Berlin Bulletin No. 35,
December 13, 2011

Tough on Euros, Weak on Nazis

By Victor Grossman

Berlin

Hurray! Merkel won the day! It took a long night of
backroom bargaining, but except for that Tory, David
Cameron, all European Union members agreed to save the
euro, save the economy, save the world! It had been on
the brink of disaster, Sarkozy warned on the eve of the
meeting: unless we reach agreement "we will have no
second chance"!

German newspapers, full of this arcane story for days
and weeks, have scrutinized every furrow in Angela's
brow, analyzed every cheek kiss between her and Nicolas
Sarkozy in Berlin, Paris, Marseilles or Brussels, and
waited in cold morning hours. But it was worth all the
effort. Or was it?

Picking one's way through the financial gobbledygook
about bond interest rates, special funds, ratings and
the like, two key words emerged from the earnest
conferences and all-night debates. "Austerity" was one,
"discipline" the other.

Those "weaker sisters" at Europe's edges, Ireland and
Portugal on stormy Atlantic coastlines, Greece on even
stormier Aegean cliffs, and maybe crucial Mediterranean
states like Spain and Italy as well, simply lacked
discipline. German mass media parsed that for their
readers: living beyond their means, no proper tax
collection, corruption and, in Greece, pure laziness.
"And should we risk our good money for those
nogoodniks?"

True, these countries failed to meet strict Prussian
standards, which may not be any cleaner but at least
manage to look that way. And even if the greedy tactics
of financiers on Wall Street or in Frankfurt were much
the same as those of their Greek, Portuguese or Irish
colleagues, they and their governments were far
wealthier and less threatened by bankruptcy.

But the blame really should be shared. In Greece,
Goldman Sachs led the wolf pack with huge sums of
usually derivative assistance; it seemed so generous
then - and proved so costly later. Then, too, huge sums
went for German arms purchases, like U-boats. Sure, who
can predict future relations between Greece and Turkey?
Better play safe, warn German armament dealers,
grinning when quarrels boil up over Cyprus or some
Aegean island, groaning at any step towards peace;
after all, they also hawk U-boats to Turkey. Even poor
Portugal, menaced at worst by high seas, was pushed
into big German weapons purchases.

No, Germany does not export only Mercedes, Porsches or
Rhine wines. Its weapons sales, from Leopard tanks for
Saudi Arabia, submarines for Israel or Heckler & Koch
automatics for almost any eager purchaser, surpassed a
trillion euros last year, winning it a bronze medal
surpassed only by the USA and Russia.

Its big exports, military or less deadly wares from
Daimler, Bayer or Siemens, helped it to keep its head
above water while others gasped for air - or euros. Its
growing economic power somehow seemed visible in
Merkel's stance, less good-natured and friendly, more
steely and hard-jawed. Now Germany can throw its weight
around, in Europe and further, spiting even old mentors
and buddies in Washington now becoming rivals.

Earlier limitations disappeared when East Germany was
swallowed in 1990. Then-Chancellor Helmut Kohl set the
line: "Germany has closed the books on its former
history; in future it can openly declare its role as a
world power, a role which now needs expanding". Foreign
Minister Kinkel was even clearer: "Two parallel tasks
must be mastered: inside our country we must again
become a single people, outside it the time has come to
achieve something we twice failed to accomplish. In
agreement with our neighbors we must find our way to a
role corresponding with our desires and our potential.
.." His reference to Germany's two time failure, now
requiring consummation, was truly scary. A deputy of
Merkel's party recently brought this up to date: "Now
it's time to talk German in Europe!"

The treaty more or less agreed upon in Brussels would
sharply limit deficits, require members to submit their
budgets for review by the European Commission and thus
make the economy of every European Union country from
Estonia to Malta subject to decisions from above, with
stiff penalties for straying out of line. That is part
of what's meant by "discipline".

