The View from Right Field

Martin Luther’s 500th Anniversary – And a Visit to a Country That No Longer Exists

“Martin Luther’s 500th Anniversary” refers, of course, to the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, on October 31, 1517.  This date and this act are usually seen as the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. 

This 500th anniversary of Martin Luther brings to mind an earlier 500th anniversary of Martin Luther, the 500th anniversary of his birth, which was celebrated in 1983 (he was born on November 10, 1483).  The 500th anniversary of Luther’s birth was celebrated under somewhat different circumstances than the current celebration, however, because Wittenberg, as well as most of the other Luther sites, were in East Germany at the time.

When the Germany Democratic Republic was founded in 1949, Martin Luther was persona non grata for the East German communists.  Even in 1979, when we first visited East Germany, the Luther sites were open, but they weren’t promoted.  By 1983, however, things had changed.  The East German leadership was now seeing Martin Luther as the “initiator of a grand revolutionary movement,” in the words of Erich Honecker, the head of the East German Communist Party, and was promoting his legacy, at least as they interpreted it.¹  Whether this was to attract hard currency from Western tourists or gain support from Lutherans in East Germany, I don’t know.  Probably, both.

This reminded me of an article I wrote about our travels to East Germany in 1979 and 1982.  When I wrote the article in the summer of 1983, it was a sort of travelogue.  It is still a travelogue, but now it’s a travelogue to a country that no longer exists – for good reason. 

Thoughts Upon Germany's Election: Perhaps a Way for Parties to Win Votes Is to Have Good Leaders

As The Wall Street Journal predicted on Saturday, while Angela Merkel has won re-election in the German elections today, the parties on the fringe of German politics have grown.  With the established center-right and center left parties¹ getting a combined total of less than 55% of the total vote², Germany seems to be following the trend in other European countries.  As the Journal noted:

“In swaths of Continental Europe, the established center-right and center-left parties have suffered far more dramatic collapses, while populist movements from the nationalist right to the anticapitalist left have become strong enough to aspire to power.”

The Journal tries to identify the reason(s):

The German Election: The Future of the AfD – and the Tea Party

Germany is voting on Sunday, and with Angela Merkel widely expected to win another term, the one big question is how the right-wing AfD, Alternative for Germany, will do.  Support for the populist, anti-immigrant (and anti-Muslim) AfD took off with the 2015 refugee influx into Germany.  If the AfD does make it into the Bundestag, which basically requires 5% of the vote, it will be the first time a right-wing party has been in the German parliament since the 1950s.

What is most interesting to me about the AfD, however, is where it started and how it changed into the kind of party it is today.  The AfD did not start out because as a nationalist, anti-immigrant party.  Rather, according to The Financial Times:

How Could Angela Merkel, Such a Great Leader, Vote Against Same-Sex Marriage?

Germany has voted to legalize same-sex marriage.  By a vote of 393-226, the Bundestag approved the measure today.  What was most interesting to me, however, was this article in The Washington Post: “Why Angela Merkel, known for embracing liberal values, voted against same-sex marriage.”

As the article says, Chancellor Merkel “welcomed over 1 million refugees, abandoned nuclear energy over safety fears and has urged President Trump to respect human rights.”  The clear implication of the article is: Given all the right and proper views she has and all the right and proper things she has done, how could she possibly vote against same-sex marriage?

Helmut Kohl, RIP

Helmut Kohl, the German Chancellor who helped reunite Germany after the Berlin Wall came down, has passed away.  Chancellor Kohl served as Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and was the longest serving chancellor.

When the Wall came down in November of 1989, Chancellor Kohl seized the moment.  He recognized, along with President George H.W. Bush, that there was a narrow window of opportunity, which could allow freedom to come to Eastern Europe and unity to come to Germany – peacefully. 

Barack Obama Didn’t Get It; Donald Trump Doesn’t Get It; Which Means We Can Only Hope Hillary Clinton Does.

If you think this is a foreign policy election, as I do, the choice is a negative one.  Donald Trump is so bad, much like our current president, that you hope Hillary Clinton will be better, though much of what she says makes you a little worried.  You almost have to hope that she doesn’t mean some of the things she is saying and that she will be better than her past record indicates.  But then, the bar of the current president and her opponent are so low, she might actually make it.

