By Sergio Weigel for the Saker blog
In Germany the most powerful political force is the media which has been chasing politicians to make the policy their masters, “neoliberal” think tanks, bank and industry lobbies and Atlanticist think tanks aka Warshington, wanted. But German state media had recently cracked open the narrative.
Something strange has happened in German media. After years of streamlined and very constrained news coverage of the Syrian war with the clear goal to form public opinion in the sense of Warshington, German state media suddenly cracked open the narrative regarding the alleged gas attacks in Douma. On the Skripal case they were still in full lockstep with the Anglo-American narrative. However, when the White Helmets staged a chlorine gas attack in Douma shortly after, at least some state media didn’t march in lockstep. Instead, news anchors used careful phrases like “alleged gas attack” or “possible gas attack”. I noticed it immediately and it raised my eyebrows. That’s unusual, I thought. Every stupid helmet lie before was just repeated as fact, yet this time they seemed more cautious. Then the unthinkable happened. A “Western” journalist, Uli Gack from ZDF, actually went down there to Damascus to visit a refugee camp and ask the locals about what happened. This was then broadcast on the daily news show heute journal (today’s journal). See for yourself:
Of course, he was immediately attacked by our Atlanticist print media, namely by Germany’s chief mudslinging tabloid Bild and Focus, a minor magazine that is usually found in doctors’ waiting rooms and read by people who don’t fancy magazines about furniture. He was labeled a “conspiracy theorist” who “spreads Assad’s and Putin’s propaganda”, who either “has no clue” or “lies deliberately”, the usual kindergarten. Unfortunately, the ZDF didn’t stood up for him but instead distanced itself. So, in a second report which was broadcasted two days after, in which he visited the same hospital Russian soldiers had previously searched for victims, he made or had to made it sound like the witnesses were selected for him by the Assad regime. This is what we call Bringschuld in German, duty to deliver, and it was as obvious as cake that he has been made to say it. Nonetheless, he’s done it, he interviewed victims at site and presented the results. Someone at the ZDF must have told him to, because Mr. Gack is not exactly known as an honest, impartial journalist, I doubt it was his idea. It’s sad that the cowards at the ZDF caved before the tabloids, but it was remarkable nonetheless. After all, ZDF is Germany’s largest TV station and heute journal is the second most important daily news show.
Phoenix is a channel in collaboration of ARD and ZDF. It was founded originally for live broadcasts of debates in Bundestag, you know, to promote the impression of transparency to the citizens. Now, they also have mostly great documentaries and this particular political talk, of which I want to give an example, called phoenix round. Phoenix is not the ZDF, but it is viewed by a respectable number of people, usually around four million per day, who prefer television that feeds the head instead of numbing the mind. This is the first time ever that I saw a political talk on German TV where a guest is allowed to give a full summary on the genesis of the Syrian conflict, claim that all chemical attacks have been false flags and make his argument about it, that Russia has a clear strategy and will determine the endgame, and that the US has lost the quagmire in Syria and Iraq. Watch it, it’s 46 minutes long, and I’ve tried my best to make the subtitles as understandable as possible, especially in heated moments of the discussion. It’s from April 12, so they’re discussing Trump’s tweet and what he’s gonna do now.
These are singular incidents, but they are remarkable. Anglo-America’s propaganda and false flag pets in Syria, the White Helmets, report a poison gas attack by the Syrian air force and Germany’s largest TV station sends a veteran journalist down to Damascus to interview witnesses of the incident after four years of dutiful propaganda service. In a political talk show two guests are allowed to explain how the war really came about and what the reality on the ground really looks like, even declare, including the host of the show, that the US has lost the war! This is remarkable because it happened on state TV. To understand why that matters let me explain how German media is structured in general.
The German mainstream media landscape consists of mainly three areas. Private TV and radio, state TV and radio, and the print media. Private media brings the typical mind numbing and spirit crushing entertainment as a vehicle to sell advertisements.
