"Germandom" Oooh yeah. I've heard that before. German Settlements in the East

[Magda Hassan]

Get ready Jan. They're on the march again real soon. Hope your relatives have a Polish-German dictionary so they can learn to say "Piss off fascists!" to them.



German Settlements in the East
2009/07/02

BERLIN/ASTANA/SIBIU
(Own report) - The German Federation of Expellees (BdV) has announced a new PR-project to promote "Germandom" in East- and Southeast Europe. According to the Federation, an exhibition presenting the history of "German settlements in the East" will open in the Berlin Crown Prince Palace (Kronprinzenpalais) in mid-July. It will also focus on German speaking settlements in Russia ("Volga Germans") and on the Danube Plain ("Danube Swabians"), presenting their history as a model: "People were living peacefully side by side," asserts BdV President Erika Steinbach. German speaking minorities are today still living in numerous "Germandom" regions presented in the exhibition, and, from their privileged position, support German policy as well as German industrial expansion into East- and Southeast Europe. Berlin is lending assistance and strengthening their organizational structures also with so called "development policy" funds. Political radicalization is becoming apparent among members of these minorities, who immigrated to Germany and maintain close contact to the regions of their origin. For example, members of the "Russian Germans" - whose history is commemorated in the BdV exhibition - have begun to cooperate with the right wing extremist NPD.


German Settlers
The Federation of Expellees (BdV) announced that it will open the exhibition "Die Gerufenen" (The Called) on July 16, presenting the history of German settlers in East- and Southeast Europe over the past 800 years. Time and again, Germans, lacking perspectives in their homelands or seeking to participate in the eastward expansion during the Middle Ages, settled along the banks of the Danube river or in Russia. The BdV exhibition will focus on the territories situated outside the German Empire's 1871 borders. This is a follow-up of the exhibition "Erzwungene Wege" (Compulsory Routes), which had focused on the resettlement of Germans from the Eastern regions of the 1871 Empire.[1] "People were living side by side peacefully," asserts BdV President Erika Steinbach, referring to the alleged model character of German settlements beyond the borders of the empire. The exhibition will be shown in the Berlin Kronprinzenpalais (Crown Prince Palace), a prestigious location in the centre of the German capital.[2]

Modern "Germandom"-Policy
German speaking minorities are today still living in numerous regions presented in the exhibition as "German settlements in the East," for example the Rumanian city Sibiu whose mayor is a member of the minority organization "Demokratisches Forum der Deutschen in Rumänien", DFDR (Democratic Forum of Germans in Rumania). Sibiu ("Hermannstadt") could serve as model of modern "Germandom"-policy. The city not only benefits from DFDR's cooperation with the German Interior Ministry including the annual apportionment of millions in German funds to the German speaking minority in Rumania. It benefits also from the so-called development aid. In the late 90s, the German Association for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) was commissioned by the German Ministry for Development to renovate the historic district of Sibiu. Hinting at the fact that German settlers founded the city 800 years ago, the media describes the "medieval architecture as appearing quite German".[3] GTZ investments, but particularly investments by German enterprises over the past decade, facilitated the city's considerable boom. "There is definitely a difference, if you need a translator in the discussion with a foreman or if you can discuss with him directly," declares the German speaking mayor as he describes the advantages presented by the German speaking minorities for the German industry (Siemens, ThyssenKrupp, Continental and others who produce in Sibiu's vicinity) in their expansion into cheap labor countries in Southeast Europe.[4]

Promotion of the Elite
In their striving for economic and political influence, the German government and German enterprises are also benefiting from the German speaking minorities living in the CIS countries ("Russian Germans"). For example, in Kazakhstan, the German speaking minority of about 300,000 members is organized around the "Council of Germans in Kazakhstan", whose chairman is holding regular consultations with German politicians.[5] German firms are profiting from their contacts to the "German-Kazakh Business Association," founded with the help of members of the German speaking minority in March 2004.[6] Like the minority in Rumania, the minority in Kazakhstan is not only receiving funds from the German Interior Ministry but also from the so-called German development aid. Already in 1993, the GTZ initiated a "Program for National Minorities" originally aimed at improving the living conditions of the German speaking minority in Kazakhstan, so as to thwart their members from immigrating to Germany. Today, this program is providing privileges to this minority over the non-German speaking part of the population. It also includes the "Promotion of the Elite" and is therefore contributing to a systematic strengthening of the German influence in Kazakhstan.

