Germany – Page 36 – Blazingcatfur

All 18 of German Armed Forces Puma Vehicles break down during exercise

Puma in Action – each vehicle comes with own carrier

Germany’s armed forces, the Bundeswehr, has been experiencing serious technical problems with its Puma infantry fighting vehicles, according to a report in Der Spiegel magazine on Saturday.

After a training exercise involving 18 state-of-the-art Puma infantry fighting vehicles, not a single one was left operational, the report said.

The situation has caused a stir in the Defense Ministry because the vehicles are supposed to participate in NATO’s spearhead Very High Readiness Joint Task Force next year.

Is Germany’s military unfit for action?

The German military faced yet another PR disaster on Monday morning after reports emerged over the weekend that a training exercise involving one of its key weapons, the Puma tank, left not a single one operational.

OK, that’s pretty bad, they better hire more cross dressers.

by Blazingcatfur•December 19, 2022December 19, 2022•0•Germany, WTF?

The real threat to German democracy

The state’s overreaction to the ‘Reichsbürger’ plot poses a far bigger danger than these reactionary oddballs.

The German state oversaw one of its largest anti-terror operations in its modern history last week. Approximately 3,000 police officers arrested 54 suspects in raids carried out on Wednesday morning. Those arrested were members of the Reichsbürger – one of the oddest and most obnoxious movements to have emerged in Germany in recent years. It is alleged that those arrested were conspiring to overthrow the state and install a shadow government headed by an obscure German nobleman.

by Blazingcatfur•December 13, 2022December 12, 2022•0•Germany

The Prince, the Plot and a Long-Lost Reich

Prince Heinrich XIII was arrested this week as the suspected ringleader of a plan to overthrow the German government. Nostalgic for an imperial past, he embraced far-right conspiracy theories.

The crenelated hunting lodge of Prince Heinrich XIII of Reuss sits atop a steep hill, looking out over homes laced with snow and Christmas lights in Bad Lobenstein. Popular with the local mayor and many nearby villagers, the prince spent his weekends in the spa town, giving an aristocratic flair to this sleepy corner of rural eastern Germany.

But there was a darker side to his idyll.

Heinrich XIII, prosecutors and intelligence officials say, also used his lodge to host meetings where he and a band of co-conspirators plotted to overthrow of the German government and execute the chancellor. In the basement, the group stored weapons and explosives. In the forest that sloped beneath the lodge, they sometimes held target practice.

by Blazingcatfur•December 11, 2022December 11, 2022•0•Germany, Germany: Not Bombed Enough?, WTF?

Is a far-right coup possible in Germany?

A militant group of Germany’s far-right extremist Reichsbürger movement apparently planned to overthrow the government. Could such a coup succeed?

“According to our findings, the association has set itself the goal of eliminating the existing state order in Germany, the free democratic basic order, using violence and military means.” This is how Attorney General Peter Frank described the reasons that led to a major raid this week against supporters of the so-called Reichsbürger movement.

Members of the Reichsbürger movement deny the existence of the post-WW2 Federal Republic of Germany. They believe the current state is no more than an administrative construct still occupied by the Western powers — the US, the UK and France. For them, the 1937 borders of the German Empire still exist.

But what does the group mean by “eliminate the free democratic basic order”? It can mean attacking politicians, storming parliamentary buildings, overthrowing the federal government, dissolving the judiciary, and usurping the military.

Keep in mind that DW is a state run news outlet similarly complicit to our own CBC in supporting a far-left government agenda.

by Blazingcatfur•December 10, 2022December 10, 2022•0•Germany

Poland issues ultimatum to Germany over €1.3 trillion in WWII reparations

Poland is ratcheting up the pressure on Germany over reparations for the Second World War, with Poland’s Deputy Foreign Minister Arkadiusz Mularczyk giving Germany a new ultimatum to pay up or face Poland bringing the matter to a range of international forums, a move that may harm Germany’s international reputation.

“Now, Germany has a choice: Either it sits down with Poland at the negotiating table, or we will raise the issue in all international forums — in the UN, in the Council of Europe and in the European Union,” he said, according to German news agency dpa.

…“If Germany had been treated as it was in many plans formulated not in the Soviet Union but in the West, today they would be a very, very poor and much less numerous country than they are,” he claimed, adding that the defeated German nation was “treated extremely kindly” given the circumstances.

“Let them thank God that is only so. They owe us, they have to pay,” he insisted.

Long but interesting related reading…

Fears of Retribution in Post-War Germany

Three groups were at the heart of post-war German fears of revenge: Jewish Holocaust survivors, Eastern European Displaced Persons, and American occupation officials.

by Blazingcatfur•December 10, 2022December 10, 2022•0•Germany, Poland, WW II, WW II History

Germany: Police confirm hostage situation in Dresden mall

Update – Police wrote on Twitter, “All-clear! The hostage situation in Dresden is over!”

Police evacuated a shopping mall in the center of the eastern German city of Dresden on Saturday morning amid reports of an armed man taking hostages.

A large police presence has been deployed at the Altmarktgalerie mall which has been cordoned off from the public.

Germany’s Bild newspaper reported that shots were fired and at least one person had been killed by the attacker, but police refused to confirm any deaths.

Twitter – Dresden

by Blazingcatfur•December 10, 2022December 10, 2022•0•Germany

Germans on the verge of a nervous breakdown

It’s a sign of the nation’s fraught state of mind that many seriously believe this week’s unlikely plotters could have toppled democracy.

BERLIN — Germany is on edge.