There are so many ways that our current president is bad at foreign policy that it is hard to know where to start.  Perhaps the most current: Syria.  The print edition of FT Weekend had an article entitled “Syria offensive leaves Kerry high and dry,”¹ but when you read the article, you got the feeling Secretary Kerry was being left high and dry by President Obama as much as Bashar al-Assad or Vladimir Putin.  In explaining why negotiations are the only option in Syria, Secretary Kerry is quoted as saying:  “America’s made the decision that we’re not going in with our troops.  The president’s made that decision.  What’s the alternative?” 

European Speed Traps: Then and Now

Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal had an article on speed traps and automated speed cameras in Europe that can result in tourists getting tickets or charges on their credit cards months after they return home.  The article on reminded me of my experience getting stopped for speeding in East Germany in 1979.  Obviously, the police in East Germany could stop anybody they wanted, but being German, they had to actually catch you speeding.  Therefore, they had a speed limit sign, on a downhill, they could switch from 60 kph to 40 kph on an as-needed basis.

When I tried to apologize and say that I did not realize I was speeding, they thought I was denying it and wrote R-A-D-A-R on a piece of paper.

Goodbye, Berlin

Berlin.  My favorite city.  But I think it may be time to say goodbye.  The first time we went to Berlin was May of 1979.  The West Germans were trying Ostpolitik, but the Cold War was still on.  The Soviet Union would invade Afghanistan by the end of the year, and Poland would impose martial law two years later.

We were on a three-week driving trip of Germany – or should I say, Germanys.  In addition to Munich, Heidelberg, and the Rhine, we wanted to see the Luther sites, like Wittenberg and Eisenach, so we had to go into East Germany.  But first, we went to Berlin.  In West Berlin (or Westberlin, as the East Germans called it), we went to the Wall and looked at the Brandenburg Gate on the other side.

East Germany Comes to Mizzou

Earlier this week I wrote a post I called “East Germany Comes to Tibet.”  You can find it, and the reason for the title, here.  Now it appears that East Germany may be coming closer to home.

Following up on everything that has been happening at the University of Missouri, the MU Police Department sent out an email Tuesday morning, with a subject line of “Reporting Hateful and/or Hurtful Speech”:

“To continue to ensure that the University of Missouri campus remains safe, the MU Police Department (MUPD) is asking individuals who witness incidents of hateful and/or hurtful speech or actions to:

• Call the police immediately at [phone number redacted]. (If you are in an emergency situation, dial 911.)

• Give the communications operator a summary of the incident, including location.

• Provide a detailed description of the individual(s) involved.

• Provide a license plate and vehicle descriptions (if appropriate).

• If possible and if it can be done safely, take a photo of the individual(s) with your cell phone.

Delays, including posting information to social media, can often reduce the chances of identifying the responsible parties.  While cases of hateful and hurtful speech are not crimes, if the individual(s) identified are students, MU’s Office of Student Conduct can take disciplinary action.”

Helmut Schmidt, RIP

Helmut Schmidt, Chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982, passed away today in Hamburg, Germany.  Herr Schmidt became Chancellor in 1974, when Willy Brandt resigned after it was discovered one of his top aides was an East German agent.  Herr Schmidt lost the chancellorship to Helmut Kohl in 1982, when the Free Democrats left its coalition with the Social Democratic Party and allied with Helmut Kohl’s Christian Democrat Union.  Herr Schmidt continued to speak out and play a role in German political life until his death.

Perhaps the most important thing of the prior paragraph, and in Helmut Schmidt’s career, is that he was Chancellor of West Germany and he died in Germany.  Even though Helmut Schmidt was no longer chancellor by 1989/1990, he played a key role, while he was chancellor, in the policies that protected the West in the late 1970s and early 1980s and helped set the stage for German unification in 1990.

In the late 1970s, it was Helmut Schmidt who first called public attention to the Soviet Union’s placement of SS-20 medium-range nuclear missiles in Eastern Europe.  Chancellor Schmidt called for the West to respond and supported NATO’s “double-track” policy of deploying cruise and Pershing 2 missiles in the West Europe while at the same time negotiating with the Soviets to limit, or eliminate, medium range missiles in Europe.