Given the many genocidal statements that Iranian leaders have directed against Israel, it looks as if Frank-Walter Steinmeier would have fit in just fine with an earlier German regime of some notoreity.
“German president lauds Iran on revolution that seeks Israel’s destruction,” by Benjamin Weinthal, Jerusalem Post, February 21, 2019:
The president of Germany Frank Walter-Steinmeier sent a congratulatory telegram to Iran’s mullah regime in honor of the 40th anniversary of the Islamic revolution in the name of federal republic’s citizens.
Germany’s largest paper Bild reported on Wednesday “On the 40th anniversary of that day, friendly greetings from Berlin arrived in Tehran by telegram: the President of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier (63), sends ‘Congratulations’ on the occasion of the national holiday, ‘also in the name of my compatriots.”‘
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday that the center “condemns German President’s congratulations to the most dangerous regime in the world, who are religious bigots, who hang Gays, and threaten genocide against Israel–home to the largest Jewish community in the world. When will he condemn their Holocaust denial?”
The congratulatory note to a regime that seeks the destruction of the Jewish state and the United States of America has raised eyebrows and unleashed criticism on social media. The prominent German-Iranian dissident and public intellectual Nasrin Amirsedghi wrote on her Twitter feed that “Steinmeier congratulates the Terror-Mullahs.”
Bild wrote “Mass executions and torture; the brutal persecution of women, minorities, and the opposition; the installation of an Islamist terror state that threatens to annihilate Israel, that covers the Middle East with its militias, and that denies the Holocaust. All of this started in Iran on 11 February, 1979, the day of the ‘Islamic Revolution,’ when the mullahs seized power in Tehran.”
Steinmeier, who as then-foreign minister previously allowed former Iranian deputy foreign minister Muhammad Javad Ardashir Larijani, in 2008, to call for Israel’s destruction and deny the Holocaust at a German foreign ministry event near Berlin’s Holocaust memorial, told Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani that Germany is doing “everything in its power to guarantee the maintenance and continued implementation of the JCPOA (Iran nuclear deal).”
The Bild article by Antje Schippmann noted “There is not a word of criticism concerning Tehran’s murderous attacks in Europe or its billions for financing terror groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.” The article said: “Instead, the telegram praises the bilateral relations and promises to ‘intensely maintain’ the dialogue. Only together, is it possible to ‘overcome the crises and conflicts.”‘ wrote the president, who is a member of Germany’s social democratic party….
Lisa Bernstein says
obviously germany and iran have a lot in common…..
mortimer says
Germany has fallen into a national STOCKHOLM SYNDROME under the hypnotic spell of the IRANIAN PSYCHOPATHS.
Germany’s bowing before Iran’s JIHADI PSYCHOPATHS is a case of a seriious NATIONAL MENTAL ILLNESS in Germany.
Rufolino says
He is taking the example of Pope, forging brotherly love (with criminals.)
Somebody else who chooses not to think. It’s everywhere.
J D.S says
Hooked on Islam!t Germany with the most of Europe is hooked on Islam….worse than being hooked on heroin. Being hooked on heroin there is a CHANCE that one could have therapy that could pull one out of addiction…No therapy for Islamic addiction .
ntesdorf says
This man is short of historical knowledge and has forgotten the battle of Vienna in 1529 by the Muslims,and the siege of Vienna in 1683 by the Muslims, Well they are back and he welcomes them.
Rarely says
Where has he been the last 40 years? If not in a coma then one must wonder about his stance on this and other matters. His true colours are showing. A throwback to an earlier German regime? You bet!!
christianblood says
In the meantime, eight drones owned by the “exceptional” nation have been hacked and taken over by Iranian revolutionary guards! More of this below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2cw1nKO4Qw
Raja says
CB, What is the big deal about this video you posted?. Nations do so many things under the guise of security, statecraft or anything and everything… You name it they have it..
