Germany’s parliament voted on Friday to formally accept most of a climate protection packet. The legislation aims to cut Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions to 55% of the 1990 levels by 2030.
German lawmakers voted to enshrine climate protection in law on Friday.
The new legislation will target sectors like energy, transport and housing. It aims to cut Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions to 55% of the 1990 levels by 2030. Parts of the so-called “climate packet” still need approval.
“Every minister who doesn’t stick to the goals will have to explain themselves to this chamber,” said SPD lawmaker Matthias Miersch in parliament. The law will set goals in each government department to reduce CO2 emissions.
Incentives will also be introduced for businesses and agencies who operate in an environmentally friendly way.
This could mean that flying will become more expensive, while trains will become cheaper in Germany. A CO2 traffic charge will be introduced as well as charges on businesses that produce a large amount of CO2.
The legislation will cost around €54 billion ($59.5 billion) by 2023, in part financed by these charges.
HT/Pat
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That should read climate protection racket, not packet!
54 billion more in taxes, no we get to see why govts are keen to get on board. Plus they can pretend it is all virtuous “save the planet” BS, so everyone will accept it.
I really thought Krauts had more sense.
Greg:
Germany’s “Renewable Energy Law” costs about €25B annually, without doing anything for the climate. This is just another vehicle for expropriating large sums of money from the taxpayer to “sustainable” energy concerns.
The Germans are proud that they are leading the way in matters concerning climate. They also led the way in welcoming millions of immigrants to Europe, setting the stage for insolvency a la Greece, followed by societal implosion. Perhaps they are still suffering from the trauma of their grandfathers enabling the Holocaust/WWII.
Who knows?
But eventually, ordinary citizens will rebel. Just as in France, the Yellow Vests will protest.
Bread lines will be next on the agenda.
It will be inevitable.
You can’t cut everything associated with CO2 to 55% of 1990 levels and not destroy the country. Truly amazing.
The Dictatorship of the politized “Climate”?
“If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever.
George Orwell”
Now its here, Neo-Marxism, disguised as taking care of the Climate??
Was it not the “bread lines” that propelled Hitler and the Nazi Party to the forefront of Germany’s government?
Maybe killing off two successive generations of their best young men has left the German gene pool bereft of strong-mindedness. That certainly would explain their insane re-election of Angel Merkel.
Germany is increasingly parasitizing its productive economy. They can not do other than crash.
The rebels are still here. Just look at the AFD party,getting about 25 % of the votes in Eastern Germany and 15 % to 20 % in Western Germany. But they ard branded as Nazis or Racists from the other Parties and the MSM. Interstingly, the AFD is the most Israel friendly psrty in Germany. Antifa is doing 80 % of the radical crimes in Germany, but everybody pretends to fight agsinst the Right. Any conservative is now called a Nazi or Racist. Cracy new World…
Johannes, some years ago, I met Gerd Puin at a conference on religion. He is a renowned Islamic expert in Germany.
I asked him if the problems coming from Muslim immigration into Germany would be solved. His answer was pretty much, ‘not without a civil war.’
I hope Germany sees its way successfully through whatever is coming, and that a recognizable Germany emerges from it.
The more this Weimar like idiocy goes on, the more likely that Germany will rebel and end up voting in another nasty party to clean things up.
These used to be very smart, inquiring people. WTFhappened? Did they get whacked with the dumb stick?
A German friend of mine says Germans are quite obedient. This may mean that unlike the French, they will suffer quietly whatever government extremes are imposed. The ‘governors’ know this, too. Indeed theirs is also a form of extreme obedience. Germans have already suffered more than French citizens, which at least have a large nuclear energy dominance.
Americans? Fugettabodit. They won’t put up with a tenth of what the EU folk will. This is precisely why the UN and other extra-government organizations are patently anti American. The Eurocentric Néomarxiste global plan won’t work without America in the bag.
