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I hadn’t planned on
attending a Nazi march, but I have to admit I was
intrigued when I was on the campus of Ludwig
Maximilian University in Munich and was handed a
flyer that announced an anti-Nazi demonstration to
protest a planned Nazi march on the Goetheplatz on
November 30th. Finally, I said to
myself, here are some of those mythical Germans I
keep hearing about who are so opposed to the
resurgence of National Socialism. And I have to
admit that there was a certain morbid fascination
to the possibility of seeing evil incarnate up
close and personal. Oh, heck, I’m just gonna
admit it. The thought of a riot breaking out and
having the chance to kick a Nazi where the sun
don’t shine was just too good to pass up.
Now for
a little background information. In October there
was a photographic exhibit in Munich that dealt
with the Wehrmacht (the Army of the Third Reich)
during World War II. The Nazis claimed that the
exhibit slandered the memory of the Germans who
fought in the war, and they organized a march to
protest the exhibition. Anti-Nazis then organized
and prevented the Nazis from completing their
march on the exhibition hall. The Nazis then sued
and got a court to order the Bavarian government
to provide police protection for a new march which
was then rescheduled for Saturday, November 30th.
The anti-Nazis, in turn, began to organize their
protest.
Fast
forward to 10:30am, November 30, 2002. I’m
standing in the back of a large crowd in front of
the Feldherrnhalle on the Odeonsplatz in Munich.
The setting is particularly a propos because this
is the site where Hitler’s Beer Hall Putsch of
1923 came to an abrupt and bloody end. The
organizational rally for the anti-Nazi protest is
just beginning. And a more loathsome group of
people is hard to imagine.
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Anti-Nazis Listening to Heavy Metal Music in
Front |
The Feldherrnhalle,
Odeonsplatz, Munich
One of
the many ironies of the day was that, before the
speeches began, the protesters were entertained by
heavy metal music blasting out of loudspeakers at
something approaching the threshold of pain. The
irony stems from the fact that the Nazi movement
in Germany today is largely funded through sales
of heavy metal CDs and concert tickets, with many
of the top Germany metal bands being produced by
people who are members of the Nazis and other
far-right political organizations. If you thought
that the anti-Nazis would be emphasizing the good
aspects of German culture—like maybe Beethoven—you
thought wrong. As the day wore on, the ironies
and the similarities between the Nazis and the
anti-Nazi protesters would increase exponentially.
As it
neared the time for the speeches to begin, one was
most startled by what was missing, namely, any
symbol of resistance to totalitarianism. There
wasn’t a German Bundesrepublik flag or an American
Star and Stripes to be seen anywhere. No image of
Konrad Adenauer, the Reverend Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
Thomas Mann or any other of the few Germans who
actually opposed Hitler during the time of the
Third Reich. There were, however, a lot of Soviet
and Cuban flags, and images of Che Guevara
appeared everywhere. There were flags of the DKP
(German Communist Party), the PDS (the so-called
Party of Democratic Socialism, that is, the
successors to the East German Communist Party) and
various and sundry socialist and lunatic left-wing
fringe organizations.
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Che
Guevara Flags at the Odeonsplatz, Munich |
Most of
the literature being handed out didn’t seem to
have much to do with the rise of Nazism in
Germany, but was instead directed against America
and British nationalism, arrogance and
imperialism. Indeed, it seemed that the
anti-Nazis were most worried about America
defeating Muslim terrorism. Also conspicuously
absent were any signs of solidarity with Jews or
the State of Israel, you know, the original
victims of the Nazis. And here is where the Nazis
and the anti-Nazi protesters found their greatest
point of convergence: They both hate Israel with a
passion. Indeed, anti-Semitism is the only
political belief in Germany that outpaces
anti-Americanism in its virulence and intensity.
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Bad Hair Commies and Che Flag, Odeonsplatz |
A junior high school boy walked by wearing a
sweatshirt emblazoned with a swastika with a line
through it. The lettering below the logo reads
“Fuck Your Nationality.” It’s in English, because
the people the anti-Nazi protesters are really
protesting against are Americans. Germans of all
political stripes despise America because
Americans are nationalistic, that is, we’re proud
that we stand for the American principles of
freedom, justice and the rule of law, and also
because we’re not Germans.
It is
typical of German arrogance to believe that, since
German nationalism resulted in two world wars and
the Holocaust, no one should be allowed to express
national pride. Of course, Germans have never
been able to figure out that rooting vociferously
for the American hockey team at the Olympics is a
far cry from perpetrating the deliberate murder of
six million people. But I digress.
A man
hands me a postcard with a photograph of Sophie
and Hans Scholl on it. The Scholl siblings were
students at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich
and were executed for their participation in the
White Rose Movement. The postcard reads:
“Resistance today. We in Munich have good
models.” Now I’m all for honoring the bravery of
the Scholls, who, along with the circle of people
associated with Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, were
among the infinitesimal number of Germans who
resisted Nazi rule. But the sad truth of the
matter is that Sophie and Hans Scholls’ sacrifice
was all for naught. The anti-Nazi pamphlets they
distributed had zero effect on Nazi power and
their solitary protest did not inspire anyone else
to take up the cause of resistance.
