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Dysfunctions Last Updated: Apr 9, 2014 - 11:03:03 AM


The Land of Freedom
By German Foreign Policy 7/4/14
Apr 9, 2014 - 11:01:41 AM

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The German League of Expellees (BdV) has announced that the German Chancellor will attend their annual reception on Wednesday. Angela Merkel's repeated attendance at the League's events is testimony "of her close ties to the expellees," declared BdV President, Erika Steinbach. Over the past few years, Steinbach and her organization have repeatedly been the focus of controversy for their historical revisionist declarations. Steinbach, herself, had alleged that the Eastern and Southeastern European countries liberated from Nazi terror "had for many years - even after the war -been a gigantic region of slave holders." BdV functionaries and some of its component organizations have been accused of negating exclusive German responsibility for the Second World War. In his talk in front of "Expellee" functionaries last year, a prominent publicist said, it is "indecent" for "Germans to still let themselves be blackmailed with the mention of Hitler's incomparable crimes." The Germans had, "in many respects, been the most peaceful people in Europe." The "Expellees" associations, in which this sort of allegation is applauded, are supporting German efforts to enhance influence in Eastern and Southeastern Europe. This is why they are being honored with the Chancellor's presence.

Suffering and Empathy

On Wednesday, the German Chancellor will attend the annual reception of the German League of Expellees (BdV) to be held in the Catholic Academy in Berlin. This was announced by BdV President, Erika Steinbach (CDU). Angela Merkel has repeatedly been a guest at the BdV's annual receptions. This is "a strong statement" on the part of the Chancellor, says Steinbach. "It testifies to her deep ties to the expellees and to this chapter of German history."[1] The historian, Guido Knopp, will be presented with the BdV's "Badge of Honor" in Merkel's presence. "Since the mid-1990s," the German ZDF TV channel's long-standing top-historian had reached an audience of millions, writes the BdV in its announcement of Knopp's planned award. In his documentaries, "the generation of experience broke its silence" and spoke no longer only about "what they had done" but also about "injustices and sorrow they had had to endure." His "film series on flight and expulsion" has allowed "more than six million viewers (...) to feel for the plight of the Expellees." "With his films" Knopp has awakened "more empathy than ever before for the fate of expellees."[2]

Claims and Lobby Activities

Merkel's participation at the BdV's annual reception can be explained by the high significance Berlin still attaches to the "Expellee" associations. The BdV, along with its individual component organizations, the "homeland associations," not only keeps alive the memory of the German past in numerous regions of East and Southeast Europe, it also regularly recalls to memory that the official German legal standpoint sees the Potsdam Agreements' ordered resettlement of Germans as "an injustice."[3] It assists in perpetuating the claims - sometimes disguised as cultural policy - raised against the regions of origin of the resettled Germans. Individual BdV activists or even component organizations and "homeland associations" have repeatedly participated in projects to enhance influence in East and Southeast Europe. (german-foreign-policy.com reported.[4]) The German Chancellor, therefore, returns the favor with her presence at BdV activities, which, in turn, enhances the prestige of these BdV activities
.
"A gigantic region of slaveholders"

The milieu, repeatedly honored by Angela Merkel's presence, has the distinction of being increasingly open about its historical revisionism. This also applies to BdV President, Erika Steinbach, herself. A few years ago, Steinbach, who, Wednesday, will personally give the welcoming address for Chancellor Merkel, had accused the East and Southeast European countries invaded by Germany of having made slaves of ethnic Germans. Whereas in Nuremberg, the Western Allies sentenced industrialists, such as Alfried Krupp, for "employing foreign civilian forced laborers and war prisoners," they "explicitly agreed" to allow Stalin to "deport Germans into forced labor and inhumane exploitation." Steinbach concluded: "for many years, even after the war, Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe had still been a gigantic region of slaveholders."[5] Two years later, Steinbach caused another scandal with a statement about the developments leading to World War II, which has been criticized for relativizing German responsibility for the war. The BdV president had explained that she could "regrettably not change the fact that Poland had mobilized its troops already in March 1939."[6] This statement arose from an internal debate within the BdV organization over the issue of Poland allegedly sharing responsibility for starting the Second World War.

