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Ralph Bollman | Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
"The West is more threatened from within than from without“ (last accessed on January 5.1.2024, 10.35, XNUMX:XNUMX a.m.)
An interview with Heinrich August Winkler
“Populism is even more dangerous for the future of democracy than Putin’s aggression, says historian Heinrich August Winkler. Still, there is something that gives him hope. …
The fact that the Bonn Republic was much more successful than that of Weimar is due in large part to the sustained high economic growth in the 1930s. After that, the old Federal Republic successfully overcame a number of economic crises, none of which were as severe as the global economic crisis of the early XNUMXs. This has led to the Federal Republic being considered crisis-proof over time. …
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the previously silent majority primarily demanded that rapid economic and, above all, monetary union come about.”
With this, Winkler confirms, at least in my opinion, the view that the majority of us Germans are actually only democrats as long as we are doing better than the rest of the world.
And as soon as we (supposedly) feel worse again, we just discuss whether Joseph Stalin (Georgians) or Adolf Hitler (Austrians) are the better Germans and will slip into the ass of anyone who pretends to know these gentlemen a little better.
Winkler's explanation that the social envy of East Germans actually comes from their vacations, where they were allegedly treated worse than their West German neighbors, is also fitting. In doing so, they have clearly proven that they are the “better” Germans, because envy continues to be our greatest strength.