State media, TV and radio, called öffentlich-rechtlicher Rundfunk (public-legal broadcast) has been created after the war modelled after the BBC. It is funded by a compulsory levy. Regardless of whether you even have a TV/radio or not, every household is forced by law to pay a monthly fee of €17.50. It pays for several broadcasting services, one for almost every Bundesland, integrated in the “first channel”, the ARD, but they also have their own channels. Then we have the ZDF, the “second channel”, which is also the largest TV station in Germany, plus several smaller collaborative channels, such as Arte, a collaboration with French public TV in the spirit of cultural exchange.
These channels have the legal assignment to educate and inform, and in many ways they actually do. They have plenty of interesting documentaries on various stuff, and also sometimes by far the better films (European cinema), but when it comes to information things become complicated. There is a legal precept of distance from government. They’re supposed to be independent. However, the intendants are usually active party members of either CDU (ZDF) or SPD (ARD), so of government parties. There have been several lawsuits at our Verfassungsgericht (supreme court) over this – without success.
Also, there are issues with how the funds are used which have also been trialed at the Verfassungsgericht. For example, most political talk shows are run by women, coincidentally I guess, and named after them, such as Maybrit Illner or Anne Will. The shows aren’t produced by the broadcasters themselves but by private companies for ridiculously high prices they could never achieve on the free market. Now guess who the main shareholders of these companies are? You guessed right, it is the respective host of the show. This makes them corruptible, of course, since to get paid so well in the future they will have to follow a certain line, most likely determined by the party member intendants, but maybe also by Atlanticist interference. Their guestlist is usually crammed with members of the infamous Atlantikbrücke.
The real dangerous media in Germany, however, the one that can undermine state authority by manipulation of public opinion is the print media. Bild, Spiegel, Zeit, FAZ, Süddeutsche, welt, and taz are the most important. In the 80s each each one represented a certain political group or party and/or social class. However, this started to erode in the 90s when the former left couldn’t handle the fall of socialism and substituted its original ideals with liberal petty nonsense like gender ideology and adapted liberal globalism as inevitable. Today they are completely streamlined and all the same: Atlanticist. It is as if Goebbels had returned from his grave with an Uncle Sam hat. All editors-in-chief of these rags are members of at least one of the notorious Atlanticist organisations, camouflaged as intercultural and intellectual dialog platforms yet essentially run by the CIA: Atlantikbrücke, German Marshall Fund, Aspen Institute etc. We know this from late whistleblower Udo Ulfkotte, and from the brilliant satire team Die Anstalt who made these things known to a broader public.
The problem with these rags is that they still enjoy tons of trust with certain age and social groups. Take baby boomers with a higher education, for example. They trust rags like FAZ or Zeit which still enjoy an intellectual reputation. It’s true, both boast a thick feuilleton. If you want to know about theater, opera, literature in Germany and elsewhere, FAZ and Zeit are the way to go. Since reputable baby boomers enjoy to cultivate their sophistication, these are their newspapers. And why should the articles about world politics be less sophisticated than the feuilleton? So they mistake warmongering and lies about Russia with quality journalism.
However, the real danger from print media comes from their ability and habit to witch hunt politicians and shame celebrities who fall out of line. They’ve managed to force former German presidents Horst Köhler and Christian Wulff to reign, because they expressed some inconvenient truths (the Bundeswehr is in Afghanistan not to help but for economic interests) or views (Islam belongs to Germany – at a time when Muslims were still the enemy). Also Germany’s most famous soul singer Xavier Naidoo fell victim to an absolute hate campaign, because he had openly stated that Germany is not a sovereign country. This is (supposed to be) a taboo, and even though it’s true, you’ll be shamed as a Nazi by usual suspects. With ex-chancellor Gerhard Schröder they had played a more subliminal game and ran a successful campaign to have him voted out of office and Angela Merkel into office, because was the first to say nein to Warshington’s aggression against Iraq.
