Let us wind the tape fast forward. Germany 2060. We are entering the country from east or west. We are travelling across it, visiting ancient towns and cities, doing the sights in medieval castles and cathedrals. The people that we face are black or brown; with kinky hair, squinted eyes, pouted lips and sometimes even blond hair and fair skin. Some speak good German, some speak broken German, some speak Somali, some Pashto, some Turkish. We hear their names: Muhammad,1)How Muhammad is now the most popular name for baby boys in England and Wales… but it doesn’t top official list because there are so many ways to spell it, Mail Online 2014-08-16.Karl-Heinz, Hassan, Konrad, Omar, Gojko, Mammoon. A German of Afghan descent is our guide around a medieval castle explaining to us the ways of life of the former inhabitants of the country; an imam walks us around a cathedral turned mosque, explaining that some time back it fell into disuse, and so it was taken over; we are entertained by a black teacher who is proud of teaching German to students with diverse cultural heritage, ‘You know,’ she says, German is almost a kind of present-day Latin in terms of it being almost obsolescent but still one of the official languages of the country.’ So we tour the country in search of Germany or rather traces thereof. We can still find German cuisine in isolated pockets in the countryside.
‘We have at last overcome national sentiment,’ we hear from a local government representative, a white woman.2)“Deutsche Nation, das ist für mich überhaupt nichts, worauf ich mich positiv beziehe – würde ich politisch sogar bekämpfen. “Franziska Drohsel, SPD, [in:] Cicero Streitgespräch zwischen Drohsel und Mißfelder, YouTube 2009-04-17;’We all feel German and we all do not feel German at the same time. Being German has long been redefined. Germans are no longer fair-skinned, Christian believers of Germanic descent: anyone can be a German if she pleases, no need to know the language either.3)Joachim Gauck: “wenn sich noch mehr Menschen als bisher von dem Bild einer Nation lösen, die sehr homogen ist, in der fast alle Menschen Deutsch als Muttersprache haben, überwiegend christlich sind und hellhäutig…”, “Wir können nicht jede Last tragen”, General Anzeiger 2015-02-01.The former, racist, bigoted German has been replaced with the new progressive one.4)Jürgen Trittin, die Grünen, Deutschland ist ein in allen Gesellschaftsschichten und Generationen rassistisch infiziertes Land, Deutscher Bundestag Stenographischer Bericht 36. Sitzung Bonn, Freitag, den 23. April 1999.We are proud at having eventually suppressed German linguistic supremacy,’ we hear. ‘Well, it is one of the basic human rights to stick to her mother tongue, believe in voodoo gods if she pleases, practice Ramadan or be an atheist, speak Somali and still identify as German.’ We notice in passing her correct use of the pronouns.
‘We are an open society,'5)Open Society Foundations.we hear elsewhere. ‘The process started at the turn of the millennium,’ we are told. ‘Or a tad earlier. Our chancellors – at that time still unfortunately white males – invited Turks to help build the country. You see, indigenous Germans could not manage it on their own. That met with some kind of resentment among the more backward sectors of the populace,6)Jamel in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern gilt als Nazidorf: Die meisten Einwohner gehören der rechtsextremen Szene an. Doch diesen Sommer wohnte Michel Abdollahi mitten unter ihnen. [in:] Im Nazidorf, NDR.which was duly overcome with the help of the educational system, the mass media and entertainment industry. Then we had that brilliant idea of introducing double citizenship. German citizens had to realise that without an admixture of peoples from around the world their country was going to deteriorate by committing mass incest7)“Abschottung würde uns in Inzucht degenerieren lassen,” Der Tagesspiegel 2016-06-08.and narrowing its culture down to an unattractive German heritage if there ever was one. Then came the time when our first female chancellor opened the door wide and eventually aired the stifling interior of mono-culturalism and nationalism: we readily embraced the welcome culture8)Welcome To Europe: www.w2eu.info and www.w2eu.net.and enriched ourselves beyond imagination.9)Klare Worte von Wolfgang Schäuble: Der Finanzminister fürchtet eher die Degeneration der Deutschen durch Inzucht als eine Islamisierung. Besonders eine Gruppe von muslimischen Migranten lobt er.[in:] “Muslime in Deutschland sind eine Bereicherung”, Die Welt 2016-06-08.Just look: you may have Indian food here, Moroccan food there and Chinese cuisine just round the corner. You may hear Tigrinya in this borough, Kurdish in that, and Croatian in the outskirts of our town.’