Early Wednesday, thousands of balaclava-clad German police officers fanned out across the country, arresting 25 people and seizing weapons to upend what authorities described as a diabolical plot to overthrow the country’s government and reinstate the monarchy. The group’s “military arm” was surreptitiously building “a new German army,” the lead prosecutor on the case said.

A day later, however, the case looks more like the script of a Monty Python episode than a sequel to the Day of the Jackal.

The alleged ringleader was Prince Heinrich XIII Reuß, the long-haired scion of an 800-year-old aristocratic line, who police said organized conspiratorial meetings at his hilltop Schloss in rural Thuringia.

by Blazingcatfur•December 9, 2022December 8, 2022•0•Germany, Germany: Not Bombed Enough?

Germany assesses credibility of rightwing coup plot amid further arrests

Without a cool truck your putsch is going nowhere.

Germany is trying to get the measure of how imminent a threat to the state was posed by the rightwing terror ring exposed on Wednesday, as police made further arrests in connection with the coup plot.

In their biggest ever raid targeting rightwing extremists, German authorities arrested 25 people suspected of plotting to overthrow the government, install a shadow regime led by a 71-year-old aristocrat, and seek talks with Russia to renegotiate its post-second world war settlement.

The head of Germany’s federal criminal police, Holger Münch, on Thursday revised the number of suspects upwards to 52, of whom 23 were currently in custody, adding that further raids and arrests were expected in the coming days.

by Blazingcatfur•December 8, 2022December 8, 2022•0•Germany

Why Germany’s far-right coup was doomed from the start

Twenty-five people have been arrested by German authorities on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the government.

A failed coup attempt – and a series of raids involving 3,000 officers – seems like the sort of story that might happen in a far-flung part of the world, not the largest economy in Europe. But early reporting indicates there was something fairly typical about this coup attempt: it involved a group of delusional far-rightists and ex-military officers. The false idea that if these men simply waltzed into parliament and placed politicians under arrest, the state would fold and they would get to run the place, seems to have been a factor in their attempt. A similar attitude was held by those who plotted to stage a coup in Portugal in 1975, and Spain in 1981. As with this latest plot in Germany, both attempts to seize power failed miserably.

by Blazingcatfur•December 8, 2022December 7, 2022•0•Germany

German police arrest 25 suspects in plot to overthrow state

In a nationwide raid, 25 suspected members and supporters of a terrorist organization were arrested early Wednesday.

Officials said the network, part of a wider right-wing movement, was already well established with a concrete plan to overthrow the German state by force and install a new government.

No beer hall?

by Blazingcatfur•December 7, 2022December 7, 2022•0•Germany

Germany backtracks on defense spending promises made after Ukraine invasion

BERLIN — Germany on Monday walked back its promise to swiftly raise defense spending to at least 2 percent of its economic output — breaching the key commitment made days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to become a more serious military force.

Berlin also sought to play down internal warnings about delays to a flagship procurement of new fighter jets.

by Blazingcatfur•December 5, 2022December 5, 2022•0•"Ukraine - Russia", Germany

I prefer Qatar’s honesty to German hypocrisy

Germany, like the rest of Europe, needs gas, but cannot get enough of it without violating its own “moral standards”

Sportswise, things didn’t go very well for Germany, but the Germans have already secured the title of world champions in moral and double standards. The political establishment in Berlin went crazy after FIFA banned the pro-LGBT ‘One Love’ headband from the World Cup in Qatar. German Economy Minister Robert Habeck of the Green Party told the German national team that they had to wear the armband anyway. Various government officials protested, including Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, who wore the “One Love” armband at the opening match in Doha.

But immediately after the “scandal”, Germany proudly announced a new mega deal on gas with none other than Qatar, an agreement that Minister Habeck described as “super”. Bayern Munich loves Qatar’s money, and German soccer stars Thomas Müller and Manuel Neuer have never publicly made a speech against sponsoring Qatar Airways.

Related … Israel’s natural gas windfall in Europe is bad news for Palestinians

by Blazingcatfur•December 4, 2022December 4, 2022•0•"Energy Matters", Germany, Israel

Germany loses patience with climate extremists

Protestors’ radical tactics are failing to win over the masses

“A red line has been crossed,” one member of the German parliament said, when it emerged that climate activists managed to break into Berlin Airport on Thursday and disrupt flight traffic for around 90 minutes.

While previous coverage of such incidents included supportive voices, this time the radicals have lost just about all sympathy, even in a country as keen to be green as Germany. Politicians from across the spectrum, climate experts and even the Green Party itself have now distanced themselves from the protests.

by Blazingcatfur•November 27, 2022November 27, 2022•0•Germany, Green-Scam

Germany: Europe’s bordello

An estimated 1.2 million men buy sex here every day

Germany is known as the bordello of Europe. It is a hard-won title. With more than 3,000 brothels across the country, and 500 in Berlin alone, its sex trade is worth more than £11 billion per year.

Prostitution, in all its forms, is legal in Germany, and has been since the end of the Second World War. Recently, though, attitudes have been changing. People and politicians are demanding that the government take notice of the “pimp state” and consider the terrible toll prostitution takes on its women and girls.

by Blazingcatfur•November 16, 2022November 16, 2022•0•Germany, Human Trafficking

Germans are dancing to stay warm this winter … Just four years after laughing at Trump

The world’s eyes have been on America this week, thanks to the midterms. Cockburn, however has been gazing across the Atlantic with amusement. A new dance class is being offered in Germany called “Let’s Move — Tanzt Euch Warm,” or “dance yourselves warm,” to combat rising energy costs as the temperature falls.

by Blazingcatfur•November 12, 2022November 12, 2022•0•"Ukraine - Russia", Germany, Trump Derangement Syndrome