The foyer of Berlin’s swanky Adlon Kempinski Hotel at the bottom of Unter den Linden is bustling on Thursday morning. With all the to-ing and fro-ing, checking out and checking in, most of the throng fail to notice the frail old man with the walking stick as he shuffles past the piano bar. He hesitates – without looking up – and negotiates his way methodically, one step at a time, past two laughing hotel porters who are eyeing up the guests to see who is a tipper and who is a Scrooge.
Here at the Ground Zero of European political history, hemmed in by the Reichstag on the right and the Brandenburg Gate on the left, it seems somehow apt that the fiercest of all the Cold War warriors – the now ancient Henry Kissinger – should be making a cameo appearance as he moves slowly towards the lifts.
And why shouldn’t he be here? After all this is his birthplace. As a child, Kissinger was one of the last of the 270,000 German Jews – just under half the German Jewish population – who managed to get out of Germany between 1933 and 1941, when, so cruelly, the doors were finally sealed on one of Europe’s most remarkable tribes. Very few of them survived the next four diabolical years. Europe and Germany are much the weaker for their absence.
And absence is one of the feelings you get in Berlin. Even though this is my umpteenth visit to the German capital – I first ventured through Checkpoint Charlie on a Dalkey United schoolboys’ football trip more than 30 years ago with none other than the great Paul Mc Grath – I still get the feeling that the place is not complete. Something is missing and can never be put back.
Maybe it’s the sense that this city can never again be the legitimate capital of Europe.
Granted, a huge European flag flies beside the flag of the Bundesrepublik from the renovated Reichstag. But something tells you it doesn’t fly proudly beside the German flag as an equal.
It flies as much as a counter-balance to the German flag, to hold in check the German flag, to police the German flag, to give the Germans the permission to fly their own flag in their own capital.
It is there to make sure the German flag at the heart of Europe doesn’t fly alone, because there is still too much history here.
This angst-ridden self-consciousness continues to dominate and ultimately undermine German thinking about Europe. This feeling comes from Germans themselves.
It is nearly 50 years since the wonderful post-war chancellor, Willy Brandt, described West Germany as “an economic giant but a political pygmy”. Now 20 years after unification, not a huge amount has changed. Germany remains Europe’s reluctant leader. It is the natural leader of the EU, but is a superpower which remains hostage to its past.
In the past two days here, I have been speaking to many German financial managers – the people who manage the money of this huge economic superpower.
All of them realise that at this time of Europe’s crisis, Germany must lead. Yet all agree that Germany is still wary of this. Most of these people are young professionals who were not born when Brandt made his famous speech.
Few of their parents were alive during the war and fewer still have anything other than a folk memory of the 1920s and 1930s. Yet they all remain hostages to history.
This is the absence you feel in Berlin; it is an absence of political leadership.
For the German people I have been speaking to, there only seem to be two forms of German politics when it comes to Europe – one is reasonably benign, yet ineffectual compromise, the other is full-blooded apocalypse, with the historical echoes of the jackboots.
They know the latter will never happen but are afraid to admit it, as if admitting that Germany has changed for good is tantamount to trying to erase the memory. Thus, rather than acceptance being the prerequisite for moving on, the very act of acceptance becomes the stumbling block in itself.
As long as the average German feels that Germany has only two gears – forward or reverse – Europe is stuck.
For those who have spent any time in the Bundesrepublik with German people, this unwillingness to accept European leadership because of what their grandparents or great grandparents did 70 years ago verges on a sort of neurotic self-loathing. It also bears no relation to the evident aspirations of modern Germany. But it is as it is.
And yet this German self-loathing is a disaster because only Germany can save the eurozone from a messy break-up – or prolonged stagnation which will lead to a messy break-up.
Unless Germany leans on the ECB to buy up more and more European government bonds, the present crisis will continue and end in chaos. The reason the Germans won’t mandate the ECB to do so is because they are worried about hyperinflation if the ECB prints too much money to buy all these bonds. It has seeped into German folk memory that the economic cause for the rise of Nazism was hyperinflation. This has been parroted again and again by those who don’t know their history. The opposite is in fact the case.
The hyperinflation was over by 1924. Hitler came to power almost a decade later and what propelled him into power was the response to the 1929 crash: fiscal tightening. In 1930, the German chancellor, responding to the fall in German output in the 1930-1932 period, inflicted too much austerity. Unemployment soared and Hitler rode to power.
So Hitler came to power not because of inflation but because of deflation. If there is any lesson from German history, it is to loosen policy – both budgetary and monetary policy – in a downturn, not the opposite.