Shakespeare said: “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” I would say: Islam by any other name (practiced across nations) would be just as ugly…
christianblood says
Raja
Eight drones owned and operated by the “exceptional” nation hacked and taken over by Iranian forces? That is a big deal, Raja! Please watch the news clip by Rick Sanchez (above) to understand the geopolitical implications of this news!
gravenimage says
Of course christianblood loves the horrors of Islam in Iran–he has said so many times before–and is gleeful over any perceived leg up they get on the ‘filthy Infidels’. *Ugh*.
He has also said over and over again how he is anticipating Muslims destroying America and the rest of the West.
mortimer says
The BloodthirstyPseudochristian, who being a genocidist himself, has never met a genocidist he didn’t like and has not denied LOVING genocide. The mullahocracy is clearly genocidal and so BPC is all in favor. As a Russian, he also understands a admires the KLEPTOCRACY of Iran which so closely resembles the present KLEPTOCRACY in Russia.
christianblood says
mortimer
I am not Russian. I don’t speak for Russia or for any other country. I only speak the Truth that I see happening around the world.
gravenimage says
What is the truth, as christianblood sees it?
That the bloodthirsty savagery of Islam in Iran is all good, but that democracy and freedom are evils. *Ugh*.
Westman says
Sorry, but this is not significant. This takes no genious. Drones are programmed to land if their communications fail. Simply direct at them, a high power signal close to their control frequency, and they will land. Devices to do this are commercially available to law enforcement. Even spread-spectrum communications cannot overcome near-field jamming.
gravenimage says
+1
Kesselman says
Steinmeier is the prototype of the most bug-eyed, totally naïve social democrat. If not it’s worse. I do not know his family background. There could have been a Nazi or two hidden in the family closet, who knows?
Warrenraymond99@gmail.com says
Nothing naive about him. The Nazis were socialists, not “right wing” conservatives.
Same old.
Wellington says
Warrenaymond99@gmail.com: One of the greatest fallacies over the past century is the continued contention that Nazis were not “right wing.” Oh yes they were after 1934.
Here are the specifics: Nazi ideology was so muddled that, per its 25 point platform of February of 1920, there were both left-wing and right-wing “features” that could be found in it. But after the Night of the Long Knives, June 30th, 1934, all the left-wing elements were completely eliminated by Hitler because he had the leftists in his party killed (e.g., Ernst Rohm) in order to insure the German businessmen he was “on their side.”. After June of 1934 there was NOTHING left-wing about Nazi Germany as German industrialists piled up huge profits (nothing left-wing about this) and all the left-wing “features” of the 1920 Nazi program were simply ignored.
So tired of people not knowing this. No excuse. And I would ask this rhetorical query: If after June of 1934 Nazi Germany was not right-wing, what the hell ever has been? And I ask this query as the conservative that I am and who is regularly chagrined by so many who cannot distinguish between conservatives and reactionaries.
Indiana Tom says
National SOCIALISM. I wish I could find the book, but a Russian author wrote that the main difference between Hitler and Stalin was the shape of their mustaches. In the extreme and from a practical point of view there is not a whole lot of difference between an extreme right wing and left wing dictatorship. Mussolini shows us that. They come from many directions, but all prostrate themselves before the wondrous golden calf of Statism and Collectivism.
gravenimage says
When you go to the very far left–hard-core Communism; or the very far right–Fascism–there is little real difference. Both are totalitarian.
christianblood says
Indiana Tom
Oligarchic, hollywoodized capitalism is just as bad, greedy, violent, corrupt and full of deadly avarice and blindness! A case in point,
because of its oligarchic capitalism, US made a secret deal to transfer
its nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia/ISIS/Al-Qaeda!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2FKn4aMOoQ
Raja says
Wellington, Indiana Tom and Gravenimage, Thank you for the clarity of terms used by leftists whether extreme or not. As a fundamentalist, I am amused.
gravenimage says
christianblood wrote:
Indiana Tom
Oligarchic, hollywoodized capitalism is just as bad, greedy, violent, corrupt and full of deadly avarice and blindness!
………………….
Yes, christianblood has said before how much he hates capitalism and free trade.
