Germany 1933

February 2, 2005 12:48 PM

Ahhhh Germany 1933 German unemployment surged to 5.04 million, the highest since the 1993 and the dark days surrounding the rise of Adolf Hitler, according to data released on Wednesday by the Federal Labour Office. Ominous sign of things to come?
posted by halekon (41 comments total)

Obviously. Germans have some genetic disposition to choosing sides and wearing armbands once the unemployment rate hits a certain level.
posted by Mayor Curley at 12:51 PM on February 2, 2005

And walking REALLY funny.
posted by jscott at 12:57 PM on February 2, 2005

If you see Koehler or Schroeder in a silly little mustache, look out.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 1:01 PM on February 2, 2005

What Mayor Curly said. There are a thousand reasons why this is not 1933, and German is a close enough ally that you should be able to see it as more than the Nazi Reich.
posted by gesamtkunstwerk at 1:01 PM on February 2, 2005

How do you expect Germany to invade Poland, now that they are both EU members?
posted by b1tr0t at 1:01 PM on February 2, 2005

I was under the impression that this time it's the Americans whining about the stab in the back
posted by matteo at 1:02 PM on February 2, 2005

Ominous sign of things to come?

no
posted by TBoneMcCool at 1:04 PM on February 2, 2005

As an interesting side note: just as unemployment makes Germans into Nazis, high air pollution turns Canadians into Russian Tsars.
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 1:04 PM on February 2, 2005

Yeah, ominous signs of an incoming assault on the labor unions and labor laws. Not to mention a growing hatred of immigrants 'stealing' jobs and a growing distrust between western and eastern Germans. Next.
posted by Vaska at 1:05 PM on February 2, 2005

This article really opens with a proof-reading bang:

"German unemployment surged to 5.04 million, the highest since the 1993 and the dark days surrounding the rise of Adolf Hitler..."

I assume they mean 1933 there...and maybe they are implying that a King King remake is in the works? Wait, what else happened in 1933?
posted by tpl1212 at 1:06 PM on February 2, 2005

Oh dear lord, "King King" should most certainly be "King Kong." Proof-reading indeed. I call my bluff.
posted by tpl1212 at 1:07 PM on February 2, 2005

This article really opens with a proof-reading bang:

The Grauniad once ran an article about a football match between Nuremberg and another European team where the writer noted that the other team won "despite a last minute Nuremberg rally".

</tangent>
posted by Armitage Shanks at 1:16 PM on February 2, 2005

Man oh man. I live in Germany, and fascism here is about the last thing anyone in the USA should be worried about. The Germans are way too busy self-flagellating, still paying for the Holocaust in their consciences (best link I can find in English, meaning not very good, but come and check out the many reminders posted here in Berlin, for example, or just come up and ask a German about "German patriotism").

No, I think that aside from the obvious USA Bush-is-a-fascist comment that I won't make, finding fascism is a bit easier up north. (And of course not just there...)
posted by sninky-chan at 1:17 PM on February 2, 2005

Sninky, can you translate that sign for us? I know 'Juden' and... um... 'Juden'
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 1:26 PM on February 2, 2005

TPL, I was irritated over the same thing.
But if we play it right, we can make "Back in the 1993" acceptable slang.
posted by dougunderscorenelso at 1:26 PM on February 2, 2005

This post makes my brains hurt on multiple levels with careless mistakes and terrible logic.

It was sunny the day before an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs.

It's sunny today.

Run for your life!
posted by santiagogo at 1:27 PM on February 2, 2005

JKF: "Join us in reading the names of 50K murdered Berlin Jews."
posted by AlexReynolds at 1:29 PM on February 2, 2005

Added to which, the unemployment figures in Germany and the USA are difficult to compare. Unemployment is counted as the number of people claiming unemployment benefit, and the benefits are far more generous in Germany.
posted by salmacis at 1:29 PM on February 2, 2005

How are 5.04 million unemployed? I thought they all were being forced to become hookers.
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 1:40 PM on February 2, 2005

maybe they are implying that a King Kong remake is in the works?

Why, yes they are! I love the original, though.

My German friends are all extremely sensitive about the history of their country -- they are deeply shamed by it. Nazi symbolism is currently banned by German law. The Germans have asked the EU to follow suit.
posted by casu marzu at 1:45 PM on February 2, 2005

No, but they're making oustanding movies about it.
posted by muckster at 1:59 PM on February 2, 2005

Unemployment is counted as the number of people claiming unemployment benefit

This is not the case in the US. See here. Generally, unemployment figures are measured primarily by survey, not by benefit payouts. I'm not exactly sure what the case is in Germany, but I would be very surprised if they differed in this aspect.

