Danke les

Hans-Dietrich Genscher (Career after politics)

2007-11-25T07:32:00.000-08:00

Genscher did not run for reelection in 1998. Since then, he has been active as a lawyer, in a public company, and in bona-fide international relations organizations. He founded his own Hans-Dietrich Genscher Consult GmbH in 2000.

German federal election 2005

2007-05-25T07:38:00.000-07:00

On May 22nd 2005 as predicted the SPD took a devastating defeat in its former heartland, North Rhine-Westphalia. Half an hour after the election results, the SPD chairman Franz Müntefering announced that the chancellor would clear the way for premature federal elections by the means of a purposely lost vote of confidence. This took the republic by surprise, especially because the SPD was seen in polls below 25% at that time. On the following Monday the CDU announced Angela Merkel as conservative candidate for chancellorship, aspiring to be the first female chancellor in German history.

Whereas in May and June 2005 victory of the conservatives seemed highly likely, with some polls giving them an absolute majority, this picture changed shortly before the election at September 18, 2005, especially after the conservatives introduced Paul Kirchhof as potential minister of the treasury, and after a TV duel between Merkel and Schröder where many considered Schröder to have performed better.

New for the 2005 election was the alliance between the newly formed Electoral Alternative for Labor and Social Justice (WASG) and the PDS, planning to fuse into a common party (see Left Party.PDS). With the former SPD chairman Oskar Lafontaine for the WASG and Gregor Gysi for the PDS as prominent figures, this alliance soon found interest in the media and in the population. Polls in July saw them as high as 12 %.

After success in the state election for Saxony, the alliance between the far right parties National Democratic Party and Deutsche Volksunion (DVU), which planed to leapfrog the "five-percent hurdle" on a common party ticket was another media issue.

The election results of September 18, 2005 were surprising insofar as they differed widely from the polls of the previous weeks. The conservatives lost votes compared to 2002, reaching only 35%, and failed to get a majority for a "black-yellow" government of CDU/CSU and liberal FDP. The FDP polled a stunning 10 % of the votes, one of their best results ever. But the red-green coalition also failed to get a majority, with the SPD losing votes, but polling 34 % and the greens staying at 8 %. The left party alliance reached 8.7 % and entered the German Parliament, whereas the NPD only got 1.6 %.

The most likely outcome of coalition talks was a so-called "grand coalition" between the conservatives (CDU/CSU) and the social democrats (SPD), with the three smaller parties (liberals, greens and the left) in the opposition. Other possible coalitions include a "traffic light coalition" between SPD, FDP and Greens and a "Jamaica coalition" between CDU/CSU, FDP and Greens. Coalitions involving the Left Party have been ruled out by all parties (including the Left Party itself), although the combination of one of the major parties and any two small parties would mathematically have a majority. Of these combinations, only a red-red-green coalition is politically even imaginable. Both Gerhard Schröder and Angela Merkel announced that they had won the election and should become next chancellor.

On October 10th talks were held between Franz Müntefering, the SPD chairman, Gerhard Schröder, Angela Merkel and Edmund Stoiber, the CSU chairman. In the afternoon it was announced that the CDU/CSU and SPD will begin formal coalition negotiations with the aim of a Grand Coalition with Angela Merkel as the next German chancellor.

Angela Merkel is the first woman, the first East German and the first scientist to be chancellor as well as the youngest German chancellor ever. On November 22nd 2005 Angela Merkel was sworn in by president Horst Köhler for the office of Bundeskanzlerin.

Rise of the Right

2007-04-02T07:38:00.000-07:00

In September 2004 elections were held in the states of Saarland, Brandenburg and Saxony. In the Saarland, the governing CDU was able to remain in power and gained one additional seat in the parliament. The SPD lost seven seats, while the Liberals and Greens were able to re-enter state parliament. Remarkably, and most surprising, the Far-Right National Democratic Party, that had never gotten more than 1 or 2 % in recent decades, received about 4% of the votes (but did not receive a seat in the parliament, because they had not been elected by at least 5% of the voters).