Canada, Australia, New Zealand- they just had to send these eager-to-please folk a postcard. UK is getting out of EU but they are doubling down on their CO2 economic suicide pact and this is the nation that invented freedom, go figure!
Does Germany get any of it’s backup power from France’s nuclear grid?
Yes, Germany does get backup from France and other neighbors.
Germany currently supplying between 4 and 6GW UK up to 2GW, Spain peaking at 2GW of power to france. French reactors off line owing to an earthquake and problems with steam lines.
old construction worker November 17, 2019 at 12:27 am
Does Germany get any of it’s backup power from France’s nuclear grid?
____________________________________
+ vice-versa:
Grid crisis: Getting paid to use German power 3 Jan 2018
· Grid crisis
Getting paid to use German power.
Germany is being forced to pay other countries to take its surplus electricity because its power network can’t cope with the surge in renewables. With costs spiralling, operators, businesses and regulators are crying out for action.
https://www.google.com/search?q=germany+forcing+power+in+neighbour+states+grid&oq=germany+forcing+power+in+neighbour+states+grid&aqs=chrome.
____________________________________
Climate crisis vs Grid crisis
– who will win: them or them
But if the CO2 produced actually got lowered, they wouldn’t be collecting as much.
This has nothing to do with lowering CO2. They know it isn’t possible to do so and still have a functional economy. It’s all about collecting more Taxes.
~¿~
Schitzree, right on – when in history did we have the masses clamoring to have taxes levied on themselves.
“Climate Change” has been remarkably successful in scaring people into wanting to pay expiative taxes to absolve them of their ecological sins and unsurprisingly this bogus science has been embraced wholesale by politicians for purely exploitative purposes
It’s just too wonderful an opportunity to be passed up by the apparatchiks who are unquestionably on board with this lunacy (whether they believe it or not is immaterial) and are only too happy to keep stoking the alarmist furnaces.
Sooner or later the masses will realize they have bee played for suckers, I’m guessing the backlash will not be pretty.
jillette jaunes is just the beginning.
“I really thought Krauts had more sense.”
They want to be pure.
“Every minister who doesn’t stick to the goals will have to explain themselves to this chamber,”
…and?
But, every minister who drives his region into penury will have to explain themselves to their constituents.
Not if those ministers transfer their “loot” and themselves to a friendly SA country before the “feces hit the fans”.
If all politicians were limited to an annual number of words spoken – say 1500 max – the CO2 levels in the air would quickly drop.
Including TRUMP!!!!!!!!
Commercial Suicide.
I am amazed that the pragmatic Germans are falling for the Climate CHange/Emergency hype.
Yes, as a people, they’ve always been so resistant to mass delusion.
Historically the area of Europe we know of today as Germany was the center of the ‘Witch’ panics. Then of course there where the various Pogroms against the Jews, Hitler’s only being the most famous.
Frankly, the German people have a long history of getting it into their heads that all their problems are caused by the secret nefarious acts of others the hardly know.
Kind of makes it easier to understand the whole ‘Exxon Knew’ and ‘Well Funded Denier’ memes, doesn’t it.
~¿~
That’s the point actually, the German’s at a national level are fantasists, not pragmatists. They are up themselves with their sense of cultural/moral/intellectual superiority and have been since they gave the Romans are hard time. This will be just another reason for them to bludge off NATO and stick with about 1% GDP on defence, try to keep the US at the front line, buy off the Russians with huge gas purchases and transfer their ownership of CO2 emitting industries to China. Just a moral accounting trick.
All heil the fourth reich!
Is there a way to go short on the entire German stock market in the long term?
I could really use a “sure thing” to improve our family finances.
Just buy a Merc or two. The old well-engineered cars are going to be a rarity…
It has been a long time since Mercedes Benz made a car that is top flight in reliability (https://repairpal.com/reliability/mercedes-benz). The real German manufacturing marvel isn’t that they make good products but that they continue to perpetuate that myth with a certain segment of consumers (Germanophiles).
