieces of British army equipment which was well designed.
The Tiger was too heavy and over designed, it needed vast amounts of repair facilities.Most generals would have preferred more Mark IVs or Panthers to The Tigers. What is ignored is the mintenance aspects, fuel consumption and the logistics required to supply the parts.

Charles Stanhope
Charles Stanhope
1 year ago
Reply to  Charles Hedges

Plenty of rather second rate T-34’s & Shermans managed to “see off” the few Tigers and Panthers that opposed them.
A clear triumph of quantity OVER quality.

Charles Hedges
Charles Hedges
1 year ago
Reply to  N Satori

Thank you. I will look out for Skunk Works. The result of the Schneider Trophy was that J R Mitchell at Supermarine had the best group of engineers in the World who understood high speed aircraft design.
It is quality not quantity which counts when one is at the forefront of anything, be it technology or the armed forces.

Charles Stanhope
Charles Stanhope
1 year ago
Reply to  Charles Hedges

By 1870 Berlin based Borsig-Werke was the largest manufacturer of steam locomotives in Europe.

Charles Hedges
Charles Hedges
1 year ago

From 1830, Prussia controlled the Ruhr from where heavy engineering evolved.

Charles Stanhope
Charles Stanhope
1 year ago
Reply to  Charles Hedges

1815 surely?

Charles Hedges
Charles Hedges
1 year ago

Your date is closer than mine, it was Congress of Vienna in 1814 when Prussia obtained Rhineland.

Charles Hedges
Charles Hedges
1 year ago

Your date is closer than mine, it was Congress of Vienna in 1814 when Prussia obtained Rhineland.

Charles Stanhope
Charles Stanhope
1 year ago
Reply to  Charles Hedges

1815 surely?

Charles Hedges
Charles Hedges
1 year ago

From 1830, Prussia controlled the Ruhr from where heavy engineering evolved.

Charles Stanhope
Charles Stanhope
1 year ago
Reply to  Charles Hedges

“if one looks at Bavaria, they were making precision clocks long before they made cars”

Didn’t Bismarck say a Bavarian is halfway between an Austrian* and a human being?

(* Some say it was Alsatian.)

Charles Hedges
Charles Hedges
1 year ago

He may have done but the Prussians were no good at precision engineering.

Charles Stanhope
Charles Stanhope
1 year ago
Reply to  Charles Hedges

‘They’ made up for it with an excellent‘General Staff’ that had little trouble in defeating the rest of Germany including Austria and Bavaria, as well as Denmark and ultimately France.

Charles Hedges
Charles Hedges
1 year ago

I should have said from 1814 Prussia controlled the industrial out put of the Rhineland and as you point out, had a superb general staff. K Adenaurer said Prussia would not have been a problem if they had not been given the Rhineland in 1814 as this area produced the weapons.
This returns to the problem of Germany , the west along the Rhine is hard working, technically advanced and earns money from exports. The rest of Germany spends the money and Berlin makes catastrophic decisions which cripple Germany’s industry. All rather similar to when Prussia ran Germany.

Charles Hedges
Charles Hedges
1 year ago

I should have said from 1814 Prussia controlled the industrial out put of the Rhineland and as you point out, had a superb general staff. K Adenaurer said Prussia would not have been a problem if they had not been given the Rhineland in 1814 as this area produced the weapons.
This returns to the problem of Germany , the west along the Rhine is hard working, technically advanced and earns money from exports. The rest of Germany spends the money and Berlin makes catastrophic decisions which cripple Germany’s industry. All rather similar to when Prussia ran Germany.

Charles Stanhope
Charles Stanhope
1 year ago
Reply to  Charles Hedges

‘They’ made up for it with an excellent‘General Staff’ that had little trouble in defeating the rest of Germany including Austria and Bavaria, as well as Denmark and ultimately France.

Charles Hedges
Charles Hedges
1 year ago

He may have done but the Prussians were no good at precision engineering.