So why did state media suddenly cracked open the narrative on such a huge case like an alleged poison attack by Assad the monster? And why at this point in time? I don’t think this is going to be a constant change in reporting on German TV, at least not yet, but I a believe it might have had to do with Angela Merkel’s visit to Warshington. Germany is not just a vassal like France and certainly not a whore like Poland, the German-American relationship is much more complicated. However, by bilateral contracts with the US and even by the 2+4 contract Germany still is, in many ways, an occupied country. The US military and even more so it’s “intelligence” has rights that go beyond our constitution. I will write about this in more detail, but for now it is enough to understand that the German government cannot make official statements as easily as the governments of a sovereign country like Russia or even France can. If a politician does it, he or she will be ousted by the print media as described above. Therefore, the German government every once in a while sends a message this way. In this case it was a warning: Look, we could unleash the truth on our public. Germany has many ways to pressure countries in the EU politically, but next to none to pressure Warshington without risking an open conflict.
At least, during her visit Merkel managed, in her unparalleled Teflon style, to shrug off all of Trump’s ridiculous demands. But more of that later.
Sergio’s Bio: Born to a Portuguese mother and a German father Sergio was raised in Northern Germany, just two kilometers away from a British-German NATO air base. The daily sonic boom and thunder of low altitude Tornados was the sound of his childhood. They years when NATO wanted to station Pershing-2 missiles with nuclear warheads at the air base, were formative for him and he can still vividly remember the Cold War, Reagan, Thatcher, Chernobyl, the claustrophobic atmosphere, and the relief when the Berlin Wall finally fell. He makes his living as a web-programmer and IT consultant but still avidly studies studies history, geopolitics, economic theories, monetary theory, Hegel, Nietzsche, Marx and music.
Strongly wish Sergio Weigel to continue his series very interesting articles on Germany, the grip that the US still holds over Germany (there is still no official peace between BDR and US) hence is still occupied. And the “cracking open” on certain moments in some medias, leaving the “Atlantic” Nato line.
I would also like to ask Sergio Weigel if he can mention media or publications that do NOT take part in the general brainwashing. I could follow those and perhaps support them.
Thank you Sergio Weigel, know that I will follow you and if necessary support you.
The Two Plus Four Agreement is the official peace treaty. The crooks are using a lawyers trick: They don’t label things as they’re usually called. It’s about liability and compensation. I realized this when newspapers were full of with articles about the Greek debt. Either by accident or some attack of truth reports appeared that Greece was given a small preliminary payment in the 50’s or 60’s (for the forced loan occupied Greece had to give to Nazi-Germany). Consider the implications of an official peace treaty. Greece would be entitled to get its compensation and this would result in further payments for other countries which also could insist that Germany should pay reparations. A similar trick had been used with IG Farben. IG Farben had used forced labor and had been the manufacturer of Zyklon B. After WW II the company was split up into the single companies that were part of it, but IG Farben itself continued to exist until 2012. While Bayer, BASF, Hoechst and all the other companies could reap massive profits in the post war period IG Farben was given a limited amount of money. Survivors of forced labor and relatives of those murdered by Zyklon B could sue IG Farben for reparations, while the companies that once formed it were untouchable. Indeed, Germany is an occupied country, but this is due to Germany’s NATO membership.
Concerning the Brioni model (Schröder) I would like to add that he, Sharping and Joschka Fischer (Joseph Martin Fischer) willingly assisted in the attack on Serbia. While Schröder had been chancellor Germany participated in the invasion of Afghanistan. His newly found “pacifism” prior to the Irak invasion could’ve been due to the then upcoming elections of the German parliament. Probably Schröder and Steinmeier knowingly supported the US by giving the German intelligence agency permission to assist the US with information. At least Schröder got a few things right by building North Stream
Keep in mind: If something looks like shit, smells like shit and a lawyer comes along and calls it chocolate, it’s still probably shit – only renamed by a liar. (Is the similarity of the pronunciation of lawyer and liar accidental or by purpose?)
You can use this as a guide, it’s pretty accurate:
https://swprs.org/medien-navigator/
Daniele Ganser often mentions it in his talks.
Great guide! Thanks for the link. I wish there was something like this for other European countries.
It’s interesting how in the modern world the Left/Right distinction is less important than pro-NATO/anti-NATO. Reasonable people from the Left and the Right can always attempt to find common ground, or at the very least respect each other’s differences. However, it is impossible for truth-seekers and anti-war people to find any common ground or have any respect for globalist liars, propagandists, and war-mongers. Conversely, for globalists, the truth-seekers are a group that has to be suppressed or eliminated by any means necessary. There is no middle ground here. This is the defining conflict of our time: either we are to live in a psychotic, demonic world where truth no longer matters and people prey on each other, or we return to the ideals of rationality, honor, and compassion that make us human.