We are sitting in a Munich cafe; we are sipping coffee in a Hamburg cafeteria; we are having lunch in a Berlin restaurant. A pocket edition of Huxley’s Brave New World on our table. Multi-coloured children are passing us by. A school outing, we think. We can hear muezzin calls from afar. We are desperately looking for girls in mini-skirts. None heave into sight.10)Frauen sollen zu Fremden “eine Armlänge” Distanz halten, RP ONline 2016-01-06; Bavarian school warns girls should dress ‘modestly,’ due to Syrian refugees nearby, RT 2015-06-28; German school prohibits revealing clothing, Deutsche Welle 2015-07-07.We see a display of motley clothes worn by African Germans, burkas worn by Arabic Germans, turbans worn by we can’t identify what other kind of Germans. We are having a talk. We’ve been to France, we’ve been to England, to Sweden, to the Netherlands. Everywhere the same enriching multi-component culture we are proud of.11)“In 40 years the percentage of white British in London has fallen from 86% to 45% […] 57% of births are to migrant mothers […] 96% of London’s prostitutes are migrants, as are 60% of its carers. [in:] This Is London by Ben Judah review – the truth about a capital city utterly transformed, The Guardian 2016-01-20.We almost start wondering how long the merely geographical notions of Germany, France, Sweden are going to linger on.
‘White oppressive male patriarchy,’ we hear from our kinky-haired lovely guide, ‘was done away with in the twenties. Since then we’ve had black female and yellow female German chancellors. They often meet with their black or yellow female counterparts from France or Great Britain. Conflicts have been unheard of for years. Generally, the moment women took the helm,12)Left German [female] Politician: „Unsere Gesellschaft wird sich andern. Unsere Stadt wird sich radikal verändern. Ich bin der Auffassung dass wir in zwanzig, dreißig Jahren gar keine ethnischen Mehrheiten haben in unserer Stadt. […] wir werden in einer Stadt leben, in der wir […] verschiedene Ethnien haben, […] dass wir eine super-kulturelle Gesellschaft haben. […] Das ist das, was wir haben werden in der Zukunft und ich sage ihnen noch ganz deutlich gerade hier in Richtung Rechts das ist gut so!“ [in:] It’s Good that Germany will become Islamic, YouTube 2015-11-24.the whole task of transforming our society was downhill all the way. To think of it how easily this universal peace could be attained,’ we hear and nod our heads in approval.
‘The United Nations Organization was the very first step towards this goal. You see,’ the woman continues, ‘the very notion of nation was changed. We had the United Nations whereas in the point of fact these were the states that were united, with the states’ borders more often than not running across the nations, thus dividing them and weakening the dangerous national resentment of the populace.13)Gregor Gysi: “Ich rufe Sie auf, an der Demonstration »Schöner Leben ohne Nazis. Vielfalt ist unsere Zukunft« am 6. Juni um 10 Uhr in Neuruppin teilzunehmen. Wir müssen uns gegen die Nazis stellen. Schon aufgrund unserer Geschichte zwischen 1933 und 1945 sind wir verpflichtet, Flüchtlinge anständig zu behandeln. Außerdem muss deren Leben gerettet werden im Mittelmeer. Und es muss einen legalen Weg geben, um in Europa Asyl zu beantragen. Auch Länder wie Polen – sehr katholisch übrigens – müssen bereit sein, Flüchtlinge aufzunehmen. Und dann gibt es ja noch was: Jedes Jahr sterben mehr Deutsche, als geboren werden. Das liegt zum Glück daran, dass die Nazis sich auch nicht besonders vervielfältigen. Und schon deshalb sind wir auf Zuwanderer aus anderen Ländern angewiesen.” Zum Glück vervielfältigen sich Nazis auch nicht besonders.Our leaders realised that there would be no peace so long as we had nations and national sentiments. To that purpose they used sports, stuffing national teams with non-national members and trained people to accept it. The same with non-European actors and performers, role models for our youth. Have you seen the French national soccer team at the turn of the millennium? Stubborn resistance was dealt with with decisiveness, if necessary with the use of firearms. Our democratic authorities would clamp down everywhere where such sentiment was rampant, like in the former Yugoslavia.'14)Gen. Wesley Clark: “There is no place in modern Europe for ethnically pure states. That’s a 19th century idea, and we are trying to transition into the 21st century, and we are going to do it with multiethnic states.” Balkan War Shows Ethnicity Still Matters, Social Contract Press 1999.