Autonomy
The GTZ's "Program for National Minorities" is not only benefiting German speaking minorities in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and the Ukraine, but also the German speaking minority in Russia - among them the 120,000 "Volga Germans" living along the banks of the Volga River. They are descendents of the first Germans who, already back in the 18th century had founded settlements in Russia and will be commemorated accordingly in the new BdV exhibition. Attempts in the early 1990s to revive the Volga German Republic of the 1920s and 1930s were a failure, in spite of the support coming from Germany, due to the resistance from the Russian speaking population. These attempts show that the modern "Germandom"-policy includes support for autonomy endeavors of regions in East- and Southeast Europe - commemorated in the BdV exhibition - that were influenced by Germans.

Radicalization
It is important to note that there are clear tendencies of radicalization among members of minorities, who immigrated to Germany and who keep close ties to the regions of their origin. This is particularly true for the "Russian Germans".[7] Since the establishment of a "Working Group of Russian Germans in the NPD" in February 2008, right wing extremists have become active particularly among Russian German organizations in North Rhine-Westphalia. Large parts of the approximately 2,5 million "Russian Germans" living in Germany are influenced by ethnic policy. It cannot be excluded therefore that the extreme right can be quite successful in recruiting members among them. "Russian German" right wing extremists in Germany are also striving for a close cooperation with their counterparts in the Russian and Central Asian regions of their origin. These are regions German politicians and businesses would like to use as a base to enhance their influence in the CIS countries.

[1] see also The Culprits' Perspective, "Zur Relativierung führen" and Kern
[2] Steinbach machts nur ohne SPD; taz 01.07.2009
[3] Tritt auf die Verkehrsbremse; Akzente 01/2005
[4] see also Übernahme
[5] see also Modernisierung
[6] see also Asiatische Konkurrenz
[7] Die NPD und die Russlanddeutschen; WDR 17.08.2008. CDU mit Kontakten zur NPD - CDU-Politiker arbeiten für rechte deutsch-russische Zeitschrift; WDR 12.10.2008
http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/en/fulltext/56261

[Jan Klimkowski]

Magda - thanks.

These Nazi scumbags can call it whatever They like - Germandom, Germanic settlement.

It all boils down to grandiose Mitteleuropa or Lebensraum visions of the racial superiority of the Aryan people. Whomever they may be...

These Teutons put on their finest, meticulously ironed, black clothes, stride down to their Mercedes Benz, switch on the ignition, turn the Wagner up full volume, set the Sat Nav to the East and roar with inhuman purpose towards the rising sun.. Across the northern European plain, full of subhuman slavs, put on this earth to slave for German masters, to be cogs in the perfectly oiled Teutonic Death & Profit Machine...

Fuck 'em.

[Chris Bowen]

these guys will be familiar to any Dave Emory listeners out there re his "Going Native" progs :

http://wfmu.org/playlists/DX

where he discerns sinister geo-political agendas behind this & other groups like the UNPO - Unrepresented Nations & People's Org - ( Director General of which is Karl von Hapsburg no less )

http://www.unpo.org/

& who - topically enough - also act as leading advocates for the Uighurs of "East Turkestan" among a veritable 'Benetton advert' of ethnic , tribal & minority groups http://www.counterpunch.org/madsen0829.html

[Magda Hassan]

& who - topically enough - also act as leading advocates for the Uighurs of "East Turkestan" among a veritable 'Benetton advert' of ethnic , tribal & minority groups http://www.counterpunch.org/madsen0829.html

Thanks Chris. Yes, the Uighurs of the oil wells. Who are being offered copious amounts of money from the western players if they could only sell their product to them instead.