Anna Bramwell
Anna Bramwell
1 year ago
Reply to  Charles Hedges

I let dozens of contracts while in the EU where former East German citizens found themselves excluded because of their high day rates, outside the EU’s then ‘fourchette’.1000 euro costs per day for engineering was normal. Distressed guys would tell me, but thus is what the West Ge4mans pay us, a wage way above the market rate at the time. And why no analysis of the decision to make the two currencies equal! At an inconceivably high financial cost to Western Germany.

Charles Hedges
Charles Hedges
1 year ago
Reply to  Anna Bramwell

Blame it on Kohl. German politicians have damaged the German economy since 1990. When politicians play politics with industry there will be trouble.

Nicky Samengo-Turner
Nicky Samengo-Turner
1 year ago
Reply to  Charles Hedges

” Purple Helmut” as he was known….

Nicky Samengo-Turner
Nicky Samengo-Turner
1 year ago
Reply to  Charles Hedges

” Purple Helmut” as he was known….

Charles Hedges
Charles Hedges
1 year ago
Reply to  Anna Bramwell

Blame it on Kohl. German politicians have damaged the German economy since 1990. When politicians play politics with industry there will be trouble.

N Satori
N Satori
1 year ago
Reply to  Charles Hedges

Ben Rich complained about a very similar problem in his book Skunk Works. As is well known the Skunk Works was the high end R&D unit of Lockheed founded by Kelly Johnson, staffed by a true technical elite and credited with world beating aeronautical innovation.
Unfortunately, political interference was all but inevitable and during Ben Rich’s time as head of the Skunk Works he was pressured into lowering its very high standards in order to provide career opportunities for sub-par immigrant technicians.

Charles Stanhope
Charles Stanhope
1 year ago
Reply to  Charles Hedges

By 1870 Berlin based Borsig-Werke was the largest manufacturer of steam locomotives in Europe.

Charles Stanhope
Charles Stanhope
1 year ago
Reply to  Charles Hedges

“if one looks at Bavaria, they were making precision clocks long before they made cars”

Didn’t Bismarck say a Bavarian is halfway between an Austrian* and a human being?

(* Some say it was Alsatian.)

Anna Bramwell
Anna Bramwell
1 year ago
Reply to  Charles Hedges

I let dozens of contracts while in the EU where former East German citizens found themselves excluded because of their high day rates, outside the EU’s then ‘fourchette’.1000 euro costs per day for engineering was normal. Distressed guys would tell me, but thus is what the West Ge4mans pay us, a wage way above the market rate at the time. And why no analysis of the decision to make the two currencies equal! At an inconceivably high financial cost to Western Germany.

Charles Hedges
Charles Hedges
1 year ago

It would appear that west Germany did not appreciate that the education and technical skills of the vast majority of East Germans would make it very difficult for them to find employment in high tech precision manufacturing. The same mistake was made with immigrants.
When the Huguenots who were silk weavers and bankers fled France for Britain, they wereProtestants who were the most highly skilled workers in Europe, hence they prospered.
In order to train someone to work in high tech manufacturing that person must realise the vital importance of precision, accuracy and repeatability. Those with a slap dash approach, near enough is good enough mentality cannot be trained. East Germany was Prussia, a rural province and then was ruled by the communists: there has never been a tradition of precision engineering. If one looks at Bavaria, they were making precision clocks long before they made cars.
People can change but they need have the benefit explained to them and the consequences of not changing.

Russell Sharpe
Russell Sharpe
1 year ago

“Founded as a free-market Eurosceptic party at the pinnacle of the euro crisis in 2013”
It should be noted that it was not even Eurosceptic, that is EU-sceptic, in the British sense. It was simply opposed to the Euro as a piece of grandiose economic folly, and in particular Germany’s membership of it.

Russell Sharpe
Russell Sharpe
1 year ago

“Founded as a free-market Eurosceptic party at the pinnacle of the euro crisis in 2013”
It should be noted that it was not even Eurosceptic, that is EU-sceptic, in the British sense. It was simply opposed to the Euro as a piece of grandiose economic folly, and in particular Germany’s membership of it.

ben arnulfssen
ben arnulfssen
1 year ago

The liberal left abuses, insults and disadvantages the common man with every breath it draws and every action it takes. Where is their mandate for admitting a million immigrants? Where us their popular vote for the increasing criminalisation of freedom of speech?