Two weeks later, elections in the eastern states of Brandenburg and Saxony were held: the ruling parties overall lost votes, but they remained in power. However, the ruling CDU in Saxony was forced (due to their losses at the ballots) to form a coalition with the 9,8% party SPD as a junior partner. In Brandenburg the CDU remained junior partner of the SPD. The fact that in Brandenburg the right party Deutsche Volksunion (DVU) re-entered and in Saxony the right party NPD entered the state parliaments caused worries in the traditional political parties.

Conservative comeback

2007-04-01T07:37:00.000-07:00

In February 2003, elections took place in the states of Hessen and Lower Saxony, both leading to overwhelming victories for the conservatives. In Hessen, the CDU minister president Roland Koch was re-elected, with his party CDU gaining enough seats to govern without the former coalition partner FDP. In Lower Saxony, the former SPD minister president Sigmar Gabriel lost the elections, leading to an CDU/FDP-government headed by new minister president Christian Wulff (CDU). Both elections are seen as symptomatic for a widespread criticism against the current federal red-green government.

The protest against the Iraq war changed this situation a bit, favouring SPD and Greens.

The latest election in the state of Bavaria led to a landslide victory of the conservatives, gaining not just the majority (as usual), but two thirds of parliamentary seats.

In April 2003, chancellor Schröder announced massive cuts in the social systems, called Agenda 2010. The changes include much-disputed reforms to the labour market and unemployment system, known as Hartz I - Hartz IV.

The European elections on June 13, 2004 brought a staggering defeat for the Social Democrats, who polled only slightly more than 21 %, the lowest election result for the SPD in a nationwide election since the Second World War. Liberals, Greens, conservatives and the far left were the winners of the European election in Germany, because voters were disillusioned by high unemployment and cuts in social security, while the governing SPD party seems to be concerned with quarrels between the party wings and unable to give any clear direction. Many observers believe that this election marked the beginning of the end of the Schröder government and indicates a process in which the SPD party seems to shrink and/or fall apart.

Red-Green" vs. Christian coalitions

2007-03-31T07:36:00.000-07:00

In the 1998 election the SPD emphasized commitment to reducing persistently high unemployment and appealed to voters' desire for new faces after 16 years of Helmut Kohl's government. Gerhard Schröder positioned himself as a centrist "Third Way" candidate in the mold of Britain's Tony Blair and America's Bill Clinton--he was critiqued as "Clintonblair" by some newspaper sources throughout his election campaign. The CDU/CSU stood on its record of economic performance and experience in foreign policy. The Kohl government was hurt at the polls by slower growth in the east in the past two years, widening the economic gap between east and west. The final margin of victory was sufficiently high to permit a "red-green" coalition of the SPD with Alliance '90/The Greens (Bündnis '90/Die Grünen), bringing the Greens into a national government for the first time. The first months of the new government were marked by policy disputes between the moderate and traditional left wings of the SPD, resulting in some voter disaffection. The first state election after the federal election was held in Hessen in February, 1999. The CDU increased its vote by 3.5 % to emerge as the largest party, and was able to replace a SPD/Green coalition with a CDU/FDP coalition. The result was interpreted in part as a referendum on the federal government's proposed new citizenship law, which would have eased requirements for long-time foreign residents to obtain citizenship, and permitted them to retain their original citizenship as well.

In March 1999, SPD chairman and Minister of Finance Oskar Lafontaine, who represented a more traditional social democratic position, resigned from all offices after losing a party-internal power struggle against Schröder.

In state elections in 2000 and 2001, the respective SPD- or CDU-led coalition governments were re-elected into power.