"England Set Up the World War"

The "East Prussia Homeland Association" is an outstanding example. In 2003, its journal, the "Preussische Allgemeine Zeitung" praised the recently published book by Maj. General Ret. Gerd Schultze-Rhonhof, who affirmed that alongside Germany, Poland, France and Great Britain were also responsible for starting World War II. His paper, which also contains allegations such as, "shortly after the German invasion of the rest of Czechoslovakia, England began to set up the next world war,"[7] had been praised by the neo-Nazi NPD party as a "fundamental work." According to the "Preussische Allgemeine Zeitung" this book could "also be recommended to the next generation and their teachers." A year later, the journal launched an 18 part series of articles, where Schultze-Rhonhof described his view of developments leading to the Second World War. At the end of 2012, the "East Prussia Homeland Association" bestowed its "Culture Award for Scholarship" to this denier of German responsibility. In his laudation, former spokesperson and one of the "Homeland Association's" leading strategists, Wilhelm von Gottberg, predicted, "there will come a day - whenever that may be - when Germany will no longer be an outcast in the international community." (german-foreign-policy.com reported.[8])

"Impoverished and shrunken"

The publicist Arnulf Baring had reset the limits of the framework determining what may be said in the BdV's highly official events. Last year, Baring was a guest at the BdV's main "Homeland Day" commemoration in Berlin and several associated activities in late August and early September. At the event in Berlin, he gave a diagnosis of the German society as having a collective "psychological (...) impairment," residing in a lack of perception of a grievous loss inflicted upon the "German soul," through the relinquishment of former eastern regions of the German empire, which is still not understood as an "impoverishment" and a "process of shrinkage." This must change. Baring expressed optimism that this change could be made and predicted that in the future, among other things, it can be expected that the first stanza "Germany, Germany above everything" will again be sung.[9]

"Got into a Mess and Blackmailed"

A recording of Baring's full-length "Homeland Day" talk in another commemorative event held a bit later, can be found on the internet. He had been the guest of the CDU parliamentary group and BdV functionaries in North Rhine-Westphalia. Baring had declared that throughout German history, there were "only three catastrophes": "the demise of the House of Hohenstaufen," the 30-Year War, and "the third catastrophe, perhaps even the greatest, was Hitler." "Had Hitler stopped after France had been defeated," then "the Germans" maybe "would not have had to have the feeling of injustice." However it is well known that Hitler had "not been disposed to such calculated partial measures." Still, the Germans should not "permanently be ashamed because of the man who really put us into a mess." It is absolutely "indecent" that "the Germans should let themselves be permanently blackmailed with allusion to Hitler's incomparable crimes" - especially "when some of the countries pouncing on us, do not have a record that is much better."[10]

"The most Peace-Loving People in Europe"

Baring did not forget to explicitly explain to the representatives of the CDU and the BdV -at whose annual reception Chancellor Merkel will participate, Wednesday - that "if you compare us with other European peoples, we would come out looking much better." Germany, "for centuries, had been the land of freedom," where "the idea of freedom had been much more vivid" than in France or Great Britain. "We could readily admit that we are not only the greatest, but in many aspects also the most important European people," Baring added. Already in the past, the Germans were "not only the most important" but "in many respects, also the most peaceful people in Europe."[11]

[1] Bundeskanzlerin Dr. Angela Merkel zu Gast beim BdV-Jahresempfang. Pressemitteilung des BdV 02.04.2014. See Die Kanzlerin beim BdV.
[2] Ehrenplakette an Professor Dr. Guido Knopp. Pressemitteilung des BdV 25.03.2014.
[3] See An Educational Venue, 60 Jahre Aggressionen und Protest against Potsdam.
[4] See Politische Zukunftsaufgaben and 60 Jahre Aggressionen.
[5] See Sklavenhalter.
[6] Steinbach verlässt CDU-Spitze. www.n-tv.de 10.09.2010.
[7] Gerd Schultze-Rhonhof: 1939. Der Krieg, der viele Väter hatte. München 2003.
[8] See Die ostpreußische Kriegsschulddebatte.
[9] See "The Most Important People of Europe".
[10], [11] Barings Rede ist bei youtube dokumentiert: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpR7siHBjCE


Source:Ocnus.net 2014

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