A pox upon the left.

Samuel Ross
Samuel Ross
1 year ago
Reply to  ben arnulfssen

Of course, you mean the ‘far-left’. Best to call things by their proper names.

Samuel Ross
Samuel Ross
1 year ago
Reply to  ben arnulfssen

Of course, you mean the ‘far-left’. Best to call things by their proper names.

ben arnulfssen
ben arnulfssen
1 year ago

The liberal left abuses, insults and disadvantages the common man with every breath it draws and every action it takes. Where is their mandate for admitting a million immigrants? Where us their popular vote for the increasing criminalisation of freedom of speech?

A pox upon the left.

Hugh Bryant
Hugh Bryant
1 year ago

All this verbiage to obfuscate one simple fact: mass immigration makes rich people richer by making poor people poorer. It’s the most basic kind of class war. It’s why the Labour Party was founded 130 years ago. It’s that simple: start a war and sooner or later the people you are waging it against will fight back.

Hugh Bryant
Hugh Bryant
1 year ago

All this verbiage to obfuscate one simple fact: mass immigration makes rich people richer by making poor people poorer. It’s the most basic kind of class war. It’s why the Labour Party was founded 130 years ago. It’s that simple: start a war and sooner or later the people you are waging it against will fight back.

Stephen Quilley
Stephen Quilley
1 year ago

I stop reading when I see ‘far right’ unless they refer to the identitarian progressives as ‘far left’. Many right populist policies were centrist common sense for much of the post war period. Progressive policies on gender and family on the other hand would have made Alexandra kollintai blush

Stephen Quilley
Stephen Quilley
1 year ago

I stop reading when I see ‘far right’ unless they refer to the identitarian progressives as ‘far left’. Many right populist policies were centrist common sense for much of the post war period. Progressive policies on gender and family on the other hand would have made Alexandra kollintai blush

carl taylor
carl taylor
1 year ago

I’m currently reading Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s ‘Prey’. If what she reports about the situation in Germany is accurate, viz migrants, the immigration and asylum system, crime and sexual assaults, the willful blindness of the political mainstream and the inadequacy of law enforcement and the judiciary, then the increasing popularity of the AfD is no surprise. Calling them ‘far-right’ is a cry-wolf epithet that – as elsewhere – has increasingly less traction with voters; because people see it for what it is – a lame attempt by the establishment to deflect from the responsibility that they have for the current dire situation, and their own inability and (often unwillingness) to do anything about it.

Last edited 1 year ago by carl taylor
carl taylor
carl taylor
1 year ago

I’m currently reading Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s ‘Prey’. If what she reports about the situation in Germany is accurate, viz migrants, the immigration and asylum system, crime and sexual assaults, the willful blindness of the political mainstream and the inadequacy of law enforcement and the judiciary, then the increasing popularity of the AfD is no surprise. Calling them ‘far-right’ is a cry-wolf epithet that – as elsewhere – has increasingly less traction with voters; because people see it for what it is – a lame attempt by the establishment to deflect from the responsibility that they have for the current dire situation, and their own inability and (often unwillingness) to do anything about it.

Last edited 1 year ago by carl taylor
Jürg Gassmann
Jürg Gassmann
1 year ago

Ms. Lynch carefully avoids saying what every literate, not ideologically captured German voter knows but no-one in the German mainstream parties or the press dare say: Germany is being de-industrialised because Germany, under NATO pressure, renounced cheap, reliable, and plentiful Russian pipeline natural gas, and just to make sure Germany did not waver, the US blew up the Nord Stream pipeline.
There is German word for this blind, suicidal loyalty: Nibelungentreue. And any halfway educated German knows where it leads.

Bruni Schling
Bruni Schling
1 year ago
Reply to  Jürg Gassmann

Ich weiß and I agree with this point. BTW my first name is really Brunhilde

Nicky Samengo-Turner
Nicky Samengo-Turner
1 year ago
Reply to  Bruni Schling

Achtung Spitfeur…Donner und Blitzen….

