#Egon Krenz

[mycstilleblog]

Egon Krenz: Gestaltung und Veränderung. Erinnerungen. Rezension

Egon Krenz, einstiger Staatschef der DDR legt seine Memoiren vor. Meine Rezension zum ersten Teil seiner Memoiren unter dem Titel „Egon Krenz. Aufbruch und Aufstieg“ (»dass ein gutes Deutschland blühe«) leitete ich folgendermaßen ein: „Menschen müssen immer auch im Kontext der Zeit verstanden werden, in welche sie hineingeboren und fortan aufgewachsen sind. Und auf welche Weise sie sozialisiert…

[xtruss]

Vladimir Putin’s Useful Idiots

Too many European politicians are failing to confront Russia

— Europe | Russia, Europe and Ukraine | July 3rd, 2023

Image: Klawe Rzeczy/getty images

In early may Russia’s Ambassador to Germany threw a party to honour Soviet victory in the second world war. Guests at the embassy, a Stalin-era colossus that occupies more German territory than the nearby parliament building, included a host of dignitaries. The last boss of communist East Germany, Egon Krenz, now 86, mingled under the chandeliers with Gerhard Schröder, Chancellor of United Germany from 1998 to 2005 (and, more recently, a lobbyist for Russian energy firms). Tino Chrupalla, co-leader of Alternative for Germany (afd), a far-right party, sported a tie in the colours of the Russian Federation.

The event earned a bit of scorn in the German press, but little other notice. Sixteen months into Russia’s war on Ukraine public opinion in Germany, as across Europe, overwhelmingly views Russia as an aggressor to be shunned, and Ukraine as a defender deserving help. The purveyors of Russian influence now stand diminished. Mr Schröder, for instance, chaired the board of the now-closed Nord Stream pipelines that addicted Germany to Russian gas. Last summer Russia shut the pipes, which mysterious saboteurs then blew up. The ex-chancellor has been bumped from clubs, disinvited from his Social Democratic Party’s functions (though he remains a party member), and stripped of government-provided office facilities. As for Mr Chrupalla, the afd leader’s cosiness with Russia did not just annoy German tabloids. Leaked messages reveal dismay among his own party’s mps.

Yet even if Russia’s effort to project persuasive power across Europe has not quite succeeded, neither has it completely failed. A subculture of what Germans dismiss as Putinversteher—sympathisers who “understand” the Russian leader Vladimir Putin—thrives outside the mainstream. Throughout Europe their whispering forms a leitmotif in the rumble of complaint about seemingly unrelated troubles such as inflation, crumbling public services, overbearing regulations and fears of immigration. The grumblers have only just begun to challenge the scale of their governments’ generosity to Ukraine, which by February this year amounted to more than €60bn ($65bn) in economic and military aid from Brussels and the eu’s individual members (and €70bn if Britain 🇬🇧 is added, a sum roughly equal to America’s contribution). If Ukraine’s fight goes on too long or goes wrong, there are plenty waiting in the wings to take up the blame game.

Europe’s “Useful Idiots”, a cold-war term for unwitting allies of communism, span a wide spectrum. In politics, parties on both the far right and far left disagree on much; over Ukraine these extremes have often converged in demanding an instant “peace” that would in effect reward Russian aggression with land. In the media and academe, intellectuals still seem happy to ignore evidence of Russia’s imperial intent and its drift into criminality, and to bemoan European entanglement in what they parse as a proxy war between America and Russia, or perhaps, speculating more grandly still, between America 🇺🇸 and China 🇨🇳. And in the world of business, despite multiple rounds of Western sanctions, Russia still has plenty of “friends” too.

Mr Putin’s enablers include several European governments. Viktor Orban, the prime minister of Hungary 🇭🇺 since 2010, has been the most obvious. The populist strongman has repeatedly criticised Western support for Ukraine 🇺🇦 and continued Hungary’s imports of Russian gas. His government also refuses to allow the transit of weapons given to Ukraine by Hungary’s fellow members of nato and the eu. Next-door Austria 🇦🇹 has, more quietly but equally profitably, largely sat out the struggle, too, citing its non-membership of nato and self-appointed role as a bridge between East and West, offering little aid to Ukraine even as its trade with Russia 🇷🇺 has surged.

