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Restricted Democracy 2011/08/22

BERLIN (Own report) - With a new journalistic offensive, organized rightwing extremist forces are seeking to publicly re-orient the Bundeswehr's internal policy debates, using the Bundeswehr's internal discussion of the "combat capability" of female soldiers as a point of entry. The "Institute for State Policy," an extreme rightwing think tank, has published a brochure that declares warfare "a man's job," in an effort to win new supporters from within the ranks of the armed forces. The document is being promoted by "Marine-Forum," a renowned military magazine, as well as by the student newspaper at the Bundeswehr University in Munich, where three soldiers on the editorial staff are partisans of the Institute for State Policy. The institute upholds the tradition of the so-called Conservative Revolution, an anti-democratic movement, which stems from the period of the Weimar Republic. Historians consider it to have been a trailblazer for the Nazis. Whereas, just a few years ago, these positions would have been publicly rejected even at the Bundeswehr Universities, it is today being openly debated if these positions should be discussed. Parallel to the emerging opening for anti-democratic forces domestically, Berlin is imposing anti-democratic measures on other countries within the EU. A columnist in a leading German daily pointed out recently that in Greece, politics - due to the austerity dictate imposed by Berlin - are basically made by the EU and the IMF and not by the Greeks themselves, and continued: Greece, is "for the time being, merely a restricted democracy."

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Loss of Combat Performance

The new journalistic offensive perpetrated by the Institute for State Policy (located in Seigra in Saxony Anhalt) and its entourage, is aimed at publicly reorienting policy debates inside the Bundeswehr. The internal Bundeswehr discussion about whether the decision had been appropriate, making all areas of the Bundeswehr accessible to women is the theme of intervention. Seeking to win new supporters for the think tank from among those opposing women soldiers in combat operations, the Institute for State Policy has now published the brochure - "The Woman, as a Soldier" [1] - declaring warfare "a man's job." With the message: "Are women as deployable, militarily, as men?" The answer is "no," the brochure is being promoted in the current issue of the renowned "Marine-Forum" military magazine, which also carried an extensive article on the subject by the executive director of the Institute for State Policy. The current issue of the official student newspaper at the Bundeswehr University in Munich printed a full-page ad of the brochure. "Deploying women as combatants means a structural loss in combat performance," alleges an article in the same issue of the Munich cadet paper, whose author is a close collaborator of the Institute for State Policy.[2]

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A Medium of Opinion for Young Officers

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Alongside the Institute of State Policy's intrusion into the internal Bundeswehr debate of women's "combat value," it has also been successful in placing three of its close collaborators into editorial positions on the Munich student paper, including in the position of chief editor.[3] The journal (circulation of 2,000) is read by cadets of the German armed forces. Besides attacks on women in the Bundeswehr, the current issue carries what the chief editor refers to as - a "frontal attack on the concept of the [Bundeswehr's] 'internal leadership'." According to this article, talk of "citizens in uniform," is but a "hollow shell" that must now be filled with new identity proposals. The Bundeswehr's global missions have become increasingly brutal and abstract reasons for murderous combat are no longer sufficient. The paper published an article on the subject by a research assistant at the Bundeswehr University's Institute for Theology and Ethics, who wrote that "contrary to expectations, collectively good forms of life do not develop in conditions of free democracy."[4] In his editorial, the editor in chief defended the rightwing contents: "When does the German officer have the possibility of frankly and freely expressing a really uncomfortable standpoint (...)? (...) Certainly (...) as an officer cadet under the protection of freedom of the press. We will brazenly exploit this situation." The student newspaper, a "medium of opinion for young officers" is the appropriate place to do so.[5]

Strong Leadership Elite

Ideas, from the extreme rightwing realm, have always enjoyed a certain approbation among the cadets at Bundeswehr universities. A 2009 study by the Bundeswehr's Social Science Institute revealed that around 13 percent of the cadets at the institution adhere to political concepts of the so-called New Right. They see "Germany's national identity threatened by the large number of foreigners" and think that "a strong leadership elite should determine the route Germany should take." Approximately half of the respondents nourish "serious doubts about the organization of our parliamentarian system."[6] In fact, high-ranking military officers have similar ideas. Col. Erich Vad wrote in 2003 that an "antidote" was needed for the "paralysis of the postbourgeois political class (...), whose conception of the world primarily consists of re-education, the moribund rituals of the settling of historical accounts and the mythology of the '68 movement." The necessary "antidote" of course "runs contrary to the idealist utopia of a global development of human rights, a peaceful arrangement between cultures and civilizations and of free, open and multicultural societies." It can be found in "the political philosophy of Carl Schmitt," known as the "crown jurist of the Third Reich." Col. Vad wrote these recommendations in the journal "Sezession" published by the Institute for State Policy. He is, today, the German Chancellor's primary military advisor.[7]