The major problem with common ground of Left and Right is that it’s only a small fraction in which both groups share a similar opinion. A few years ago some peace protests were held on Mondays (so called Montagsdemos). The majority of the attendees had been peace activists and left leaning people. A few people with a former / actual Right background participated as well. This was the best that could’ve happened to those journalists reporting about these events. Since then the term Querfront was created and serves to discredit everyone who speaks out against US politics or in favor of better relations to Russia (those people also get called Putinversteher – similar to Putin apologist). The attempts to smear people are quite sophisticated. Sometimes I tend to believe that Operation Mockingbird never ended and William J. Casey (read Robert Parry’s articles about Casey) did and excellent job to enlarge the whole operation.
Mockingbird didn’t end. See Udo Ulfkotte, a German journalist and whistleblower who was working with US intelligence services.
I can’t remember exactly, because I only heard it in passing and wasn’t able to verify it on my own, but Ken Jebsen from KenFM said that either Stern or Spiegel are working with the German intelligence service BND. Looking at their publications, both are pushing the same exact lies and propaganda, so it’s not even apparent that way.
Here’s something I find amusing regarding Putinversteher:
https://deutsch.rt.com/gesellschaft/40874-schmuck-patriotismus-oder-putinversteher/
I’ll have to check the web site KenFM for further information on Stern and / or Spiegel. As far as I know (even before I discovered Ken) the publishing House Springer (Bild and Welt are the most known newspapers of that company) had been supported by CIA.
Since the days when Spiegel was a left leaning magazine (probably most known internationally for the article “Bedingt abwehrbereit” for which Rudolf Augstein got hunted down in Spain) it constantly moved into the neo-liberal / patriotic direction and joined the anti Russian hysteria as one of the most viscous publications.
Udo Ulfkotte is a topic for itself. In my opinion he managed to discredit himself by his own actions, although I tend to believe him stating that he had to publish CIA approved articles.
Fascinating news story and very educational, too! Hope to read your sequels. Many of us within the Outlaw US Empire understand Germany’s an occupied nation with very restricted liberty, and I certainly look forward to your writing about that dynamic in more detail!
Heh, heh, “Warshington”. Was that intentional or accidental? Either way, it works!
By the way, welcome, Sergio. Good article.
Very welcome german perspective. Ever since Merkel stated “hopes would be dashed” (both ways) in the british parliament regarding brexit four years ago, I figured there could actually be something to a lingering rift between both sides of the pond. Brexit option is supposedly consummated (we shall see de facto). Germany (and the EU) just stand up itself facing the US regarding the Iran deal.
Yet Merkel today is mostly muted. If these german journalists ever realize themselves between the “devil and the deep blue sea” as she did, they will hopefully be more vocal beyond their self-censorship. If ever only the material overcomes enforced ideology.
I’ll add that I very much appreciated the translation. Thank you.
I’m also surprised at the level of mutual respect between the opposite views when such a consequential matter is being discussed.
Hey, in the end we’re all humans, aren’t we? Vasco da Gama, are you Portuguese by any chance?
Kudos that you’re forcing yourself to watch MSM. I couldn’t bear it anymore and ended up with alternative media.
I discovered that modern TV systems include a parental control feature to block obscene content from a home. I programmed these to block all of the 24/7 news channels. Life immediately improved, and I’ve been better informed since. :)
The Vietnam anti-war activist, Prof Noam Chomsky wrote, in his analysis of the way the media operates noted that when there is a split of opinion amongst the elites, that is when you see the opening up of public discussion within the media.
Considering that the whole Douma thing was so ridiculous, an obvious false-flag that only existed on social-media uploads from a group that had been suspiciously close to radical Islamic militant groups which then is quickly seized upon to launch an attack, it was actually amazing that Germany is the only country in the West showing signs of such a split.
”/…/ when there is a split of opinion amongst the elites, that is when you see the opening up of public discussion within the media.”
