On this day in history...

[Arneb]

3 years aho today, Germany started to go onto lockdown.

[Arneb]

90 years ago today, the first German Republic ended with the passing of the Ermächtigungsgesetz, the Enabling Act (Gesetz zur Behebung der Not von Volk und Reich, 'Law to Remedy the Distress of People and Reich'). It gave the Chancellor and his Cabinet the right to pass and enforce laws and made the Reichstag the "best paid men's singing association" in Germany: Convene once a year, sing the National anthem, go home, get 600 Reichsmark a month (a tidy sum at the time).

The bitterly ironic point is this: After Hitler had been named Chancellor on 30 Jan, 1933, and after massive persecution of political enemies had begun, Germany had another somewhat semi-free general election on March 3. The Reichstag that it brought forth still consisted of 11 parties, among which the NSDAP only held a plurality of seats. This Reichstag, under heavy pressure, but still not a puppet parliament, voted for its own abolition - with the required two thirds majority. Hitler's NSDAP and his coalition partner the German National People's Party, had an absolute majority, but not the two thirds needed to change the constitution. First, the Nazis used a procedural trick in order to secure a quorum, changing the rules of procedure to count all "AWOL" deputies as "present" - mainly the very deputies of the Communist party that the Nazis themselves had put into prison or early concentration camps, or killed, or forced into hiding, or exile. The true shame lies in the fact that the Nazis actually managed to persuade the centrist and liberal parties first to agree to the change of procedural rules. Then, they voted to deliver legislative power to Adolf Hitler. It is only a footnote that all those parties voted to dissolve themselves even before a law of 2 May, 1933 banned all parties except the NSDAP. All Communist Deputies missing from the roster, the remaining 94 Social Democrats were the only No votes, and the law was passed, 444 votes to 94.

As the Chariman of the German Social Democratic Party, Otto Wels said during the session, amid the jeering, barking, laughing tumult of the Nazi deputies and SA/SS men illegally present in the Chamber, 'freedom and life you can take from us, but not our honour...no enabling law gives you the power to destroy ideas which are eternal and indestructable'.

The Ermächtigungsgesetz was to end on April 1, 1937. It was extendedby the Reichstag twice-, in January 1937 and 30 April, 1939. When it was up for extension in 1943, Hitler just made short thrift of it and extended it himself. It was abolished on 20 September, 1945, by the Allied Control Council.

[Lianachan]

April 16th, 1889 - birth of Charles Chaplin.

[Arneb]

40 years ago today, the German magazine Stern ("Star") published what they thought were Hitler's diaries. They were, instead, a fake, fabricated by a witty and unscrupulous antiques dealer, Konrad Kujau. The dismantling of the fake began practically right after publication. It was shown very soon that not only were the diaries fake, they were a cheap fake. Any analysis deeper than about a mm (or 40 thousands of an inch) would have brought the fake to light. Well, others did it for Stern. Quickly and mercilessly.

Well, as we say in Germany, the desire had been the thought's father, and eyes had been fast shut in order to make the sensation happen. They so wanted Nazism with a human face, they so wanted to have history rewritten, they could not not buy the fakes and publish them. After the affair, Stern was out of 9,5 million marks and all of its reputation. It never really recovered. The forger and the journalist helping him along were given prison sentences. Both are long dead.

If you want to perfectly capture the atmosphere of kissing up to old Nazis, being inebriated with the love of black and brown uniforms, skulls over swastikas and SS honorary sabres fallen into disuse, try to get your hands on the satirical film "Schtonk!", and you'll see a lot of 80s West German atmosphere there (it's on YouTube, but the free version is German only without subtitles). It's hilarious, and I heartily recommend it.

[Richard A]

I remember when Schtonk was first made. My favourite scene was where the forger had ran out of "A"s and so put on the cover the initials "FH". But still the publishers tried to make it work, though they struggled. "Fritz Hitler" hieß er nicht." No kidding, but the obvious conclusion eluded them.

[Arneb]

AFAIK, they settled on "Führer Hitler".

BTW, the initials pasted onto the notebeooks were actually "FH". You would think this one was too funny to be true, but the forger did indeed mix up the elaborately decorated letters). Also, the rationalization story happened as told. The mixup isn't obvious:

[Heid the Ba]

I find Gothic fonts impossible to read so I would never have noticed.

[Arneb]

25 years ago today, 1. FC Kaiserslautern clinched the German Bundesliga Championship on the penultimate matchday, with a 4 - 0 win over VfL Wolfsburg, while their strongest competitor, FC Bayern München, was held to goalless draw by MSV Duisburg.