What such discipline enforces will be "austerity". Many
samples are already available; Portugal, Greece and now
Italy must cut their budgets radically to save the
euro. And, as in the USA, the 1 percent may have caused
the mess but the 99 percent must pay to clean it up.
Higher sales taxes on consumer goods, the boot for
thousands of civil service workers, steeper taxes for
small home-owners, putting off the pension age, benefit
cuts; all that is part of the required austerity. And
when Greeks objected they got more of the discipline,
bad enough with the dismissal of a premier for
proposing a democratic referendum but far more painful
with batons on their heads, gas in their eyes and cuffs
on their wrists. Athens and Oakland have much in
common! The formula is simple as A-B-C, like Angela-
Boehner-Cantor.

Every fair economist agrees that cutting wages and
salaries and attacking pensions are pure poison in
rough times. As the New York Times editorialized: "A
pact that binds all members to more austerity in a time
of recession is exactly what Europe does not need right
now." (12.10.11) Nonetheless, it still permits big
profits for the big boys, with government help,  even
in the countries hit hardest but above all in Germany,
where more austerity is also in the plans, though not
all too loudly or visibly until after the 2013
elections.

This exposes another facet of this many-sided gem.
Whenever a country's economy weakens the underpaid,
overworked or jobless suffer most. If there is a well-
organized Left or a strong union movement it is
possible to fight back, even against odds symbolized by
pepper spray and plastic cuffs. The Greek, Portuguese
and Italian unions have demonstrated real fighting
spirit. Where these elements are lacking, or have too
often capitulated, growing dissatisfaction can turn to
the right, marching with heavy martial boots and
blaming the lack of jobs or affordable homes on
immigrants frantically seeking asylum from worse misery
in their own warmer but far poorer homelands.

Eighty years ago the Jews were blamed. Today it is
Algerians, Turks, Arabs or all Muslims, with their
minarets, head cloths and "different" names. Or the
"Gypsies", for centuries good for a pogrom or two. In
one European country after another, extreme rightists
have gained strength, either in jacket and tie,
mouthing social demands, or else openly flaunting
terrifying slogans and gestures from the past. And
always attacking "foreigners" and leftists in word and
sometimes bloody deed. Their advances threaten the
Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Sweden,
Norway, worst of all perhaps Hungary, already full of
fascist echoes from the past. How well will Franco
enthusiasts be represented in Spain's new government?
Can Marine Le Pen, more modern but not more moderate
than her fascist father, win second or even first place
in coming French elections? There is plenty to shudder
about!

In Germany the fascistic National Democratic Party of
Germany (NPD) has won seats in some East German state
elections and Berlin boroughs. Yet, usually under four
percent, it has not equaled the big gains in other
countries. It is present all the same, however,
building up local bases and waiting for more German
austerity - whose approach is more muffled here than
elsewhere but ominously audible just the same.

Those on the left, in and outside the Left party, never
ceased warning of this danger, or acting on it.
Whenever and wherever Nazi goons marched - they average
two, three, even five marches in different areas almost
every weekend - they are met by counterdemonstrations,
most decisively last February in Dresden, where 18,000
anti-fascists stymied Nazi plans for a rally and a
march. For years the left called for a ban on the NPD,
so as to cut off the hundreds of thousands, even
millions in government subsidies received for their
election results - their main financial source. A ban
would also remove the avid protection they get when
they march and spread anti-foreigner hate propaganda.
An attempt to ban them in 2003 failed; so many agents
of the Verfassungsschutz (Constitutional Protection
agency, like the FBI) were in leading NPD positions
that a court trial was impossible without exposing the
agents - and their active roles. The government backed
down. It has continued to treat NPD men and their
allied thugs like decent citizens. Or else "nasty right
extremists" were balanced against equally "nasty left
extremists". The most hostile attention was always
directed leftwards.