Nicky Samengo-Turner
Nicky Samengo-Turner
1 year ago
Reply to  Bruni Schling

Achtung Spitfeur…Donner und Blitzen….

Jerry Carroll
Jerry Carroll
1 year ago
Reply to  Jürg Gassmann

Ukraine blew it up with help from the Poles. Lyin’ Joe Biden the half-wit was tipped to the plan and charateristically blew their cover to show how in on things he is.

Bruni Schling
Bruni Schling
1 year ago
Reply to  Jürg Gassmann

Ich weiß and I agree with this point. BTW my first name is really Brunhilde

Jerry Carroll
Jerry Carroll
1 year ago
Reply to  Jürg Gassmann

Ukraine blew it up with help from the Poles. Lyin’ Joe Biden the half-wit was tipped to the plan and charateristically blew their cover to show how in on things he is.

Jürg Gassmann
Jürg Gassmann
1 year ago

Ms. Lynch carefully avoids saying what every literate, not ideologically captured German voter knows but no-one in the German mainstream parties or the press dare say: Germany is being de-industrialised because Germany, under NATO pressure, renounced cheap, reliable, and plentiful Russian pipeline natural gas, and just to make sure Germany did not waver, the US blew up the Nord Stream pipeline.
There is German word for this blind, suicidal loyalty: Nibelungentreue. And any halfway educated German knows where it leads.

Granville Stout
Granville Stout
1 year ago

The third link “Russian Disinformation’ has so many unsubstantiated claims it is laughable.
Just like the Hunter Biden laptop is Russian disinformation, eh!

Granville Stout
Granville Stout
1 year ago

The third link “Russian Disinformation’ has so many unsubstantiated claims it is laughable.
Just like the Hunter Biden laptop is Russian disinformation, eh!

Charles Hedges
Charles Hedges
1 year ago

What would be interesting would to compare how Germans who came from Poland/Prussia and those from the Sudetenland compared post WW2.
If Germany supported nuclear and Shale Gas it’s problems would be solved. It probably has the largest workforce with advanced manufacturing skills in the World and research capability( Fraunhofer Institutes ) geared towards industry. Many firms are family owned, plan for years ahead and plough profits into R and D not dividends. Germany has developed manufacturing in Slovakia which increases it’s industrial base.
If Germany copied it’s industrial strategy of 1948 to 1963 most of it’s problems would disappear.

Anna Bramwell
Anna Bramwell
1 year ago
Reply to  Charles Hedges

Not entirely a fair comparison, because the refugees from Poland and Russia ( the Volga Germans) suffered such terrible losses on their trek to the West that only the young and physically fit survived. 6 million died out of 18 million refugees. Sudeten Germans, no figures, but Theresienstadt was no picnic for them.

Last edited 1 year ago by Anna Bramwell
Charles Hedges
Charles Hedges
1 year ago
Reply to  Anna Bramwell

I was refering to skills.

Charles Hedges
Charles Hedges
1 year ago
Reply to  Anna Bramwell

I was refering to skills.

Anna Bramwell
Anna Bramwell
1 year ago
Reply to  Charles Hedges

Not entirely a fair comparison, because the refugees from Poland and Russia ( the Volga Germans) suffered such terrible losses on their trek to the West that only the young and physically fit survived. 6 million died out of 18 million refugees. Sudeten Germans, no figures, but Theresienstadt was no picnic for them.

Last edited 1 year ago by Anna Bramwell
Charles Hedges
Charles Hedges
1 year ago

What would be interesting would to compare how Germans who came from Poland/Prussia and those from the Sudetenland compared post WW2.
If Germany supported nuclear and Shale Gas it’s problems would be solved. It probably has the largest workforce with advanced manufacturing skills in the World and research capability( Fraunhofer Institutes ) geared towards industry. Many firms are family owned, plan for years ahead and plough profits into R and D not dividends. Germany has developed manufacturing in Slovakia which increases it’s industrial base.
If Germany copied it’s industrial strategy of 1948 to 1963 most of it’s problems would disappear.