The main difficulty in comparing international unemployment rates comes in the varying definitions of what constitutes unemployment (with respect to eligible workforce, discouraged workers, marginally attached workers, etc...). It is widely considered that the US uses a more stringent definition of unemployment than European countries; in other words, people who would be counted in the unemployment rate in Europe would be not be in the US. You can see a comparison of different measures of unemployment (in the US) here. The US uses U-3 as the unemployment rate, whereas I've heard that European countries' definitions of unemployment tend closer to U-4, U-5, or U-6.
posted by mhum at 1:59 PM on February 2, 2005

So, is this the run-up to an anti-German campaign? Now that we've grown tired of hating the French we need a new target.
posted by elwoodwiles at 2:06 PM on February 2, 2005

That's a lot of hookers, Steve@. Too many hookers means lower prices. Germany here I come!
posted by graventy at 2:07 PM on February 2, 2005

good link mhum...but damn near impossible to read the data without squinting...or maybe that's just my resolution funking things up again....
posted by Numenorian at 2:20 PM on February 2, 2005

Germany's population in 1930 was 62 million. It's about 82 million these days.
posted by i_cola at 2:22 PM on February 2, 2005

Peter: So I’m sitting in my cubicle today and I realized that ever since I started working, every day in my life has been worse than the day before it. So that means that every single day you see me, that's on the worse day of my life.
posted by fleacircus at 2:24 PM on February 2, 2005

This post makes my brains hurt on multiple levels with careless mistakes and terrible logic.

It was sunny the day before an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs.

It's sunny today.

Run for your life!

No, but look, there are so many other comparisons between now and 1933. Germany is being forced to pay huge compensation to the victorious Allies....German pride is at an all time low after recent humiliating military defeats....inflation has destroyed everyone's savings....the Communists are rampaging through the streets....

We're about five minutes away from a fascist takeover in Germany. Tops.
posted by Infinite Jest at 4:02 PM on February 2, 2005

AlexReynolds: Thanks.
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 4:21 PM on February 2, 2005

I just can't think of anything snarky to say. halekon, you're a moron.
posted by delmoi at 4:24 PM on February 2, 2005

War is good for the economy. It's just how you handle it after winning..
posted by sled at 4:36 PM on February 2, 2005

How are 5.04 million unemployed? I thought they all were being forced to become hookers.

No, Steve; so you can cancel that ticket to Hamburg.
posted by riviera at 1:43 AM on February 3, 2005

There's more chance of a hardcore authoritarian social conservative getting elected in American than in Germany, and even that's pretty unlikely!
posted by Kleptophoria! at 7:55 AM on February 3, 2005

Paris is a hypocrite whose cognitive dissonance knows no bounds. Ignore him. He never has anything intelligent, constructive, nor even coherent to add to threads that are even tangentially related to politics in any way shape or form.

As for Germany, allow me to present the Schuman Plan of 1950, outlining the purpose of the European Coal and Steel Commission, the predecessor of the current European Union, which shares both it's methodology and intent.
posted by Freen at 1:27 PM on February 3, 2005

Freen, WTF?
posted by ParisParamus at 1:40 PM on February 3, 2005

Yikes. Well, the same is true for Steve@Linwood, who I not surprisingly mistook your you Paris as your tone of late in political threads seems to be the spitting image of each other.

It is at times like this I wish I could delete a comment.

In any event, my statement is still true about you, Paris. Your "WTF" is still called for however, and so I offer my humblest apologies for upbraiding you out of place. I'll reserve this comment for the next time you decide to drop a turd in some thread.

Also, the critical element in the link I posted about the Shuman Plan is this:

"The solidarity in production thus established will make it plain that any war between France and Germany becomes not merely unthinkable, but materially impossible. The setting up of this powerful productive unit, open to all countries willing to take part and bound ultimately to provide all the member countries with the basic elements of industrial production on the same terms, will lay a true foundation for their economic unification."
posted by Freen at 1:52 PM on February 3, 2005

er... Should be: "who I mistook for you, Paris, as your tone of late"
posted by Freen at 1:53 PM on February 3, 2005

But Steve@Linwood isn't in this thread either.
posted by ParisParamus at 2:17 PM on February 3, 2005

How are 5.04 million unemployed? I thought they all were being forced to become hookers.

posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 4:40 PM EST on February 2
posted by Freen at 2:26 PM on February 3, 2005

meh. Oh well, goes to show you, inebriation and internet do not mix. Later everyone. I'm off to booze someplace in meatspace.
posted by Freen at 2:28 PM on February 3, 2005

Oh man, is that funny.
posted by sonofsamiam at 2:50 PM on February 3, 2005