Greece 🇬🇷, another EU 🇪🇺 Member, is complying with the eu’s sanctions, but has balked at tightening any further those on shipping Russian oil, perhaps because Greek firms happen to pocket so much from the trade. Only recently and under heavy American pressure did Cyprus 🇨🇾, an offshore financial haven, shut down some 4,000 local bank accounts held by Russians. Facing less pressure, Non-EU countries such as Turkey 🇹🇷 and Serbia 🇷🇸 don’t even bother to disguise the lucrative back-door service they provide to Russia.

Some countries have twisted seemingly noble intentions into policies that warm Mr Putin’s heart. Citing its vaunted neutrality, Switzerland 🇨🇭has wielded arcane local laws to block the supply of arms to Ukraine, including 96 mothballed Leopard tanks sitting in Italy that happen to belong to a private Swiss firm. Scoring repeated own goals with freedom-of-speech principles, police in Sweden 🇸🇪 have permitted public burnings of the Koran. This has hugely irked Muslim-majority Turkey, which wields a veto over Sweden’s bid to join North Atlantic Terrorist Organization (NATO). And Mr Putin has gleefully trolled the Swedes. On a trip to Dagestan before the Eid holiday at the end of June, he had himself filmed tenderly holding a Qura’n, as he explained that Under Russian Law It is a Crime to Desecrate Holy Things.

Yet even solid-looking bricks in the would-be European wall of support for Ukraine can crumble. Slovakia 🇸🇰, for instance, has been a vital conduit for Western aid and recently pledged its fleet of 13 Soviet-era Mig-29 fighter jets to the Ukrainian air force. But polls show that the party of Robert Fico, a Russophile leftist who has blamed “Ukrainian Fascists” for provoking Mr Putin, looks likely to win national elections scheduled for September.

France 🇫🇷 is a linchpin of both nato and the eu. But a French parliamentary panel recently scolded Marine Le Pen, the closest challenger to President Emmanuel Macron in last year’s election, for parroting Russian propaganda following its annexation of Crimea in 2014. Ms Le Pen strenuously denies that her defence of Mr Putin had anything to do with the €9m in loans her party received that year from Russian-controlled banks. She has condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but last October, seven months into the war, she declared that sanctions on Russia were not working.

In Italy 🇮🇹, although the hard-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, is a strong supporter of Ukraine, Matteo Salvini, who leads the second-biggest party in her coalition, is another opponent of sanctions and, at least up until the invasion, was a declared fan of Mr Putin’s.

Germany 🇩🇪, like France, seems a strong pillar. Yet the afd, bluntly described by the head of the country’s internal intelligence agency as a propagator of Russian narratives, has been surging in the polls. It is now in a dead tie for second place with the ruling Social Democrats. At the opposite political pole Sahra Wagenknecht, a telegenic leftist and at-all-costs peacenik, says pollsters tell her she could win 19-30% of a German national vote. Although public support for helping Ukraine remains strong, the trend is drifting downwards.

Useful-idiot narratives are surprisingly resilient. Their main points—that nato “provoked” Russia’s repeated attacks on and eventual invasion of Ukraine, that Ukraine is an artificial entity created on land that is rightfully Russia’s, and that America pours oil on this fire to sell weapons and sustain its global hegemony—echo in various ways. One is what Italians call benaltrismo or whataboutery: nato attacked Serbia in 1999 and Libya 🇱🇾 in 2011, plus America invaded Iraq and Afghanistan, so what’s the big deal if Russia misbehaves? Another variety is dietrismo, the notion that there must be some “inside” story behind events. Writing in the New Left Review, Wolfgang Streeck, a German Sociologist, posits that the hidden purpose of the crisis is to set the stage for putting a fearful eu under the thumb of a pumped-up nato.