Benedict Waterson
Benedict Waterson
1 year ago

Yes, to sum up – voters voting for whoever they want to vote for can still be simultaneously, ‘anti-democratic’

Benedict Waterson
Benedict Waterson
1 year ago

Yes, to sum up – voters voting for whoever they want to vote for can still be simultaneously, ‘anti-democratic’

Samuel Ross
Samuel Ross
1 year ago

‘Far-right’ is such an imprecise term. How far? Let’s say that 1 is far left, and 10 is far right, for example. That said, where do you place the AfD, and why? And while you’re at it, give me a few examples of a ‘far-left’ organization or party, that mythical group that somehow no one has ever seen or heard of. If ‘far-right’ exists, then it follows that ‘far-left’ also exists, and yet we never hear about ‘far-left’ groups. I wonder why not?

Samuel Ross
Samuel Ross
1 year ago

‘Far-right’ is such an imprecise term. How far? Let’s say that 1 is far left, and 10 is far right, for example. That said, where do you place the AfD, and why? And while you’re at it, give me a few examples of a ‘far-left’ organization or party, that mythical group that somehow no one has ever seen or heard of. If ‘far-right’ exists, then it follows that ‘far-left’ also exists, and yet we never hear about ‘far-left’ groups. I wonder why not?

Christopher Chantrill
Christopher Chantrill
1 year ago

Well, there were three “Nazi” and five “far-right” pejoratives in the piece.
What this world needs is pejorative to describe regime-adjacent (or should we say regime-tainted?) writers that use pejoratives to describe the ordinary middle class and its desire for an ordinary life.
You Latin scholars know that “pejorare” means “making things worse.”

Last edited 1 year ago by Christopher Chantrill
Christopher Chantrill
Christopher Chantrill
1 year ago

Well, there were three “Nazi” and five “far-right” pejoratives in the piece.
What this world needs is pejorative to describe regime-adjacent (or should we say regime-tainted?) writers that use pejoratives to describe the ordinary middle class and its desire for an ordinary life.
You Latin scholars know that “pejorare” means “making things worse.”

Last edited 1 year ago by Christopher Chantrill
Adrian Clark
Adrian Clark
1 year ago

I read the article anticipating “far right” policy stances from the AfD and I’m none the wiser.

Adrian Clark
Adrian Clark
1 year ago

I read the article anticipating “far right” policy stances from the AfD and I’m none the wiser.

Bernd Pfrommer
Bernd Pfrommer
1 year ago

That “Alles fuer Deutschland” was a “Nazi Stormtrooper line” is indeed correct. But it certainly is among the lesser known slogans of the Nazi regime, to the point that very likely neither Hoecke (a former history teacher) nor his audience were aware of its historical use. Moreover, it was by no means common knowledge that using this phrase is illegal. Even Wikipedia made no mention of its illegality until November 24th 2021, the day reports about the lifting of Hoecke’s immunity appeared.
Much more concerning than Hoecke’s potentially inadvertent use of a little known Nazi slogan are his tendencies to pander to socialism and his fight for the “little man” against “the elites”. Such a combination of two collectivist ideologies (nationalism and socialism) is deeply worrisome. A sizable share of the East German AfD has by no means “always been a virulently anti-redistributionist party”, as Ms. Lynch claims. However, Hoecke does not represent the AfD at the national level, and the article is in so far correct as the majority of the AfD, in particular their founders in former West Germany, subscribe to free markets and libertarian concepts.

Bernd Pfrommer
Bernd Pfrommer
1 year ago

That “Alles fuer Deutschland” was a “Nazi Stormtrooper line” is indeed correct. But it certainly is among the lesser known slogans of the Nazi regime, to the point that very likely neither Hoecke (a former history teacher) nor his audience were aware of its historical use. Moreover, it was by no means common knowledge that using this phrase is illegal. Even Wikipedia made no mention of its illegality until November 24th 2021, the day reports about the lifting of Hoecke’s immunity appeared.
Much more concerning than Hoecke’s potentially inadvertent use of a little known Nazi slogan are his tendencies to pander to socialism and his fight for the “little man” against “the elites”. Such a combination of two collectivist ideologies (nationalism and socialism) is deeply worrisome. A sizable share of the East German AfD has by no means “always been a virulently anti-redistributionist party”, as Ms. Lynch claims. However, Hoecke does not represent the AfD at the national level, and the article is in so far correct as the majority of the AfD, in particular their founders in former West Germany, subscribe to free markets and libertarian concepts.