As I watch the old Jewish German, Kissinger, enter the lift, I am riffling through the German papers in the foyer, to see how they reported Enda Kenny’s visit on Wednesday.
It was big news in Ireland. Here there is nothing. Not in the Berliner Morgenpost, Berliner Zeitung, Die Welt, Süddeutsche Zeitung or Die Zeit.
There are one or two secondary stories about Italy and the new government, but nothing, not even a footnote about us.
So what was the headline in all the German papers on Thursday, November 17, 2011?
It’s a story about an obscure neo-Nazi group, which was broken up by police in the poor province of Mecklenburg. Germany’s future plays out in front of us, yet its past still dominates.
The lift closes and Kissinger is gone.
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Wie Bitte?…Ehrlich gesagt laesst dieses Stieck manxhes zu wuenschen uebrig. David, I am surprised to read this by you because of the sentiment yuou express and your representation of the facts. You seem surprised that ‘some obscure neo-nazi group’ made front page news? However, the following facts are omitted: – Group was known to authorities since 1997 – They committed 10 brutal racially motivated murders. Victims included Turkish and Greek immigrants. – In the main, victims were shot in the face at point blank range, and photographs kept as ‘trophies – A police issue revolver was found in their possession,… Read more »
Irish PI
Lost in Translation
Man’s God Over again Dorothy. Something like that from penebligen kleinigkeiten!! It is, nevertheless, completely wursht to these artikel what the so-called Doner murders with it have to act!! David only wants to point Ireland just thus big tier in gedanken of the German is not like we think in Ireland.
Man notices you with Germans have worked. Since everybody small fehler and kornchen dreck is worked way up in berg. Thanks for leherhaften korrigern from two worten. If all that is for problem you with artikel have, then are small probleme.
http://www.irishbondholders.blogspot
Lists monies due and when.
Berlin’s a kip of a city.
The fact that nobody can find any note about Kenny’s visit in any German newspaper shows us that Germany won’t lead us from this crisis and if does it won’t be for our benefit but for its own benefit. After all they invested their pensions and savings in Greek, Irish … banks. On the other hand the leader who will take us from this crisis could be any state or any person who will show that they are fighting for every single member state as well as for every single citizen in EU when in the same time they are… Read more »
This could be that one that you will be remembered by.
I hope the lift keeps going up.
Jk
DMcW, First. some respect for the ageing gentleman, Sir Henry Kissinger, knighted by the Queen as he said at Chatham House, for serving the Crown in 3 US Administrations. See Kissinger’s Public Confession as an Agent of British Influence in he prepared text of Henry Kissinger’s May 10, 1982 speech to the Royal Institute of International Affairs, in commemoration of the Bicentenary of the Office of the Foreign Secretary. The speech was entitled, “Reflections on a Partnership: British and American Attitudes To Postwar Foreign Policy.” Also the knight is the author of National Security Study Memorandum 200, a recipe for… Read more »
[…] of decisions on cuts Alarm over ?10 child benefit cut report France, Spain struggle to raise debt A prisoner of its own history Asian powers spurn German debt on EMU chaos MF Global clients see $3 billion still stuck […]
Franta makes 2 good points. 1) Is Europe governable? Has it a sense of representation for people on the ground? For practical reasons, I think not. As a voter, I look to the local yokels becasue there is no other option. That said, I am encouraged to see Germany be involved in bringing our budget into the daylight. Sounds more democratic than all that media speculation and cloak and dagger nonsense that goes on here. 2) All manufacturing gone to China…we all are beholding to them. Judging by commodity prices, I suspect that game is slowing down kind of rapidly.… Read more »
Henry Kissinger may have survived four diabolical years by leaving Germany, but countless thousand, hundreds of thousands died at his hands in Asia. A true war criminal if ever there was one. Why show this animal (he is not a human being) any compassion or sympathy? Anyway, the opening sentiment surprised me, the rest of the article startled me!! Germans with only two gears, forward and reverse!! nonsense. Most Germans I know want this to be over, want to burn the bankers, want freedoms returned to citizens, less power to bureaucrats and not the circus act we are witnessing today.… Read more »
David is right. Nobody cares about Ireland. This is just a tiny island caught between n America and Europe. There is no reason for it to be dependent on either.
Ireland has the resources and the talent to be self sustaining and an exporter of finished products.
David,
Germany are holding the line on reality.
Germany are listening to their past memories of hyperinflation and this time making the right choice and NOT green lighting free fiat paper money to bail out a criminal finance system which has through a derivative con creamed the euro and the real economy.