Split of opinion amongst the elites is an everyday phenomenon. I would modify Chomsky’s assessment by saying that whenever there is a deep split of opinion amongst the elites on serious issues — that’s when discussion can’t be slandered as some manifest Kremlin conspiracy. Absent such elite disunity, the Party Line applies without compunction. Calling into question the legitimacy of NATO, George Soros, Israel, the war on Syria etc. will not be taken lightly.
“However, by bilateral contracts with the US and even by the 2+4 contract Germany still is, in many ways, an occupied country. The US military and even more so it’s “intelligence” has rights that go beyond our constitution. I will write about this in more detail, but for now it is enough to understand that the German government cannot make official statements as easily as the governments of a sovereign country like Russia or even France can.”
This is the subject, that needs to be unpacked by an expert. Nothing in Germany is german, untill sovereignity is achieved.
Free Ursula Haverback NOW!
https://m.youtube.com/results?q=ursula%20haverback&sm=3
Ursula Haverbeck The Hooton Plan and the planned destruction of
Germany
Video – You can change the German subtitles to English
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByFM6lgnb4Y
Earnest Hooton – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earnest_Hooton
Strategic German Genocid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLRvfuqg_M8
The Kaufman Plan “Germany must Perish!”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany_Must_Perish!
Adolf Hitler Responds To Kaufman’s “Germany Must Perish!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhXf3RkU5jo
The Morgenthau Plan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgenthau_Plan
H. Morgenthau – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Morgenthau_Jr.
thanks Sergio – its great to get news from Germany
”So, in a second report which was broadcast two days after, in which he visited the same hospital Russian soldiers had previously searched for victims, he made or had to make it sound like the witnesses were selected for him by the Assad regime.”
The qualifier ”regime” applied to any democratically elected government struggling against the Zionazis is the latters’ very pet meme and strict article of faith. I wonder whether Uli Gack used it himself here? If so, he is just another turncoat. In Sweden, by contrast, there really aren’t any journalists left that have to be sniffed out like this. The framing of events by the Swedish MSM has become so ludicrous that ”the Assad regime” stands out as a Tourette tic that I would be ’seriously disappointed’ if it wasn’t tossed in whenever Syria is the subject matter. It’s quite telling that oppressive Saudi Arabia and its genocide in Yemen are not being described as regime violence whereas secular, elected, popular governments and their defence of their countries and peoples are.
”It is as if Goebbels had returned from his grave with an Uncle Sam hat.”
Correct. Mathias Döpfner, CEO at Axel Springer, is a nice case in point. He wrote an editorial in late 2015 which was an orgy of preposterous assertions such as:
”The consequence of this policy is inaction in Syria. It’s a stand-off in Iran. It’s looking the other way in the radicalized parts of Africa. It’s a ‘welcome-culture’ in Germany – without any concept.”
”The non-democratic regimes of this world are often led in a virile and decisive manner, the democratic societies are often too weak, indecisive and hesitant. Russians, Chinese and most Islamic states know what they want and put that into action. Most democracies seek dialogue and compromise with and applause from their citizens.”
The last quote contains the deliberately vague passage ’most Islamic states’. Döpfner is, as per his own admission, ”a non-Jewish Zionist”. On this basis, he knows Israel’s preferences when the given alternatives are Iran, Gadaffi’s Libya, and Saudi Arabia. It’s Saudi Arabia which calls for Döpfner’s above moderation.
“Most democracies seek dialogue and compromise with and applause from their citizens.”
LOL.
This comment from Dopfner is comedy gold and shows the depth of self-delusion that German (and Euro-American elites) suffer from.
Most pseudo-democracies like Germany don’t give a damn about their citizens and seek war and aggression over dialogue/compromise–never mind public opinion. See the Euro-Americans’ criminal wars against Iraq, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan and their bogus War on Terrorism in general.
Essentially, what Dopfner is really attempting to do is to rationalize how Euro-Americans elites should defy public opinion even more openly and directly than they already do now.
Comedy gold indeed!
