COMMENT: The title of this quote is, appropriately enough, from a German. European nations are becoming fearful of domination by Germany, the only country with sufficient funds to bailout the ailing Eurozone.
The advent of the current situation is no accident. It has been planned for a long time and should come as a surprise to no one, particularly Europeans.
Writing in the New York Herald Tribune of 5/31/1940, Dorothy Thompson set forth the Third Reich’s plans for European and world domination, embodying a template formulated by Friedrich List in the 19th century.
. . . . The Germans have a clear plan of what they intend to do in case of victory. I believe that I know the essential details of that plan. I have heard it from a sufficient number of important Germans to credit its authenticity . . . Germany’s plan is to make a customs union of Europe, with complete financial and economic control centered in Berlin. This will create at once the largest free trade area and the largest planned economy in the world. In Western Europe alone . . . there will be an economic unity of 400 million persons . . . To these will be added the resources of the British, French, Dutch and Belgian empires. These will be pooled in the name of Europa Germanica . . .
“The Germans count upon political power following economic power, and not vice versa. Territorial changes do not concern them, because there will be no ‘France’ or ‘England,’ except as language groups. Little immediate concern is felt regarding political organizations . . . . No nation will have the control of its own financial or economic system or of its customs. [Italics are mine–D.E.] The Nazification of all countries will be accomplished by economic pressure. In all countries, contacts have been established long ago with sympathetic businessmen and industrialists . . . . As far as the United States is concerned, the planners of the World Germanica laugh off the idea of any armed invasion. They say that it will be completely unnecessary to take military action against the United States to force it to play ball with this system. . . . Here, as in every other country, they have established relations with numerous industries and commercial organizations, to whom they will offer advantages in co-operation with Germany. . . .
Germany Plots with the Kremlin; T.H. Tetens; Henry Schuman [HC]; 1953; p. 92. [1]
In FTR #746 [2], we examined in detail the Greek economic debacle, which was not solely the product of fiscal irresponsibility, and greatly exacerbated by German policy.
Listeners may want to check out FTR #99 [3], in order to better understand the realization of the blueprint detailed by Ms. Thompson and implemented by the Bormann capital network [4] about which we speak so often.
“In Europe, New Fears of German Might” by Michael Birnbaum; The Washington Post; 10/22/2011. [5]
EXCERPT: For decades, Germany’s role in Europe has been to supply the cash, not the leadership. With fresh memories of war, the continent was cautious about German domination — and so were the Germans themselves.
But the economic crisis has shaken Europe’s postwar model, and Germany increasingly calls the shots. As countries struggle to pay their debts, only Chancellor Angela Merkel has enough money to haul them out of trouble. And the price Merkel is demanding — more control over how they run their economies — is setting off alarm bells in capitals across the continent.
In Athens, protesters dressed up as Nazis routinely prowl the streets, an allusion to the old model of an assertive Germany. In Poland, accusations that Germany has imperial ambitions became a campaign issue in the recent presidential election.
And although German leaders have sought in recent weeks to soothe others’ fears in advance of high-level meetings in Brussels on Sunday and in coming days, the tone has sometimes sounded pugilistic.
“The question of who could accept a German model has been settled by the market,” said a spokesman for German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble. “We are really only talking about the details and the extent of the measures, not about their nature.” . . .
. . . . Still, many economists — including those at the International Monetary Fund — question whether the German model is really the best way to dig out of a recession, given the country’s outsize reliance on exports. And the sense of a fait accompli is raising hackles around Europe. Slovakia recently held up a plan to bolster the bailout fund before it approved it under heavy pressure from Germany. Even longtime allies such as Austria are resisting.
“I can absolutely not accept” that Germany and France make decisions, then present them to the rest of the euro zone, Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger told Austrian television last week. “There’s no economic board or diktat. We have a euro zone with 17 countries.”
In Germany, the dissension is raising eyebrows.
“Everybody is calling for leadership,” said the country’s deputy foreign minister, Werner Hoyer, “but no one wants to be led.”