He has lauded countries that starve their people, like North Korea and Venezuela.
He condemns nations that allow people opportunities and hope, claiming they are not spiritual enough.
What a bleak view of the human condition–where only totalitarianism is to be applauded.
Wellington says
Indiana Tom: Whoever that Russian author was he didn’t know what he was talking about. After 1934 when Hitler killed off the leftist elements in the Nazi Party, German businessmen made HUGE profits. What Russian businessmen made HUGE profits at any time under Stalin? Hitler after the Night of the Long Knives pampered and extolled German businessmen (as long as they did not oppose his regime). Stalin, and Lenin before him, killed Russian businessmen. Private property existed under Hitler, contra Stalin.
As gravenimage pointed out, the Far Right and Far Left are both totalitarian and enemies of freedom, but there are still major differences between these two extremes. I already mentioned one concerning the economic sector. Another difference is that many on the Far Right are religious (though Hitler certainly wasn’t but dictators like Franco and Salazar were) but the Far Left despises religion a la Marx—opium of the masses and all that.
The Far Left also is into a “workers of the world unite” frame of mind while deriding nationalism but the Far Right extols nationalism and keeps a lid on the “workers of the world” stuff. Stalin only invoked Russian nationalism after Hitler invaded the USSR in June of 1941 because Stalin was desperate and this is the same reason why he allowed the Russian Orthodox faith some latitude too, a faith which before 1941 he had tried to utterly crush or at least keep to an absolute minimum.
For a thorough assessment of just how Far Right Hitler’s regime was after the Night of the Long Knives, I would recommend William Shirer’s The Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich where Shirer details the many Far Right elements of Hitler’s regime post-June of 1934. And don’t get stuck on the word “socialism” in National Socialism. Once people like Rohm were out of the way and the Sturmabteliung (SA) was neutered, there was really nothing socialistic about Germany from June of 1934 to the end of WWII.
gravenimage says
Good analysis, Wellington.
gravenimage says
Thanks, Raja.
Kesselman says
Really good analysis, Wellington, I’m in on most. But just to clear out some broad perspectives: The original liberals, the libertarians, (not today’s) were those behind the great leap towards prosperity. But there has always been a pull in the direction of limiting freedom for most.—Here the 20th century’s totalitarianism comes in. Socialism appears with a left-wing and a right-wing. The right-wing socialism indulges in or transforms as fascism, (see Mussolini’s transformation). In my view, socialism/Marxism and fascism are two sides of the same coin. A further elaboration shows that you can even talk about a left-wing and right-wing fascism, but let it stay for now.
Kepha says
Good analysis, Wellington.
Christianblood: Re oligarchic Hollywood, much as I loathe it, I also recognize that I still have the choice of not buying its products and having to pretend that I stand in solidarity with its causes. Re Stalin and his acolytes (including Xi Jinping, who was raised to see Stalin as a hero), they force you to consume the garbage they feed you. I recall being shocked by an old man from Northeast China who, despite being a virulent hater of Japan, said that the Japanese were still better than the Communists, since “the Japanese allowed you to keep silence”.
I will also note, to change the subject, that one commonality between both the Nazis and the COmmunists was their cult and corruption of science: start with Marx’s pretense to having discovered a “science” of historical development and the Nazis’ firm belief that biology was on their side.
christianblood says
Kepha
I can’t imagine a Chinese who loves the Japanese invaders that murdered million of Chinese, including bayoneting pregnant Chinese women in front of their children! The Chinese communists caused the death of millions of course in their move to change and to industrialize China which is known as the ‘cultural revolution’ but what the Japanese invaders did to the Chinese is still unforgettable in China! It was like being in horror movies but only real!
gravenimage says
The invading Japanese and the Chinese Communists were both horrific. The Chinese people have been suffering for decades.
christianblood says
Warrenraymond
If Nazis were bad and genocidal then why did America imported and naturalized thousands of professional Nazi war criminals immediately after the defeat of the Nazis? More below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDZc-fO8pHc
gravenimage says
christianblood has done this before–condemned the US for having defeated the Fascists.