Thanks for reminding me about the Spitfire programmes. I should listen to them more often. Dave always has a great programme.

[Magda Hassan]

SIBIU/BUKAREST
(Own report) - The chairman of one of the "Germandom" organizations in the German foreign policy network is the focus of a Rumanian government crisis. The Rumanian opposition wants to name the mayor of Sibiu, Klaus Johannis, to fill the vacancy left by the prime minister, who was toppled by the opposition at the beginning of the week. Rumanian President, Traian Băsescu has rejected this plan and nominated a financial expert for prime minister. Johannis heads the "Democratic Forum of Germans in Rumania" (DFDR), an associated member of the "Federal Union of European Nationalities" (FUEN), which from its headquarters in Northern Germany also coordinates Europe's German language minorities - with government support. The FUEN, founded by former Nazi racists, is working with Johannis as well as with Germany's Hermann Niermann Foundation, which was the target of large protests in Eastern Belgium, because of its covert lobbying efforts for "Germandom" organizations. Johannis' nomination is the second exceptional step taken in behalf of Rumanian "Germandom" within a week. The first was the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Literature to a "Rumanian German" author.
The Rumanian opposition parties, which toppled the Prime Minister with a no-confidence vote at the beginning of the week, have nominated the current mayor of Sibiu ("Hermannstadt"), Klaus Johannis, to fill the post of transitional prime minister. Rumanian President, Traian Băsescu has rejected this intention and named the financial expert, Lucian Croitoru, to be the new prime minister. Croitoru would have to be confirmed by parliament, which seems very unlikely, because the opposition has a majority and insists on its candidate, Johannis. The outcome is open.

Ethnic Policy
Klaus Johannis comes from the Rumanian "Germandom" milieu, to which he attests such secondary virtues "as correctness, reliability, pragmatism and efficiency."[1] He is the chairman of the local "Germandom" organization, the "Democratic Forum of Germans in Rumania" (DFDR), which, like many other associations of German language minorities in Eastern and Southeastern Europe, was founded in the immediate aftermath of the upheavals in 1989. The DFDR, like its chairman, Johannis, is closely associated with the networks of "Germandom" spread all over Europe. The DFDR is an associated member of the "Federal Union of European Nationalities" (FUEN), an organization, bringing together numerous European and Central Asian minorities, founded along the lines of the traditional German ethnic policy in the aftermath of World War II by ex-Nazi racists.[2] Within the FUEN, the DFDR, is also a member organization of the "Working Group of German Minorities" (AGDM), that stands in constant contact with the German Interior Ministry.[3] The party of Rumania's Hungarian speaking minority, the Uniunea Democrată Maghiară din România (UDMR) is also a FUEN member. It is one of the parliamentary parties proposing Johannis for the post of prime minister.

Conspiracy
Currently Johannis has been known as the mayor of Sibiu ("Hermannstadt"). Since he took office in 2000, Sibiu, in fact, has made a name with one economic success story after the other. "The Old City is a jewel, the water supply functions and above all, there are only a few unemployed" according to a recent press report. Under the "German" Johannis, the town has become a "model of success."[4] In fact, Johannis cleverly administers the support his community receives from Germany; to create a model of an island of "Germandom" is Southeast Europe. Under contract of the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development in Bonn, the German Association for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) had already begun the renovation of the Old City - which is commonly attributed to Johannis - before Johannis took office.[5] The German Agency for Technical Relief (THW) came to Johannis' aid to solve the water problem.[6] Other help is coming from "Germandom" organizations in Germany, for example, the DFDR and Johannis personally advised the Hermann Niermann Foundation in Dusseldorf on "questions of promoting cultural, academic and social projects" - also to the advantage of the German language minority of Rumania.[7] The Niermann Foundation became notorious years ago, through its exercising covert influence on the German language minority in Eastern Belgium - in cooperation with extreme rightwing ethnocentric forces. One can safely say that the chairman of the foundation had been "aware of a conspiracy" that was directed "against Belgium."[8]

