It
won’t be Weimar, but the end of a European Germany
The
U.K. turning its back on Europe would risk reviving the “German
question.”
By NIKOLAUS BLOME
11/11/15, 5:40 AM CET Updated 11/11/15, 5:41 AM CET
BERLIN — The
public mood is turning sour these days in Germany and much of the
summer’s euphoria has vanished. So far, the authorities haven’t
got the refugee crisis under control on a European, national or
regional level. Public debate is being vulgarized. Right-wing
extremists draw more and more public support. So where is Germany
heading?
This year the number
of refugees and asylum-seekers in Germany may end up being four- to
five-times higher than last year. The number of attacks on refugee
shelters has more than tripled and each one is, in the words of
Justice Minister Heiko Maas, an “attack on our democracy.”
Are we going
straight for “Weimar conditions,” a key synonym for my country’s
dark past?
In the early 1930s,
Germany’s first parliamentary democracy, the “Weimarer Republik,”
was put under fatal pressure by economic depression, unemployment
affecting 6 million people, political violence on the streets and a
dysfunctional parliamentary system. When the Nazi party was about to
take over, democratic self-defense proved to be insufficient. A
majority of average Germans sat on their hands, tacitly
anti-democratic or pro-authoritarian. In German, “Weimarer
Verhältnisse” is just another way of saying the beginning of the
end.
However, it is utter
nonsense to say that this is what is emerging now.
Some leftist
intellectuals simply can’t help loving the idea that almost every
German is permanently prone to seduction by right-wing extremism.
They cannot accept the notion that Germans have become reliable
democrats because — in their view — it would put a question mark
over the everlasting singularity of Germany’s crime: the Shoa.
Even German
Chancellor Angela Merkel tends to think that way. She once wrote in
the guest book of a Shoa memorial: “As you never know whether
people are getting more reasonable over time, the German political
system must stay the way it is.” (Meaning: one must refrain from
nationwide plebiscites or similar instruments of direct political
participation).
If the number of
refugees does not drop any time soon, Merkel will tighten up German
asylum regulations as another government did almost 25 years ago.
Some restrictions have already been put in place. It will surely
entail a fierce political crisis. But there will be no “Weimarer
Verhältnisse” because of refugees or some xenophobic reaction to
them. There will be no collapse of public order or collective
decency.
Unfortunately,
something else which is equally important might fall apart instead.
Right now, Germans
mostly blame the chancellor for what is happening, even though the
breakdown of inner-EU regulation and solidarity bears at least as
much responsibility. Merkel hasn’t yet joined in the type of
“beggar-my-neighbor” policy that most other member states have
opted for. But her reluctance to do so won’t last forever.
Soon the U.K.
government will officially start negotiating a “new relationship”
with the EU. This will bring up uneasy questions in Germany, too. Why
are we the biggest net contributor to all Brussels budgets — but
don’t get much solidarity in return when we need it? What does it
say about Europe if neither France, nor the U.K., nor Poland, nor
Hungary care much what a critical moment the Union is facing? Why
should Germany keep on being the honest broker if all other member
states just look out for their national interest?
We are not far from
the point of no return when Germany will withdraw to the same pitiful
level of strategic involvement as the U.K.
That’s pretty
disappointing, isn’t it?
If Prime Minister
David Cameron strikes what he thinks to be a good deal for his
country, a significant number of German politicians might fall in
love with the British way of doing Europe: no more ambitions of an
“ever closer” political union, no more “European Germany” —
just boundless business and some political cooperation only when
there is an immediate payoff.
As an island in the
sea, the U.K. is free to turn its back on the European Union and to
dismiss the idea of a bloc of nations willing to pool a large part of
their sovereignty. But what if Germany, right in the center of the
continent, did the same?
Clearly, it would
change Europe a lot more than a couple of million refugees from
war-torn Syria. It would not bring back “Weimar conditions” in my
country, but it would revive the “German question” in the heart
of old Europe. I wouldn’t like it.
Nikolaus Blome is a
German journalist and author.
Authors:
Nikolaus Blome
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