Frank McCusker
Frank McCusker
1 year ago

I’ve read AfD’s 94 page manifesto. 
Here’s it in shorthand, and I have marked with an * all positions that are shared by the UK’s Brexiters, and, for the crack, I have indicated with a double forward slash those of their policies I’d support:
Representative democracy out; referendums in*
Divide W. Europe: EU out, Euro out*; D-mark back
Make weapons easier to obtain for ordinary people*
Weaken NATO* and strengthen the German army
Make it easier to sack people*
Larger familes instead of immigration* //
Public sector broadcasting out*
Islam out* //
Ban trans ideology* //
Pro cash; cut taxes*
Scrap environmental protections; ban wind power; more fracking*
You can see why the average Unherder would love them; as the outpouring of AfD love in the comments reveals.

Charles Hedges
Charles Hedges
1 year ago
Reply to  Frank McCusker

Sounds like the German industrial miracle of 1948 to 1963.

Nicky Samengo-Turner
Nicky Samengo-Turner
1 year ago
Reply to  Frank McCusker

If the Reform party put Farage back in charge, picked up a dozen non ” Toylitte settee serviette” Tory defectors and adopted the same policies, they would win 60% + of all votes at the next election…

Charles Hedges
Charles Hedges
1 year ago
Reply to  Frank McCusker

Sounds like the German industrial miracle of 1948 to 1963.

Nicky Samengo-Turner
Nicky Samengo-Turner
1 year ago
Reply to  Frank McCusker

If the Reform party put Farage back in charge, picked up a dozen non ” Toylitte settee serviette” Tory defectors and adopted the same policies, they would win 60% + of all votes at the next election…

Frank McCusker
Frank McCusker
1 year ago

I’ve read AfD’s 94 page manifesto. 
Here’s it in shorthand, and I have marked with an * all positions that are shared by the UK’s Brexiters, and, for the crack, I have indicated with a double forward slash those of their policies I’d support:
Representative democracy out; referendums in*
Divide W. Europe: EU out, Euro out*; D-mark back
Make weapons easier to obtain for ordinary people*
Weaken NATO* and strengthen the German army
Make it easier to sack people*
Larger familes instead of immigration* //
Public sector broadcasting out*
Islam out* //
Ban trans ideology* //
Pro cash; cut taxes*
Scrap environmental protections; ban wind power; more fracking*
You can see why the average Unherder would love them; as the outpouring of AfD love in the comments reveals.

Andrew Boughton
Andrew Boughton
1 year ago

AfD is a consequence of Lily and all the liberal Lilys of the field, most of whom are Marxist. Hitler ascribed his own rise to a simple inversion of the self-flagellating policies of the German Marxists, replacing self-harm with self-confidence. We know his perversion of that self-confidence led to peak self-harm. But are there really no lessons to be learned from that experience? Say, about the value of genuine, self-confident classic liberalism, versus kultural Marxism?

Nicky Samengo-Turner
Nicky Samengo-Turner
1 year ago

Mr Hilter of Monty Python fame?

Andrew Boughton
Andrew Boughton
1 year ago

And let’s not forget ‘Dad’s Army’. One of the greats of comedy, though not many people realise that he got his start in advertising, by studying American advertising. Then segued into film, operatic advertising melodramas, then real war documentaries. After his death, people re-discovered him as a comedic figure, just as you say. Perhaps the real tragedy was in not becoming a stand-up comedian during his own lifetime.

