… Come and stand in memory Of men who fought and died They gave their lives in Normandy Remember them with pride. Soldiers, Airman, sailors Airborne and marines Who in civvy life were tailors and men who worked machines. British and Canadian And men from USA Forces from the Commonwealth They all were there that day To Juno, Sword and Utah Beaches of renown Also Gold […]
On this day 80 years ago, D-Day happened, and with that, the beginning of the end of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. The Happy Quitter pays tribute to this event, especially as only a handful of survivors of this event are still left and have gathered to celebrate this event. It includes a poem honoring the Allied troops of the US, Britain and France (among others) who made a lot of sacrifices and took dangerous risks to free Europe from the grasp of Totalitarianism. Click on the link above and read the rest of the story…..
In the second of three series devoted to the German Review, I found this article to fit the current situation with Germany. Germany used to have heroes in the past, albeit some were altered in a way that it obscured the country’s heritage. Yet since its founding 75 years ago, we had four leaders who were heroes of their times and whom we looked up to because of the way they led the country through a series of storms: Konrad Adenauer, Willy Brandt, Helmut Kohl and lastly, but most recently, Angela Merkel. With the government as dysfunctional as it can be, and many people licking their chops and waiting for an opportunity to revolt, it’s time that we need new heroes, those who not only will make a difference for the German population, but lead the country through a new series of crises that we are currently in.
Here’s a look at a sample of his article with a link leading you to the rest of the story. The interview can be found at the end of this article.
*******
Dear Reader,
On the hunt for a biography of former chancellor Willy Brandt, I dropped into a small bookshop near my house last week.
When I told the owner what I was after, he launched into an excited eulogy to the former chancellor.
As luck would have it, I had walked into a store owned by Brandt’s number one fan.
He told me that Brandt’s Ostpolitik, his policy of reconciliation with the countries of eastern Europe, was the single greatest act by a German leader in the post-war era.
But then he sighed and added that German attitudes to Russia today show that young people no longer see the need to make sacrifices for their country.
“In Poland, the UK, or America, people would be prepared to defend their country, but this is alien to young Germans,” he said.
It was an interesting observation – and not a totally unfounded one.
Polling released last year found that only five percent of Germans would volunteer to fight in the event of an invasion, while a quarter would leave the country.
What can explain this apparent ambivalence among Germans to their own homeland? I think there is something to the idea that, as a nation state, Germany is too much state and too little nation.
The state – i.e. the institutional machinery – is robust. It is in a constant nervous process of trying to tend to citizens’ every need. The nation – that nebulous idea that glues people together – is weak… and getting weaker.
What Germany means – some grand narrative that gives a deeper meaning to people’s lives – seems to be lacking.
THE FLENSBURG FILES 