And yes, we did recruit German scientists after the war for the military and the space program.
Of course, Russia did the same, just giving them no choice. As always, he *much* prefers coercion and force. *Ugh*.
Westman says
Knowledge is power; in this case, for scientists, the power to save themselves by choosing to help the US control Stalin’s aspirations. And under freedom, the accelerated results speak for themselves. Russia never reached the moon nor invented the miniaturized components of future technology, the transistor, computer, cell phone, laser, etc. Not because they didn’t have the talent; because they didn’t have the wealth and freedom that communism destroyed.
The grimly hilarious part is that China, by absorbing the technology used in production of globalist corporations products, has now leapfrogged both the US and Russia in the combined ability of both innovation and production of technology.
China is the next top superpower; it’s only a matter of time. Our tech-dimwit congress is still embroiled in socialist matters while the economic ability to support, and tech-military ability to protect, that socialism is slipping away.
Just for interest, look around for cheap Chinese IP cameras in stores, buildings, etc. If you have a Chinese camera or product that logs into your router, get an app that shows the IP adresses going through your router and look them up on the internet. They “phone home” to servers in China that can access them. There are millions of them in the US, that in a war could be used as the eyes and ears of China and currently could be used in industrial, public, and private espionage – while congress goes to lunch to discuss another social innovation and our unpatriotic global corporations hire foreign temp engineers to design and support their products which will be – “Made in China”.
The European says
On German scientists being transferred to the US after WWII. Coercion or not, it still does not answer the question, if it was morally right to bring to the US all those German scientists who were compromised with the Nazi regime. Morally speaking, it is quite inconsistent to fight a war in the name of moral principles, and then, when the war is won, to put these same moral principles aside because you have decided that you need to make use of scientists who were involved in horrid crimes against hunanity during WWII. What do you think? Is it morally justifiable to allow war cirminals to get away unpunished, because you want to benefit from their scientific skills? Are the interests of state more important than justice being served and moral principles being upheld?
By the way, I don’t think that all these scientists went to the US of their own accord. True, some of them were defectors who had previously been snatched away by the Soviets. True, some of them were allured by financial gain and desired to live comfortably in the US. But with some of them another kind of persuasion was needed. The author of “Operation Paperclip” tells us that the scientists were interviewed by the military. Well, these “interviews” might not have been just small talk, but tough interrogations at the end of which the scientists were faced with that choice: Either you come with us or you won’t just be shaking hands with the hangman at Nuremberg.
Kepha says
Christianblood, you should be happy that Dr. Werner von Braun found Christ after relocating in America.
Westman: As a tech translator, I fully share your concerns about the US dependence on Chinese chips and whatnot; and think this should’ve been addressed long before Trump’s trade war.
christianblood says
The European posted
(…Morally speaking, it is quite inconsistent to fight a war in the name of moral principles, and then, when the war is won, to put these same moral principles aside because you have decided that you need to make use of scientists who were involved in horrid crimes against hunanity during WWII. What do you think? Is it morally justifiable to allow war cirminals to get away unpunished, because you want to benefit from their scientific skills? Are the interests of state more important than justice being served and moral principles being upheld?…)
Exactly right! You beat me to it!
To be honest, I am pretty sure if there is a bunch of ISIS beheaders that beheaded thousands and that they have some technical knowledge that US needs, they would be immediately naturalized as US citizens! The US beast has NO morals at all, that is why, for decades the US backed islamic jihadists such as Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, the Balkan jihadists, Libyan jihadists, Yemeni jihadists and Syrian jihadists!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9RCFZnWGE0
gravenimage says
The European–with all respect–these German scientists were not practicing some sort of special “Nazi science”–science is science.
The moral issue is what it is used for.
It is very different to use rocket technology to destroy cities that won’t submit to Fascism than it is for a democracy to use that same technology to put a man on the moon.
And christianblood is, as usual, being dishonest–Russia used German technology after the war, as well–it is just that the scientists they used were not given a choice in the matter, which is just how he likes it.
