One in 10 Germans want country to be run by a Fuhrer with a strong hand

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financeguy

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BERLIN: Germany's attempts to create a multicultural society in which people from various cultural backgrounds live together peacefully has failed, the Chancellor, Angela Merkel, says.

Multikulti, the concept that ''we are now living side by side and are happy about it'', does not work, Dr Merkel told a meeting of younger members of her conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party at Potsdam near Berlin at the weekend. ''This approach has failed, totally,'' she said.

Dr Merkel spoke a week after talks with the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in which they pledged to do more to improve the poor integration record of Germany's 2.5-million-strong Turkish community.

Horst Seehofer, the leader of the CDU's Bavarian sister party, CSU, told the same party meeting that the two parties were ''committed to a dominant German culture and opposed to a multicultural one''.

''Multikulti is dead,'' he said.

While warning against ''immigration that weighs down on our social system'', Dr Merkel said Germany needed specialists from overseas to keep the pace of its economic development.

The head of the chamber of commerce and industry, Hans Heinrich Driftmann, said Germany was in urgent need of about 400,000 engineers and qualified workers.

''The lack is causing a loss of growth of about 1 per cent,'' he said in an interview.

Jewish leaders, meanwhile, warned that German society and democracy were under threat from extremists. A recent study should prompt the government to act against anti-democratic ideas, the secretary-general of the Central Council of Jews, Stephan Kramer, told the Rheinpfalz am Sonntag weekly.

Mr Kramer criticised Mr Seehofer for ideas he said were ''not only petty but outright irresponsible'' and called the immigration debate ''hysterical''.

The study, by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, showed that more than a third (34.3 per cent) of the 2411 people surveyed believed the country's 16 million immigrants or people with foreign origins came for the social benefits.

About the same number (35.6 per cent) think Germany is being ''overrun by foreigners'' and more than one in 10 called for a ''fuehrer'' to run the country ''with a strong hand''.

Multiculturalism in Germany has failed, says Chancellor
 
I don't think anything can be done for Germany, or anywhere else in Western Europe. Some of the Turks have been there for two or three generations; Germany is all they know. They're not going to go to Turkey anytime soon, so there's nothing that can be done.

I think the Germans' complaints about immigration is too late. I also think it was naive for Germany and many other countries to assume that people from other cultures will assimilate into theirs.
 
For example, here's a Reuters article on how Germany's liberal attitude towards nudity is dwindling, partly due to the immigrants:

Much to the chagrin of Free Body Culture FKK.L enthusiasts who have been stripping off their clothing on beaches and parks since the early 1900s, a cold wind has been blowing across Germany for nudists and their numbers are steadily dwindling.
"German society is changing and it's not easy to be a naturist anymore," said Kurt Fischer, president of the German FKK association DFK.L. There are some 500,000 registered nudists and a total of seven million Germans sunbathe naked regularly.
"But the numbers are unfortunately falling by about two percent each year," Fischer told a group of reporters in the Foreign Press Association VAP.L while sitting, fully clothed, at a beach bar in Berlin's government quarter. "Times are tough."


"Our problems are demographic changes and the fact that immigrants aren't interested in social nudity," said Fischer, 70, whose association has such honoured standing in Germany that it is even part of the Olympic Sport Federation DOSB.L.


Fatter and fewer German nudists as numbers dwindle | Reuters
 
With every cloud, a silver lining.

Seriously, no-one wants to see a 70 year old German naked.
 
With every cloud, a silver lining.

Seriously, no-one wants to see a 70 year old German naked.

True. But that article is an example of what happens when someone goes to a country of a vastly different culture - they don't assimilate and they keep to their own people.
 
I was a little confused, but the article is more than a year old. Unfortunately, it doesn't give the title of the study, so I cannot check what the question was.

Either way, the idea that ten percent of Germans wish for another Führer like Hitler most probably comes from a very poor, polemic translation of the real question, as it would go against any and all other studies carried out about this topic. While it's true that a number is naive enough of wishing for a benevolent dictator who would get things sorted, there's only very little support for any radicalism to return to Germany.

Why is there an L behind every abbreviation?

FKK has always been much bigger in the East than in the West. Among my peers, I don't know anyone doing it. For my parents it's perfectly normal. But the part where I grew up, it's definitely not because of immigrants.
 
I think the Germans' complaints about immigration is too late. I also think it was naive for Germany and many other countries to assume that people from other cultures will assimilate into theirs.

Well, let's just give up. Close up shop. Send them all back and go back to the dark ages!

I see so many people in this country complain that "multiculturalism doesn't work". It's just a laughable, meaningless comment.
 
Today I read about a great response by a football player from Ghana back in the 90s:
Reporter: "You are often talking about performance, you are driving a BMW and are living in a town house with shelf unit and front garden. Are you aware that you seem like a German model citizen?"
Yeboah: "Should I start a bonfire in my living room?"

:D
 
I was a little confused, but the article is more than a year old. Unfortunately, it doesn't give the title of the study, so I cannot check what the question was.
FWIW, the study is here. The questions and results are given in table form on pp. 73-74.
"Wir sollten einen Führer haben, der Deutschland zum Wohle aller mit starker Hand regiert."

lehne völlig ab 51.9%
lehne überwiegend ab 18.9%
stimme teils zu, teils nicht zu 15.9%
stimme überwiegend zu 9.5%
stimme voll und ganz zu 3.7%

There was a thread in here on this story back when it came out, as well: http://www.u2interference.com/forums/f199/merkel-says-no-to-muslims-208214.html
 
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Ah, thanks. Must admit, I was a bit lazy to search. Shouldn't post late.

Maybe a little context. In Germany, every political party is supported by a political foundation. Though two distinct entities, they of course have close ties.
Friedrich Ebert was a social democrat who died in 1925. Shortly after his passing the foundation was founded and named for him.
The study which this question appears in is titled: "The center in crisis - Rightwing extremist attitudes in Germany in 2010".
The question at hand was: "We should have a leader who for the welfare of everyone reigns with a strong hand." 3.7% said I fully agree and 9.5% said I largely agree.
A few things:
- In Germany, not everyone immediately associates the fuckwit with the term Führer. It's just the German word for Leader.
- It says "for the welfare of everyone"
- These ten percent largely agree, they never said they wished for another Führer.
I think it's a bit of a trick question.

Nonetheless, the survey in general and its questions are much more explicit and the answers given, or better, percentages, are indeed a bit unnerving. I remember there being a bit debate surrounding probably this study, but there have also been other, similar ones.
 
I'm pretty sure that Germany has been changing with or without immigrants. Shifting from the official end of the Holy Roman Empire in the early 19th century to the German Empire and WWI and WWII, followed by its Cold War separation and subsequent reunification, when has Germany really had time to stay the same?

But, Germany aside, it's a good lesson for everyone to absorb; "civilization" is not a static entity, unless you live in a highly authoritarian state that actively suppresses change.
 
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