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Anti-Democratic
In fact, political concepts, such as these, were tolerated at the Bundeswehr University, but kept from reaching the public. This was particularly true for concepts growing out of the so-called Conservative Revolution tradition, which, for example, are nurtured at the Institute for State Policy. Historians qualify the antidemocratic Conservative Revolution, of the 1920s - early '30s, as a trail-blazer of Nazism.[8] In 2008, Wolfgang Gessenharter, the freshly emerited political sciences professor of the Bundeswehr University in Hamburg, explained that the partisans of the Conservative Revolution are helping to "promote a dangerous relativization of the constitution" and should not be tolerated.[9] Because the president of the Bundeswehr University in Munich warned on campus against the partisans of the Conservative Revolution, she is currently under heavy attack - both on the university campus and in the general public. Recently the very influential Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung took sides with the extreme rightist editors at the Bundeswehr University, warning against a "compulsory uniform for political opinions."[10] The conflict of whether anti-democrats and their opinions are to be publicly tolerated remains undecided.

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Without Sovereignty
Parallel to anti-democratic forces possibly gaining access domestically, Berlin is tolerating anti-democratic measures in other EU countries or is imposing them itself. Over the past six months, the Hungarian government has provoked a major furor over its new press laws, seriously limiting the freedom of media reporting.[11] Critics, who had hoped for Berlin to take a public stand, have been bitterly disappointed. Toward the end of June, the German Foreign Minister literally and unconditionally praised Budapest's successful leadership in the EU Council Presidency. Berlin has also imposed a serious restriction of democratic rights on Greece. Already last year, the German Chancellor had declared that crisis-ridden countries may have to relinquish their sovereignty rights. (german-foreign-policy.com reported.[12]) This has now taken place in Greece.

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No Choice
Because of Germany's austerity dictate, EU and IMF supervisors are, in fact, now ruling Athens. Recently a leading German daily columnist wrote, "for months now, elected Greek representatives have been prevented from making their own decisions on any questions of significance." A parliamentarian publically posed the question, "what was he supposed to do now in Parliament, when, in any case, every decision is going to be taken by the IMF, the EU and the European Central Bank."[13] "As a matter of fact," concluded the commentator, "for the time being, Greece will be merely a restricted democracy. The Greeks can vote for whatever they want, but it will not really change anything." This situation has been essentially imposed by that country, where anti-democratic tendencies are also resurfacing - Germany. For more information about these openly anti-democratic tendencies see: A Bit of Dictatorship , The New German Question (III) and Europe's Chancellor .
[1]DieFraualsSoldatInstitutfrStaatspolitik,WissenschaftlicheReihe,Heft17 [2]FelixSpringer:"SportistihrHobby":EineehrlicheDebatteistntigCampus.ZeitungdesstudentischenKonvents01/2011 [3] Chief Editor is Lt. Col. Martin Boecker, on the editorial staff are Lt. Felix Springer and Ensign Larsen Kempf. Boecker and Springer are authors in the journal "Sezession" published by the Institute for State Policy (Institut fuer Staatspolitik), Kempf writes for the "Blaue Narzisse" journal, which is affiliated with the Institute for State Policy. [4]JochenBohn:DeutscheSoldatenohneIdentitt:UnsfehltdieIdeedes"Guten"Campus.ZeitungdesstudentischenKonvents 01/2011 [5] Werte Kameraden! Campus. Zeitung des studentischen Konvents 01/2011 [6] Rechte Studenten; Der Spiegel 42/2009 [7] see also DerMilitrberaterderKanzlerin [8]KurtSontheimer:AntidemokratischesDenkeninderWeimarerRepublik,Mnchen1962 [9] Wolfgang Gessenharter: Ein Kommentar zur Jungen Freiheit; www.netz-gegen-nazis.de [10] Ein Rundbrief mit Prangerwirkung; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 21.07.2011 [11] see also Nation ohne Grenzen [12] see also Die deutsche Frage [13] Griechisches Exempel; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 30.06.2011

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