• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

German Unity Day [W:192]



Congratulations on 30 years of peace and prosperity.
 
For the people from East Germany, off course it is a celebration; The price to pay has been the western Germans. The eastern Germans have been on the receiving end for 30 years now...

In 1988/89, there was a general belief among analysts in the West that the East German business community, despite all the problems, was the best among the Comecon countries. But "Best" appeared to be an extremely relative concept. It may be recalled that East German productivity averaged only 30–40 percent of the West German level.

In order to bring about a functional restructuring of the inefficient planned economy business, a public institution called the Treuhandanstalt (TA) was founded in 1990. TA was given the task of selling the approximately 12,000 state-owned companies (Volkseigene Betriebe, VEB) to private hands or putting them into bankruptcy.

In part, it was extremely costly. Despite huge financial support money from the West, 3,000 companies had to close down. This in turn led to rapidly rising of unemployment in eastern Germany

Of course, no politician could accept the miserable state of the economy. The need for effective countermeasures was quickly identified. Taxes were raised and the so-called solidarity allowance ("Soli") was introduced in 1991 for both East and West Germans - in practice increased income and corporation tax for all Germans Not until 2021 - after all these years - will this special tax be phased out.
 
Luce said:
I don't know what's funnier: The American posters who said that this was all about Reagan, or Rostocker being Rostocker.
Click to expand...

Rostocker is living proof of the old Winston Churchill saying that “The Hun is always either at your throat or at your feet.”
 
Tigerace117 said:
Rostocker is living proof of the old Winston Churchill saying that “The Hun is always either at your throat or at your feet.”
Click to expand...
That is downright insulting to every right-thinking member of DebatePolitics, particularly the German people, including schoolchildren still growing up and having to hear such claptrap from an American living thousands of miles away. What is especially disappointing is that such hate gets a 'Like' from a person living in the European Union. I am of a mind to put the pair and their ugly anti-German sentiment on 'Ignore'. When I began this thread, it was clearly meant to congratulate the German people on their 30 years of unity against great odds. I feel only shame that it has brought anti-German vitriol from America and Sweden. It sickens my stomach.
 
You brought it on yourself with your posts. Btw, Winston Churchill was not an American, and George H.W. Bush cleared Helmut Kohl's path to unification by interceding with Margaret Thatcher.
In 1991 I was in Denmark on business. Danes asked what the US was going to do to guard against "them." They were referring to unified Germany.
In 1995 we were planning a trip from Berlin to the Netherlands for a concert program in which our daughter was singing. I was advised not to drive my car with German license plates because it would be repeatedly "keyed" by the Dutch. We traveled by train.
In 1985 we were in Amsterdam for "Sail 85." We were staying at a small pension. Two Germans came to the door looking for a room. Proprietor turned them away, saying they were full, despite several available rooms. Proprietor's daughter said: "Father will not have them under his roof."

Your problem is not with Americans.
 
Last edited:

It’s downright hilarious that between outright holocaust denial from some posters and Rostocker’s fanboying of the SS and open declarations that he sees the EU as effectively a way to turn the rest of Europe into serfs, that now you are wailing and crying about other posters having “insulting opinions”.

Nobody cares what “sickens your stomach” bud—it’s become increasingly clear that you are only here to posture.
 
Your insult to a whole group of people because of their national origin is against the rules of this forum and anyone who 'liked' that violation is complicit. I am too much of a gentleman to express what I really think of you. You helped derail a thread designed to send good wishes to the German people into one of hate. It is best for me to ignore anything else you have to say and that goes for your quotes from the notorious racist drunk, Winston Churchill. "I do not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place." (Winston Churchill when speaking to the Palestine Royal Commission in 1937 page 9)
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id...mmission report churchill red indians&f=false
 
Jack Hays said:
No one claimed "this was all about Reagan."
Click to expand...
"Ronald Reagan created the conditions by which Mikhail Gorbachev could accidentally destroy the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact. That enabled the collapse of East Germany." (See post # 240.)
 

You have no problem with someone bragging about how the EU makes other countries “Germany‘s serfs”, or with outright Holocaust deniers, but an old Winston Churchill quote makes you melt down. Too funny

Go ahead bud, I could literally not care less what you think of me(oh, and a gentleman doesn’t go on and on about what a gentleman he is).

Your victim complex is truly pathetic.
 
Jean-s said:
"Ronald Reagan created the conditions by which Mikhail Gorbachev could accidentally destroy the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact. That enabled the collapse of East Germany." (See post # 240.)
Click to expand...
Yes, that is quite true. It does nothing to diminish the role of the German people.
 
Jean-s said:
Your insult to a whole group of people because of their national origin is against the rules of this forum ....
Click to expand...

This from a poster who yesterday doctored another members post then quoted it to misrepresent him and his point.
 
Luce said:
Have you seen the first page of the thread? One example:
Click to expand...
As I have pointed out, Reagan did indeed create the conditions that led to Gorbachev's blundering destruction of the Soviet empire, and thus offered Germans their chance to win their freedom. That takes nothing away from the Germans' achievement, any more than the presence of Admiral DeGrasse's fleet in the Chesapeake took away from Washington's victory at Yorktown.
 

Exactly!
Rostocker has no idea really!
 
Luce said:
I don't know what's funnier: The American posters who said that this was all about Reagan, or Rostocker being Rostocker.
Click to expand...

As it happens:
I have been to Rostock in October 2020.
It is a fine old town on the shore of the Baltic Sea.
And I met some nice and friendly Rostockers there - as the citizens of Rostock are rightly called.

I think those Rostockers would not like it that a person with the nick "Rostocker" now gives their fine old city a bad name.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn more…