Anjuli Pandavar says
Isn’t he the guy who publicly wished for Germany to have a Muslim President?
gravenimage says
I hadn’t heard that, Anjuli–but he is the idiot who said this:
“German President: “There are No Native Germans, We are a Nation of Immigrants”
https://www.eutimes.net/2018/08/german-president-there-are-no-native-germans-we-are-a-nation-of-immigrants/
Indiana Tom says
See…I told you!
Most of the good Germans left to become Donald Trump deplorables in the Midwest.
christianblood says
At the raise of Khumenists in France, greedy and avariciously capitalistic America saw a chance to exploit Iranian gas and oil, back-stabbed its ally, the Shah or Iran and eagerly collaborated with Khumenists! More of this below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyHpVZoMIbc
gravenimage says
What a lot of tripe.
This is what christianblood loves to do–laud the Mullahs for bloody thing they do, but blame the West for their being in power, claiming it has nothing to do with Islam.
Note that if we *had* tried to keep the Shah in power militarily, that he’d be condemning the US for having done so.
Wellington says
This is nuts but, more expansively, it is demonstrative of how Germans get things wrong again and again and again on the “big issues,” even though they are superb at specifics like cars, archaeology, and medical instruments..
As Goethe said, Germans make trouble for themselves and for everyone else as well. Per Winston Churchill, the Germans are either at your throat or at your feet. And per Dennis Prager, the Germans screwed up yet once again after WWII by concluding that fighting is evil when they should have concluded that not fighting evil is evil.
Germans, great respecting the microcosm, are abject failures respecting the macrocosm. BTW, I am of half German descent so no need to excoriate me on these grounds.
Max says
If we could read Merkel’s mind, the Muslim posterior kisser, and that of her lap dog (Walter-Steinmeier), we would get confirmation of their desire of taking us back to the 1940’s, that era of visceral Jew-hate and absolute Government control forced down our throats.
christianblood says
Angela Merkel is one the childless leaders that are destroying the West:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=GOgtALakLEY
gravenimage says
Of course, most people care about what happens to the world after they pass away.
gravenimage says
Germany’s President congratulates Iran’s bloodthirsty Islamic regime on 40th anniversary of Islamic Revolution
………………………
Congratulations for forty years of holding diplomats hostage, hanging people from cranes, threatening “Death to Israel!” and “Death to America!”, persecuting religious minorities, oppressing anyone who wants even a modicum of freedom, and stoning women to death–and many more!
What a tool Frank Walter-Steinmeier is. I feel badly for every patriotic German who has this moral idiot for their president.
Indiana Tom says
Most of the good Germans left to become Donald Trump deplorables in the Midwest.
gravenimage says
My husband’s family did…
Indiana Tom says
I know, because the majority of my ancestors were from Germany. About everyone in the Midwest has some German ancestry. I think it would be interesting to see if America has more people of some German ancestry than what Germany has now. The Germans are not very pure either. We have 10 times more Irish ancestry than what Ireland has.
GreekEmpress says
Some of my Greek ancestors made their way to Germany after getting out of Turkey. Then after a lot of hardship they got out and made it to the greatest country on earth.
??????
gravenimage says
🙂
Lu says
GI, I disagree :-). Look – Germany is now more or less an Islamic country … (certain hyperbole needed, though). So a leader of one Islamic country is congratulating his brothers and sisters in faith in another Islamic country … normal act of political support, unity in Umah etc. etc. No idiot. Just a brother and compassionate leader.
(I know – not funny)
Indiana Tom says
“On the 40th anniversary of that day, friendly greetings from Berlin arrived in Tehran by telegram: the President of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier (63), sends ‘Congratulations’ on the occasion of the national holiday, ‘also in the name of my compatriots.”‘
So Christian Blood is actually our dear buddy Frank-Walter Steinmeier ?
gravenimage says
+1
James Lincoln says
The president of Germany Frank Walter-Steinmeier should have written this letter to Iran.