What seems to link Europe’s far right, far left and “intellectual” opposition to Western policy is something simpler, however. It is a hoary, cold-war-style anti-Americanism. The East German-born Mr Chrupalla, for instance, insists the Amis have profited from Ukraine’s war by forcing Germany to switch from piped Russian natural gas to costlier liquified gas shipped from America. This is a trap, he hints, because imported American energy is so much more expensive that German manufacturers will have to shift production to America. Ms Wagenknecht, his left-wing rival, believes America forced the war on Russia by attempting to pull Ukraine into its “sphere of influence”.

At a recent political rally near Berlin Olaf Scholz, Germany’s chancellor, found himself heckled by a chorus of beefy peaceniks shouting “Warmonger!” Normally polite, soft-spoken and unflappable, Mr Scholz roared back into the microphone that it was Mr Putin who wanted to destroy and conquer Ukraine. “If you loudmouths had even a little bit of brain, you would know the real warmonger!” (Bullshit By Braindead Americans’ Puppet Olaf Scholz) ■

— This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline "Vladimir Putin’s Useful Idiots"

[ddrmuseum]

Anlässlich des Haftantritts (heute vor 23 Jahren) des kurzzeitigen Generalsekretärs des Zentralkomitees der SED, sowie Staatsratsvorsitzenden und Vorsitzenden des Nationalen Verteidigungsrates der DDR, Egon Krenz, zeigen wir euch heute ein paar Stücke der Mauer, die Berlin teilte. Aufgrund seiner Mitverantwortung für die tödlichen Schüsse an der Mauer wurde er 1995 angeklagt und zwei Jahre später wegen Totschlags in vier Fällen zu sechseinhalb Jahren Gefängnis verurteilt. Bis heute ist er der Ansicht, der Mauerbau am 13. August 1961 hätte den Frieden in Europa gerettet. On the occasion of the imprisonment (23 years ago today) of the short-lived General Secretary of the Central Committee of the SED, as well as Chairman of the Council of State and Chairman of the National Defence Council of the GDR, Egon Krenz, we would like to show you a few pieces of the wall that divided Berlin. Because of his co-responsibility for the fatal shootings at the Wall, he was charged in 1995 and, just two years later, sentenced to six and a half years in prison for four counts of manslaughter. To this day, he believes that the building of the Wall on 13 August 1961 would have saved peace in Europe. #DDR #ddrgeschichte #ddrmuseum #museumsinsel #gdr #rda #berlin #mauer #grenze #wende — view on Instagram https://ift.tt/KGZlHFc

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 8.25 (after 1940)

