Germany in 2013, a political sketch
May 31, 2013 12:53 PM   Subscribe

"[Peer Steinbrück, the chancellor-candidate] is a good man, with quite a bold programme for ‘social justice’. Tax increases for the better-off, a proper minimum wage, dual citizenship for immigrants, less elbowing individualism and more solidarity in a society where das Wir entscheidet – ‘it’s the we that counts.’ The German public, surprisingly, mostly agree that increasing taxes is a sound idea. What they resent is that the idea comes from the SPD. In the same way, the Augsburg programme is widely thought to make sense, but the voters don’t fancy Peer Steinbrück. They are pissed off with Angela Merkel’s governing coalition, but reluctant to let go of Mutti’s hand. In short, the public are in one of those sullen, unreasonable moods which make politicians despair." The LRB reports from Germany. [via]
posted by rollick (20 comments total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
Not to derail, but

To see contented localism, I went to the ancient town of Schwäbisch Hall. An old friend, the veteran SPD politician Erhard Eppler, showed me round the place which has been his home for almost all his life. Here was the window he jumped out of as a schoolboy to escape the SS recruiters.

I never entirely believed it was true, but my father claimed to have had a very similar experience less than 100km away from there. He said that the boys his age were basically trapped in a room and given the impression that the only way out was to "volunteer" to join the SS. Instead, they too exited through a window.
posted by Slothrup at 1:01 PM on May 31, 2013


Are there any political parties in Germany right now that don't believe in squeezing the EU periphery (Greece, Spain, etc) for all they're worth? That seems to be the most important German question on the international front.
posted by ishrinkmajeans at 1:05 PM on May 31, 2013


I'm from the US, and I know this is a pretty USy site, but I love meaty local politics stuff from non-US countries. Our press is so bad here that we never hear of this stuff. Thanks for posting.
posted by nevercalm at 1:14 PM on May 31, 2013 [7 favorites]


Seconding nevercalm's comment. This is excellent.
posted by AdamCSnider at 1:15 PM on May 31, 2013


I'm from the US, and I know this is a pretty USy site, but I love meaty local politics stuff from non-US countries. Our press is so bad here that we never hear of this stuff.

Although, it's a Scots Etonian commenting... if the British understood German politics, the 20th century would have been very different. The whole "heimat" tangent strikes me as yetanother attempt to delve into the mysteries of the dark heart of the continent. This, however, encapsulates much in a nutshell:
A hard, handsome man with a taste for money and powerful friends, he [Schroeder] now watches bitterly as his successor, Merkel, takes the credit for the economic revival that followed. ‘I don’t think it would be unfair to her to say that she has added nothing,’ he said a few weeks ago. But both would agree that Agenda 2010 – the radical remodelling of postwar welfare states on neoliberal lines – should be copied all over Europe. Ronald Reagan did it, Thatcher and Tony Blair did it, Germany did it – so why can’t François Hollande do it? The fact that the global bank disaster scarcely touched Germany, with its strictly controlled banking system, means that its politicians, from Merkel to Steinbrück, don’t empathise with foreign doubts about the infallible free market.
We are in the twilight of the neoliberal era, the question is: what comes next?
posted by ennui.bz at 1:26 PM on May 31, 2013


one of those sullen, unreasonable moods

Kind of like US Congress. Tell us the German word for that. Funkenspittin?
posted by surplus at 1:28 PM on May 31, 2013


We are in the twilight of the neoliberal era, the question is: what comes next?

You really think so? I hope you're right.
posted by clockzero at 1:30 PM on May 31, 2013


The fact that the global bank disaster scarcely touched Germany, with its strictly controlled banking system, means that its politicians, from Merkel to Steinbrück, don’t empathise with foreign doubts about the infallible free market.

Is this deliberate irony?
posted by col_pogo at 1:40 PM on May 31, 2013 [3 favorites]


We are in the twilight of the neoliberal era, the question is: what comes next?

Sadly, I disagree. It feels to me quite like it's just ramping up. We're on the cusp of whether it fails or not. But short of bankers and representatives swinging from light poles, I don't think it will ever end. Even then, they'll just bring the hammer down harder.
posted by nevercalm at 1:45 PM on May 31, 2013


Steinbrueck, as finance minister, gave 18 billion euro to Commerzbank. I guess that's because he's a "good man, with quite a bold programme for ‘social justice‘", and "the global bank disaster scarcely touched Germany".

I'm sorry, but this is a very shallow article.