Andrew Boughton
Andrew Boughton
1 year ago

And let’s not forget ‘Dad’s Army’. One of the greats of comedy, though not many people realise that he got his start in advertising, by studying American advertising. Then segued into film, operatic advertising melodramas, then real war documentaries. After his death, people re-discovered him as a comedic figure, just as you say. Perhaps the real tragedy was in not becoming a stand-up comedian during his own lifetime.

Nicky Samengo-Turner
Nicky Samengo-Turner
1 year ago

Mr Hilter of Monty Python fame?

Andrew Boughton
Andrew Boughton
1 year ago

AfD is a consequence of Lily and all the liberal Lilys of the field, most of whom are Marxist. Hitler ascribed his own rise to a simple inversion of the self-flagellating policies of the German Marxists, replacing self-harm with self-confidence. We know his perversion of that self-confidence led to peak self-harm. But are there really no lessons to be learned from that experience? Say, about the value of genuine, self-confident classic liberalism, versus kultural Marxism?

Marko Bee
Marko Bee
1 year ago

How interesting that no one addresses the 800 pound gorilla in the room. Since at least the 1960s, the left/liberals/progressives/whatever term they come up with next to describe themselves, have essentially gained control throughout western civilization. They now largely control vast numbers of political parties, most of the entertainment industries, the MSM, and virtually all of academia.

That the pendulum would reverse course could have been predicted with almost virtual certainty. We are witnessing it now, with the growth of populist politicians, and political parties. Advancement of a more conservative agenda, whether labeled right/far right/supremacists/whatever other pejorative the main stream media comes up with, was an inevitability.

The left/liberals/progressives/whatever… agenda of harmful immigration protocols, identity politics, advancement of sexual indoctrination, censorship, lockdowns, often ludicrous advancement of “green” policies, and miscellaneous decadence, have been crossing a Rubicon, albeit in somewhat slow motion, for quite some time. The rise of individuals like Le Pen, Meloni, Kaczyński, Orban, & even Trump, et al; and parties, such as the Sweden Democrats, VOX, AfD, the BBB, et al, were not merely predictable, but ineluctable.

Meanwhile, as in the fall of Rome, the barbarians at the gates watch with great interest, and anticipation. The future, now, as then, appears predictable.

Marko Bee
Marko Bee
1 year ago

How interesting that no one addresses the 800 pound gorilla in the room. Since at least the 1960s, the left/liberals/progressives/whatever term they come up with next to describe themselves, have essentially gained control throughout western civilization. They now largely control vast numbers of political parties, most of the entertainment industries, the MSM, and virtually all of academia.

That the pendulum would reverse course could have been predicted with almost virtual certainty. We are witnessing it now, with the growth of populist politicians, and political parties. Advancement of a more conservative agenda, whether labeled right/far right/supremacists/whatever other pejorative the main stream media comes up with, was an inevitability.

The left/liberals/progressives/whatever… agenda of harmful immigration protocols, identity politics, advancement of sexual indoctrination, censorship, lockdowns, often ludicrous advancement of “green” policies, and miscellaneous decadence, have been crossing a Rubicon, albeit in somewhat slow motion, for quite some time. The rise of individuals like Le Pen, Meloni, Kaczyński, Orban, & even Trump, et al; and parties, such as the Sweden Democrats, VOX, AfD, the BBB, et al, were not merely predictable, but ineluctable.

Meanwhile, as in the fall of Rome, the barbarians at the gates watch with great interest, and anticipation. The future, now, as then, appears predictable.

Jerry Carroll
Jerry Carroll
1 year ago

The writer’s tell-tale use of ‘far-right” and a fair sprinkling of “virulent” puts her on the left and maybe even the “far-left.”

Jerry Carroll
Jerry Carroll
1 year ago

The writer’s tell-tale use of ‘far-right” and a fair sprinkling of “virulent” puts her on the left and maybe even the “far-left.”

