Loomnie

First some ground explanations. Here in Germany, the favourite fashion label of neo-Nazi’s is Thor Steinar. The brand was banned in Germany in 2004 because its logo lookred like that of the Nazi period SS. The label subsequently rebranded itself and now has a legally acceptable logo. In any case, the neo-Nazis love it and it is well-known that if you are wearing that you are almost certainly a neo-Nazi.

State parliamentary elections in Berlin and Mecklenburg-West Pomerania (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in German) are approaching, and the parties have been busy campaigning, including NPD, the far-right, nationalist party, otherwise known as the German neo-Nazi party. Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, one of the states in the former East Germany, NPD already has some seats in the state parliament. I was in the state a few weeks ago and as this report states, the posters of NPD are normally so high on street lights that it is almost impossible to reach and deface, for those who might want to do so.

Some left-leaning youth have decided to fight the NPD by creating the figure Storch Heinar, which is itself a play on the name Thor Steinar – Storch is the German word for Stork, and Heiner, well, makes the whole name rhyme with Thor Steinar. The stork is dressed in the Nazi colours, with a Hitler mustache.

For more on Storch Heiner check the organisation’s website and this article, for more on the stork’s campaign, see this Der Spiegel article. For more on the new face of neo-Nazi fashion, see this, also from Der Spiegel.

Pretty embarrassing:

It is a German tradition that the president becomes an honorary godparent to the seventh child born to any family. But the custom has proved awkward for President Christian Wulff after he became godfather to a baby born into a neo-Nazi family. A local mayor even received death threats after criticizing the move.

HT to Tyler Cowen

Image via Wikipedia

The topic used to be taboo in Germany… mere mention of the name even gets people cringing. But it seems the Germans are learning to deal with their history. I just heard the news that some German movie makers are making a film of Hitler’s early years. They are even naming the movie after Hitler’s anti-Semitic book, Mein Kampf. It is thought that the movie will be controversial, just like other German movies that have been made about Hitler – you remember Die Untergang?

Not limited by the past
I think it is good when people are able to get to grips with history, and to examine it closely enough to get more comfortable with it. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that a Nazi past is something to get comfortable with; I can only imagine how that affects the way people think about the ways others perceive them. Yea, that was twisted and convoluted, but it is just like I can imagine the feeling to be. But then, a subject that is taboo, and that nobody ever wants to talk about, or even think about, is not easy to deal with.

Not that easy, really
Sometime ago, a German housemate, his Turkish wife and I were discussing over dinner. Somehow we ended up talking about the War. The husband stood up shortly after that and went into his room, saying that he wanted to go watch football. As he left, his wife told me that he did because he was not comfortable with us talking about the war. My housemate is over 50 years old, but this also happens with the younger folk. In a sense, I understand the touchiness of the subject for them; sometimes, the perception of Germans that people often think that they are racist is not unfounded. I have been asked by many people in Nigeria about how I cope with those bloody Germans who are all racists. I simply tell them that I don’t encounter that kind of reception.

Even westerners
In a funny way, that is the kind of reaction I get from Germans from the western part of Germany, the former West Germany. I live in the former Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR) – the former East Germany – and whenever I am in other parts of Germany, it often happens that when we talk about where I stay westerners ask how things are there. Many think that Nazis march in the streets of eastern cities. Ha… I remember someone telling me that many people refuse to put the word wieder – which would roughly translate as ‘again’ or, more succinctly, ‘re’ in English – in front of Vereinigung – which means unification. That is the official word for re-unification, the bringing together of the two Germanies. She told me that the wieder displays an emotion that many Germans from both parts cannot claim to have. You can only be happy to be re-united with people you really want to be with, and are comfortable being with.

Enough of the rambling. I am happy that people are ready to look at the past, like this new movie shows. I hope that sometime soon, when people are going to Germany, they will not be warned that Germans will clamp up at the first mention of The War; I also hope that it will be a subject that can come up in normal everyday discussions.