KULTURKAMPF TEIL ZWEI
As students of history will know, Germany already had a species of what we would translate as the culture wars. Here the culture wars deal with addressing our history and our various forms of interaction now. For instance, should we be debunking myths associated with the Alamo, or is the myth more important than the actual history? Blah, blah, blah. Personally, I see the American "culture wars" as just another excuse for the right wing, controlling all three branches of government, as well as the largest news channel in the country to act like an oppressed minority. Not very interesting.
However, the Germans are showing us how to fight a REAL culture war. As some of you may know, and most of you ought to know, Otto von Bismark executed what was known as the Kulturkampf in Germany from 1870 to about 1887. This conflict was fundamentally about Bismark trying to break the Roman Catholic Church's power in the new empire the (Protestant) Germans had created. The linked article lays the issues out pretty clearly, but suffice it to say for our purposes that Bismark had imposed a new political order on the Catholic lands in southern Germany and was looking to impose a level of state control on them common in the northern Lutheran lands. The Kampf ended in a draw, with the Church regaining some of what Bismark took, and the Catholic Center Party gaining enormous influence, but the Church losing interest in political showdowns in Germany through the Nazi era.
Anyway, the current incarnation of Germany has been trying to assimilate a semi-foreign population since the country was united in 1989. This population is the 17 million or so East Germans from the German Democratic Republic. There has been a simmering discontent with the standardization of German life on West German lines, completely wiping away everything from East Germany. This was true for everything from the figure on the walk/don't walk signs, to the name of the country (the Federal Republic of Germany, as the west had been previously). In reaction, some people have been swept up in what is called "Ostalgie." Ost is German for "east" and "algie" is the second half of "nostaglie," or nostalgia. Them Germans is clever. Anyway, an good example of Ostalgie can be found here. On the left column are "new, good day, goods & design, commercials & ads, money, documents, and music." Each of these has examples of old East German stuff, with some having subcategories on the far right of the screen.
Anyway, all of that was just to get to the good story in today's Washington Post about a German business man who wants to rebuild the Stadtschloss (City Palace) in Berlin. We knocked it pretty far down in 1944 and 1945, but the Communists really delivered the coup de grace in 1950, leveling the palace to its foundations and removing the stones. You can see what the castle looked like through time here. Apparently he wants to rebuild in the later nineteenth century style.
Now, if you are still reading, you are probably thinking, "this a-hole needs an editor." Possibly you are more charitable and recognize that I really do have a point. Anyway, to rebuild the Stadtschloss, they would have to destroy the Palast der Republik (Palace of the Republic). This is a modern building built by the Communists to house their parliament and as a centerpiece of the modernity of the socialist state. The idea of destroying this building has been taken as the latest attack on the 40 years people spent in East Germany by certain (former) East Germans. In response, they have posted this web page. Now, clue one if you want to fight a culture war: your web page ought to be nicer than a Geocities page. Clue two: if you insist on including foreign language material, don't make it Denglish like, "this in Europe uniquely mature, culture-historic valuable building is in danger. Responsible German politicians would like to destroy it for political reasons. Here you want to have influence? You can recommend as a simple possibility these page-sides. So you help in the obstruction of this culture barbarism and moving new German history toretain as well as to develop." Um. OK.
THE REAL CULTURE WAR
Finally, today is the anniversary of the Waco incident, as well as the OKC bombing (among other things). The Chicago Tribune, that leftist rag, ran an article today highlighting the threat that white supremist survivalist types still pose. The Trib reports that down in the Republica de Tejas, the FBI found remote-controlled bombs, machine guns and silencers, containers of hydrochloric, nitric and acetic acids, and more than 800 grams of sodium cyanide.
New rule. Be suspicious of anyone dressed like a cracker in a big city. They're probably up to no good.
As students of history will know, Germany already had a species of what we would translate as the culture wars. Here the culture wars deal with addressing our history and our various forms of interaction now. For instance, should we be debunking myths associated with the Alamo, or is the myth more important than the actual history? Blah, blah, blah. Personally, I see the American "culture wars" as just another excuse for the right wing, controlling all three branches of government, as well as the largest news channel in the country to act like an oppressed minority. Not very interesting.
However, the Germans are showing us how to fight a REAL culture war. As some of you may know, and most of you ought to know, Otto von Bismark executed what was known as the Kulturkampf in Germany from 1870 to about 1887. This conflict was fundamentally about Bismark trying to break the Roman Catholic Church's power in the new empire the (Protestant) Germans had created. The linked article lays the issues out pretty clearly, but suffice it to say for our purposes that Bismark had imposed a new political order on the Catholic lands in southern Germany and was looking to impose a level of state control on them common in the northern Lutheran lands. The Kampf ended in a draw, with the Church regaining some of what Bismark took, and the Catholic Center Party gaining enormous influence, but the Church losing interest in political showdowns in Germany through the Nazi era.
Anyway, the current incarnation of Germany has been trying to assimilate a semi-foreign population since the country was united in 1989. This population is the 17 million or so East Germans from the German Democratic Republic. There has been a simmering discontent with the standardization of German life on West German lines, completely wiping away everything from East Germany. This was true for everything from the figure on the walk/don't walk signs, to the name of the country (the Federal Republic of Germany, as the west had been previously). In reaction, some people have been swept up in what is called "Ostalgie." Ost is German for "east" and "algie" is the second half of "nostaglie," or nostalgia. Them Germans is clever. Anyway, an good example of Ostalgie can be found here. On the left column are "new, good day, goods & design, commercials & ads, money, documents, and music." Each of these has examples of old East German stuff, with some having subcategories on the far right of the screen.
Anyway, all of that was just to get to the good story in today's Washington Post about a German business man who wants to rebuild the Stadtschloss (City Palace) in Berlin. We knocked it pretty far down in 1944 and 1945, but the Communists really delivered the coup de grace in 1950, leveling the palace to its foundations and removing the stones. You can see what the castle looked like through time here. Apparently he wants to rebuild in the later nineteenth century style.
Now, if you are still reading, you are probably thinking, "this a-hole needs an editor." Possibly you are more charitable and recognize that I really do have a point. Anyway, to rebuild the Stadtschloss, they would have to destroy the Palast der Republik (Palace of the Republic). This is a modern building built by the Communists to house their parliament and as a centerpiece of the modernity of the socialist state. The idea of destroying this building has been taken as the latest attack on the 40 years people spent in East Germany by certain (former) East Germans. In response, they have posted this web page. Now, clue one if you want to fight a culture war: your web page ought to be nicer than a Geocities page. Clue two: if you insist on including foreign language material, don't make it Denglish like, "this in Europe uniquely mature, culture-historic valuable building is in danger. Responsible German politicians would like to destroy it for political reasons. Here you want to have influence? You can recommend as a simple possibility these page-sides. So you help in the obstruction of this culture barbarism and moving new German history toretain as well as to develop." Um. OK.
THE REAL CULTURE WAR
Finally, today is the anniversary of the Waco incident, as well as the OKC bombing (among other things). The Chicago Tribune, that leftist rag, ran an article today highlighting the threat that white supremist survivalist types still pose. The Trib reports that down in the Republica de Tejas, the FBI found remote-controlled bombs, machine guns and silencers, containers of hydrochloric, nitric and acetic acids, and more than 800 grams of sodium cyanide.
New rule. Be suspicious of anyone dressed like a cracker in a big city. They're probably up to no good.
posted by David at 2:10 PM
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