David Yetter
David Yetter
1 year ago

Of course, in continental Europe, a perfect classical liberal or a even a moderate socialist, who has noticed that every fiqh of Islamic Sharia is deeply illiberal, and as a result concludes, and publicly states, that Europe should curtail immigration from the Muslim world is automatically declared to be “far-right”,utterly beyond the pale, and to be kept as far from the levers of power as possible.
It is unclear to me from whence the Islamophilia of the European mainstream derived. For the Left, which had been anti-Christian (or Antichristian?) since the attempted genocide in the Vendee during the French Revolution, Islam might be an enemy-of-my-enemy, but why the Christian Democrats and their analogues in other European countries also seem to be Islamophiles is completely mysterious.

David Yetter
David Yetter
1 year ago

Of course, in continental Europe, a perfect classical liberal or a even a moderate socialist, who has noticed that every fiqh of Islamic Sharia is deeply illiberal, and as a result concludes, and publicly states, that Europe should curtail immigration from the Muslim world is automatically declared to be “far-right”,utterly beyond the pale, and to be kept as far from the levers of power as possible.
It is unclear to me from whence the Islamophilia of the European mainstream derived. For the Left, which had been anti-Christian (or Antichristian?) since the attempted genocide in the Vendee during the French Revolution, Islam might be an enemy-of-my-enemy, but why the Christian Democrats and their analogues in other European countries also seem to be Islamophiles is completely mysterious.

Jerry Carroll
Jerry Carroll
1 year ago

The writer’s tell-tale use of “far-right” and a fair sprinkling of “virulent” puts her on the left and maybe even the “far-left.”

Jerry Carroll
Jerry Carroll
1 year ago

The writer’s tell-tale use of “far-right” and a fair sprinkling of “virulent” puts her on the left and maybe even the “far-left.”

TheElephant InTheRoom
TheElephant InTheRoom
1 year ago

One word – Greens

TheElephant InTheRoom
TheElephant InTheRoom
1 year ago

One word – Greens

Peter Joy
Peter Joy
1 year ago

So… it is, apparently, self-evident that uttering the slogan “Alles für Deutschland” – “All for Germany” is ‘odious’. Because it was an NSDAP slogan, it is now, supposedly, contaminated and criminal till the end of time? A simple, generic patriotic slogan? How bizarre. Hitler was allegedly vegetarian: should Germany ban vegetables? The SS wore black: should Germany ban black fabric (and the letter S)?


Peter Joy
Peter Joy
1 year ago

So… it is, apparently, self-evident that uttering the slogan “Alles für Deutschland” – “All for Germany” is ‘odious’. Because it was an NSDAP slogan, it is now, supposedly, contaminated and criminal till the end of time? A simple, generic patriotic slogan? How bizarre. Hitler was allegedly vegetarian: should Germany ban vegetables? The SS wore black: should Germany ban black fabric (and the letter S)?


Samuel Ross
Samuel Ross
1 year ago

This article is trashy, filled with unproven slurs against the AfD. Not exactly a shining light in the starfield of articles that Unherd has put out so far.

Samuel Ross
Samuel Ross
1 year ago

This article is trashy, filled with unproven slurs against the AfD. Not exactly a shining light in the starfield of articles that Unherd has put out so far.

Jonathan N
Jonathan N
1 year ago

..

Last edited 1 year ago by Jonathan N
Jonathan N
Jonathan N
1 year ago

..

Last edited 1 year ago by Jonathan N
mike otter
mike otter
1 year ago

Arminius, Luther, Bismark & The Wee Chap With The ‘Tache. At the Headingly Test a light aircraft over-flew the ground with an advertising banner. On the other side a wry comment against serial cheats: “Same Old Aussies”. Same Old Germans.

mike otter
mike otter
1 year ago

Arminius, Luther, Bismark & The Wee Chap With The ‘Tache. At the Headingly Test a light aircraft over-flew the ground with an advertising banner. On the other side a wry comment against serial cheats: “Same Old Aussies”. Same Old Germans.

James Kirk
James Kirk
1 year ago

I’m starting to look back on Tony Blair’s time with nostalgia. I’d get myself on Corbyn’s electoral roll and vote for him just to embarrass Starmer.

James Kirk
James Kirk
1 year ago

I’m starting to look back on Tony Blair’s time with nostalgia. I’d get myself on Corbyn’s electoral roll and vote for him just to embarrass Starmer.