The Role Ex-Nazis Played in Early West Germany

Source: Spiegel
Ralf Beste, Georg Bönisch, Thomas Darnstaedt, Jan Friedmann, Michael Fröhlingsdorf and Klaus Wiegrefe

After World War II, West Germany rapidly made the transition from murderous dictatorship to model democracy. Or did it? New documents reveal just how many officials from the Nazi regime found new jobs in Bonn. A surprising number were chosen for senior government positions.

...

None of this information is new. It isn't just since the 1968 student revolts that critical citizens, intellectuals and the media have broadcast new details on the contemporary relevance of Germany's dark past. For years, the notion that partisans of the Nazi regimes were able to manipulate their way into the top levels of government in the young federal republic, and that former Nazi Party members set the tone in a country governed by the postwar constitution in the 1950s and 60s has been a subject for historians.

But six decades after the Nuremberg Trials against the leaders of the Nazi regime, a new attempt -- the first official one, at that -- to come to terms with postwar Germany's Nazi past is now underway. Now everything has to come out. Throughout the former West Germany, investigations are digging deep, extending all the way down to the foundations, seeking to answer a fundamental question: Just how brown -- the color most associated with the Nazis -- were the first years of postwar West Germany?

The government's 85-page response to the Left Party's inquiry about old Nazis in the halls of power is nothing more than an interim summary of research being undertaken in the archives of many ministries and federal agencies. As part of the effort, historians are reviewing enormous stacks of personnel files on behalf of the government.

No one has ever dug this deeply. The highly controversial study on Nazi involvement at the Foreign Ministry, marketed last year as a bestseller, was only the beginning. Historians are now studying old files at the Finance Ministry, in the judiciary and the Economics Ministry and, in particular, in the police and intelligence services. How many Nazis took part in the rebuilding of the government after World War II? How much influence did the surviving supporters of the Nazi dictatorship have on the establishment and operation of Germany's first functioning democracy?

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Engdahl: 'Greek Bailout Terms Remind of Hitler Epoch'

Source: RT

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is urging her lawmakers to support the new rescue package for Greece. This despite worries that Athens will need even more cash in the future, and suggestions from Germany's Interior Minister that it's time Greece left the Eurozone altogether. The 130-billion euro bailout was agreed in principle last week after months of tense discussions among the Eurozone leaders. Germany, as Europe's richest economy, has to contribute the majority towards it. But there is a sense of unease in Berlin that it will have to keep coughing up cash to prevent a Greek debt default. It's the second bailout in a little over 18 months would ensure Athens can pay its debtors for the time being. To discuss the possible outcome of this package, RT is joined by political analyst William Engdahl.

Max Keiser: Financial Holocaust Looms as Germany Storms Greece

Source: RT

Protesters in Athens are clashing with police, some throwing stones and Molotov cocktails. Greece's coalition government managed to agree on a new austerity deal their creditors demanded.

But Eurozone finance ministers say they want to see concrete action before the second bailout worth 130 billion Euros can be handed over. The Greek Parliament is expected to vote on Sunday. But a junior coalition member says he will not back the new plan.

RT talks to Max Keiser, financial analyst and host of the Keiser Report.

German Intelligence Service Slammed for Destroying Files on Nazi Past

Source: Giza Death Star
Dr. Joseph P. Farrell

The after-effects of World War Two linger on, this time, in a news story about the German Bundesnachrichtendienst, Germany’s CIA/KGB/Mossad/MI-6(I am grateful to Mr. V.T. for sharing this news item with me):

German intelligence service slammed for destroying files on Nazi past

As the article points out, files on employees of the BND – successor to Nazi General Reinhard Gehlen’s Fremde Heere Ost or Foreign Armies East – who had Nazi pasts were shredded by the BND in 2007. Well, if we, and for that matter, the German Bundestag committee overseeing the BND, are to believe the BND’s story, the whole matter was simply due to the BND getting rid of documents that were no longer needed in its archives.  True enough, we might think; intelligence agencies acquire reams of information of all kinds and quickly fill their archives and periodically do such “dumps” of their excess archives. No big surprise there.

Except in this case, the files were of BND agents that were Nazis. Nazis in the service of the same Nazi general who became the first head of the BND after its informal status was “normalized” after West Germany was created. Let’s note the date of the article: Nov 30, 2011. IN other words, it was reported while Europe is in a financial meltdown, and while Germany itself seems to be the only viable economy on that otherwise financially besieged continent.

So the timing makes me extraordinarily suspicious, for the only other reason that could possibly justify such document shredding is simply because there was still, to this very day, something about the BND’s history and connection with Nazism that makes it sensitive, and necessary to destroy. True enough, the shredding was done in 2007, but the story comes out now.