BC Bill, it is indeed a myth. Besides the disaster of their new warships, they have their airport and railway disasters, too.
Jan. 12, 2018
German Engineering Yields New Warship That Isn’t Fit for Sea
Navy refuses to commission frigate after it failed sea trials; critics cite fiasco in conception and execution
Jan. 12, 2018
https://www.wsj.com/articles/german-engineering-yields-new-warship-that-isnt-fit-for-sea-1515753000
Defense experts cite the warship’s buggy software and ill-considered arsenal—as well as what was until recently its noticeable list to starboard—as symptoms of deeper, more intractable problems: Shrinking military expertise and growing confusion among German leaders about what the country’s armed forces are for.
A litany of bungled infrastructure projects has tarred Germany’s reputation for engineering prowess. There is still no opening date for Berlin’s new €6 billion ($7.2 billion) airport, which is already 10 years behind schedule, and the redesign of Stuttgart’s railway station remains stalled more than a decade after work on the project started. Observers have blamed these mishaps on poor planning and project management, which also figured in major setbacks for several big military projects.
German military procurement is “one hell of a complete disaster,” said Christian Mölling, a defense-industry expert at the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin. “It will take years to sort this problem out.”
The naval fiasco, on a project with a €3 billion price tag, is particularly startling since Europe’s largest exporter relies on open and secure shipping lanes to transport its goods…
No, commercial interests will be climate legislation refugees. Expect to see expansion of German chemical companies on the Gulf coast to feed the German automotive plants in Alabama, South Carolina and Tennessee.
Sean
“Expect to see expansion of German chemical companies on the Gulf coast to feed the German automotive plants…”
If they can find qualified engineers. Not happening!
Mmm, either the pragmatic Germans are deluded or a few fringe internet bloggers are. Mmmm.
Meantime blue all but disappearing.
and a 2020 el nino could fix that last few patches.
I find it fascinating how the left automatically assumes that the politicians and bureaucracy always accurately reflect the will of the people.
Mmm, so fascinating…
one word to add to that BREXIT
And you believe it. ROFL.
God you are deluded.
Why haven’t you mentioned all those Cold Records that have been Smashed by whole degrees over the last 2 months?
”Commercial Suicide”
Not really, one could even argue that it invigorates German industry. Think about it this way, for many years now driving in any German city has been impossible unless your chariot conforms to the latest Euro category of Umwelt friendly emissions standards. And we’re not talking about just the inner city here, they have set the boundaries practically at the ‘Now Entering’ signs. Any thinking of trying to get round it, and take a chance get hit with very hefty fines. I’d imagine this has had a very positive effect on Otto Normalverbraucher’s car buying habits, and indeed the bottom line of Benz, Audi, et al ?
Same with renewables, you’re going to find that the likes of Siemens, and other notable German producers of electrical gear, are hip deep in the manufacture of much of the gubbins associated with windmills and such. Its been a tremendous success for them judging by the sheer amount of renewable crap dotted around Europe. They’ve not even had to cope with the peaks and troughs of renewable production, being in the centre of Europe they’ve simply adopted the practice of using the grids of their neighbours as either sinks or reservoirs.
Germany at the heart of Europe will always have a huge effect on the economy and mores of Europe as a whole. And just like Japan, having tried the armoured fist and failed big style, they have discovered that commerce is a far more effective way to exert influence. The Germans probably thanks to Hitlers shadow which still seems to be hanging around, have opted to add a Scheinheilig colour to their coat, in making a commercial gain appear to be a penance 🙂
Read about Broken Window Fallacy.
So if you are living in Germany, just burn your car to invigorate German industry. And your home too, to boost growth even more.
It’s so important, it can wait 11 years.
Isn’t the world supposed to end in 12 years? That’s what American greens are saying publicly.
Yea, that was a year ago.
Hah, ha, ha.
But there will follow a very controverse discussion about the proposed distance of 1.000 m distance between residentials and windmills.