From that very same editorial masterpiece by Döpfner, here is his take on Iran and Israel (emphasis added):
”In Israel a head of state is imprisoned for sexually molesting his secretary, in Iran women who betray the fact that they have been raped, are stoned to death. In the light of this, how can anyone come to the conclusion that we should have understanding for the other side? That the truth might be somewhere in the middle? It is not.”
It obviously doesn’t matter to the Döpfners of this world that Israel forever resorts to torture, imprisonment, and assassinations as standard practices when dealing with its captive population; children especially. And, once again, the mere fact that Döpfner’s Zionazi panegyrics meticulously avoid any mentioning of Saudi Arabia — where stoning is far more widespread percentage-wise than in Iran — is a very clear indication as to where Israel has its solid, dependable friends.
All in all, Mathias Döpfner is a militant Zionazi parasite ideologue, just as BHL in France. Your conclusion that
”Essentially, what Dopfner is really attempting to do is to rationalize how Euro-Americans elites should defy public opinion even more openly and directly than they already do now.”
is therefore very much on point. ”More of the same” is all that these reactionary scum of the West’s chattering classes can come up with nowadays.
Germany, like all Western nations, is tightly in the grip of the Mafia. Politically, fiscally, military, financially. German media is completely in the hands of the Mafia and only publishes autistic, militant, war-mongering Rothschild-Reuters rot.
The ‘West’ has reached the point of no return decades ago. We won’t see any reforms, any silver linings, any hope in any Western nations in the coming years and decades. Only the slow, painful and chaotic implosion of Jewish Mafia overlord-ship due to Mafia mismanagement, infighting and inbred stupidity.
We have to understand that the Mafia has thoroughly hollowed out all official decision making and line of command structures in all Western nations and replaced them clandestinely with its own fascist, supremacist, genocidal Mafia power structures.
Get off the hopium, folks! Sober up! There is no easy way out.
_smr,
You are right: there is no easy way out. But, we can see that changes are already happening – and they are irreversible.
Pay attention: we can celebrate! The chains are falling, one by one!
We are living in a time as no other before. Nothing hurts the ‘mafia’ more than our certainty about the future.
German media has changed the past few years, and not for the better. You have tv journals which as “of regional interest only”. You have newspapers where you have to read between the lines. Readers have to know which euphemism means what. And comments are censored to fit the narrative. As an example: a few days ago the German crime statistics for 2017 were published. Readers were allowed to comment. But in at least one national newspaper, comments which contained the words “murder” “rape” or “robbery” were automatically deleted – and that in an article about crime statistics.
Unfortunately I don’t think there is a new pattern emerging here. The media have historically not always supported a 100% pro Establishment narrative, but perhaps only 95%. Every once in a while you get the occasional dissenting voice (As in 2012 in the FAZ “und ihr denkt, es geht um einen Diktator), which in my view serves to formally clear the media of any criticism that they don’t present the other side. However, these views usually remain singular and have no influence on what is called the “public debate”. I refer to Prof Mausfeld’s presentation “Warum die Lämmer schweigen” on YouTube for a more in depth and qualified discussion of this (Also available with english subtitles).
If I was to take a wild guess, we have seen less publicity for dissenting views in German mainstream media recently because it was perceived in the steering committees that MSM’s ability to set the debate (“Deutungshoheit”) has been waning and presenting alternative views would have jeopardized the higher aim of “manufacturing consent” in the desired direction. As a side effect of this however, MSM could not point towards the singular dissenting articles, news items etc. and was therefore exposed to strong criticism for being one sided. This criticism may have grown so strong that they decided to reverse course and now allow these dissenting voices.
The good news in my opinion is that the underlying reason for limiting the presentation in the first place, a process which may have started at the same time of the Maidan, was provoked by a general loss of trust which continues to grow until this day- so regardless which way MSM choose to act, they will be losing more and more ground.
Thank you for the excellent article! A few words about how this censorship affects everyday citizens. The TV Radio Fee of €17.50 for the official government propaganda channels is brutally enforced. Before 1-1-13 TVs were taxed. After that (as mentioned above) your apartment/house regardless of whether you have a TV (–not to mention the radios in cars: the Radio-TV Fee applies to each vehicle in a company’s fleet).