Special Sponsorship
Johannis disposes also of the best contacts to government offices in Berlin and to leading German politicians. His "Germandom" organization, the DFDR, receives preferential promotion from the German Ministry of the Interior. From 1990 - 2004 88.33 million Euros were allocated for the "stabilization of the German minority in Rumania." When Berlin had to scale back budgetary allocations also for "Germans Abroad" due to economic difficulties, the Interior Minister at the time, Otto Schily, promised Klaus Johannis in November 2004, "preferential treatment" for the German language minority in Rumania. As a matter of fact, the allocations for the Rumanian "Germandom" were reduced only nine percent, while 23 percent was the average reduction. In this year alone, the German government has earmarked a sum of 1.6 million Euros for the promotion of the German language minority in Rumania.[9]

Impressive Balance Sheet
Klaus Johannis has personally welcomed a whole series of high-ranking German government representatives both from federal and regional state levels. The visitors to Johannis' hometown included the German government's Commissioner for Questions of Ethnic German Emigrants and National Minorities, Hans-Peter Kemper, the German Commissioner for Cultural Questions, Bernd Neumann and the Prime Ministers of Germany's regional states Thuringia (Dieter Althaus) and Saarland (Peter Mueller). President of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Poettering and the Parliamentary working group, "Expellees and Refugees" of the conservative CDU/CSU Caucus in the German Bundestag visited "Hermannstadt" as well. Erwin Marschewski, head of the working group's delegation, congratulated Johannis on his "impressive achievements."[10] German President, Horst Koehler allowed himself to be given a guided tour of the city by Mayor Johannis, personally and paid tribute to the "positive impact Germans are having in Eastern Europe, as exemplified by Hermannstadt."[11]

Merit Award
At the end of last year, alongside the German Minister of the Interior, Wolfgang Schaeuble, Johannis was given the Deutsche Gesellschaft's "Award of Merit for German-European Understanding." The laudation was held by ex-Interior Minister and Sibiu's citizen of honor, Otto Schily. German Chancellor, Angela Merkel is on the advisory board of this very influential association. Merkel, herself, had received the same award in 2005.

No Longer Sovereign
Klaus Johannis' nomination by Bucharest's parliamentary majority is the second exceptional step on behalf of Rumanian "Germandom" - following the award of the Nobel Prize in Literature to the "Rumanian-German" author, Herta Mueller - within one week.[12] Johannis' exceptionally close ties to Berlin could jeopardize Rumania's sovereignty, if he becomes Rumania's prime minister. Apparently the majority in Bucharest's parliament are prepared to take that step.

[1] Klaus Johannis; www.siebenbuerger.de 01.11.2003
[2] see also Freund und Kollege, Schwelende Konflikte and Hintergrundbericht: Die Föderalistische Union Europäischer Volksgruppen
[3] see also Berlin organisiert seine "Volksgruppen", Aktionseinheiten and Cultivating Relationships
[4] Johannis, ein Deutscher für Bukarest; Financial Times Deutschland 14.10.2009
[5] see also The Germandom Prize
[6] Erfolgreiches Ende für Twinning-Projekt in Rumänien; www.thw.bund.de 20.11.2008
[7] Partner; www.g-h-n-s.de
[8] see also Fliehkräfte, Baldiger Anschluss and Ethno-Netzwerk
[9] Bundesregierung fördert deutsche Minderheit in Rumänien; www.siebenbuerger.de 17.02.2009
[10] Aufbauleistung der deutschen Minderheit in Rumänien gewürdigt; www.siebenbuerger.de 01.09.2005
[11] Horst Köhler würdigt Aussiedler als europäische Brückenbauer; www.siebenbuerger.de 04.03.2009
[12] see also The Germandom Prize
http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/en/fulltext/56289

[Magda Hassan]