‘At first there was some resentment to be sure,'15)‘This isn’t the Britain we fought for,’ say the ‘unknown warriors’ of WWII, Mail Online 2009-11-21.we are told, ‘but it was dealt with swiftly16)Es gibt kein Recht auf Facebook! Die Welt 2015-08-27.or its bearers in a natural way made place for new generations of our open society.'17)Open Society Foundation, Our Mission; Why Europe Must Embrace Its Refugees, November 3, 2015 by George Soros; George Soros, Wake up, Europe.
We are doing the sights in a medieval castle, we are admiring remnants of the Second Nationalistic (as it has been renamed) World War’s fortifications. Fortunately, these things are long gone. ‘At that time,’ we hear our German-Pakistani guide, ‘people were obsessed with the notion of belonging to their tribe. Hence these defensive walls, hence these bunkers. Today we all collectively and each one of us separately identify just as human beings. We have become colour-blind as far as race is concerned, and ethnicity has been equated with a mere difference in respective cuisines,’ we hear, munching an Indian delicacy. ‘Our media, our schools, our entertainment have done a good job,’ says our Libyan German host at a nice pension lodge. ‘Europe has become a harbinger of the good gospel; the rest of the world has to follow suit. Look, Kenya, Nigeria, Japan, China they are still struggling with the debilitating mono-cultural environment. Our European leaders of various hues of skin are holding the torch of progress high.’
True, we agree. It is a small price to have done away with German, French, English or Swedish heritage in return for everlasting peace and brotherly relations between communities. After all German-ness continues to exist and is displayed the way Egyptian or Aztec pyramids do. We all know from school, entertainment and mass media how pernicious nations have been since dawn of history. Good that we had statesmen who courageously removed this evil of all evils: tribalism, the in-group cohesion and cautiousness towards the out-group.18)Peter Sutherland, non-executive chairman of Goldman Sachs International and a former chairman of oil giant BP, heads the Global Forum on Migration and Development , which brings together representatives of 160 nations to share policy ideas, said The EU should “do its best to undermine” the “homogeneity” of its member states […] that the future prosperity of many EU states depended on them becoming multicultural and […] migration was a “crucial dynamic for economic growth” in some EU nations “however difficult it may be to explain this to the citizens of those states” [in:] UN chief of migration: EU must destroy homogeneity of member states through immigration, 10 News.dk 2015-07-01. Also: Speisa. “I am a strong believer in European integration as the taming of nationalism,” […] “Angela Merkel has associated the morality of the migrant issue with trying to hold Europe together at a time when it is in danger of breaking,” he says. “It’s exactly how I feel.” […] “I am absolutely an internationalist, and Garret was too. That is what we came together on and why he appointed me to Europe.” Sutherland despairs of Britain’s deteriorating migration debate but reserves special odium for Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. Their restrictive line on asylum seekers threatens the Schengen principles of free movement of people, he says, and is a “body blow to European integration”.[in:] The Irish Times 2015-12-05.Great efforts had been taken at the turn of the millennium to deconstruct Europe and create it again.19)New myths will be needed to convince Europe’s masses of the desirability of mass migration – and to abandon their nation-states for a multicultural ideology. […] the phenomenon of “invented traditions” shows that future coexistence is quite possible. Again, poets and artists will be needed to provide a new understanding, a kind of founding myth, for the multicultural societies now emerging that will be sufficiently strong to bind together the different experiences. […] The experience of the 19th century has shown that societies are highly flexible structures that can take very different forms. Only this does not happen overnight. And it cannot take on unlimited dimensions. […] As ugly as this may seem: Immigration numbers must be limited. To call for this does not mean to preach racism – but an orderly transformation of Europe and its nation-states.[in:] Opinion: Goodbye to Europe’s nation-states, Deutsche Welle 2015-08-22.After the fashion of our founding fathers.20)“Der Mensch der fernen Zukunft wird Mischling sein. Die heutigen Rassen und Kasten werden der zunehmenden Überwindung von Raum, Zeit und Vorurteil zum Opfer fallen. Die eurasisch-negroide Zukunftsrasse, äußerlich der altägyptischen ähnlich, wird die Vielfalt der Völker durch eine Vielfalt der Persönlichkeiten ersetzen.” Praktischer Idealismus, Wien – Leipzig 1925, p. 22-23. PDF format available at Praktischer Idealismus.We who have not known national feelings just dread to think what life must have been like when Europe was criss-crossed with borders.21)Soros: “His [Orban’s] plan treats the protection of national borders as the objective and the refugees as an obstacle. Our plan treats the protection of refugees as the objective and national borders as the obstacle. [in:] ”Orban Accuses Soros of Stoking Refugee Wave to Weaken Europe, Bloomberg 2015-10-30.