2 to 3 million Germans refuse to pay the fee. Many people have taken the government to court–for various reasons: the reporting on the government stations is against their religion, their freedom of speech etc. The courts always rule in favor of the government.
In 2017 a new law was passed—passed by EVERY party including The Left party–that says if you want to protest the law you have to first pay the fees due in order to protest it. If you continue to not pay the fee, eventually the federal government agency that collects the fee sends you an “enforcement letter” which is given to the local city treasury. Then you have to go there & pay or arrange installments to pay.
BUT, if you ignore that, then there is a knock on your door. They have come to confiscate your belongings. They come into your apartment, look around, take whatever they want…based on their own evaluation of its worth…in order to confiscate a value equal to what you owe. Of course, if you resist the confiscators will call the police and you’ll be arrested.
In my city as I had reached this point in the process of resistance, the City Treasury Department told me that the Radio-TV fee takes precedent over all of your other obligations and told me stories about emptying the bank accounts of 92 and 101 year-old retirees so that they had no money left for rent or food. They told me how they collect from homeless people–even though they are supposed to be exempt. All this from the horse’s mouth.
The first lines of the German constitution (formally called The Basic Law) says:
“Basic Rights – Article 1 [Human dignity]
“(1) Human dignity shall be inviolable. To respect and protect it shall be the duty of all state authority.
“(2) The German people therefore acknowledge inviolable and inalienable human rights as the basis of every community, of peace and of justice in the world.”
At the monthly City Council meeting I posed the question to the Head Mayor (Oberbürgermeister): The Basic Law states that human dignity is inviolable. How can confiscating rent and food money from senior citizens possibly be regarded as being consistent with the constitution? His answer: ‘this is not a local/community theme. Questions here at City Council have to concern local themes. We have no control over federal laws.’
Then I had a meeting with the City Treasurer/Mayor about this. His answer: ‘by law the city has to act as the enforcer for the collection of the Radio/TV fee. It is not a local issue. What the Constitution says is irrelevant because….drum roll…the Bundestag has passed “laws” which the city must follow.’
Talk about the hollow excuse “I ignore basic law because I was ordered to do so.”
Same old song, same old misbehavior as in WW II. Cowards never change.
Thanks for your first hand witness account. Chilling.
When the US introduced sanctions against Russia, some 500 German industrialists went to Russia, openly conducting negotiations and opening up subsidiaries in the country. Why ? Profit ? Yes, that is one reason. However, Germans are not stupid. They know perfectly well that when those sanctions were introduced, they were not only directed against Russia, but against the EU, the aim being to prevent any German-Russian economic alliance and to direct the EU more towards the US. Worse, the US has been bringing more troops to Europe, trying to prevent a possible Russian “aggression”. The real reason, of course, was to use those troops, in conjunction with others, for a possible attack against Russia, once the country was destabilized. Not a good idea. Germans, like all other Europeans, experienced two world wars, and there is no mood in Europe for World War Three, something that Wall Street does not fully comprehend. Analysts are predicting that Germany will be the first to leave NATO, followed by others. What is happening in the German media is certainly a sign. It’s inevitable that Germany joins the Eurasian Economic Union, as geography and economics dictate it. Washington will try to prevent this and probably fail. What Bismark advocated in the 19th century will be applied in the 21st.
Please can you refer me to a text so that I can understand what Bismark advocated in the 19th century vis-a-vis Eurasia? Thanks
The Wise Owl
He advocated an economic and political drive towards Russia and China. He warned against any military aggression against Russia, because if that happened, Germany would face Russia in the East and Britain and France in the West, finding itself in a nutcracker position. The Kaiser removed Bismark from Office. Germany fought two world wears, losing both, just as Bismark warned would happen.
WW III was narrowly avoided. It may have urged a few people to speak out. Better once than never.
Atlanticist organizations like Atlantik-Brücke, German Marshall Fund, Aspen Institute etc. formed the public opinion in Germany for decades, and they still do. But these institutions are not american patriots, they have their own agenda. After Hillary lost, they agitate against Trump – and now it’s allowed for the german press and german politicians to criticize american politics by criticizing Trump. This changes everything.