The next election for the Bundestag was September 22, 2002. Gerhard Schröder led the coalition of SPD and Greens to an 11 seat victory over the conservative challengers headed by Edmund Stoiber (CSU). Two factors are generally cited that enabled Schröder to win the elections despite poor approval ratings a few months before: good handling of the floods in the summer of 2002 and firm opposition to the USA's plans to invade Iraq.

The coalition treaty for the second red-green coalition was signed October 16, 2002. With a significantly changed cabinet (see below), Schröder and Fischer began their second term.

Politics of Germany

2007-03-29T07:33:00.000-07:00

Politics of Germany takes place in a framework of a federal parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Federal Chancellor is the head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Federal legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of parliament, Bundestag and Bundesrat. Since 1949, the party system is dominated by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).

The Judiciary of Germany is independent of the executive and the legislature. The political system is laid out in the 1949 constitution, the Grundgesetz (Basic Law), which remained in effect with minor amendments after 1990's German Reunification.

The constitution emphasizes the protection of individual liberty in an extensive catalogue of human rights and also divides powers both between the federal and state levels and between the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. In many ways, the 1949 Grundgesetz is a strong response to the perceived flaws of the failed 1919 Weimar Republic, which collapsed in 1933 and was replaced by the dictatorship of the Third Reich.

Federal parliament

2007-03-27T07:35:00.000-07:00

Germany has on the federal level a bicameral legislature. The parliament has two chambers. The Bundestag (Federal Diet) nominally has 598 members, elected for a four year term, 299 members elected in single-seat constituencies according to first-past-the-post, while a further 299 members are allocated from statewide party lists to achieve a proportional distribution in the legislature, conducted according to a system of mixed member proportional representation. Voters vote once for a constituency representative, and a second time for a party, and the lists are used to make the party balances match the distribution of second votes. In the current parliament there are 16 overhang seats, giving a total of 614. This is caused by larger parties winning additional single-member districts above the totals determined by their proportional party vote. A party must receive 5% of the national vote or win least three directly elected seats to be represented in the Bundestag. This rule, often called the "five percent hurdle", was incorporated into Germany's Election law to prevent political fragmentation and strong minor parties, which was considered a major reason for the inefficacy of the Weimar Republic's Reichstag. The first Bundestag elections were held in the Federal Republic of Germany ("West Germany") on August 14, 1949. Following Reunification, elections for the first all-German Bundestag were held on December 2, 1990. The last election was held on September 18, 2005, the new (16th) Bundestag convened on October 18, 2005. The number of Bundestag Deputies was reduced from 656 to 598 beginning in 2002, although under the additional member system, more deputies may be admitted if a party wins more directly elected seats than it would be entitled to under proportional representation.

The Bundesrat (Federal Council) is the representation of the state governments at the federal level. It consists of 69 members who are delegates of the 16 Bundesländer and usually, but not necessarily include the 16 Minister Presidents themselves. The Länder each have from three to six votes in the Bundesrat, dependent on population. Bundesrat members receive voting instructions from their state governments.

The legislature has powers of exclusive jurisdiction and concurrent jurisdiction with the Länder in areas specifically enumerated by the Basic Law. The Bundestag bears the major responsibility. The necessity for the Bundesrat to concur on legislation is limited to bills related to revenue shared by the federal and state governments and those imposing responsibilities on the states, although in practice, this means that Bundesrat concurrence is very often required.

Since the political orientation of the Bundesrat (which depends on the various state elections that occur independently of the federal ones) is quite frequently the opposite of that of the Bundestag, it has, in recent years, become more and more of a forum for the opposition parties, as opposed to one for state interests, as the constitution intended.

Judicial branch

2007-03-26T07:35:00.000-07:00

Germany has an independent judicial branch. Since the independence of the judiciary is historically older than democracy in Germany, the organization of courts is traditionally strong, and almost all state actions are subject to judicial review. Besides a so-called "ordinary" judicial branch that handles civil and criminal cases, which is in turn comprised of four levels of courts up to the Bundesgerichtshof in a fairly complex appeals system, there are separate branches for administrative, tax, labour, and social security issues, each with their own hierarchies. Courts are generally in the hands of the states, except for the highest courts of each branch, which are federal, respectively, to maintain a certain degree of unity in jurisdiction.