Gertrud, Kenyan of Ethiopian origin, her mother tongue: Swahili |
Jebet, German of French origin, her mother tongue: Italian |
References
1. | ↑ | How Muhammad is now the most popular name for baby boys in England and Wales… but it doesn’t top official list because there are so many ways to spell it, Mail Online 2014-08-16. |
2. | ↑ | “Deutsche Nation, das ist für mich überhaupt nichts, worauf ich mich positiv beziehe – würde ich politisch sogar bekämpfen. “Franziska Drohsel, SPD, [in:] Cicero Streitgespräch zwischen Drohsel und Mißfelder, YouTube 2009-04-17; |
3. | ↑ | Joachim Gauck: “wenn sich noch mehr Menschen als bisher von dem Bild einer Nation lösen, die sehr homogen ist, in der fast alle Menschen Deutsch als Muttersprache haben, überwiegend christlich sind und hellhäutig…”, “Wir können nicht jede Last tragen”, General Anzeiger 2015-02-01. |
4. | ↑ | Jürgen Trittin, die Grünen, Deutschland ist ein in allen Gesellschaftsschichten und Generationen rassistisch infiziertes Land, Deutscher Bundestag Stenographischer Bericht 36. Sitzung Bonn, Freitag, den 23. April 1999. |
5. | ↑ | Open Society Foundations. |
6. | ↑ | Jamel in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern gilt als Nazidorf: Die meisten Einwohner gehören der rechtsextremen Szene an. Doch diesen Sommer wohnte Michel Abdollahi mitten unter ihnen. [in:] Im Nazidorf, NDR. |
7. | ↑ | “Abschottung würde uns in Inzucht degenerieren lassen,” Der Tagesspiegel 2016-06-08. |
8. | ↑ | Welcome To Europe: www.w2eu.info and www.w2eu.net. |
9. | ↑ | Klare Worte von Wolfgang Schäuble: Der Finanzminister fürchtet eher die Degeneration der Deutschen durch Inzucht als eine Islamisierung. Besonders eine Gruppe von muslimischen Migranten lobt er.[in:] “Muslime in Deutschland sind eine Bereicherung”, Die Welt 2016-06-08. |
10. | ↑ | Frauen sollen zu Fremden “eine Armlänge” Distanz halten, RP ONline 2016-01-06; Bavarian school warns girls should dress ‘modestly,’ due to Syrian refugees nearby, RT 2015-06-28; German school prohibits revealing clothing, Deutsche Welle 2015-07-07. |
11. | ↑ | “In 40 years the percentage of white British in London has fallen from 86% to 45% […] 57% of births are to migrant mothers […] 96% of London’s prostitutes are migrants, as are 60% of its carers. [in:] This Is London by Ben Judah review – the truth about a capital city utterly transformed, The Guardian 2016-01-20. |
12. | ↑ | Left German [female] Politician: „Unsere Gesellschaft wird sich andern. Unsere Stadt wird sich radikal verändern. Ich bin der Auffassung dass wir in zwanzig, dreißig Jahren gar keine ethnischen Mehrheiten haben in unserer Stadt. […] wir werden in einer Stadt leben, in der wir […] verschiedene Ethnien haben, […] dass wir eine super-kulturelle Gesellschaft haben. […] Das ist das, was wir haben werden in der Zukunft und ich sage ihnen noch ganz deutlich gerade hier in Richtung Rechts das ist gut so!“ [in:] It’s Good that Germany will become Islamic, YouTube 2015-11-24. |
13. | ↑ | Gregor Gysi: “Ich rufe Sie auf, an der Demonstration »Schöner Leben ohne Nazis. Vielfalt ist unsere Zukunft« am 6. Juni um 10 Uhr in Neuruppin teilzunehmen. Wir müssen uns gegen die Nazis stellen. Schon aufgrund unserer Geschichte zwischen 1933 und 1945 sind wir verpflichtet, Flüchtlinge anständig zu behandeln. Außerdem muss deren Leben gerettet werden im Mittelmeer. Und es muss einen legalen Weg geben, um in Europa Asyl zu beantragen. Auch Länder wie Polen – sehr katholisch übrigens – müssen bereit sein, Flüchtlinge aufzunehmen. Und dann gibt es ja noch was: Jedes Jahr sterben mehr Deutsche, als geboren werden. Das liegt zum Glück daran, dass die Nazis sich auch nicht besonders vervielfältigen. Und schon deshalb sind wir auf Zuwanderer aus anderen Ländern angewiesen.” Zum Glück vervielfältigen sich Nazis auch nicht besonders. |