If germany buckles under insider pressure, media pressure and criminal banking pressure and greeen lights ECB free money bailout for criminal banking then Germany will be traveling down the same path of free money for criminal banking and we all know where that path ended up.
Hitler came to power because of a few key issues that effected Germany after World War 1. The first I seem to remember was the fact that Germany got the shit kicked out of them in WW1 which was basically caused by their stupid intransigent foreign policy. If Bismark wasnt such a good leader Germany would never have been a superpower.Anyway Hitler gave Germany hope after WW1 and he saw the injustice of the ruling classes who had all the money. Also he was a great orator and this can not be underestimated. He was a great nationalist and he… Read more »
David,
The criminal banking system and its crony politico network can press the delete button on their computer screens and delete the credit money debt in a second.
So, don’t you think it is strange why the klepotcrats want ECB fiat paper money. I know why. Its further extending the corrupt ponzi criminal finance plunder machine.
You want the debt printed away, press the delete button. Its just credit money anyway.
The debt was accrued into existence so like proper old fashion book keeping write the debt off, press delete.
David, The more one looks at this the more it is becoming apparently clear the criminal finance pressgang on Germany / ECB to print free paper money is the FINAL ACT in their plans to pillage the real economy. The ECB printing free paper money is the one thing the criminal finance system is banking on to see their mad ponzi pillage machine robbery through to its happy ever after conclusion. I am praying every second to the gods to ensure Germany tell the kelptocrats across europe and UK to get stuffed and refuse them the ECB free money they… Read more »
Global security requires urgent reformation of UN!- The European Union’s political landscape too! It was Franklin D. Roosevelt who came up with the name during World war II, The United Nations, and it marked the end of Fascism in Europe when the original 51 states ratified the Charter on October 24th 1945. Today the UN counts 193 member states. The Islamic Republic of Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia were members from day one, Ireland joined 10 years later in 1955, Israel in 1949, Germany in 1973 and Viet Nam in 1977. The UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights was ratified… Read more »
Great story about Kissinger, David. You’re like Sam in Cheers and we’re living vicariously through your experiences. (must check that for grammar) I’m more Cliff myself (or that could be Diane or Frasier). Nice article too. I think Kissinger was a teenager when he arrived in the US – just old enough to learn English as a foreign language whereas his younger brother sounded as American as apple pie. I see some criticism of HK here: he also got a rough ride in Chang and Halliday’s bio of Mao for the way he let Mao run rings around him. I… Read more »
David; This is an excellent and evocative description of a key time and place in the history of Europe. It reminded me of an earlier, similar event, before you were born. As a student in August 1961, I travelled to Berlin en route for a tour of the continent. It was a time when the threat of nuclear war was looming large and it seemed that Berlin was the likely pretext. It had become an exit point for many of the brightest and best from communist east Europe to escape to the west and it had become a running sore… Read more »
Afternoon, Back in Dublin. Thanks for all the comments. Regarding the German unwillingness/reluctance to lead Europe angle in the article, this was reiterated to me by financial players and taxi-drivers alike. I am no German expert but did spend many years learning the language and travelling in the country, so that I can chat to these taxi-drivers at least, and it does seem to me to be the case that they are still hostage to their past and – not surprisingly in Berlin – yearn American leadership, rather than European/French. Their view of Ireland – which in my experience has… Read more »
I must say that most taxi-drivers I have chatted with in Germany are Turkish and Iranian. I have had most interesting discussions on Erdogan’s rush for the Euro.
When I say anyone who would want this needs a psychiatrist, I get, well stunned silence. Some remember the DM, and the whisper is everywhere – give it back! Even Turks feel sorry for Athens.
But you have to be direct with the question!