Germany’s Altmaier defends wind distance rule as opposition grows
Simple resolution KG. Tear down any housing too close to the windmills. Force all rural residents into high-rise flats in congested city centers. Because climate change. There’s no reason to have people out there. What? Farms you say? Why do we need that?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxuNpVEdJrw&feature=youtu.be
Wind power experience from a general practitioner in Ostfriesland. July 2019
Germany is technically in a recession with a car industry heading for Detroit status according to the head of VW. With one of the highest electricity prices in the world this is having a heavy impact on its industry – and then they sign up to this!
Personally I don’t care as it allows other countries a chance to shine and speeds up the collapse of the EU. The only thing that propped up the EU during the last financial crisis was Germany. This will not happen again.
You seem to have forgotten the UK, it’s financial contribution was also very large.
Plus it provided a large Market for their goods.
If so, it is looking very well on it… in Berlin 2 weeks ago there was building everywhere, new U-bahn line going in… I was last there 2 years ago and still seems to be as much activity.
The public transport is cheap, streets are safe, people pleasant.
Hi griff. Do stop lying.
Chaswarnertoo
Be sure of this: griff doesn’t lie here. I know because… I’m living at the place he writes about.
Do you?
Best greetings from quite near Berlin
J.-P. D.
P.S. You should stay for a while in Paris, and compare. You’ll wonder.
He does not lie, ok, but he has no clue at all about reality.
And as you live only “near Berlin” 😀 😀 😀
No, you can’t compare to Paris, as you can’t compare French people with German people or Berlin people. No reason at all. You can’t even compare actual French lifestyle with lifestyle 50 years ago – in Paris.
And they are able to built airports 😀 😀 😀
Even The Guardian said Germany was more likely than Britain to go into recession post-brexit.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/jan/08/its-not-brexit-britain-most-likely-to-suffer-recession-its-germany
@griff
Are they ?
Germ. Source
Crime hotspots
Berlin is one of the most dangerous cities.
@griff
Yes in Berlin is a lot of activity in building new quartes etc, do you have you an idea why ?
Certainely not. It’s the result of a very strong gentrification all around, A lot of quarters I knew as born in Berlin West and living there for more than 20 years have disappeared ’til now, have changed / lost their character and their aspect. You see a lot of construction fields and think, it’s fine, no, it isn’t.
Ask the people that lost their home because of these changes and aren’t able any more to pay the rent.
You have been to Berlin twice and you think you know what you are talking about, in Germany? How did you get to Germany?
How did you get to Berlin (From the UK)? The two best ways to do it are by train, or by air. Which did you chose Griff?
The car industry has a big problem with the forthcoming new EU emissions levels which they are hoping can be offset by battery cars were it not for the fact that even when given taxpayer cash nobody bar a few virtue signallers wants them. When singing the praises of increased battery car sales it is always about a percentage not an actual number. In the UK sales of hybrids and battery cars still falls below the top selling model.
Wow! What has happened to our German friends? First unrestricted mass immigration and now putting green wienie dreams into law. I wonder if Mercedes and BMW will go all in or continue to produce their wonderful cars? I previously told people to buy French wines and German cars, now I don’t know what to say.
Buy OLD cars that had fewer idiot requirements on them.
Buy French cars and German wine?
Personally I’ll stick to German Food and French Women.
^¿^
You’re close, Schitzree, as there’s an old joke that ends something like: German cars, French wine, and Italian women. I would repeat the joke but CTM always has his snipper poised over me, and I don’t want number 3.
surely the wine during the post-coital haze is a better order of things?
There is plenty more land available in Greer.
The UK National Grid currently shows 60% Fossil Fuels 14.6% Nuclear, 8% interconnectors.
The rest is from “Renewables” that include Wood Chip Burning DRAX.
Wind 3.8%
Solar 1.9%
A C Osborn
I’m in england right now, and its been a windy year, even so, wind power couldn’t power a small english town let alone the cities. London is expanding every day with new flats popping up everywhere… How will wind and solar power anything lol Also the eco wood chips come from america I believe?