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Postcard Featuring Sophie & Hans Scholl of the
White Rose Movement |
The
Scholls, however, are always trotted out by
revisionists as examples of a vast German
resistance to Hitler, just like that non-existent
vast French resistance our Gallic friends would
like you to believe in. And the faculty, students
and alumni of Ludwig Maximilian University try to
present the Scholls in such a way as to make the
case that LMU was a hotbed of resistance to the
Third Reich. In reality, LMU was the proving
ground of the Nazi movement. The systematic
amalgamation of anti-Semitism, theories of the
superiority of the German people, and the
geopolitical movement to acquire Lebensraum was a
product of the intellectual environment of Ludwig
Maximilian University in the 1920s. Adolf Hitler,
Hermann Goering and Rudolf Hess all took classes
at LMU after World War I. Indeed, Hess was
working on a graduate degree under the supervision
of Professor Karl Haushofer, the chief architect
of the concept of Lebensraum. The LMU student
body was overwhelmingly pro-Nazi. LMU Student
Body President Baldur von Schirach later became
head of the Hitler Youth and subsequently was one
of the Nuremberg Trial defendants who received a
prison sentence for his crimes.
Now we
come to the speeches. There was all the usual
socialist claptrap and self-congratulatory
posturing. Everyone was being so brave by
protesting the Nazis. Yeah. It was just like
actors accepting their Oscars who praise their
fellow actors for their “bravery” for wearing red
ribbons on their Armani tuxes and designer
original gowns in order to protest the spread of
AIDS. The crowd, comprised of mostly young pinkos
experiencing an endless bad hair day, seemed to be
more interested in drinking beer than in listening
to the speeches. A very overweight man wearing a
reproduction of a death camp inmate’s striped
uniform droned on for what seemed an eternity.
Although it was difficult to hear what he was
saying, he appeared to be a union official making
the point that the greatest calamity that befell
the Jews at Dachau was the denial by the Nazis of
their right to collective bargaining. Mercifully,
the speeches finally came to an end, and the crowd
began to file into the subway for the short trip
to the Goetheplatz where the Nazis would be
marching.
The most
dangerous and disgusting part of the day was to be
jammed into a subway car with a herd of DCBs
(drunken commie bastards). Let’s just say that
South Central Los Angeles is home to a higher
class of people.
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Communist with Bad Hair and Soviet Flag |
Odeonsplatz, Munich
On
arrival at the Goetheplatz it was immediately
clear that the police were fully in control of the
situation. I proceeded to a vantage point at the
corner of Lindwurmstrasse and Stielerstrasse.
Both sides of the street were completely lined
with riot police wearing full Kevlar armor.
Police cars and armored personnel carriers also
lined the street. The Bavarian Police handled the
situation with the utmost professionalism and
efficiency, and they deserve praise for their
adept handling of a truly ridiculous situation.
Additionally, I have to add that there are a lot
of hot-looking babes on the Bavarian State Police
Force. There’s just something about a busty
blonde wielding a truncheon.
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Bavarian Riot Police Waiting for Nazi March to
Begin - Corner of Lindwurmstrasse &
Stielerstrasse, Munich |
Finally, the
Nazis began to march. There were about 40 of
them, some carrying banners (“Komm zu uns”—“Come
to us”) and some surrounding a car equipped with
loudspeakers. The anti-Nazis started screaming
and blowing whistles. The Nazis turned up the
volume. People of both sides flipped each other
off. Some of the anti-Nazis seemed to be more
interested in screaming at the police than at
protesting against the Nazis. Suddenly, some of
the members of the crowd started to chase a girl
who was then surrounded by police for her own
protection. I asked several persons why the crowd
was chasing her, and the consensus was that she
was upset at the crowd for making so much noise.
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Nazis Marching in Munich, Surrounded by Police |
The
march and its protest continued for several blocks
until the procession reached the Goetheplatz. All
in all, 1500 riot police were protecting less than
100 Nazis from somewhere between 800 and 1000
anti-Nazis. Thirty five persons were arrested, a
lot of taxpayer money was wasted and the Nazis got
more publicity than they could have ever
imagined. But in the end it was nothing more than
a march by of bunch of idiots who embrace a
totalitarian ideology that was being protested by
a bunch of morons who embrace another totalitarian
ideology.
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Marching Nazis in Civilian Clothes |
Germans,
it seems, will kneel down before any totalitarian
ideology faster than a starlet auditioning for a
Hollywood producer. And therein lies the problem
with today’s Germany. They may have been forced
by America and her allies to abandon Nazism, but
true democracy has yet to take firm root in the
German psyche. There wasn’t a dime’s bit of
difference between the Nazis and the anti-Nazis at
the November 3o0th march in Munich. It was just a
watered-down version of the old Nazi-Bolshevik
street fighting that occurred all throughout the
years of the Weimar Republic. It is doubtful
whether the Germans will ever embrace true
democracy, true capitalism or true liberty. All
three of those concepts require an emphasis on the
individual, something that Germans, who are
nothing if not cradle socialists, find to be
absolutely abhorrent.
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Chanting Nazis Surrounded by Police |
Deep in
their heart of hearts, the German Volk long for
those goose-stepping days of yore. It doesn’t
really make any difference if the uniform shirts
they wear are brown or red, just as long as they
all think alike, look alike and march to the beat
of a single drummer.
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Nazi March Nears Its End Close to the
Goetheplatz |
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