Following the brutal killing of more than a thousand Israelis and the butchering of 40 babies, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called Hamas a “liberation group” and Israel “a terrorist state.”

On November 17, Erdoğan visited Germany for high-level talks and told the German people that the only reason they don’t criticize Israel the same way is because of Germany’s “psychology of guilt,” referring to the Holocaust. The next day, Turkey beat Germany in a friendship soccer match in Berlin that was dominated by Erdoğan fans.

Criticized on the political stage and humiliated on the soccer pitch, many ask: Where is Germany’s pride?

As on Saturday evening … in our capital, it was not a home game but an away game. This “away game” unfortunately says so much about us in 2023! About our embarrassing reticence when it comes to passion for our country. About our sluggishness when it comes to being proud: of our democracy, our values, our prosperity. Which we have also achieved with so much vigor from so many Germans of Turkish origin.
—Bild

Germans look at the pride of the Turkish president and at the pride of their Turkish neighbors and wonder what happened to their own. How can a liberal Germany survive in a hostile world?

Humiliation: Germany has long prided itself on its pursuit of tolerance and successful immigration. But few rare cases of successful immigration stand in strong contrast to thousands of others. Bild wrote:

Germany’s captain, Ilkay Gündogan, who is of Turkish origin, was mercilessly booed by Turkey’s fans. After the game, dozens of Turkey’s fans marched through Berlin and showed the right-wing extremist “Gray Wolves” salute.

The Hitler salute is forbidden in Germany, for good reason, and national pride has been replaced by an embrace of multiculturalism. But what if the newly embraced image invites those who resemble the old self?

Prosperity without vision: Germans compared to Turks enjoy greater luxury but lack an inspiring leader. Erdoğan is able to inspire his countrymen, especially those who live abroad.

Germany lacks leadership that inspires vision. The last time it had such a leader, in the person of Adolf Hitler, it led to great ruin.

Hitler, because in his own joyless mind he feels it with exceptional strength, knows that human beings don’t only want comfort, safety, short working-hours, hygiene, birth control and, in general, common sense; they also, at least intermittently, want struggle and self-sacrifice, not to mention drums, flags and loyalty parades.
—George Orwell, 1940 review of Mein Kampf

One could say that the Germans once again want “struggle and self-sacrifice, not to mention drums, flags and loyalty parades.” Because Germany lacks true leaders and appropriate leadership, it is prone to deceit.

Strong leader coming: Daniel 11:21 is an end-time prophecy (see also Daniel 12:9) that reveals the rise of a strong leader who will come to power “by flatteries.” Just like the apparent hopelessness of the 1930s prepared for the rise of Adolf Hitler, so this strongman will use Germans’ despair to rally them behind a new vision.

To learn more, read A Strong German Leader Is Imminent.