The wood pellets are coming from America and Canada and the whole thing is a big joke and pure fraud.
The Obvious Biomass Emissions Error
Anthony Watts
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/02/07/the-obvious-biomass-emissions-error/
…In the name of cutting CO2 emissions, four of the six Drax generating stations were converted to burn wood chips over the last seven years, at a cost of £700 million ($1 billion). Hailed as “the biggest decarbonization project in Europe,” this facility now consumes about 9 million tons of wood pellets per year, shipped 3,000 miles from the US and Canada.
An estimated 4,600 square miles of forest are needed to feed the voracious Drax plant, with acres of forest felled each day. Replanted trees will take half a century to regrow. Despite the decarbonization claims, the CO2 emitted from the Drax plant is far greater today than when coal fuel was burned…
Guess what, at least in the USA southeast, these trees are from tree farms and get cropped roughly every 20 years for pulping. 4600 square miles is not even a tenth of the area of one small SE USA state. Tree farming is now some 70 years old, locally.
A C Osborn
“Also the eco wood chips come from america I believe?”
They do! Right up the road from me on HWY 69 North, Southeast Texas. But, I have seen a slowdown of late. Seems they couldn’t keep the chips from self-egniting in Port Arthur Texas. Locals weren’t amused lol
https://www.edfenergy.com/energy/power-station/daily-statuses
Number of units in service:11 of 16
Number of reactors in service:10 of 15
That’s 5 reactors consuming power (80MW) but delivering none. 3 reactors have been offline for 1 year +
1 tripped out on 14th November with no reason given.
That’s 2.5GW of power removed from the UK grid
Are wecs less reliable?
Auf Wiedersehen, Deutschland
All of this over the presence of only a 4/100 of one percent level of CO2 in the atmosphere. This level of CO2 in a CO2 fire extinguisher would render that extinguisher utterly ineffective so why is that atmospheric level anything but ineffective in changing the air temperature of the Earth?
This is going to negatively impact the German economy. That will undermine the European economy, which is already in trouble, so much so that the European Central Bank has effected a negative interest rate policy.
Yes, some German smokestack industries will move to countries in Eastern Europe, thus stimulating local economies, but in general this is highly destructive.
Hydrogen Power Storage & Solutions East Germany (HYPOS) is developing the largest hydrogen storage unit in Europe.
Based on an existing salt cavern in Bad Lauchstädt, Saxony-Anhalt, the project (H2 Research Cavern) is being developed by a consortium of DBI – Gastechnologisches Institut gGmbH, VNG Gasspeicher GmbH, ONTRAS Gastransport GmbH, Fraunhofer IWMS and the Institute of Mountain Mechanics GmbH.
“After the leach out, the [salt] cavern has a potential capacity of more than 50 million Nm3 working gas. When the plant is completed, it will be the largest green hydrogen storage facility in the world.”
Source: https://www.gasworld.com/salt-cavern-to-be-transformed-into-h2-facility/2016687.article
They intend to distribute using natural gas pipelines.
What could go wrong /sarc
That’s one of the goals, “leading in the world”
Do you remember Growian ?
Trying to lead the world with windmills is pretty harmless though expensive.
Trying to lead by storing massive amounts of Hydrogen in a single location and then piping it all over the countryside is beyond dangerous.
Let’s hope they catalize the H2 into a less volatile fuel.
They intend to use wind and solar for the cracking process which could resolve the energy storage issue.
If it works, it would be a first.
“Trying to lead the world with windmills is pretty harmless though expensive.”
Is it harmless or and ecological disaster in the making?