In addition, Germany has a powerful Constitutional Court, the Bundesverfassungsgericht. This is somewhat unique since the Grundgesetz stipulates in principle that every person may file a complaint to that court when his or her constitutional rights, especially the human rights, have been violated by the state. Such actions can include laws passed by the legislative branch, court decisions, or acts of the administration. While in practice, only a small percentage of these constitutional complaints (Verfassungsbeschwerden) are successful, the Constitutional Court is known to frequently antagonise both the executive and the legislative branches with far-reaching decisions. This has even gone so far as judges openly stating that they are indifferent to the reactions of the government, the Bundestag, public opinion or any financial consequences arising from a decision with the only relevant point being the constitution. It should also be mentioned that the Bundesverfassungsgericht has very high approval rates throughout the general population. The Constitutional Court also handles several other procedures such as disputes between state institutions over their constitutional powers.

Federal executive branch

2007-03-25T07:34:00.001-07:00

The Bundeskanzler (Federal Chancellor) heads the Bundesregierung (Federal Cabinet) and thus the executive branch of the federal government. He or she is elected by and responsible to the Bundestag, Germany's parliament. Germany, like the United Kingdom, can thus be classified as a parliamentary system.

The Chancellor cannot be removed from office during a 4-year term unless the Bundestag has agreed on a successor. This Constructive Vote of No Confidence is intended to avoid the situation of the Weimar Republic in which the executive did not have enough support in the legislature to govern effectively, but the legislature was too divided to name a successor.

Except between 1969 and 1982, the Chancellor has always been the candidate of the largest party, usually supported by a coalition of two or more parties with a majority in the parliament. The Chancellor appoints a Vice-Chancellor (Vizekanzler), who is a member of his cabinet, usually the Foreign Minister (at the moment, the Vice-Chancellor is the Minister of Labour and Social Affairs). When there is a coalition government (which has, so far, always been the case, except for the period of 1957 to 1961), the Vice-Chancellor usually belongs to the smaller party of the coalition.

The heads of governments may change the structure of ministries whenever and however they see fit. For example, in the middle of January 2001, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture was renamed to Ministry of Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture as a consequence of the BSE crisis. For that measure, competences from the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Health were transferred to the new Ministry of Consumer Protection.

Subordinate to the cabinet is the Civil service of Germany.

By contrast, the duties of the Bundespräsident (Federal President) are largely representative and ceremonial; power is exercised by the Chancellor. The President is elected every 5 years on May 23 by the Federal Assembly (Bundesversammlung), a special body convoked only for this purpose, comprising the entire Bundestag and an equal number of state delegates selected especially for this purpose. In May 2004, Horst Köhler of the CDU was elected. The reason that the President is not popularly elected is to prevent him from gaining enough popular legitimacy to circumvent the constitution, as occurred with the Weimar Republic.

Hans-Dietrich Genscher

2007-03-25T07:28:00.000-07:00

Hans-Dietrich Genscher (born March 21, 1927) is a German politician and member of the Free Democratic Party (FDP). He was Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1974-1992, making him Germany's longest serving Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor.

Hans-Dietrich Genscher (Early life)

2007-02-25T07:29:00.000-08:00

Genscher was born at Reideburg (Saalkreis), near Halle, in what later became East Germany. At a young age, Genscher joined the Hitler Youth and later served as a Luftwaffenhelfer in the Army from 1943 to 1945. As an adult, he was also a member of the NSDAP, despite regulations encouraging active duty military members to avoid holding membership in political organizations (these regulations were widely ignored in the later days of Adolf Hitler's Germany).