1940 – World War II: The first Bombing of Berlin by the British Royal Air Force. 1941 – World War II: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran: The United Kingdom and the Soviet Union jointly stage an invasion of the Imperial State of Iran. 1942 – World War II: Second day of the Battle of the Eastern Solomons; a Japanese naval transport convoy headed towards Guadalcanal is turned back by an Allied air attack. 1942 – World War II: Battle of Milne Bay: Japanese marines assault Allied airfields at Milne Bay, New Guinea, initiating the Battle of Milne Bay. 1944 – World War II: Paris is liberated by the Allies. 1945 – Ten days after World War II ends with Japan announcing its surrender, armed supporters of the Chinese Communist Party kill U.S. intelligence officer John Birch, regarded by some of the American right as the first victim of the Cold War. 1945 – The August Revolution ends as Emperor Bảo Đại abdicates, ending the Nguyễn dynasty. 1948 – The House Un-American Activities Committee holds first-ever televised congressional hearing: "Confrontation Day" between Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss. 1950 – To avert a threatened strike during the Korean War, President Truman orders Secretary of the Army Frank Pace to seize control of the nation's railroads. 1958 – The world’s first publicly marketed instant noodles, Chikin Ramen, are introduced by Taiwanese-Japanese businessman Momofuku Ando. 1960 – The Games of the XVII Olympiad commence in Rome, Italy. 1961 – President Jânio Quadros of Brazil resigns after just seven months in power, initiating a political crisis that culminates in a military coup in 1964. 1967 – George Lincoln Rockwell, founder of the American Nazi Party, is assassinated by a former member of his group. 1980 – Zimbabwe joins the United Nations. 1981 – Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Saturn. 1985 – Bar Harbor Airlines Flight 1808 crashes near Auburn, Maine, killing all eight people on board including peace activist and child actress Samantha Smith. 1989 – Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Neptune, the last planet in the Solar System at the time, due to Pluto being within Neptune's orbit from 1979 to 1999. 1989 – Pakistan International Airlines Flight 404, carrying 54 people, disappears over the Himalayas after take off from Gilgit Airport in Pakistan. The aircraft was never found. 1991 – Belarus gains its independence from the Soviet Union. 1991 – The Battle of Vukovar begins. An 87-day siege of Vukovar by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), supported by various Serb paramilitary forces, between August and November 1991 (during the Croatian War of Independence). 1991 – Linus Torvalds announces the first version of what will become Linux. 1997 – Egon Krenz, the former East German leader, is convicted of a shoot-to-kill policy at the Berlin Wall. 2001 – American singer Aaliyah and several members of her record company are killed as their overloaded aircraft crashes shortly after takeoff from Marsh Harbour Airport, Bahamas. 2003 – NASA successfully launches the Spitzer Space Telescope into space. 2005 – Hurricane Katrina makes landfall in Florida. 2006 – Former Prime Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Lazarenko is sentenced to nine years imprisonment for money laundering, wire fraud, and extortion. 2011 – Fifty-two people are killed during an arson attack caused by members of the drug cartel Los Zetas. 2012 – Voyager 1 spacecraft enters interstellar space becoming the first man-made object to do so. 2017 – Hurricane Harvey makes landfall in Texas as a powerful Category 4 hurricane, the strongest hurricane to make landfall in the United States since 2004. 2017 – Conflict in Rakhine State (2016–present): One hundred seventy people are killed in at least 26 separate attacks carried out by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, leading to the governments of Myanmar and Malaysia designating the group as a terrorist organisation.

[korrektheiten]

Buchrezension: Buchrezension Ein SED-Politiker berichtet über eine DDR, die es nie gab

Die JF schreibt: »Der zweite Band der Memoiren des SED-Politikers Egon Krenz behandelt die letzten beiden Jahrzehnte des DDR-Regimes. Dabei spart der Autor nicht mit Verharmlosungen. Dieser Beitrag Buchrezension Ein SED-Politiker berichtet über eine DDR, die es nie gab wurde veröffentlich auf JUNGE FREIHEIT. http://dlvr.it/T9ZdSq «

[antiimp]

Bei anderen gelesen ...

Aus “Unsere Zeit”, vom 12. April 2024 Krenz, König und die SDAJ von Manfred Sohn Mit Unterstützung der Marx-Engels-Stiftung und der DKP hat die SDAJ am 4. April im Holbornschen Haus in Göttingen eine mit gut 100 Besuchern überfüllte und in jeder Hinsicht gelungene Kultur-, Vortrags- und Diskussionsveranstaltung mit Egon Krenz und Hartmut König organisiert. Egon Krenz – hier mit Malte…

[happypoststarfish]

Interview mit Egon Krenz

[politikwatch]

„Aus der 🇩🇪 #Politik waren #Altkanzler #Schröder mit seiner Frau So-yeon Schröder-Kim, der frühere #SED-Generalsekretär Egon #Krenz, Klaus #Ernst von der Linkspartei sowie die #AfD-#Politiker Alexander #Gauland und Tino #Chrupalla erschienen.“ (Empfang in der 🇷🇺 Botschaft zum 9. Mai)

[jacensolodjo]

“Is Berlin an Israelite city?” he asked. “Or do the people worship idols?” “Primarily, it’s a sad city, cleaved by a hideous barrier. On the eastern side of the Berlin Wall, millions of people are compelled to live under a morally and philosophically bankrupt system called communism. On the western side, by contrast, millions of people pursue their ambitions in thrall to an entirely different ideology, capitalism, notable for its moral and philosophical bankruptcy.”