With a president like this who admires Iran, it is clear that Germany is no longer wishes to be a free country.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5IBwogsxRE
christianblood says
James Lincoln
Tell us about this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f35TUFmCtYY
gravenimage says
It’s very much that same as Putin and the Saudi Crown Prince sharing a joke at the G20:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=17&v=E6t5bRMeA1c
I’m not a fan of anyone schmoozing with Muslim leaders, but it is common.
And both of these examples are still very different from actually lauding the imposition of Shari’ah law, as the witless Frank Walter-Steinmeier is doing in the story above–and as christianblood has done many times himself.
The European says
That’s a good video, but your conclusions are totally wrong. The “Bildzeitung” is a big nationwide circulating newspaper which millions of Germans still read every day, and it is said to reflect the opinion of the plain man on the street. So, when that newspaper has published a fictitious telegram which calls for the demise of theocracy in Iran and for the the restoration of democracy, you can be sure that this point of view is shared by a majority of Germans, regardless of what Mr. Steinmeier has to say about Iran. He is a diplomat being most eager to have good relations with Iran, so that German firms can do busines with that country. His attitude towards Iran is not quite different from what Mr. Trump does with regard to Saudi-Arabia, but I would not conclude from Trump’s politics on Saudi-Arabia that the US no longer wishes to be a free country. That would be nonsense.
Beneath the Veil of Consciousness says
I once heard that German luxury cars are over engineered and underpowered. I saw this demonstrated first hand whilst in an icy snowstorm. Two BMW 750 sedans were trying to traverse either side of a hill. They were slipping and sliding while I casually drove around them over and down from the top of the hill in my 1978 Pontiac 6000 worth about $500 retail. I believe there’s a lesson to be learned in this story as to how the German culture in general views and addresses problems.
Heidi says
If you read this you know the SPD has not learned: “With the state until the bitter end—the role of the SPD
The SPD were the political party that identified most with the Weimar Republic. They committed themselves to defending the republic “from attacks by both left and right”. The party had already shown its readiness to crack down brutally on the radical left after the November revolution in 1918 and the ensuing civil-war-like battles around local revolutionary councils. At that time the SPD had allied with the old economic and military elites of imperial Germany to defeat the revolutionary upsurge and establish a democratic republic with some social reforms, but also ensured that capitalist property relations remained untouched. Because of this historic compromise, the Weimar Republic found itself burdened with a broad layer of military officials, judges and government clerks opposed to the republican reforms. It was precisely this layer that was open to fascist politics and moved closer and closer to the Nazis after 1929.
The SPD’s identification with the Weimar Republic became increasingly problematic for the party as the crisis deepened. As the majority of the population increasingly lost hope in capitalism and the republic, millions searched for a political alternative. Because the population identified the SPD with the republic it proved impossible for it to capitalise on this widespread radicalisation, let alone channel it in a socialist direction. The Social Democrats became victims of the economic, social and political crisis that racked the Weimar establishment and were dragged down with it.
The SPD participated in a governing coalition with bourgeois and conservative parties from 1928 to 1930. From 1930 to 1932 they tolerated the authoritarian, right wing government by decree of Heinrich Brüning as a sort of lesser evil opposed to the Nazis. Brüning’s solution to the economic crisis was austerity and deflation. He savaged the welfare state, raised indirect taxes and pushed down wages. These measures spelled untold suffering for the millions of workers who supported the SPD. Government employees found their wages cut by 25 percent, unmarried adults were forced to pay an additional tax of 10 percent and workers’ pension contributions quadrupled; simultaneously, social spending was reduced by two thirds. Illness increased as more and more people could no longer afford to see a doctor. The SPD, having campaigned on the left but governed on the right, were punished at the polls. Their lack of credibility led them to go from 30 percent of the vote in 1930 to only 18 percent in 1933. The party leadership steadfastly refused to engage in extra-parliamentary mobilisations or workplace struggles to defend workers’ standards of living.