At the end of the Second World War, Genscher briefly became an American and British prisoner of war. After World War II, he studied law and economics at the universities of Halle and Leipzig (1946-1949) and joined the East German Liberal Democratic Party (LDPD) in 1946.

Hans-Dietrich Genscher (Political career)

2007-01-25T07:30:00.000-08:00

In 1952, Genscher fled to West Germany, where he joined the Free Democratic Party (FDP). He passed his second state examination in law in Hamburg in 1954 and became a solicitor in Bremen.

In 1965, he was elected to the West German parliament for the first time from Bremen, a seat he would hold until his retirement in 1998. After serving in several party offices, he was appointed Minister of the Interior by Chancellor Willy Brandt, whose Social Democratic Party was in coalition with the FDP, in 1969; in 1974, he became foreign minister and Vice Chancellor).

In the SPD-FDP coalition, he helped shape Brandt's policy of deescalation with the communist East, commonly known as Ostpolitik, which was continued under Helmut Schmidt after Brandt's resignation in 1974.

Still, Genscher was one of the FDP's driving forces when, in 1982, the party switched sides from its coalition with the SPD to support the CDU/CSU in their Constructive Vote of No Confidence to have Helmut Schmidt replaced with Helmut Kohl as Chancellor. Despite the great controversy that accompanied this switch, he remained one of the most popular politicians in West Germany. He retained his posts as foreign minister and vice chancellor through German reunification and until 1992, when he stepped down for health reasons. Some believe his 18-year tenure as foreign minister made him the longest-serving holder of such an office anywhere in the world.

Hans-Dietrich Genscher (Reunification efforts)

2006-12-25T07:31:00.000-08:00

He is mostly respected for his efforts that helped end the Cold War, to lead to German reunification, when, in eastern Europe, the communist government toppled; for example, he visited Poland to meet Lech Wałęsa as early as 1988. One event remembered by many is his September 30, 1989 speech from the balcony of the German embassy in Prague, in whose court yard thousands of East German citizens had assembled to flee to the west, when he announced that he had reached an agreement with the communist government that the refugees could leave: "We have come to you to tell you that today, your departure ..." (German: "Wir sind zu Ihnen gekommen, um Ihnen mitzuteilen, daß heute Ihre Ausreise ..."). After these words, the speech drowned in cheers.

Genscher was also an active participant in the further development of the European Union, taking active part in the Single European Act Treaty negotiations in the mid 1980s, as well as the joint publication of the Genscher-Colombo plan with Italian Prime Minister Colombo

Danke Deutschland

2006-11-18T00:37:00.000-08:00

"Danke Deutschland" was a song, dedicated to Germany for its role in Croatian secession and breaking-up of Yugoslavia. It was very popular in early 90s in Croatia[citation needed], while it was ridiculed all over ex-Yugoslavia as a supreme example of political kitsch.

The lyrics, in German:

Danke Deutschland, meine Seele brennt!
Danke Deutschland, für das liebe Geschenk.
Danke Deutschland, vielen Dank,
wir sind jetzt nicht allein,
und die Hoffnung kommt in das zerstörte Heim.
Translation:

Thank you Germany, my soul is burning!
Thank you Germany, for the lovely gift.
Thank you Germany, many many thanks,
now we are no more alone,
and hope comes into our destroyed homeland.
Sanja Trumbić was the singer, and this was only one of her nationalistic songs of disputable quality. The composer was Đorđe Novković, father of the more well known Boris Novković.

This song has been broadcasted in Croatia for only a few weeks. Part of the reason is was the song's low artistic quality that appalled many Croatians, even at the very height of nationalist euphoria.[citation needed]

"Danke Deutschland", however, remained a popular slogan in other republics of former Yugoslavia, often used as an ironic comment by those dissatisfied with the way German or any other foreign governments or business corporations affected local way of life.

