German media howls at the terms "self-defense" and "emergency"

Bavarian CSU Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann and Prime Minister Horst Seehofer jointly call for a halt to refugees crossing at the Austrian-German border, October 8, 2015.

How they howl when they hear the term “self-defense” used by a German politician. Germany is obviously not allowed to defend herself since the military capitulation of 1945.

Bavaria's cabinet met Friday morning and supported the possibility of taking the federal government to the Constitutional Court if it did not agree to turn refugees back at the Austrian border as an “emergency measure.” Earlier Bavarian president Horst Seehofer had put it this way to the Bild newspaper: "There will come explicit measures of self-defense to limit immigration, such as turning back people at the Austrian border."

Such wording set off alarm bells throughout the controlled German media. The Süddeutsch Zeitung wrote:

"State self-defense: that is threatening with methods from the ideology of an absolute state.”

"The term self-defense signals that a politician wants to do something that isn't really legal, but which he thinks is necessary."

In Germany since 1945, any words that can be shown to have been spoken or written by Adolf Hitler are not allowed to be used in public discourse. They like to call it “brown rhetoric” and Seehofer is being accused of using just that.

Andreas Borcholte, writing commentary for Der Spiegel Online spells it out:

Recourse to the language of the Nazis should be a taboo even for the greatest populist [referring to Seehofer]. Carelessly chosen words can only too easily fan resentment and ignite hatred in a dull-witted following. Herein lies the infamy of his suggestion of an unspecified “self-defense.” He warned in his recent speeches that the Federal government and the EU had to do something. Now, before the councilors and mayors, he spoke of “effective self-defense” and “emergency measures.”

Linguistically, Seehofer served up this Nazi rhetoric because it was from the harsh measures of foreign domination and foreign regulation that Hitler drew the moral justification for his nationalist war for living space and resources. "Self-defense as legal" is the relevant section in Mein Kampf, along with various theories of constitutional law, from Hobbes to Schmitt, in his totalitarian ideology.

In essence, it was Hitler who turned turned the rule of law on its head, By suggestion of a global emergency, a threat of German "blood and soil" with Bolsheviks or the "Judaization", which is reflected in today's populist parlance in the word "Islamization" or "foreign infiltration,” he saw in the state the obligation to enter into a state of emergency, to take over the people's decision-making power. The result was that of Himmler's [not understandable by me] "rule of law from the top".

What we have in the FRG is exactly “rule of law from the top.” Talk about turning common sense on its head!

Still, according to the top-selling newspaper Bild, Bavaria's Seehofer has more of the German population on his side than Merkel does. Alongside an interview with the CSU leader, the newspaper published the results of a poll inviting readers to choose between Merkel's "We'll manage it!" statement and Seehofer's "We can't take any more!" Ninety percent of the more than 344,000 respondents agreed with Seehofer!

AfD picks up the pace

Alternative für Deutschland speakers called on Chancellor Angela Merkel to resign on Wednesday during a demonstration in Erfurt with 8,000 people in attendence. One speaker said that temporary assistance for migrants could not give way to long-term integration. And the right-to-asylum could not be maintained in its current form. Another said freedom of speech is existentially threatened and demonstrations are the first means of winning it back. He pointed out that the state parliament was behind the counter-demonstrators (numbered around 800). That brought shouts of “traitors.”

The AfD currently has representation in 5 state parliaments and 7 seats in the European Parliament.