“Before the Communist Party tore down the dual gothic towers, it was among the most beautiful bridges in the world.” Yasha surveyed the city, a bleak concatenation of sterile buildings, stunted spires, crumbling tabernacles, sombre pedestrians, and self-propelled metallic vehicles. “I don’t think much of this Communist Party,” said Yasha. “Neither does anyone else, including the Communist Party.” “May I assume that when I bring down the Berlin Wall with my horn, the tide of humanity will flow from east to west?” “Indeed,” said the angel. “I’m convinced you will become a Moses figure to the people of East Berlin. They will hail you as the hero who delivered them from captivity by the cruel Erich Honecker and the blinkered Egon Krenz, though neither leader is as bright or resourceful as Moses’s nemesis, Ramses the Great. The Socialist Unity Party of East Germany has always been a breeding ground for people destined to leave the world a worse place than they found it.”

[cunctatormax]

[bau-m]

Heute vor 30 Jahren: Wie Helmut Kohl zusammenführen großen Streich landet

Bau-m https://www.bau-m.com/heute-vor-30-jahren-wie-helmut-kohl-zusammenfuehren-grossen-streich-landet/

Heute vor 30 Jahren: Wie Helmut Kohl zusammenführen großen Streich landet

Von Wolfram Neidhard Am 28. November 1989 legt Helmut Kohl völlig unerwartet zusammenführen Zehn-Punkte-Plan zur Wiedervereinigung vor. Die Reaktionen im In- und Ausland reichen von…

#DDR, #DeutscheWiedervereinigung, #EgonKrenz, #HansDietrichGenscher, #HelmutKohl, #MargaretThatcher, #Mauerfall, #MichailGorbatschow, #Politik

[mycstilleblog]

"Warten wir die Zukunft ab" - Autobiografie von Hartmut König. Rezension

“Warten wir die Zukunft ab” – Autobiografie von Hartmut König. Rezension

Nun sitze ich hier und schreibe am 3. Oktober, dem Tag der Deutschen Einheit, eine Rezension zu Hartmut Königs Autobiografie. Das passt. Oder? Wie auch immer. Nach der Lektüre von Egon Krenzens Erinnerungen “Aufbruch und Aufstieg” nun also Hartmut Königs Erinnerungen. Vielleicht ist das kein Zufall. Hartmut König ist mit Egon Krenz befreundet. Und beide liefen mir vor einiger Zeit auf dem…

[der-saisonkoch]

Auch wir werden älter, lieber Genosse Egon

Auch wir werden älter, lieber Genosse Egon

http://ddr-kabinett-bochum.blogspot.com/ Lieber Egon,zu Deinem besonderen Ehrentag übermitteln wir Dir die besten Grüße, verbunden mit dem Wunsch für weitere stabile Gesundheit und die nötige Energie, für den weiteren Kampf um die Wahrheit und eine gerechtere Welt. Wir danken Die an dieser Stelle für Deine langjährige Unterstützung unserer Arbeit und hoffen auf ein baldiges und gesundes…

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 8.25 (after 1920)