Steinbrueck won't get elected (and he knows it, because he's not actiing like he gives a damn). I predict he'll get some cushy job in finance sometimes in 2014.
posted by dhoe at 2:11 PM on May 31, 2013 [2 favorites]


We are in the twilight of the neoliberal era

Frankly, that seems like a wishful leap from the excerpt you quoted. Then again, Merkel and Schroeder's assumption that the unfettered free market is the best thing going based on Germany having weathered the banking crisis is a pretty big leap itself. As col_pogo pointed out, if anything the opposite is true.
posted by dry white toast at 2:12 PM on May 31, 2013


-one of those sullen, unreasonable moods

--Kind of like US Congress. Tell us the German word for that. Funkenspittin?

Missvergnügen
posted by chillmost at 2:14 PM on May 31, 2013 [1 favorite]


Germany having weathered the banking crisis is a pretty big leap itself. As col_pogo pointed out, if anything the opposite is true

But the "banking crisis" was really a "credit crisis". Germany came out well not because its banks did a better job of evaluating risk -- if anything, the opposite was true -- but because Germans have a predisposition to avoid reliance on credit. In fact, it was this very predisposition that forced German banks to look for places outside Germany to get returns on their capital.

Places like Spain, Greece and the United States had economic booms in the mid 2000s which were driven almost entirely by the availability of cheap credit.
posted by Slothrup at 2:57 PM on May 31, 2013


We are in the twilight of the neoliberal era, the question is: what comes next?

But I think one of the important points one can get from this article is that it depends on where you are sitting. From the German perspective, the neoliberal era is hitting its peak, in some ways. I'm reminded of something an Austrian friend told me a few (Jesus, I guess it's been about ten, now) years ago: "Pop culture in Germany is always about thirty years behind America." Maybe the same thing is true of economic ideology, and they're just now hitting their 90's.

but because Germans have a predisposition to avoid reliance on credit.

Yeah, the article mentions (briefly) the cultural interest in saving rather than buying real estate or playing with stocks, and the popularity of the Sparkassen - I used one of those in Austria, and can see the attraction. There's a strong emphasis on community integration.
posted by AdamCSnider at 4:32 PM on May 31, 2013


I thought his description of re-Unification was good. It certainly jibes with my (outsiders) experience of it :

The two societies had slowly diverged, becoming other and alien to each other in ways which were not all propaganda. And when the West Germans won that war and annexed East Germany (the best word for it), the aftermath was uncannily like Reconstruction after the American Civil War. Here was repeated the economic collapse, the inrush of greedy carpetbaggers from the victorious West, the purging of an entire elite from management, teaching and social leadership, the abolition of institutions and, of course, the liberation of the slaves – this time, into mass unemployment. It was a long time ago now. The tall young women cycling to university lectures in Leipzig or Rostock were born after the Wall came down. But, to go by the history of the American South, the cultural bitterness, economic lag and political distinctness will last for some generations. And, if Eppler is right about Ossi immunity to self-questioning about the German past, eastern Germany will continue to be the main source of racial violence and neo-Nazi conspiracy.

I don't know how much it was like Reconstruction but I've met more than a few people who went to the 'East' from the 'West' to help rebuild for not entirely philanthropic reasons. What's missing from this one-paragraph break down is the influence of (predominantly) Russian 'business'men who came with the 'Westerners' and acted in rigorously bad face, costing a lot of people a lot of money - promising jobs and buildings and factories that they had no intention of building, but simply taking development funds and running.
posted by From Bklyn at 12:29 AM on June 1, 2013 [1 favorite]


The fact that the global bank disaster scarcely touched Germany, with its strictly controlled banking system, means that its politicians, from Merkel to Steinbrück, don’t empathise with foreign doubts about the infallible free market.

Is this deliberate irony?


actually "strictly controlled banking system" and "infallible free market" used to constitute a pleonasm before Americans went insane.
posted by lastobelus at 4:42 AM on June 1, 2013


lastobelus: if by pleonastic you mean, more or less, tautological, then I'm not sure what you're saying. That the "free market" is no longer considered infallible in America? Because it certainly still is in many quarters (see e.g. this video from Stanford's charming John B Taylor, blaming America's sluggish growth on excessive (!!) government intervention in the economy).

Also, from one or two references upthread, I'm not sure I made my point very clearly. What I meant to imply was that having a "strictly controlled banking system" implies a recognition that free markets are fallible.
posted by col_pogo at 9:34 PM on June 1, 2013


Missvergnügen

Ah. The opposite of Fahrvergnügen.
posted by surplus at 8:11 AM on June 2, 2013


I think the opposite of 'Fahrvergnügen' would more closely be 'Stehenbleibenvergnügen' or even, maybe 'Stauvergnügen.'
posted by From Bklyn at 10:37 AM on June 2, 2013


actually "strictly controlled banking system" and "infallible free market" used to constitute a pleonasm before Americans went insane.
posted by lastobelus


Thanks, lastobelus, for my word of the day. Pleonasm is awesome.
posted by nevercalm at 2:06 PM on June 2, 2013


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