Borderland Networks
2010/03/19

STRASBOURG/GERONA/BOLZANO
(Own report) - Several German federal states and municipalities are using a new EU legal instrument to promote a fusion with German-speaking regions of neighboring western nations. That instrument (the European cross-border cooperation groupings - EGCC) allows regional authorities of various nations to consolidate into common administrative structures, enjoying a large measure of autonomy. With the help of such an EGCC, the greater Strasbourg urban community fused a few weeks ago with a German county. Saarland would like to fuse with Luxemburg to form an EGCC, North Rhine-Westphalia is courting the German-speaking regions of Belgium. An internet journal of EGCC Strasbourg-Ortenau proponents declared that at the Spanish-French border the "reunification of Catalonia" has been achieved in an EGCC after being "separated" for 350 years. Other EGCCs are fusing Hungarian-speaking Slovak residential areas that Budapest would like to influence, to Hungarian municipalities. This is how numerous EGCCs are promoting ethnic structures and in the long run, an ethnic oriented Europe.


From Eurodistrict to EGCC
The creation of the European Cross Border Coordination Grouping (EGCC) with German participation was completed last month. The French greater Strasbourg urban community (Communauté Urbaine de Strasbourg - CUS) and the German Ortenau County seek to strengthen their cooperation using this new instrument. The larger framework is the already existent Eurodistrict Strasbourg-Ortenau, which had been announced in a German-French government declaration at the beginning of 2003 and established in 2005. Even the eurodistrict had already set the objective on initiating close French-German cross-border cooperation between the regional administrations and thereby phasing out the function of borders. Legal problems have proved an obstacle to the systematic development of this project.

Legal and Contractual Competence
Those involved hope to make progress through the new EGCC, an instrument that allows, for the first time, regional administrations of various nations - for example the greater Strasbourg urban community of France and the German county of Ortenau - to create cooperation structures with their own independent legal personalities. These cooperation structures have a legal and contractual competence and can acquire and sell assets as well as hire personnel. They can, for example, administer establishments in the transportation or health service sectors and even become competitors of the national administrations. Concerned about a loss of competence and supervisory powers, that accompany the establishment of EGCCs, German regional governments for awhile had resisted the creation of this new instrument, which had been approved by the EU Council and the Parliament in June 2006 and took effect with a model cross-border French-Belgian project in January 2008. After being given assurances that, in the Strasbourg-Ortenau EGCC project,[1] the German side would be amply taken into consideration a German regional administration is for the first time participating in the new cooperation.

"Catalans of all Nations, Unite!"
But this cross-border fusion of regional administrations, claiming to overcome the insistence on borders and old nationalisms, opens a gateway to new ethnic nationalisms. An internet article in support of the founding of the Strasbourg-Ortenau EGCC and vigorously supporting cross-border cooperation provides a vivid example. The article, which appeared at the end of 2009, under the title "Catalans of all nations, Unite!" deals with the "Catalan borderland" eurodistrict,[2] linking Spain's Catalan-speaking region (the Gerona area) to France's in the vicinity of Perpignan. The article also deals with the wider, Pyrénées-Mediteranée euroregion. The EGCC that had been established there, facilitated the consolidation of the "Catalan borderlands" within the eurodistrict, for example to permit a "harmonization of taxation" for "Catalans on both sides of the national borders" or even the standardization of the administrations.[3]

"Catalonia's Reunification"
The full significance of these statements can be seen when considering the reinforcement of Catalan nationalism. In Northeastern Spain, where the Catalan-speaking population enjoys special rights, Spanish-speaking inhabitants, who do not have a command of the Catalan dialect, have been discriminated against for some time - in some cases, even seriously. (german-foreign-policy.com reported.[4]) Efforts toward the secession of Catalan-speaking regions of Spain and the formation - together with the Catalan-speaking regions of France - of a Catalan-speaking nation are intensifying and drawing international attention.[5] This new nationalism, which threatens to destroy the existing nations, as can be seen in the case of Yugoslavia, has received a boost with the new EGCC. According to the article from the EGCC Strasbourg-Ortenau supporters, in the "Catalan Borderland" eurodistrict and the EGCC that is part of it, entities are "growing together that belong together". They write that "northern Catalonia was separated from the south by the Pyrenees Peace Accord in 1659." At last in 2009, it "came to a reunification, at least at the regional local level."[6]

