What is Happening in Germany?
And Why Americans Should Pay Attention
With the recent American election and important appointments to President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet capturing the news, it is easy for Americans to have missed important, perhaps historical, events abroad. For Germany in particular, much has happened.
The three-party “traffic-light” coalition government collapsed in November. The unsteady alliance of the Social Democrats, the Greens (Leftists with an emphasis on environmental issues), and the Free Democrats (pro-business, classical liberal) was bound to fail, and after the no-confidence vote in Chancellor Olaf Scholz on December 16th, a federal election will take place on February 23, 2025.
The Social Democrats’ failure of leadership has led many to presume that the other major centrist party, the Christian Democrat Union (CDU) will become the dominant partner in a new coalition government. Angela Merkel, the former long-time German Chancellor, is part of the CDU. German media brands the CDU as “center-right,” yet it is under Merkel’s CDU leadership that Germany adopted mass migration policies that have reshaped Germany in recent years.
Recent polling has shown decreased support for the establishment parties, and a rise in support for alternatives. Perhaps most importantly, the Alternative for Deutschland (AfD), has gained upwards of 30% of support in Eastern states and around 20% nationwide.
The AfD represents the one viable alternative to the globalist/liberal hegemony in Germany. Unsurprisingly, the party is labelled as “far-right” or “extreme” by both the media and the German government. The party is a threat to “democracy.” Sound familiar? The AfD is opposed to globalism, stating clearly their hopes for a sovereign, democratic, nation-state. The party seeks to promote a welcoming culture for children and to support the traditional family. Perhaps most importantly for Germany’s continued existence, the AfD opposes mass-migration and seeks to begin the process of re-migration for non-Germans to return to their home nations.
On December 20th, this issue of re-migration was brought to the fore. In Magdeburg, a Saudi citizen named Taleb al-Abdulmohsen drove a car into a crowded Christmas market and killed 5 people and injured 200. Taleb had previously made threats online against Germans that had been reported to the police. Predictably, German media has responded strongly to condemn protestors who are calling for deportations as “neo-Nazis.”
The same day as the terrorist attack, Elon Musk posted on X “Only the AfD can save Germany.” Why would he say that? Because the AfD is the only viable party in Germany that upholds the idea of the sovereign nation state, the idea that a country should be first for its own people rather than for the “the world.” Standing for one’s own nation necessitates opposing an open-door immigration policy, especially when one’s own country is in already in crisis.
On Sunday December 22, the German Tabloid published the results of a poll taken in the days before the Magdeburg attack showing the AfD candidate for Chancellor, Alice Weidel, leading all candidates with 24%. It is likely that the backlash from the attack will lead to a boost for Weidel, who has asserted that AfD is the “only Christian party that still exists,” in the coming two months before the election. (Weidel, a lesbian, has opposed the legalization of same-sex marriages as well as transgender “treatments” for minors.)
Why should Americans care about all this? Germany is a world away.
Defenders of the American Founders’ foreign policy frequently cite John Quincy Adams’ famous speech in which he declares that America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy – that is, to become involved unnecessarily in foreign wars. Yet before that famous line, Adams outlines what America ought to do in relation to foreign nations who are fighting for their freedom and their nation: “Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence, has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be.” Make no mistake, when it comes to the mass migration that has been forcibly imposed on the German people, freedom and independence is at stake.
The AfD and Germany have an opportunity – like Americans just had in November – to decidedly reject globalism, multiculturalism, and the invasion of their nation by foreigners. That opportunity is a chance for a recovery of freedom and independence for Germans. Thus, the “benedictions and prayers” of Americans should be with those Germans who are fighting for their nation against those who would destroy it. In this sense, Americans, Germans, and the rest of the west are engaged in the same fight, each people struggling to recover and preserve their distinctive way of life from the ruinous, hairbrained policies of the past century.
Moreover, Germany is historically a Christian country, the birthplace of the Reformation, and a stronghold of Western civilization. Although much of the nation has secularized, the remnants of Christian Germany are still visible in places. If Germany as a nation survives, those historic roots could serve as the foundation for Christian revival. The AfD’s remigration policy is aimed especially at preventing radical Islam from taking over Germany, an outcome that would destroy the country as we know it and one that may presage our own fate if we are not careful.
American Christians should recognize this noble aim and support it – recognizing the historic importance of Germany for both Western civilization and our Christian heritage.
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