14. | ↑ | Gen. Wesley Clark: “There is no place in modern Europe for ethnically pure states. That’s a 19th century idea, and we are trying to transition into the 21st century, and we are going to do it with multiethnic states.” Balkan War Shows Ethnicity Still Matters, Social Contract Press 1999. |
15. | ↑ | ‘This isn’t the Britain we fought for,’ say the ‘unknown warriors’ of WWII, Mail Online 2009-11-21. |
16. | ↑ | Es gibt kein Recht auf Facebook! Die Welt 2015-08-27. |
17. | ↑ | Open Society Foundation, Our Mission; Why Europe Must Embrace Its Refugees, November 3, 2015 by George Soros; George Soros, Wake up, Europe. |
18. | ↑ | Peter Sutherland, non-executive chairman of Goldman Sachs International and a former chairman of oil giant BP, heads the Global Forum on Migration and Development , which brings together representatives of 160 nations to share policy ideas, said The EU should “do its best to undermine” the “homogeneity” of its member states […] that the future prosperity of many EU states depended on them becoming multicultural and […] migration was a “crucial dynamic for economic growth” in some EU nations “however difficult it may be to explain this to the citizens of those states” [in:] UN chief of migration: EU must destroy homogeneity of member states through immigration, 10 News.dk 2015-07-01. Also: Speisa. “I am a strong believer in European integration as the taming of nationalism,” […] “Angela Merkel has associated the morality of the migrant issue with trying to hold Europe together at a time when it is in danger of breaking,” he says. “It’s exactly how I feel.” […] “I am absolutely an internationalist, and Garret was too. That is what we came together on and why he appointed me to Europe.” Sutherland despairs of Britain’s deteriorating migration debate but reserves special odium for Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. Their restrictive line on asylum seekers threatens the Schengen principles of free movement of people, he says, and is a “body blow to European integration”.[in:] The Irish Times 2015-12-05. |
19. | ↑ | New myths will be needed to convince Europe’s masses of the desirability of mass migration – and to abandon their nation-states for a multicultural ideology. […] the phenomenon of “invented traditions” shows that future coexistence is quite possible. Again, poets and artists will be needed to provide a new understanding, a kind of founding myth, for the multicultural societies now emerging that will be sufficiently strong to bind together the different experiences. […] The experience of the 19th century has shown that societies are highly flexible structures that can take very different forms. Only this does not happen overnight. And it cannot take on unlimited dimensions. […] As ugly as this may seem: Immigration numbers must be limited. To call for this does not mean to preach racism – but an orderly transformation of Europe and its nation-states.[in:] Opinion: Goodbye to Europe’s nation-states, Deutsche Welle 2015-08-22. |
20. | ↑ | “Der Mensch der fernen Zukunft wird Mischling sein. Die heutigen Rassen und Kasten werden der zunehmenden Überwindung von Raum, Zeit und Vorurteil zum Opfer fallen. Die eurasisch-negroide Zukunftsrasse, äußerlich der altägyptischen ähnlich, wird die Vielfalt der Völker durch eine Vielfalt der Persönlichkeiten ersetzen.” Praktischer Idealismus, Wien – Leipzig 1925, p. 22-23. PDF format available at Praktischer Idealismus. |
21. | ↑ | Soros: “His [Orban’s] plan treats the protection of national borders as the objective and the refugees as an obstacle. Our plan treats the protection of refugees as the objective and national borders as the obstacle. [in:] ”Orban Accuses Soros of Stoking Refugee Wave to Weaken Europe, Bloomberg 2015-10-30. |