Inside the Bundestag, its another story…
I have worked on an outline of an organisation aimed at reforming the UN. It can be found at
http://moylisha.hubpages.com/hub/Outline-of-organisation-dedsigned-to-support-the-United-Nations
The Automatic Earth: Nov 20 2011, Why Germany is right to refuse to bailout Europe http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/2011/11/november-20-2011-why-germany-is-right.html
Maybe the hotel you chose as well as the Germans you spoke narrowed the focus and thus the outcomes. Berlin was and still is something of a ‘Leftist’ city and yes, there is something missing, its heart was ripped out in the war years, it has a very damaged vibe to it and the Germans are doing what they can (maybe a little too well) to bring it back to life. Hitler and his gang knew if they took Berlin they would have a greater chance of taking Germany, their power after all originated in the conservative south, the failed… Read more »
David’s latest article, if I have understood correctly, and boiled down to its basics, supports the ECB becoming the lender of last resort (LOLR). A perfectly reasonable thesis when applied and compared to all other central banks. There are, however, differentiating factors which negate the efficiacy of such an approach, namely: 1) Other Central banks lend to/repo from their respective single Treasuries (Federal Reserve – US Treasury; BoE – HM Treasury etc.,). With which Treasury would the ECB counterparty? All seventeen national Treasuries…completely impracticable given the scope for interest rate swap and liquidity swap arbritages: 2) Even if the ECB… Read more »
Counter Argument Hi David, The rhetorical ‘Keynesian’ framework of your article does not represent the social political reality of Germany in 2011. Let me share my view. The first WW german U-boat captain, later a pacifist Priest, then arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned in Sachsenhausen and Dachau KZ’s, Martin Niemoeller, died in 1984. He became known around the world by his coinage on the ethics of protests, or the lack of ethics by the inactivity of a countries intellectuals, his poem is well known and perhaps a good and timely reminder to a docile and submissive Irish public. First… Read more »
Maybe if Herr Kenny had shouted the German Equivalent of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice in that auditorium of the Great & the Good rather then stating that the ECB can just print the stuff he would have got a different reaction.
Mefo Bills Mefo Bills Mefo Bills………………….
I think that the Germans, the Dutch, and the Finns are in collective denial about the scale of the problem affecting the Euro. In fact the entire establishment in Europe is in denial. We are also seeing the emergence of the Rahm Emmanuel approach to a crisis – “that this is too important a crisis to waste” – with the centralists in Brussels advocating another round of centralization accompanied by the TINA argument. There Is No Alternative. Of course there is an alternative. In fact there always is. Ask the Brits. Or the Swedes. Or better still ask the Swiss.… Read more »
Enda Kenny went to Berlin and nobody noticed. There was a time when we would send over a boozer from Offaly, and his trusty sidekicks, and they could drink the place dry. And before that we had the celebrity Taoiseach in the canary yella suit. It is much better to not be noticed, and to just do your business. I mean if the Canadian PM went to London or Paris, it would be straightforward, calm, and there woul be no media circus or controversy. If the Swedish PM showed up in Dublin, you would almost expect the group to quietly… Read more »
What if the Germans have to decide between scrapping Nuclear power and fixing the Euro.
Merkel has opted to scrap nuclear power, but the alternatives currently available are extremely expensive.
At the same time stabilizing the Euro will require another round of subsidized loans to Greece, Potugal, Ireland, possibly Italy, and perhaps even Spain eventually.
And both these costs are massive. Has anybody acknowledged this yet ?? What about the Greens who seem to think Germany can afford both simultaneously ????
RUN BY CORPORATIONS…SICKENING
FIRST BANKERS -> NOW CEO OF CHEAPSKATE AIRLINES
VOTE LISBON … FOR JOBS…WHERE ARE THEY?
IF PEOPLE BOYCOTTED RYANAIR….
IMAGINE NOBODY USED THEM.
O’LEARY WOULD BE SACKED WITHIN A MONTH.
PEOPLE WOULD HAVE TO PAY MORE OR NOT FLY…
BUT TO SEE THE LOOK ON HIS FACE. HA.
Hmmm…
http://tinyurl.com/ct7jwp4
Just a thought…. In Cairo 33 people lost their lives and more than 1,000 are injured within three days. These protestors demand direct democracy, and they put their lives on the line.
In Ireland and other countries, we just throw it away.
Amazing.
David, have you not realised, the mainstream media don’t really mention the real news. The vast majority are not bothered anyway. Maybe they already figured out the media are only capable of half truths or lies.
So you want them the Germans to allow the printing presses to be turned on, and print like there is no tomorrow.
Do like the Americans do with their Dollar. Print, print, print. Pay for their industrial military complex, vast array, weapons, occupations, regime changes etc..