Greater Hungary, Greater Flanders
In fact, the majority of the currently existing and some of the planned EGCCs are directly connected to various ethnic nationalisms. One of the first EGCCs fused the Hungarian city of Esztergom to the Slovakian city Štúrovo. Štúrovo is in the region of Slovakia that had been part of Hungary before the Paris Peace Treaties and to which Hungarian nationalists are staking claims today. Approximately two-thirds of Štúrovo's population speak Hungarian, as their mother language, and are counted as among the "Hungarians abroad," in whose behalf Budapest claims a special "protective role."[7] Two other EGCCs unite parts of Belgium's Flanders region with areas of France ("French Flanders"), to which some Flemish nationalists, are still laying claim.[8]

One Tirol
The Austrian state of Tirol ("North"/"East Tirol") seeks to found an EGCC with the Italian provinces Bolzano-Alto Adige ("South Tirol") and Trento (Welschtirol). As in other cases, the EGCC cooperation, agreed on in October 2009, by the Austrian regional state and the two Italian provinces is based on already existing cooperation models, while enhancing the authority to take action. For the first time since 1918, the former Habsburg Crown Tirol has, with the founding of the local EGCC, regained its own legal personality. Already in the regional parliaments of the participating entities, there is talk of forming their own "government".[9]

Alsace, Luxemburg, German-Speaking Belgium
Following the founding of the EGCC Strasbourg-Ortenau, uniting a portion of Alsace to a German county, the German Saarland and North Rhine-Westphalia regions are also pushing the foundation of EGCCs. Saarland is seeking to form cooperation with Luxemburg; North Rhine-Westphalia is supporting the Aachen "city region" in its efforts to cooperate with Parkstad Limburg in the Netherlands. The German-speaking community of Belgium, with about 70,000 German-speaking Belgians is also to be involved. The name has already been chosen for this northernmost EGCC on the western border of Germany, which would link Alsace, Luxemburg, as well as the German-speaking areas of Belgium to German regional administrations. The EGCC that would stretch out from Aachen would have the name "EGCC Charlemagne," which draws upon the traditional image of German imperial propaganda.[10]

[1] Therefore the EGCC, which is being founded along the lines of French law, will have an administration in Kehl, Germany.
[2] As was the German translation used in the Article. Officially the eurodistrict is the "Eurodistrict de l'Espace Catalan Transfrontalier".
[3] Katalanen aller Länder, vereinigt euch! 2-ufer.com 22.12.2009. The internet journal "2-Ufer - 2 Rives" claims to enjoy support also from a parliamentarian of the German national parliament and the director of the German-French Institute.
[4] see also Wie ein Staat and The German Ethnic Model (IV)
[5] see also Zukunft als Volk, Language Struggle, Ethnic Europe and The German Ethnic Model (IV)
[6] Katalanen aller Länder, vereinigt euch! 2-ufer.com 22.12.2009
[7] see also The German Ethnic Model (I), Ethnic Loyalty and Lebensraum Karpatenbecken
[8] Tens of thousands of the inhabitants of the French Département du Nord in the region of Pas de Calais, speak a Flemish dialect. Their area of residence is claimed by Flemish (and greater Netherlands) nationalists as part of Flanders (or the Greater Netherlands).
[9] Dreier-Landtag - eine Regierung für die Euregio; http://www.provinz.bz.it 29.10.2009. See also The German Ethnic Model (III)
[10] see also Bauhaus Europa and Hintergrundbericht: Der Aachener Karlspreis
http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/en/fulltext/56330

[David Guyatt]

These Teutons put on their finest, meticulously ironed, black clothes, stride down to their Mercedes Benz, switch on the ignition, turn the Wagner up full volume, set the Sat Nav to the East and roar with inhuman purpose towards the rising sun.. Across the northern European plain, full of subhuman slavs, put on this earth to slave for German masters, to be cogs in the perfectly oiled Teutonic Death & Profit Machine...

I wish I'd said that.