Suddenly this crumbled. Two Nazi terrorists died in an
explosion, a third one, a woman, surrendered to the
police. They and their accomplices had murdered ten
Turkish and Greek retail dealers in past years, also a
policewoman, they injured 22 people with a bomb blast,
carried out bank robberies and tried to wreck a
synagogue. They had never been caught. Then more
accomplices were arrested and new facts divulged.
Hitherto oblivious politicians suddenly discovered
loudly how much they opposed rightwing extremism and
mourned the victims of Nazi hatred whom they had
hitherto not cared about in the least. All in all over
180 people had been killed by right-wingers in 20 years
while the authorities preferred to attack the left,
some of whose unrulier advocates (or were they
provocateurs of the police) occasionally threw bottles
and stones at Nazis - or maybe at cops protecting them.

It was soon evident that the Verfassungsschutz, charged
with monitoring terror, with at least 130 agents often
in leadership positions in the NPD, which had clear
ties to the Nazi thug scene, somehow failed to prevent,
report or even notice the killings, which all went
unpunished. Nor had they found the perpetrators, who
were hardly unknown in their home territories.

Despite the surprised shock in the media and most
parties, this was hardly news. Like the Intelligence
Service (for foreign spying) the Verfassungsschutz had
been run for years largely by Nazis. Its president from
1955 to 1972 was Hubert Schruebbers, a Nazi Party
member and vicious prosecutor who sent Jews and anti-
Nazis to prison, concentration camp and to their death.
His hatred of Communists obviously got him the job
after the war regardless of his past. His vice-
president from 1951 to 1964, formerly a Nazi colonel,
had taken part in deportations of Jews; other top
managers had been active SS or Gestapo men in Holland,
Poland, the USSR, France and Norway, often with great
experience - in torture and murder. These men died off,
but their followers often maintained traditions and
connections, also when, after reunification, West
Germans moved in to teach East Germans about democracy.

In the first days after the murders (and probable
cover-up) came to light, all parties agreed that the
NPD must be banned. But gradually doubts arose: states
run by Christian Democrats are not eager to withdraw
their secret agents in the NPD. They are dragging their
feet. But if a second attempt to ban the party loses in
the courts it would be a big boost for the Hitlerites.

Broad generalizations about ruling parties in Germany
are risky. But there is a long historical tradition,
not only in Germany: in times of great stress the
economic powers-that-be always prefer the extreme right
which does not threaten their property, stock
portfolios and bonuses over the left which does
threaten them. This new euro agreement will hardly
prevent such stress nor protect that lower 99 percent
of the population. It is already doing the opposite,
with each country citing cuts pushed through in weaker
neighbor countries to justify new cuts of its own, thus
pushing down the entire European level. And austerity
requires discipline - also the violent kind mentioned
above.

Who are the powers-that-be? A major contender for one
title would be Josef Ackermann, CEO of the Deutsche
Bank, with his 9.6 million euro income (2009). He just
hit the headlines because of a letter bomb was
addressed to him - allegedly from an obscure Italian
anarchist group. This temporarily pushed the Nazi
killer story from the headlines; yes, we were back to
left extremists again. The bomb, discovered before it
could hurt anyone, came at such an appropriate moment
that it even caused cautious skepticism among some
cynics.

But Ackermann's Deutsche Bank does deserve attention.
It was one of the prime lenders to Greece, not far
behind Goldman Sachs. It was also a major player in the
mortgage-foreclosure racket in the USA, a cause and a
winner in the whole recession misery. Few in the media
liked to recall that the Deutsche Bank was a main
player in World War One finances, then a key supporter
of Hitler's rise to power, a profiteer from the
occupation of most of Europe and a direct investor in
the Auschwitz death camp. It now employs 100,000 people
in all the world and is not only powerful in Germany.
Its close ties to Angela Merkel became embarrassingly
visible three years ago when it was learned that she
had treated Ackermann to a luxurious private birthday
party in her headquarters in Berlin, comparable to the
White House, and with about twenty-five select friends
chosen by him.

Though Swiss, he is surely the most powerful man in
Germany and beyond; she is still the most powerful
woman, now in most of Europe. The close cooperation and
collusion between these two, with a European crisis
still threatening and a right wing reserve in the
background, make one wish devoutly that all on the
left, now with new OCCUPY models, can move forward.
They are now and could well be even more urgently
needed in the years ahead.

___________________________________________

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