Germany – Page 42 – Blazingcatfur

Dozens of New Year attacks on Berlin firefighters

Berlin’s fire department on Sunday said its emergency crews had been attacked 38 times as the city rang in the New Year.

There were attacks in other parts of the county as well as numerous instances of revelers being injured as many Germans celebrated with their first turn-of-year firework displays since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

In a series of incidents in Berlin, 15 emergency responders were injured with one of them needing hospital treatment.

The police department said 18 of its officers had been hurt in the unrest.

by Blazingcatfur•January 1, 2023January 1, 2023•0•"Diversity", "Islamophobia", Germany

Lützerath: How Germany’s energy crisis reignited coal

Germany had been winding down its brown coal production. Then an energy crisis hit. Now, thousands of people have promised to resist January plans to demolish a village and dig up the coal beneath it.

“If this village goes, then Germany’s 1.5-degrees commitment to the Paris Agreement goes, as well.”

It’s an October afternoon in a rural corner of western Germany, the village of Lützerath in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). The morning rain clouds have moved out, and the sun is glistening off the damp grass and leaves in the small meadow where we’re walking.

by Blazingcatfur•December 29, 2022December 29, 2022•0•"Energy Matters", "Environmentalists", Germany

Germany’s shattered illusions

The complacency of the German elites was exposed for all to see this year.

In late February, just days after Russia invaded Ukraine, German chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that we had arrived at a historical turning point (Zeitenwende). It was a much-praised speech at the time. Scholz appeared to be signalling that Germany would have to change its ways. It could no longer depend on Russian gas or believe that peace in Europe would be permanent. It was time for Germany to get real. It needed to build up its energy capabilities and start investing in its military.

Ten months on and the courage and determination expressed in the Zeitenwende speech has all but disappeared.

Interesting Pipeline report.

The dog that didn’t bark in the night: The Western governments’ and media’s strange lack of interest in finding out who blew up the Nord Stream gas pipelines. pic.twitter.com/uo65cVHgVD

— George Szamuely (@GeorgeSzamuely) December 27, 2022

by Blazingcatfur•December 29, 2022December 28, 2022•0•Germany

German double agent ‘passed Ukraine intelligence to Russia’

Germany’s spy agency fears that Moscow was able to turn one of its agents in the months following the outbreak of war in Ukraine, it has emerged.

The agent, who worked for Germany’s foreign intelligence service, the BND, is believed to have had access to secret information about the Ukraine war from Britain’s GCHQ spy agency and the National Security Agency (NSA) in the US.

The alleged double agent, identified only as Carsten L in accordance with German privacy regulations, was arrested on suspicion of treason in Berlin last Wednesday. He was remanded in custody after appearing before a judge.

by Blazingcatfur•December 27, 2022December 26, 2022•0•"Ukraine - Russia", Espionage, Germany

Bitter legacy of Stasi spy who put party over family

Fifty Christmasses ago a 15-year-old boy and his father slipped into the nerve centre of the West German government, dispensing presents of wine and cognac to the doorkeeper and the caretaker.

In the darkness they walked together through the half-deserted corridors, stopping to look in on the cabinet room and the few senior officials who were still at their desks on Christmas Eve. It was one of their last happy shared memories.

Sixteen months later the father, Günter Guillaume — the right-hand man to Willy Brandt, the country’s hugely charismatic chancellor — was arrested and convicted of spying for East Germany’s secret police, the Stasi.

by Blazingcatfur•December 26, 2022December 26, 2022•0•Communism, Communists, Espionage, Germany

Germany’s Energy Crisis Is a Cue to Chop Wood and Stock Up

The high cost of natural gas and electricity is prompting many to prepare for outages and shortages. For some, it’s been a way of life for years.

Tightly stacked cords of wood line the side of a couple’s home in southern Germany, while another family farther north has lined their basement with shelves stacked with pasta, rice, cooking oil and cans of chickpeas, lentils and tomatoes.

In central Germany, a man long wary of relying on the government has ensured that he can make it through weeks without power or heat; he’s filled his attic with coolers to hold food, along with a camping stove, gas canisters and solar power equipment to keep the lights on and stay connected online. Others brave the chilly waters of a local lake for a daily dip, forgoing a hot shower at home.

by Blazingcatfur•December 26, 2022December 25, 2022•0•"Energy Matters", Germany

“Mental Illness” Ruse Fails – Mohammedan Jailed 14 Years For Terror Attack On German Train

The 28-year-old pulled a knife on four passengers on a high-speed train in the southern state of Bavaria last November. The trial focused on whether his attack was motivated by Islamic extremism or schizophrenia.

… Presiding judge Jochen Boesl rejected a defense of mental illness on the basis of seven expert evaluations and identified a jihadist motive for the crime.

Boesl said the defendant had frequently listened to radio programs “with Islamist content” and from May 2021 “at the latest” began envisioning “taking part in jihad, or armed combat.”

“These views led him to this act,” Boesl said. “He wanted to kill non-Muslim passengers because they were in his view non-believers and thus had no right to live.”

by Blazingcatfur•December 23, 2022December 23, 2022•0•"Islamophobia", Germany, Islam, Islam and violence, Islamization of the West

Germany arrests intelligence employee suspected of sharing secrets with Russia

German authorities said on Thursday they had arrested an employee of the foreign intelligence service BND, on suspicion of the person sharing state secrets with Russia this year and thereby committing treason.

Police arrested the suspect, a German citizen identified as Carsten L, on Wednesday, in Berlin, the federal prosecutors office said, adding that the police also raided his flat and workplace as well as those of another person.

“The accused is suspected of state treason,” federal prosecutors said in a statement. “In 2022, he shared information that he came by in the course of his work with a Russian intelligence agency. The content is considered a state secret.”

by Blazingcatfur•December 23, 2022December 22, 2022•0•Espionage, Germany, Russia

Head of Major German Manufacturer Warns of ‘Deindustrialisation‘ Risk

Nikolas Stihl, the head of the chainsaw manufacturing company Stihl, has wanted that Germany may be on the verge of deindustrialisation as surging costs — pushed by the energy crisis — and other factors are affecting entrepreneurs.

According to Mr Stihl, chair of the Stihl Group Advisory and Supervisory Board, Germany could be at a tipping point that could lead to deindustrialisation in the country as it becomes less and less attractive as a location for industrial manufacturing and other businesses.

by Blazingcatfur•December 21, 2022December 20, 2022•0•"Energy Matters", Germany

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