New generation of radicals in Germany
Left-wing attacks in Germany have risen dramatically in the last few years and authorities know little about the new generation of radicals and its grievances with the status quo.
Spiegel Online wrote about the trend on May 20, saying that the German federal government, the enemy of the militant leftists, is “worried about this renaissance of left-wing violence in the country.” The article says:
German Interior Ministry crime statistics for 2009 show a 53 percent jump in the number of left-wing attacks, the largest increase seen in many years. Police recorded a total of 1,822 left-wing acts of violence in all of Germany, considerably more than those committed by right-wing extremists.
Those statistics include, among other things, the burning of several hundred cars in Berlin, a large-scale attack carried out by masked individuals on a police station in Hamburg in December and an attack on vehicles belonging to the Bundeswehr, Germany’s armed forces, in Dresden in April 2009, which saw equipment worth €3 million (us$3.7 million) go up in flames. Such escalation hadn’t been seen in a long time. … ”Agenda 2010” social welfare reforms introduced under Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of the Social Democratic Party (spd) sowed discord in German society because of their steep cuts in welfare payments to the longterm unemployed. Then came the financial and economic crisis. Critics of capitalism can now be seen everywhere, from the Left Party to the cdu. The ones who could be seen as radicals today, in fact, are those who still defend the present system—and autonomists are eagerly fanning the flames of the conflict.
The increased discontentment in Germany is not limited to the far left. All across the political spectrum, there is unrest among the German people. The Trumpet has been reporting on the changing mood in Germany for many years. Back in 2006, columnist Ron Fraser wrote:
Germany’s current great political weakness, its fragmentary coalition government, is Europe and the world’s temporary protection from an immediate repetition of the grave errors of its past—errors that cost millions of lives in the carnage of two great global wars.
But what if this was all to change? What if, in a time of crisis—rising taxes, drastic social disruption from forced changes in economy and social benefits, the threat to its security posed by a rising Islamic empire—another demagogue arose? What then? Would history repeat itself?
Today, Europe is in chaos, and the euro is on the verge of collapsing. The escalating unrest in Germany shows that a growing number of German people are furious at the decisions being made in Berlin. More and more are unwilling to sit idly by as their matronly leader works to nurse the European Union’s sick members back to health. The stage is set for change.
To understand why this crises-begotten change in Germany is inevitable and to learn what it will mean in your life, read our eye-opening booklet Germany and the Holy Roman Empire.
