Former President of the European Council Donald Tusk made some intriguing comments that reveal the real power behind Germany’s government. He said that former German Chancellor Angela Merkel admitted privately that she was “helpless” against the pressure from German business leaders to support the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline that connects Germany directly with Russian gas.

This raises the question, who are these business leaders? Apparently they have more power than the German government and have more influence on major German decisions than the United States and the European Union. Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry highlighted Mr. Tusk’s comments in his recent Key of David program “Germany Going Underground.”

Let’s explore one of the financiers behind Nord Stream 2: Wintershall Dea.

Next to Gazprom, which is partly owned by the Russian state, German companies Wintershall Dea and E.ON are the next largest financiers of the project, contributing 15.5 percent each. In August 2020, Germany’s Manager Magazin briefly mentioned the influence former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (who works for the Russian state-owned Gazprom) had on Nord Stream 2, followed by the interests and contributions of Wintershall Dea, a subsidiary of basf. (Schröder’s contribution has been explained in detail in Mr. Flurry’s article “Germany and Russia’s Secret War Against America.”)

Wintershall Dea ceo Mario Mehren explained in 2018 that “Russia is the most important region for Wintershall! And Russian will remain the most important region for Wintershall.” It would appear that Russia is a more important partner than the U.S. or EU.

Manager noted that, while Wintershall Dea owns 15.5 percent stake in Nord Stream AG (owner of Nord Stream 1), Gazprom is considered the sole owner of Nord Stream 2, with the Western partners financial investors bearing one tenth of the construction costs.

Wintershall has been working with Gazprom for decades and has stakes in two large natural gas fields in western Siberia that connect to Nord Stream. In 2015, Wintershall swapped its shares in the German gas trading and storage company Wingas for further production licenses in Russia.

Wintershall and France’s Total have, in the past, also helped Russian offshore Arctic drilling, until U.S. sanctions prevented them from continuing. Russia has worked with other European companies to make up for the loss. (To learn more more about Germany’s current business relations with Russia, read “The Vicious Cycle: German-Russian Relations.”)

Wintershall itself is also critical for Germany’s future. Prior to the takeover of Hamburg-based Dea, Wintershall Holding GmbH was already Germany’s largest oil and gas producer. Now it is increasingly rising to become a key European player in this field.

“In addition to Wintershall, Austrian competitor omv, led by ex-Wintershall ceo Rainer Seele, also has a one-tenth stake in Nord Stream 2,” the Manager magazine noted. Seele is president of the German-Russian Chamber of Commerce and has “good and close contacts with Russia and Gazprom,” Austria’s Die Presse newspaper noted. Unsurprisingly, Seele strongly criticized the U.S. opposition to Nord Stream 2. On the same day his position at omv was announced, he was visiting Gazprom’s headquarters. Considering the Austrian state owns almost a third of omv, this pro-Russian stance is concerning.

In his Key of David, Mr. Flurry explained that many companies in modern-day Germany have a history of a successful career under Adolf Hitler. What’s more concerning, a 1996 declassified U.S. document revealed a secret 1944 meeting of top leaders in Germany’s industry and their plan to go underground to then resurrect the Nazi war machine. The companies they headed are Germany’s leading arms manufactures today. This can be easily proved as many maintained the same names, as Mr. Flurry explains in detail in Germany’s Conquest of the Balkans.

During Hitler’s reign, basf was part of the conglomerate IG Farben, manufacturer of, among other things, the Nazis’ death gas, Zyklon B. Germany’s Handelsblatt called IG Farben “The Company That Enabled Hitler’s World War.” After the war, the Allied forces divided IG Farben into four separate companies: Bayer, basf, Hoechst and Cassella. This separation was meant to reduce the influence and power of IG Farben. But today, the daughter companies are more powerful than IG Farben ever was. Bayer and basf are giants in their field and naturally have an enormous influence on the German government. basf is Germany’s—and the world’s—largest chemical producer. It sees Wintershall as an important profit generator and relies on the natural gas supplies from Russia to fuel its own chemical production and power plants. Could it be that the leadership of basf were among those who pressured Angela Merkel?

There is much evidence that Germany’s industrialists made a close alliance with Russia to divide Europe between them prior to World War ii. (Read “Germany and Russia’s Secret Genocide” for more information.)

The question arises, what are they planning today? Has their underground movement been successful? History and Bible prophecy give a clear answer. I encourage you to read Mr. Flurry’s article on Nord Stream 2, “Germany and Russia’s Secret War Against America,” and request a free copy of Germany’s Conquest of the Balkans to learn more.

In our November-December 2008 Trumpet issue, Mr. Flurry wrote: “[D]id you know that Germany and Russia have probably already dealt with their most urgent differences? … I believe that Germany’s leaders may have already agreed to a deal with Russia, a modern Hitler-Stalin pact where Germany and Russia divide countries and assets between themselves. This agreement would allow each to turn its sights on other targets. Any such deal that may have been struck between Germany and Russia is a precursor to war!”

Much evidence has since emerged to prove Germany and Russia’s secret cooperation. But to a good student of history, this cooperation shouldn’t be surprising. What’s more, the Bible prophesied of it. Mr. Flurry wrote: “Jeremiah 1:13 records God showing the prophet a vision of ‘a seething pot; and the face thereof is toward the north.’ This symbolic language is describing modern Germany. Beneath the surface, that nation is full of simmering dissatisfaction with the current world order. Germans are angry at the U.S., and especially furious with President Trump. The imperialistic ambition that prompted Germany to start both world wars is alive and well. It is ‘seething’!”

While Germany’s cooperation with Russia is only one of many signs that it is “seething” in modern-day Europe, we need to closely watch this alliance, as it shows us how close we are to war. Revelation 17 refers to Europe’s war machine as a “beast” that went underground after World War ii but is about to rise again. This too shows that we can expect Germany to follow the same strategy that it used in the past.

“On the surface, this news about Germany and Russia may seem depressing,” Mr. Flurry wrote. “But if you view it through the lens of Bible prophecy, you clearly see that it is closely tied to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ!” Read “Germany and Russia’s Secret War Against America” to begin a deeper study of this important subject.