German study, wind farms in Germany alone kill 1500 tons yearly, of insects, disrupting food chain, pollination
https://docs.wind-watch.org/Interference-of-Flying-Insects-and-Wind-Parks.pdf …
Institute of Engineering and Thermodynamics
_https://www.dlr.de/tt/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-2859/_
46 Reasons why wind power can not replace fossil fuels
http://energyskeptic.com/2019/wind/
…Dead bugs and salt reduce wind power generation by 20 to 30%
(INCLUDES MOST REASON WIND IS BAD AND FUTILE)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES EMIT MORE CO2 THAN DIESEL ONES, GERMAN STUDY SHOWS
* Date: 23/04/19
http://bit.ly/2ZYdUXJ
The Clean Power Plan Will Collide With The Incredibly Weird Physics Of The Electric Grid
bit.ly/2GDxNfm
Jun 26, 2019
Why Wind Turbines Threaten Endangered Species With Extinction
http://bit.ly/2p29BNu
What a great target tor a terrorist.
Who says Trump has no influence over German policy? Germany is voluntarily gutting their economy in order to cut the US trade deficit and reduce GDP so that their current NATO contribution will exceed 2% of GDP. (Allowing for further military spending cuts).
All this talk about climate is just an elaborate cover story to save face. They don’t want to admit that they are caving to the orange man’s demands.
Right. Germany started this 20 years ago just in case “orange man” got elected president.
Who’s to say what happened twenty years ago, Foghorn? Does anybody, I say does anybody really know, son? It’s almost as crazy as people who say it was hotter in the 1930s, when nobody can possibly remember that.
Are the MORONS (CEOs) that run German companies taking money under the table? It used to be that the talented German engineers made operational decisions and had significant influence on energy policy. I guess they feel their jobs might be in jeopardy if they object.
Stupidity is rampant worldwide as is virtue signaling.
We need not impose tariffs on German ( European-built ) cars–German Industry is in self-destruct mode.
There is plenty more land available in Greer.
Test this conspiracy theory with few searches….World economy is controlled by Malthusian elitists….they finance the climate extremist agenda but actually want it to fail….so that population control is implemented….developed countries will be OK because they are already below 2 child families….but the third world will take it for the team….and Malthusians don’t want to appear to be racist….Is it as far “out there” as it seems ?
All of this will do NOTHING to change the climate, what a crock.
Where do they think the energy is going to come from. They don’t want nukes, won’t get there with wind and solar. The Germans usually are very down to Earth and demand everything be backed up. No wishy washy opinions are allowed in German culture.
I can always remember Germans will always demand : Was is deiner Meinung dafur? and “oh , I don’t know really” is NOT an acceptable answer.
So, given that Germany can’t wean itself from coal … ?? I’m having trouble squaring the circle.
Well, they are trying… they finally set a date for end of coal power. Not very soon, but it is there!
In griff’s world, if the legislature passed a law repealing the law of gravity, we’d all start floating.
Actually, I think he’s right in this case. My problem is that I can’t remember the history properly but I have a hunch this isn’t the first time they’ve set a date to end coal.
Anyway, the fact that they have set a date, in no way guarantees success.
Griff notes that they are trying. I agree. 🙂
Germany leads again! Just like in 1938?
Hold up a minute, did the 1990s have perfect weather? Constant sunny days with a slight cool breeze? Were their no hurricanes? Storms? Snow? Wind? Rain? In the 1990s?
Why must every be taxed, the hard worker is taxed so these hippies can have a dream of mass wind farms come true! What the hell is going on with these pathetic governments who are willing to destroy their economies just because al gore and vile greta says the world is going to 😐
Those Germans are gluttons for punishment.
just ask the Greeks. They know only too well.
….they don’t know China, India, and the rest of the ‘developing’ world even exist
but their going to find out, when the rest of the industry moves there
LOL. Always, ALWAYS look at the details.
They are picking a point where their “carbon footprint” was artificially sky-high due to the absorption of East Germany’s soviet-style coal powered generators. Anyone could cut back the carbon foot print by 25% by just waiting for all of these facilities to rot. So their “aggressive” goals are not really very aggressive, but the ill-informed greens will love it.
