on October 1, 2011 by alchemystic in American Downbeat, Depression Cookbook, Rim Shot, Comments (1)

Guest Post by Franklin Sanders

> “It is historically ironic that Germany now has all she fought for in two world wars, but without the bloodshed: the Fourth Reich. I went to school in Germany and am a great admirer of German culture and civilization, except for the Nazi aberration. Remember that the German Empire began to be built on the ruins of Rome with Charlemagne (768-814 a.d.) and was officially founded as the First Reich with the crowning of Otto I in 962. (Remember that the Franks like Charlemagne were really Germans who settled in France, so ultimately the French are really Germans, or the Germans are French, and I’m my own grandpa.) The First Reich lasted until Francis II abdicated in 1806. The Second Reich came with the founding of the Prussian empire upon the defeat of the French (those “other” Germans) in 1871 with Wilhelm I. That Reich ended in 1918 when Wilhelm II “the Incompetent” abdicated. Then the Nazis came along and, as they always so skillfully did, co-opted existing symbols while filling them with wholly new meaning. (Think of the Hakenkreuz or swastika used to replace the Christian cross.) Anyway, the Nazis proclaimed the Third Reich, and that ended with Hitler in 1945. Later skilful German statesmen worked to set up a European political order that would be peaceful and prosperous, but somewhere along the way that metastasized into the European bureaucracy. Bottom line is, today the Germans are the lynchpin, not to say the rulers, of the Eurozone. The ancient Reich has been revived. And in Asia, the Japanese have hegemony in the “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere” they sought to establish by force 1905 – 1945. Ironically enough, most of the big German and Japanese corporations from those “bad” years are still around, Mitsubishi, e.g., making cars instead of Zero fighter planes, Krupp, Siemens, etc. Governments and dictatorships may come and go, but corporations are forever. The US won the war, while the corporations stole the peace.”

“Reprinted with permission from The Moneychanger, www.the-moneychanger.com. (c) 2011.”

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1 Comment

  1. Nancy

    October 2, 2011 @ 1:07 pm

    Thanks for the share!
    Nancy.R

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