Cue stirring music.

[Jan Klimkowski]

Cue stirring music.

Yup.

Perfect musack for the unleashed lebensraum of the Fourth Reich.

[Magda Hassan]

Leadership In and With Europe
2014/09/11

BERLIN
(Own report) - Germany should play "a more important global role" and assume a stronger "leadership in and with Europe," according to a German government advisor's assessment of a PR discussion of foreign policy, initiated by the German Foreign Ministry. According to the foreign minister, the discussion, in the framework of the project "Review 2014," should help to close the "glaring gap" between the Berlin establishment's global policy orientation and the population's "willingness" to condone, for example, military missions. Prepared and conducted by the foreign ministry's Policy Planning Staff, This project is part of a campaign for a more aggressive German global policy. The German President launched this campaign with a speech in celebration of the 2013 German national holiday. According to the assessment of the "Review 2014," the discussion seems to indicate a consensus that "Germany, alone, is too insignificant to affect changes in global policy." Hence, Germany needs the EU. "Europe possesses the political clout necessary for Germany to be able to effectively pursue its interests." In the future, Germany's "partnership with the USA" must be on an "equal footing."


Foreign Policy without Support
The "Review 2014" Project, as well as other measures undertaken by the German government, must be seen in the context of the gap between Berlin's increasingly aggressive global policy and the prevalent mood of the country's population. Just recently, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD) pointed to a survey revealing that only 30 percent of the German population is "open" to their country "assuming more responsibility." As usual, the term "responsibility" is merely a euphemism for intensifying global activities.[1] According to Steinmeier, his foreign ministry had commissioned the survey. "A foreign policy is not good and sustainable, if it does not enjoy broad popular support," is a widespread view inside the ministry, as one of the department heads reports.[2] Berlin's foreign policy, in fact, is contested and should expect the effects of erosion. Foreign Minister Steinmeier is now calling for closing the "glaring gap" between the "willingness" of the population and the "expectation" that Berlin will play a more resolute role in global policy. The foreign ministry has been trying to close this gap for the past two years.

Lead more Often and more Resolute
The campaign, initiated and conducted by the German foreign ministry's Policy Planning Staff, began with a joint project of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) and the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF). Between November 2012 and September 2013, around 50 representatives of ministries, think tanks, universities, industry and the media elaborated "Elements of a Foreign Policy Strategy for Germany." In October 2013, they published their strategy paper entitled "New Power - New Responsibilities" which programmatically affirms that Germany, today, has "more power and influence than any democratic Germany in history." "Germany will have to lead more often and more resolutely in the future."[3] The paper has been widely propagated throughout the foreign policy community. Since October 2013, top-level politicians in Berlin as well as publicists, have repeatedly raised the demand for a more offensive German global policy - most prominently, German President Joachim Gauck. Gauck's biographer, Johann Legner, recently said that Gauck "is fully engaged in the policy making of the German government." "Gauck says what many are thinking, but not always willing to say, because this would make dialogue contacts, Gauck does not even have, more difficult to establish." It could really be "called a strategy."[4] It could be advantageous that, since the summer of 2013, Gauck has employed a new speechwriter, who had worked with the SWP/GMF project, and was therefore engaged in the formulation of the "New Power - New Responsibility" paper.

A Stronger Global Role
The "Review 2014" project - launched in the spring by the foreign ministry's Policy Planning Staff - is one of the measures aimed at convincing a large sector of public opinion of the necessity of a more aggressive German global policy. The idea is to raise the subject in general discourse, by way of a series of discussion programs on various aspects of German foreign policy. In addition, a separate website publishes these discussion papers, wherein experts expose their standpoints on foreign policy.[5] An SWP associate, who participated in the work of the "project group Review 2014" of the foreign ministry's Policy Planning staff, has drawn up a sort of intermediary report on the project, which was published in "Internationale Politik," the leading review on Berlin's foreign policy. According to this intermediary report, the discussion follows precisely the orientation that had been called for by the SWP/GMF project in their final document: "Germany should play a stronger role in global policy." It is a question of "more German leadership in and with Europe."[6]