I have long maintained the suspicion, and it’s only that, a suspicion, that the current European meltdown seems a bit oddly coincidental, that the only country thus far not engulfed in the debt conflagration is…Germany. It behooves us to remember that Martin Bormann’s “postwar plan” included the idea of a European Federation that Germany would be able to dominate by “elastic political” means, means which, in the financially-gifted Bormann’s view, included finance.It’s all purely coincidental, of course, that it seems to be Berlin that is calling the shots in Europe…for the moment….

Rense Interviews Dr. Joseph P. Farrell: Heading To War?

Source: Rense.com

Germany and France Push for Fiscal Union

Source: AFP

German Chancellor Angela Merkel kicked off a crunch week of talks on saving the euro by laying out a vision Friday for a “fiscal union” in Europe, ahead of a pivotal summit of EU leaders.

A day after French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that Europe needed to be “refounded” in response to a crisis that has threatened the very existence of the EU, Merkel insisted that progress had been made.

Speaking in a hotly awaited speech in the German parliament, Merkel said Europe was “on the verge” of creating what she called a “stability union” for the 17-nation eurozone, with greater budgetary discipline and control.

“Anyone who had said a few months ago that we, at the end of 2011, would be taking very serious and concrete steps toward a European stability union, a European fiscal union, toward introducing (budgetary) intervention in Europe would have been considered crazy,” she said.

She said she would be holding talks with “almost everyone” in the run-up to a summit in Brussels next Friday that many commentators have dubbed the last chance to save the single currency, introduced with such euphoria a decade ago.

And she confirmed she would be heading to Paris for talks with Sarkozy on Monday to thrash out a joint Franco-German position on changing the EU founding texts ahead of the summit.

Highlighting the challenges that face Europe’s leaders, around 17,000 people demonstrated in Athens on Thursday in a bid to force the new government to abandon austerity measures.

The sixth general strike this year in Greece shut down public services and crippled train and ferry services.

Bankers have seized Europe: Goldman Sachs Has Taken Over

Source: Global Research
Paul Craig Roberts

On November 25, two days after a failed German government bond auction in which Germany was unable to sell 35% of its offerings of 10-year bonds, the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble said that Germany might retreat from its demands that the private banks that hold the troubled sovereign debt from Greece, Italy, and Spain must accept part of the cost of their bailout by writing off some of the debt. The private banks want to avoid any losses either by forcing the Greek, Italian, and Spanish governments to make good on the bonds by imposing extreme austerity on their citizens, or by having the European Central Bank print euros with which to buy the sovereign debt from the private banks. Printing money to make good on debt is contrary to the ECB’s charter and especially frightens Germans, because of the Weimar experience with hyperinflation. 

 

Obviously, the German government got the message from the orchestrated failed bond auction. As I wrote at the time, there is no reason for Germany, with its relatively low debt to GDP ratio compared to the troubled countries, not to be able to sell its bonds.

If Germany’s creditworthiness is in doubt, how can Germany be expected to bail out other countries?  Evidence that Germany’s failed bond auction was orchestrated is provided by troubled Italy’s successful bond auction two days later.

Strange, isn’t it. Italy, the largest EU country that requires a bailout of its debt, can still sell its bonds, but Germany, which requires no bailout and which is expected to bear a disproportionate cost of Italy’s, Greece’s and Spain’s bailout, could not sell its bonds.

In my opinion, the failed German bond auction was orchestrated by the US Treasury, by the European Central Bank and EU authorities, and by the private banks that own the troubled sovereign debt. 

My opinion is based on the following facts. Goldman Sachs and US banks have guaranteed perhaps one trillion dollars or more of European sovereign debt by selling swaps or insurance against which they have not reserved. The fees the US banks received for guaranteeing the values of European sovereign debt instruments simply went into profits and executive bonuses. This, of course, is what ruined the American insurance giant, AIG, leading to the TARP bailout at US taxpayer expense and Goldman Sachs’ enormous profits.

Corbett Report Interviews F. William Engdahl

Source: Corbett Report
James Corbett
  

Today The Corbett Report is joined from Germany by F. William Engdahl, a political analyst, writer and researcher who has authored such books as A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order and Gods of Money: Wall Street and the Death of the American Century. We discuss the Anglo-American involvement in triggering the ongoing Eurozone collapse, the rise of China and Russia as growing threats to American hegemony, and the growing importance of Eurasia as the key geostrategic region of the 21st century.

The Coming European Superstate That Germany Plans to Cram Down the Throats of the Rest of Europe

Source: The Economic Collapse

A lot of people were puzzled about what German Chancellor Angela Merkel meant when she recently stated that the ultimate solution to the financial crisis in the EU would "mean more Europe, not less Europe".  Well, now we are finding out.  A leaked internal German government memo entitled "The Future of the EU: Required Integration Policy Improvements for the Creation of a Stability Union" actually proposes the creation of a "European Monetary Fund" which would be given the power to run the economies of troubled European nations.  This "stability union" would be quickly followed by the creation of a full-fledged "political union".  Essentially, this leaked memo proposes the creation of a "European Superstate" which will be crammed down the throats of the rest of Europe whether they like it or not.  National sovereignty would be a thing of the past and European bureaucrats would run everything.  Of course this will never be accepted by the people of Europe until they feel the bitter pain of the coming financial collapse, but we are starting to see that there is already a clear plan for what the Germans wish to implement in the aftermath of the coming crisis.