That sounds mundane enough, but it was an epic sensation then and will never happen again in today's modern football world. 1. FCK is venerable club, no doubt. Germany's captain of the 1954 World Champion team, Fritz Walter, along with his brother Otmar and three other Berne finalists was a Lauterer, as was Germany's all-terrain defender of the 80s, Hans-Peter Briegel, and the scorer of Germany's 1990 winning World Championship goal, Andreas Brehme (although he originally hailed from Hamburg). But like many German traditional clubs, they had fallen into mismanagement and had been relegated from the Bundesliga in 1996 - only to be directly promoted back under the leadership of Otto Rehagel, starting afresh in League 2 after his sacking at the hands of Bayern months earlier.

The new Bundesliga started, and Kaiserslautern beat Bayern in their own Olympic stadium, 1 - 0. It was a parade for König Otto, as he would later be konwn. But it wasn't a one hit wonder. With the exception of match days one and three, Kaiserslautern never left the top spot again. It was a miracle, but one that lasted a whole season, showing what a tight-knit team can do if lead by charismatic figures with a plan, honing every player's strengths and working on the weaknesses, even if the better footballers are elsewhere. If anything, you could compare it to Leicester's Premier Legaue title a few years back - but Leicester was a rich club among filthy rich clubs, and K town was, well, rather poor. We will never see anything like it again. "Money doesn't score goals", Rehagel famously said. But it does!

The story ended for Kaiserslautern, of course. They have long since left the Bundesliga - due to mismanagement and unrealisitic goals again - and have just recently made the jump back from League Three to League two, where they fight the likes of Greuther Fürth, Heidenheim, Rostock and Sandhausen. Otto, of course, had another one up his sleeve. He was sacked in the season after his triumph, because, well, you know why, and ended up coaching that absolute international football backwater, Greece, ridden with perennial underperformance, greed, corruption and fan violence. And, of course, you all know what happened in 2004 under his guidance.

[Мастер]

Most of Europe celebrates the end of the Second World War on 8 May.

But in the former Soviet countries, it is 9 May.

And on 9 May some years later, Robert Schuman gave the speech that is credited as the birth of the European Union.

And on 9 May some years after that, a child of displaced parents was born in southern Siberia. One who wants to visit Russia next week when he is in Eastern Europe, but who dares not, owing to current - well, issues.

[Richard A]

Yes, I always found it curious that the Soviet Union celebrated Victory Day on 9th May rather than 8th.

I agree, Russia is best avoided. There are few countries where I do not dare set foot - in fact, in January 2022, they were down to only one: Iran. (Many totalitarian states, if foreign citizens upset them from outside their borders, express their displeasure by refusing them a visa. Iran, in contrast, happily grants them a visa in order to get them within reach and then strikes.) But now, I agree, Russia is another. Although I suppose for Mactep, there could be a further reason: Russia could take the view that he is a Russian citizen ("once one of ours, always one of ours") and serve him with call-up papers.

But this brings another lesson: travel while you can. For many years, I thought of returning to Russia (I had been once on a school trip when it was still the Soviet Union), but chose not to on the grounds that it continued the Soviet habit of requiring foreigners to specify in their visa application where they were going to stay each night. Logic might have pointed out that booking hotels in advance wasn't a massive imposition - and that increasingly I did that anyway - but still I objected. So I never got to see the new Moscow or St Petersburg, let alone seeing places around St Petersburg I hadn't been last time (e.g. Petrodvorets or Pushkin). Doubtful I will get to do so now. Maybe one day I'll get to see Kyiv or Lviv, though - if Putin doesn't lose patience and pulverise them first.

[Arneb]

Nachträglich herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag, Mactep

90 years ago today, Nazi students started a series of public perfomances, 'Actions Against the Un-German Spirit', as they called it, burning thousends of books in improvised pyres.

[Richard A]

29 years ago, Nelson Mandela became President of South Africa.

[Arneb]

29 years ago, Nelson Mandela became President of South Africa.

Nice counterpoint!

[Lianachan]

Some Scottish stuff for May 10th:

1307 - King Robert the Bruce defeats an English army at the Battle of Loudoun Hill, using the landscape and terrain to overcome being outnumbered five to one
1719 - the Royal Navy bombards then captures Eilean Donan Castle, and the 50 or so Spanish soldiers who'd been in there
1941 - Rudolph Hess parachutes into Scotland, apparently intending to meet the 14th Duke of Hamilton

[Lance]

Nachträglich herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag, Mactep

Yeah, what he said.

[Richard A]

An interesting one. 211 years ago today, Spencer Percival became the only British Prime Minister to be assassinated. There have since been other attempts - the most famous one 172 years and 5 months later and another one 6 years and 4 months (give or take) after that, but Percival's record remains intact. Sadly, it's the only thing he's remembered for.

[Arneb]

That's actually a very good record.

We don't seem to have any victims among the ranks of German Chancellors. There were three attempts at murdering Otto von Bismarck (one while he wasn't Chancellor yet, but Prime Minister of Prussia). After that, German Chancellors have enjoyed a more or less unthreatened tenure, barring, of course, the forty-ish attempts at Adolf Hitler's life, since he is excluded from the gallery.