The Clout Germany Needs
According to the intermediary report, many of the project's discussion papers show that "Germany, alone, is too insignificant, to be able to affect change in global policies." "Only when the [EU] member nations pull together in integration and foreign policy, does Europe have the political clout necessary for Germany[!] to effectively pursue its interests." Therefore, Germany would be "well advised to politically invest further in Europe." For example, "together with other EU member nations" this would permit it "to contribute to the 'multilateralization of America' and the 'Europeanization of Russia'." "A Germany, working through Europe, could also better take on the challenges entailed by the configuration of the digital society," quotes the author from papers treating the "question of data security," in the project - referring to the NSA scandal. "The development of a globally competitive cloud provider, search engines and other strategically important enterprises," it continues, are "only to be expected, if they - similar to the Airbus, 40 years ago - would be successively developed and promoted in Europe."[7] As was announced yesterday, Wednesday, Günther Oettinger, from Germany, has become the EU Commissioner for that new Commission.

In Equal Partnership with the USA
The author of the intermediary report of "Review 2014" points to differences in proposals made in the papers concerning relations to the USA. On the one hand, Germany is "emphatically warned not to jeopardize transatlantic ties" - especially for military reasons: "Without the USA, no NATO, no protection," writes the author of one paper, in light of the United States' still unrivaled military power. On the other, "a multitude of voices ... are calling for the German government to play a more assertive role with its own foreign policy profile." For example, it is demanded that Germany's policy toward Russia be "embedded in a comprehensive Eurasian strategy, which would include such countries as China, India and important Eurasian actors like Turkey and Iran." "Perhaps the most important lesson" to be learned from the papers in the project, according to the intermediary report, is "a confirmation of the new German self-concept and a summons to continue down this path in and with Europe, within a mature and equal partnership with the USA."[8] Even this result corresponds to the key message of the SWP/GMF "New Power - New Responsibility" strategy paper.

Not yet Arrived
In any case, this elite discussion has not yet reached the broad masses of the population, to the point that would satisfy the German establishment. An associate of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) points to a recent opinion poll about Germany's supplying weapons to Iraq. An earlier poll had indicated that approval of weapons deliveries and military missions would be at their highest, if they would serve to prevent genocide.[9] Preventing genocide at the hands of the terrorist organization "Islamic State" (IS) was the justification for arms deliveries to the Kurdish military in northern Iraq, from the very beginning.[10] If Berlin thought that this would appreciably enhance popular approval for delivering weapons, it would have to think again: Sixty percent of the German population, according to the ECFR, remains opposed to arming the Kurdish military in Iraq.[11]

Other reports and background information on Germany's global policy can be found here: Sleeping Demons, The Re-Evaluation of German Foreign Policy, Domination over Europe, The Agenda 2020, The World's Expectations, Germany's "Act of Liberation", Hegemon with a Guilty Conscience and The Elite Wants More.

[1] See Außen und innen.
[2] Annegret Bendiek: Abschied von der Juniorpartnerschaft. Für mehr deutsche Führung in und durch Europa. Internationale Politik September/Oktober 2014.
[3] Neue Macht - Neue Verantwortung. Elemente einer deutschen Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik für eine Welt im Umbruch. Ein Papier der Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP) und des German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF), Oktober 2013. See The Re-Evaluation of German Foreign Policy.
[4] "Wohlüberlegt und abgestimmt". http://www.tagesschau.de 02.09.2014.
[5] See Von Linealstaaten und pazifistischem Mehltau.
[6] See Außen und innen.
[7], [8] Annegret Bendiek: Abschied von der Juniorpartnerschaft. Für mehr deutsche Führung in und durch Europa. Internationale Politik September/Oktober 2014.
[9] See Die Weltpolitik-Kampagne der Eliten.
[10] See The Public's Keen Sensitivity.
[11] Josef Janning: Germany needs more leadership on foreign policy. http://www.ecfr.eu 03.09.2014.
http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/en/fulltext/58782