1933 – The Diexi earthquake strikes Mao County, Sichuan, China and kills 9,000 people. 1939 – The Irish Republican Army carries out the 1939 Coventry bombing in which five civilians were killed. 1939 – The United Kingdom and Poland form a military alliance in which the UK promises to defend Poland in case of invasion by a foreign power. 1940 – World War II: The first Bombing of Berlin by the British Royal Air Force. 1941 – World War II: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran: The United Kingdom and the Soviet Union jointly stage an invasion of the Imperial State of Iran. 1942 – World War II: Second day of the Battle of the Eastern Solomons; a Japanese naval transport convoy headed towards Guadalcanal is turned back by an Allied air attack. 1942 – World War II: Battle of Milne Bay: Japanese marines assault Allied airfields at Milne Bay, New Guinea, initiating the Battle of Milne Bay. 1944 – World War II: Paris is liberated by the Allies. 1945 – Ten days after World War II ends with Japan announcing its surrender, armed supporters of the Chinese Communist Party kill U.S. intelligence officer John Birch, regarded by some of the American right as the first victim of the Cold War. 1945 – The August Revolution ends as Emperor Bảo Đại abdicates, ending the Nguyễn dynasty. 1948 – The House Un-American Activities Committee holds first-ever televised congressional hearing: "Confrontation Day" between Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss. 1950 – To avert a threatened strike during the Korean War, President Truman orders Secretary of the Army Frank Pace to seize control of the nation's railroads. 1958 – The world’s first publicly marketed instant noodles, Chikin Ramen, are introduced by Taiwanese-Japanese businessman Momofuku Ando. 1960 – The Games of the XVII Olympiad commence in Rome, Italy. 1961 – President Jânio Quadros of Brazil resigns after just seven months in power, initiating a political crisis that culminates in a military coup in 1964. 1967 – George Lincoln Rockwell, founder of the American Nazi Party, is assassinated by a former member of his group. 1980 – Zimbabwe joins the United Nations. 1981 – Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Saturn. 1985 – Bar Harbor Airlines Flight 1808 crashes near Auburn, Maine, killing all eight people on board including peace activist and child actress Samantha Smith. 1989 – Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Neptune, the last planet in the Solar System at the time, due to Pluto being within Neptune's orbit from 1979 to 1999. 1989 – Pakistan International Airlines Flight 404, carrying 54 people, disappears over the Himalayas after take off from Gilgit Airport in Pakistan. The aircraft was never found. 1991 – Belarus gains its independence from the Soviet Union. 1991 – The Battle of Vukovar begins. An 87-day siege of Vukovar by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), supported by various Serb paramilitary forces, between August and November 1991 (during the Croatian War of Independence). 1991 – Linus Torvalds announces the first version of what will become Linux. 1997 – Egon Krenz, the former East German leader, is convicted of a shoot-to-kill policy at the Berlin Wall. 2001 – American singer Aaliyah and several members of her record company are killed as their overloaded aircraft crashes shortly after takeoff from Marsh Harbour Airport, Bahamas. 2003 – NASA successfully launches the Spitzer Space Telescope into space. 2005 – Hurricane Katrina makes landfall in Florida. 2006 – Former Prime Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Lazarenko is sentenced to nine years imprisonment for money laundering, wire fraud, and extortion. 2011 – Fifty-two people are killed during an arson attack caused by members of the drug cartel Los Zetas. 2012 – Voyager 1 spacecraft enters interstellar space becoming the first man-made object to do so.

[korrektheiten]

Protestdynamik: Sind zu viele Bauern der Ampel-Regierung Tod?

ScienceFiles:»Als sich im Jahr 1989 dieselben Leute in der Nikolaikirche in Leipzig getroffen haben, die sich schon in den Monaten und Jahren davor in der Nikolaikirche getroffen haben, hätte wohl keiner, am wenigsten Egon Krenz, der Ende Oktober den Dachdecker aus dem Saarland, Erich Honecker beerbt hatte, gedacht, dass aus einigen wenigen eine Massenbewegung entstehen […] http://dlvr.it/T13tRR «

[katchwreck]

Recently unclassified documents by the GDR foreign ministry reveal that the PRC offered to save the GDR in 1989. The GDR's ambassador in Beijing Rolf Berthold wrote a telegram to SED chaiman Egon Krenz on the 27th oct 1989.

Translation:

“Comrade Egon Krenz,

today I held extensive talks with comrade Lin Hanxiong, minister of urban planning (who first visited GDR in 1982 to revitalise relations). Comrade Lin Hanxiong stated, that the fate of socialism in the GDR is of utmost strategic importance for world socialism and for the victory of socialism in China. CPC leadership is ready to do whatever is necessary to support the survival of socialism in the GDR. In light of complicated labour shortages in the GDR PRC is willing to offer any required amount of skilled labour in any necessary qualification. PRC does not expect any payment in foreign exchange, because they consider it political assistance. Balance settlement could be done by goods.

Comrade Lin Hanxiong announced his willingness to travel to Berlin on short notice to engage in direct talks with the responsible state organs. PRC is ready for very short term decisions. Comrade Lin Hanxiong stressed that idealy a reply by GDR should arrive before the 5th congress of the CC CPC at the beginning of november.

Request answer.

berthold

27.10. 14.00”