[Arneb]

74 years ago today, these words became law in a part of Germany:

Human dignity is unimpeachable. To respect and protect it is the obligation of all state power.

Therefore, the German people profess certain inviolable and unalienable human rights as the basis of any human community, of peace and justice.

The following basic rights bind the legislative, executive and judicative powers as immediately applicable law.

Sounds even better in German (only my attempt ar a translation)

[Richard A]

A law the envy of much of Europe, including many of Germany's neighbours, then as now.

[tubeswell]

And speaking of politics, literally on this day and date, Wednesday May 24th - in 1854 - first sitting of the NZ House of Representatives Parliament.

https://nzhistory.govt.nz/politics/hist ... tting-1854

[Richard A]

One day late, but still worth posting. 14 years ago yesterday, 9 Latin American cleaners at SOAS were seized in an immigration raid and deported. But there's more to the story.

A few years earlier, the cleaners had started joining a trade union and then organised to demand sick pay, holiday pay and entitlement to join an occupational pension scheme. The cleaning company (at that time, cleaning and other such services were outsourced at SOAS, as at many UK universities) did not take this well, but Theresa May's "hostile environment" for undocumented migrants came at just the right time for them. So on the morning of 12 June 2009, all cleaners were instructed to attend a health & safety briefing meeting in one of the lecture theatres at 6.30 am following the morning shift. Taxis were arranged to bring over those working at the satellite campus. All were marshalled in and the doors were closed. Then the doors were thrown open and a squad of immigration officers came in. All were seized. Some did have work permits and were later released but 9, including a heavily pregnant woman, were deported to Colombia and Brazil 48 hours later.

12 June has been marked on campus by both the trade unions and the Student Union every year since. It was not the end of the story; the episode resulted in the cleaners upping their demands, and calling for outsourcing and all workers on campus, in all capacities, to be employed directly by SOAS with all of the rights of other SOAS employees. That fight took nearly a decade but they won.

[Мастер]

One day late, but still worth posting. 14 years ago yesterday, 9 Latin American cleaners at SOAS were seized in an immigration raid and deported. But there's more to the story.

A few years earlier, the cleaners had started joining a trade union and then organised to demand sick pay, holiday pay and entitlement to join an occupational pension scheme. The cleaning company (at that time, cleaning and other such services were outsourced at SOAS, as at many UK universities) did not take this well, but Theresa May's "hostile environment" for undocumented migrants came at just the right time for them. So on the morning of 12 June 2009, all cleaners were instructed to attend a health & safety briefing meeting in one of the lecture theatres at 6.30 am following the morning shift. Taxis were arranged to bring over those working at the satellite campus. All were marshalled in and the doors were closed. Then the doors were thrown open and a squad of immigration officers came in. All were seized. Some did have work permits and were later released but 9, including a heavily pregnant woman, were deported to Colombia and Brazil 48 hours later.

12 June has been marked on campus by both the trade unions and the Student Union every year since. It was not the end of the story; the episode resulted in the cleaners upping their demands, and calling for outsourcing and all workers on campus, in all capacities, to be employed directly by SOAS with all of the rights of other SOAS employees. That fight took nearly a decade but they won.

This is the problem with being an illegal - one is easily exploited.

North Koreans who flee into China are sometimes treated as slaves there, because, well, if they don’t like it, just turn them into the Chinese authorities, who will promptly send them back to North Korea.

We have something similar here, although not as bad - on most of the employment passes, if the job goes away, so do you. Within 30 days. So if they’re not paying you on time, or having you work in unsafe conditions, whatever - you can complain, or you can keep your mouth shut. What should you do?

[Richard A]

I knew the Gulf states practiced that - they even have an official term for it. I didn’t know Singapore did, though.

[Мастер]

I knew the Gulf states practiced that - they even have an official term for it. I didn’t know Singapore did, though.

I think conditions here have got to be better for migrant workers than in the gulf states, but they might still not be all that great.

One thing that is common practice, is to confiscate the passport of these Filipina or Indonesian slave girls who come to do all the cooking and cleaning. To keep it safe, of course. I don't know if the migrant construction workers (they typically live in temporary facilities built near their construction sites) have to turn in their passports.

[Arneb]

75 years ago, West Germans woke up to a different country. The Währungsreform (currency reform) introduced the Deutsche Mark in three of the four Allied occupation zones. Overnight, the black market, the cigarette currency, the continual scarcity of food and well, erverything, was over. Shops were brimming with produce - of course, people were still poor. But while they could not afford anything, they could chosse what they could afford. It was the beginning of post-war Germany, maybe even more so than the founding of the Bundesrepublik 11 months later.

I still have a 10 DM note at home, along with several coins - the last edition of the tenner before the introduction of Euro cash was maybe Germany's prettiest note, with a protrait of Carl Friedrich Gauss and his normal distribution curve. Nerd cash, if you will.