It’s the economics of the elite bankers and everything they have their bloody hands on
http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/1194641-myth-german-economic-discipline
http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/1194641-myth-german-economic-discipline
Germans are right to be worried, the pride and feelings of superiority are simply introverted as nobody wants to show too much of either because that is associated with the proles. There are many very decent German people, but people here don’t show very much individuality, they tend to fall into step with whoever makes the most noise. The is also a tendency to portray issues as black and white and an eagerness to find a scapegoat. I suspect that there is a basic insecurity and a fear of being outside or be found at the bottom of the group… Read more »
I am amazed how the tone of this blog has descended to stereotyping populist rants in the good old 1930’s golden era of European Fascism. David, is this by design, in service of the Crown, like Sir Conor Cruise, nominally Irish, or simply naive? Have we a Pale phenomenon here, an echo of old Empire? This poison Euro coin, swallowed by all in a pagan act of communion, a Mithra self-emasculation, is doomed. Will the unfortunate victims recover from the orgy? David, as a healer, the object should be to lead out of this horrible dungeon. Leadership, lacking in D.C.,… Read more »
[…] David McWilliams: on the Nazi past: For those who have spent any time in the Bundesrepublik with German people, this unwillingness to accept European leadership because of what their grandparents or great grandparents did 70 years ago verges on a sort of neurotic self-loathing. It also bears no relation to the evident aspirations of modern Germany. But it is as it is. And yet this German self-loathing is a disaster because only Germany can save the eurozone from a messy break-up — or prolonged stagnation which will lead to a messy break-up. […]
Paddy Jones /Lyndon Jones or whatever he calls himself lately is away on holidays, so I have been asked to fill in for him. Any way here it goes….. 1. Austerity is good for you, so have it with your cornflakes. 2. Reduce the deficit to 3% by deporting half the population. 3. We are all to blame for something or other, so shame on us I think. 4. Wave my fist at everybody, shouting Bah humbug 5. There will be no Christmas until we get a balanced budget 6. Stop whinging and pay all them debts , ye slackers.… Read more »
Why do people tell lies before they get elected and then once in power they tell more lies to try and cover up the first set of lies,and so the lies grow and then they say our hands are tied more lies. When you tell lies on camera it is a bare faced lie this is what’s running the country,so the example set by the people we should look up to is for us to lie like them. We could replace the government with honest people,if this country is so broke then why pay all the fat cat pensions ,why… Read more »
The Germans are not supposed to be allowed to ‘lean’ on the ECB. Is the ECB becoming increasingly politicised? If so the set-up of the executive board needs to be changed from country based appiontments to merit based ones.
Merkel is talking fiscal integration. The sooner they can get on with that the better.
Non-US banks increasing their deposits at US Fed. Why?
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-21/dollar-preeminence-grows-as-foreign-banks-double-deposits-at-new-york-fed.html#
Irish Export Led Economy Recovery is DOOMED
Recent Dats indicates
Fewer Imports so fewer Exports
Taxation Review by gov of USA thus more repatriation of funds to USA
No Rise in Exports to BRIC countries and other non EU countries
Recession in EU forthcoming
Too high expectation relied on by the Irish Gov on the stellar performance of the Irish Exports Board
Richard Doutewaite discusses energy, debt, the future, and the economy. http://peakoil.com/consumption/how-peak-oil-will-affect-the-economy/ Very good discussion. Should the government hike the price of fuel even further and pour the money into the DART interconnector to make it possible to travel from Belfast City centre to Dublin City Centre to the SW line to Cork/Limerick ??? In Britain there is a big debate currently about rail transport being speeded up between London and Birminghma/West Mid. I can see road tolls being introduced in state owned motorways here also. RD also makes the point about the allocation of capital, and the growth model assumptions… Read more »
John Mauldin’s thoughts on the EuroZone.
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article31651.html
His conclusion seems to be that “print-baby-print” is the only way out for the ECB. This will be difficult for Guenther to digest.
Never read the Time Machine, but Kipps is a cracker, a great insight into middle class, or rather ‘respectable’, mores of a century ago. I had a Saturday job in a department store in S.E. London and Wells was born right next door to another one just down the road in Bromley. The tv comedy Are You Being Served is more realistic than one might expect – the owner even used to come around with a small entourage to inspect the emporium. At one point Kipps is ‘cut’ (snubbed) by a local pillar of society (whose cough is likened to… Read more »
Austerity Measures have a Colour from Mayor of Naas Economic despair has elected a political and economic choice and all of this has now a colour dimension .Austerity practices is going to a Galaxy where no man has gone before .What will be the economic and political price for the choice elected by the Mayor of Naas ? Red hair has had its own history in school- boy antics so has freckles . As for skin there is ‘supple’ , ‘thick’,’leathered’ , ‘dry’ , ,hard, etc and they all can burn .The only colours I can remember are cuts and… Read more »
As modern Germany is a result by it’s past, so are we. We overspent, we created unsupportable social structures, we allowed runaway banker irresponsibility, then guaranteed it. You think print-baby-print is a viable solution to the problem. But it isn’t. Print-baby-print merely prolongs the inevitable because the underlying cause of this unsupportable debt addiction is not going to be solved, we will allow the print-baby-print money to go into more huge ponzi schemes of pointless, unproductive products, which upon failure will require more print-baby-print. It’s exactly why there is QE1, QE2, QE3 and there will be QE∞ Anyway, if we… Read more »