This song was part of a wider campaign in equally bad taste. Hans-Dietrich Genscher has had monuments erected in Croatia, while he was still alive, for instance. Also, various towns had their streets named after German foreign minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher and his Austrian counterpart Alois Mock. This trend was relatively quickly suppressed by Tuđman's government, especially in the case of Genscher, because main liberal party HSLS tried to use Genscher's association with FDP for its own propaganda at the eve 1992 elections.

Les filles, danke

2006-05-28T09:56:00.000-07:00

Buch-Geburtstagsfeier: "Das andere Geschlecht" wird 50 Susanne Mayer

Ob es wichtig ist, wie schцn eine Feministin ist? Sie haben ein Jugendbild gewдhlt, Simone de Beauvoir mit schneeweiЯen Perlzдhnen lдchelnd, die dunklen Haare elegant zur Seite geschwungen, die Nase geradlinig, ihr Teint schimmert wie Silberstaub auf der riesigen Leinwand, die von der Fassade der ehemaligen Hafenhalle in Kцln herunterhдngt. Ein Supermodell der Frauenbewegung! "50 Jahre Das andere Geschlecht", scheint sie zu locken, "kommt zu mir, les filles, lasst uns reden ..."

Sie kamen. Konferenzzeit am Rhein, drei Tage lang saЯen sie zu FьЯen eines Bildes. Die strenge Elisabeth Badinter, Marlene Streeruwitz aus Wien. Benoоte Groult und Anke Engelke, es kamen die groЯen Damen der feministischen historischen Theorie, Rita Thalmann und Gerda Lerner, auch Hannelore Elsner und Iris Berben, Sevgi Emine Цzdemir in Pluderhosen und ein paar hundert Frauen mehr.

"Ich habe lange gezцgert, ein Buch ьber die Frau zu schreiben", schrieb Beauvoir in ihrer Einleitung. "Das Thema ist дrgerlich, besonders fьr Frauen; auЯerdem ist es nicht neu ..."

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700 Seiten wissenschaftliche und philosophische Erцrterung des Phдnomens Geschlecht. Biologie ("... entwickelt sich das unbefruchtete Ei als Embryo ohne Hinzutreten des Mдnnchens ..."), persisches Eherecht, der Koitus, Mutterschaft ("Sie werden am Leben verhindert. Zum Ausgleich dьrfen sie mit Puppen spielen"). 20 000 Exemplare wurden in der ersten Woche verkauft.

Elisabeth Badinter sagte sehr schцn, Beauvoir habe uns eine Spur hinterlassen, in der eine Frau aufrecht gehen kцnne. Eine Afrikanerin sagte, Optimismus habe sie von Simone gelernt, auch von Mut war die Rede, natьrlich von den Enkelinnen ("treten auf unsere Schultern"). Und dann kam Khalida Messaoudi aus Algier.

Sie sagte, in ihrem Land wьrden Frauen im Namen Gottes gefoltert und umgebracht, zu Tausenden. Sie sagte: "Die Frauen Algeriens haben nicht geglaubt, dass jemand kommt und mit uns kдmpft, wir haben erwartet, dass Einsamkeit unser Begleiter ist, aber was wir nicht verdienen, ist die Feindseligkeit, mit der man uns vorhдlt, diese Mдnner seien doch gewдhlt." Ihr Gesicht verzerrte sich zu einer Grimasse. "Bitte! Bitte! Bitte mischen Sie sich ein!", rief sie.

TEIL 2

Es gab in jeder Hinsicht eine Pause. Schwer zu sagen, ob es ein Tiefpunkt oder ein Hцhepunkt der Veranstaltung zum 50. Geburtstag des Buches Das andere Geschlecht war. Es gab zum Schluss enge Umarmungen, viele Taxis kamen, Alice S. rief: "Les filles, danke!" Aber man muss auch sagen, dass der groЯe Rhein, dunkel und ein wenig glitzernd, unter den Fenstern dahinfloss wie eh und je.