A lot of people have just assumed that if there is a massive financial collapse in Europe and the euro crashes that it will mean that end of the euro and potentially the breakup of the EU.  But that is not what the Germans have planned at all.

An article in the Telegraph has posted details about the leaked internal German government memo mentioned above.  It really is startling to see that a full-fledged "political union" in Europe is being discussed at the highest levels of the German government....

The six-page memo, by the German foreign office, argues that Europe’s economic powerhouses should be able to intervene in how beleaguered eurozone countries are run.

The confidential blueprint sets out Germany’s plan to tackle the eurozone debt crisis by creating a “stability union” that will be “immediately followed by moves “on the way towards a political union”.

It will prompt fears that Germany’s euro crisis plans could result in a European super-state with spending and tax plans set in Brussels.

Can you imagine what Europe would look like under such a plan?

National sovereignty would be a thing of the past.

Another article in the Telegraph says that the leaked memo proposes that immediately a "European Monetary Fund" should be set up that would have the power to take over and run the economies of European nations that get into too much debt.  But according to the memo this would just be an intermediate step toward a full "political union"....

The six-page German foreign ministry paper sets out plans for the creation of a European Monetary Fund with a transfer of sovereignty away from member states.

The fund will have the power to take ailing countries into receivership and run their economies. Even more controversially, the document, entitled The future of the EU: required integration policy improvements for the creation of a Stability Union, declares that the treaty changes are a first stage “in which the EU will develop into a political union”. “The debate on the way towards a political union must begin as soon as the course toward stability union is charted,” it concludes.

As the crisis in Europe has gotten worse, the Germans have become more aggressive about throwing their weight around.  At this point, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is the most important politician in Europe and she has been taking the lead in responding to this financial crisis.

As I have written about previously, there have been persistent rumors that French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have been "secretly plotting" to create a "new eurozone" that will fundamentally change the way that Europe is run.

Germany and France Begin Talks to Break Up Eurozone

Source: The Guardian
Larry Elliott, Heather Stewart and John Hooper

Fears that Europe's sovereign debt crisis was spiralling out of control have intensified as political chaos in Athens and Rome, and looming recession, created panic on world markets.

Reports emerging from Brussels said that Germany and France had begun preliminary talks on a break-up of the eurozone, amid fears that Italy would be too big to rescue.

Despite Silvio Berlusconi's announcement that he would step down as prime minister once austerity measures were pushed through parliament, a collapse of investor confidence in the eurozone's third-biggest economy sent interest rates in Italy to the levels that triggered bailouts in Portugal, Greece and Ireland.

Der Spiegel: 'Consensus Is Growing' for ECB and IMF Takeover of Euro-Crisis

French Finance Minister Christine Lugarde, IMF

Source: The Daily Bell

Run For Your Lives' ... Euro Zone Considers Solution of Last Resort: The ink on the most recent European Union summit agreement was hardly dry before it became clear that it was insufficient. With investors now increasingly wary of Italy, the consensus is growing that the European Central Bank – and the IMF – will have to play an even greater role. But will it be enough? – Der Spiegel Online

 

Dominant Social Theme: We didn't want it. We didn't mean to suggest it. We don't think it's a good idea. But it looks like the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund will simply have to take a bigger role in solving this terrible crisis.

Free-Market Analysis: It is all too predictable. We've been writing for months on the possibility that the entire EU crisis is a kind of contrived one and this article post at Der Spiegel Online does nothing to discourage this supposition.

It's likely nothing more than a power elite dominant social theme, that the Euro-crisis is a deadly one and that the EU simply cannot figure out what to do. The meme is simple: Financial leaders with power and common sense must come to the rescue.

Isn't it obvious who the heroes are going to be? Why, the central bankers, of course! These good, gray men with careful phraseology and elliptical sentiments are the hope of mankind. When politicians dither and markets act irrationally these mavens of monetary price-fixing will get the job done.

A central banker is looking to lead the Greek unity government – which is unified with the efficiency of a shotgun marriage – and now Der Spiegel, Germany's leading elite mouthpiece, informs us that consensus is "growing" to have the IMF and ECB "play a greater role." What a coincidence.

Germany Warns Facebook over Face-Recognition App

Source: PhysOrg.com

Facebook has until November 7 to bring its facial recognition software into conformity with privacy laws in Germany and the European Union or face legal action, a government lawyer told AFP Friday.

"We have had extended negotiations with Facebook and have clearly stressed our position," Johannes Caspar, a lawyer working on the case, told AFP.