How they accomplish their goals without nuclear power is just beyond me. They either have to remove manufacturing from their economy, or import a lot of their power, or just make something up like “we’ll burn wood pellets which are carbon neutral”.
My guess is at the end of the day there will be some creative accounting practices and very little real change.
Economic suicide. Important to us because the trade between us is important to our economy. Too bad. I just hope that the backslash when it does collapse doesn’t lead to what happened last time. (National Socialism and WW2)
They are just trying to distract attention from the fact that they will miss their 2020 target.
German here. Problems is we’re arrogant. Which means:
1) It’s our fault. What is? Everything. Two World Wars were our fault. Brexit is probably our fault. Poverty in Africa is our fault, so we have to send them money via NGOs and invite Africans to come live with us. Climate change is our fault, so we have to fix it.
2) We can fix it. What? Everything. Gimme a screwdriver and I can fix your radio, your toaster and your stove. My brother can fix your heating and your car, and my cousin can fix your computer. All of us together can fix the weather, the climate and whatever else needs fixing.
3) Our companies are the best. Our education is the best. Our engineers are the best. We must be the first to get the green technology up and running so you peasants can copy it later.
We’re also romantics. We love our sunday walks along fields and forests. We love our tales of good old times. You can guilt trip us any day with “It was Paradise until you came and ruined it.” Couple this with our mindset of “Got a problem? Go solve it.” and you get protesters in the street who demand that our automobile firms manufacture electric cars, that our engineers make solar panels that work with moonlight, and whatever else it takes.
“We’re also romantics.” should be point number 1.
See Heinrich Heine, Religion and Philosophy in Germany, exposing the sheer destructiveness of the Romantic Movement.
Full Text :
https://archive.org/stream/religionandphilo011616mbp/religionandphilo011616mbp_djvu.txt
All other points follow from that Point.
And wonder not that Emmanuel Kant’s statue in today’s Kaliningrad warrants a pilgrimage for well known figures.
That’s the new version. The previous version was more like this…
1) It’s their fault (and you know who ‘they’ are)
2) We can fix it (you won’t like it, but we have a solution)
3) We are the best (and we are not inclusive)
Romantic? I don’t know, I’m still reading the “Heinrich Heine, Religion and Philosophy in Germany” link (see below). From that it appears that Germans like their ideas and then take them to extremes, starting with Luther. It’s heavy on philosophy, and German philosophy is heavy, but it has consequences. Marx was German.
Here is a sample quote from that document:
for the Germans are
more vindictive than the peoples of Latin origin. The
reason is, they are idealists even in their hatred. We
do not hate each other as you French do about outward
things, because of wounded vanity, on account of an
epigram, or of an unreturned visiting-card ; no, we hate
in our enemies the deepest, most vital possession they
have, their thought. As in your love so in your hatred,
you French are hasty, superficial. We Germans hate
thoroughly, lastingly. Too honest, perhaps too unskilful,
to revenge ourselves by speedy perfidy, we hate till our
last breath. (1833)
(Note, I doubt Germans are racially different; if there is a difference it is cultural.)
That’s the Prussians you’re describing. They took everything too seriously, including themselves. They spread this mindset across all the north of Germany before they finally disappeared from the map. Us Bavarians have been trying to keep things level and teach the Prussians to sit down with a good beer now and then, but it’s hopeless.
Heine’s exposure of Emmanuel Kant, the “omni-pulverizer”, of the Romantic Movement is profound.
See page 159 of that book for the keenest insight into greenies, that only a poet, as Shelley said are the unacknowledged legislators of the world, can convey.
See the harrowing warning on page 160, written 100 years before 1934.
Now look around at XR, F4F, and those freezing “scientists for future” in Berlin yesterday.
Interesting how Kant, that omni-pulverizer, is lauded world-wide in Uni campuses?
Marx belonged to a tribe of choosen peaple.
Atlas is going to Shrug. And move to China.
They’d better stop closing those nuclear power stations and start building a lot more.