DDR or Third Reich, which would you choose?

Posted by Dan Dare on March 12, 2010, 05:41 PM | #

Looking forward to your review Dasein.  On first view it does look a little on the melodramatic side which would be a pity since the theme of a re-divided Germany is an interesting one which could make for compelling television.

I was poking around on the Sat.1 site and came across this area where they have have a series of online polls. On March 10 the question was posed ” What would you do if only extreme-left and extreme-right candidates were standing for election?”

38% would vote extreme-left, 38% wouldn’t vote at all, and 24% would vote extreme-right. We’ve seen similar poll results before and it does beg the question as to why the NPD generally performs so dismally in elections. A similar scenario also exists in the UK where the BNP’s policies are considerably more popular than the party itself.

What would you put the situation in Germany down to?

Posted by Dasein on March 12, 2010, 07:02 PM | #

Dan,

I think much of the problem lies with, as Fred calls them, clueless women voters.  Women are less than half as likely to vote NPD, and make up only around 15% of its membership.  The NPD is trying to find new ways to attract women, but you’re really swimming upstream pushing a nationalist message when feminism is so rampant.  The best example of this runaway feminism is the trend towards Sitzen-Pinkeln.  What could be more degrading than to see this pasted on a toilet?

[IMG]http://i760.photobucket.com/albums/xx249/Aletheia14/Sitzenpinkeln.jpg[/IMG]

Women are just not cut out for nationalist politics.  It goes against their nature, which is to be sympathetic.  There was a video of Swedish skinheads I saw a few days back on YouTube, and they were discussing foreigners in Sweden.  The women were sympathising with the immigrants, finding reasons to take their side.  Nationalists are fighting, essentially, with one hand that trying to restrain the other.  I don’t know how the NSDAP were able to get women votes, or what that percentage was, but that’s one element of their success worthy of study.

Another problem, I believe, is that elections are so close, and the representational system here does work so well, that people are hesitant to waste a vote on a fringe party.  This is one of the things I sometimes argue with my wife about during election time.

And finally, the entire political and media establishment unites to demonise the far right.

I guess only the second reason is really unique to Germany, compared to the UK.  And, as far as I’ve seen, there is no Sitzen-Pinkeln movement.  When you start seeing those stickers, you know your country is f***ed

Posted by onetwothree on March 12, 2010, 07:35 PM | #

*I don’t know how the NSDAP were able to get women votes*

Women found Hitler attractive.  Supposedly, even some Jewish women swooned at him.  I think, ultimately, they like the marching and uniforms and stiff poses and jackboots.  Hard to look like that now without look ridiculous.

Posted by Dan Dare on March 12, 2010, 08:28 PM | #

... [By] the November [1932] Reichstag election the gap between male and female voting support for the NSDAP had narrowed almost to vanishing point. Women were just as likely to find the prospect of a Hitler dictatorship an attractive one. Kershaw, Hubris 408-9

Kershaw also notes that women in general had been much less likely than men to vote in earlier elections for the radical or ‘scarier’ factions whether right or left, so the fact the NSDAP had been able to re-brand itself as being safe enough for women is certainly worthy of study.

Probably as much as anything it’s a matter of style rather than substance. We can echoes of this Die Grenze in contrasting the suave and debonair charm of Maximilian Schnell, leader of the ‘far-right’ DNS with the slightly dishevelled and charm-free ex-Commie firebrand leading the leftists.

It’s worth noting as well that in Britain until quite recently the Conservatives had traditionally enjoyed a majority of the female vote, especially during the Thatcher years. Thatcher was not personally liked but was seen by women as a ‘safe pair of hands’ compared to the swivel-eyed doctrinaire Labour ideologues in opposition.

Posted by jamesUK on March 12, 2010, 10:34 PM | #

@Dasein

What could be more degrading than to see this pasted on a toilet?

What a javlin thrower taking a piss. I don’t get it.

Posted by Grimoire on March 13, 2010, 12:47 AM | #

interesting points to absorb and store. That ‘appeal to women’ is crucial. Very interesting.

Posted by Flossie on March 16, 2010, 02:17 PM | #

James—- That’s not a javelin but a strike-thru indicating
urinating from a standing position is prohibited. Like this:

Or maybe you were being facetious? It’s hard to know.

Posted by Fred Scrooby on May 01, 2010, 02:31 PM | #

A comment for Germans only:

Of the many Preußen Gloria videos on YouTube (the “Preußen Gloria” march music) this is the best:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pyqOTGQpVY .

Posted by jamesUK on May 01, 2010, 05:07 PM | #

Actually is this not the same Germany who supported this in the Balkans.

http://de-construct.net/?p=7609

http://de-construct.net/?p=6690

Will Bosnia collapse? Let’s hope so.

It would be good if MR did a post on Bosnia (although it won’t) I have a couple of video about ethnic division in Bosnia between Serbs, Croats and Muslims with the Croats and Serbs wanting to separate state. 

I was actually going to email Sunic about this.

@Flossie

Yes I was joking. I was originally going to say Moses taking a piss which might be more apt of 20th Centaury cultural warfare against European states but I can’t say that Western Europe was ever really Christian.