The party’s self-identification with the Weimar Republic also led it to the mechanical conclusion that all opponents of the republic, ie the Communists and the Nazis, were to be treated the same. Socialist historian Wolfgang Abendroth described the situation as such: “’No difference between Thälmann [the KP leader] and Hitler, between Nazis and Communists’—these were the wretched slogans of the SPD leadership with which they deepened the split in the labour movement”.2 The strategy that was needed—a united front with the Communists against capitalist austerity and fascist terror—was considered unthinkable. The split in the labour movement between the SPD and the KPD and the lack of a united response to the capitalist crisis drove more and more of its victims into the arms of the Nazis. In 1931 the SPD formed the “Iron Front” together with trade unions and athletic clubs numbering 3.5 million members. At its core were a quarter of a million fighters active in the brigades of the Reichsbanner SchwarzRotGold, a paramilitary organisation designed to protect the republic against subversion. However, its fixation on parliamentarism and legality hindered an effective struggle against the Nazis, who did not respect the trappings of bourgeois democracy in their own quest for power. One has to remember that the SPD and the Communist Party formed the SED dictatorship which brutally kept the People of the former GDR behind the wall. Any Questions?
Here is the whole Story: isj.org.uk/divided-they-fell-the-german-left-and-the-rise-of-hitler/
The European says
@ Heidi
Divisions among German socialists occurred even before WWI. At the end of the 19th century the SPD leadership decided to embark on a more reformist course and to abandon revolutionary rhetoric. Many members of the SPD didn’t stand for this and, later, they founded the USPD ( Unabhängige Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands/ Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany), because they considered the SPD a traitor to the working class. Their differences came to a head when the bolshevik Revolution broke out in Russia, and at the end of WWI they were aided by the spartakists, Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg to stage a soviet-styled communist revolution in Germany. First, they had been successful, setting up councils of workers and soldiers in major German cities, but they were finally defeated when the social democrats, instead of joining them, called upon the newly constituted “Freikorps” ( battle-hardened front soldiers who didn’t love communism at all) in order to put down that uprising. The SPD didn’t have much of a choice. After the abdicaton of emperor Wilhelm II and while the imperial army was collapsing, chancellor Max von Baden thought it wise to make preparations for the takeover of a democratic regime, knowing that President Wilson’s fourteen-points.program demanded the establishment of democracy in Germany as a pre-requisite for peace talks. So, he met with leaders from the SPD like Friedrich Ebert and Philipp Scheidemann suggesting that they organize a transition to democracy and conduct general elections. The social democrats obliged readily and the republic was born. But it was clear from the get-go that this republic would never be a soviet-like communist commonwealth. Scheidemann and Ebert were also German patriots and, feeling responsibility not just for working class people but for all Germans, the would never have agreed on slaughtering half the population in order to make a gory communist utopia come true. So, the ongoing revolution which had already make headway in German cities like Berlin, Hamburg, Kiel, Bremen, Munich… had to be crushed, and an alliance with the monarchist bureaucracy, the old militaristic elite and the” Freikorps” was inevitable, since the SPD didn’t command sufficient armed forces of their own to deal with the insurgents. This alliance saved Germany from communism, but, of course, this resulted in a deep rift between the social democrats and other left-wing parties which were still harboring ideas about classless society. And it weakened the clout of the leftists when fascism was on the rise. But had the social democrats acted otherwise, Germany might have becomme a communist state shortly after WWI, a kind of GDR when the GDR was still in the devil’s thoughts.
Heidi says
@The European, the Social Democrats are still the enemy of the common laborer. Remember they and their Green Friends established the Agenda 2010 cutting the pensions of the common People by 13-14%. If you read German, please read this “https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=11081”. It would not take them one Minute to form a new GDR with The Left, the predecessors of te SED, and the Greens. I was a member of the SPD for year and believe looking “behind the curtain” made me sick so I quit.
roscoe74 says
As bad as the Shah was, he was replaced with something no better. What a missed opportunity that was for the Iranian people.
gravenimage says
As bad as the Shah was, he was replaced by something *much worse*.