While everything mentioned in this article is correct. The reasons behind it are not even guessed at. Germany's problems are American made from the destruction of Syria and other Middle East countries (forcing millions to emigrate as refugees) to the sanctions against Russian energy resources and the cutting of the Nordstream oil pipeline, all of these actions are cumulative in the downfall of Germany's economic and societal problems. With friends and allies like the US, Germany doesn't need any enemies!
One important thing to keep in mind, I think, is that mass migrations no matter what the cause and/or the long term consequences were, have rarely been peaceful. Large scale migration is, at least in the short term, always a zero sum game: the newcomers will be competing with the incumbents for resources, sometimes violently--see, say, the Normans or the Lakota (the latter are often resented by the tribes that they shouldered aside for selling themselves as having been deprived of their "ancentral" lands they themselves took by force only a few generations before--global migration history is complex and has few true victims or villains in the long term.)
The thing about "civilization," among other factors, is that it can help with making migration relatively peaceful by reducing the tensions between incumbents and newcomers. But it too is a complex thing that certainly can't be conjured up on command. I don't think "civilization" works the way people opposed to migration seem to think: that it is fixed and uncompromisable. But creating a new civilization or adapting an old civilization to a new world is not a simple thing and relies on invoking old myths--would, say, Bavarians have accepted the millions Sudeteners who landed in their midst after World War 2, say, without myths associated with German nationalism, especially of the (mostly) Catholic South German variety, for example? This, in turn, points to why "civilization" stuff is still a big deal andvwhy it is dangerous to let it be the domain only of "extremists," whoever we might think they might be.
We could stop all industrial activity right now for a thousand years and the climate is going to do what it does, which is hopefully continue to stay warmer than a millenia long cooling trend.
Germany had a good 300 years at least of producing amazing art, music, medicine and philosophy. And it was German.
It is my understanding that the largest ethnic group in Europe that wants to immigrate to the Russian Federation is German.
"Good times make soft men. Soft men make hard times. Hard men make good times."
True—but that would mean Germany, and actual Germans, would cease to exist. Which, come to think of it, sounds exactly like what the globalists have in mind. Funny how that works.
"national security, economic prosperity and the safety of citizens."
None of this is in jeopardy by immigration. (In fact none of this is truly under threat except due to climate issues in the long term.)
The point is not immigration as such. It is the handling of the presence in the country.
When working briefly with refugees from Afghanistan and former Yugoslavia it always was striking to me that the children who had either come here young or actually been born here spoke German perfectly while having trouble with their nominally native tongue. "Integration" happened with the blink of an eye.
Put money and a plan on the table and you will create the most viable and appreciative work force and citizenship of those who arrive here.
"incomaptible" - what on Earth is Vance talking about? (If someone is incompatible it´s "his" class of superrich. What a hypocrit.)
Why were Turks (I am blending here your assessment in with Vance´s admittedly) from 1962 more compatible than Syrians, Spaniards, Afghans today?
The real and only issue here is this goddam crazy war and the EU wanting to fight Russia and China. Lets assume we had nothing of that but still the state of immigration - we´d have almost none of the problems now.
Take away the war and the insanity at large and it works perfectly fine. Or lets say: There is a good path to prosperity and solving the climate problem. The only one we really "have" at hand.
Having said that Germany is on a suicidal path, indeed. And nothing will change it. I repeat that: nothing. This place is lost.
The top 30% who control the country in government, academia, arts, science and the economy are so delusional it´s fruitless to even talk to these people. And add to that another 20% of their loyal followers, those who regard AfD as "the threat," those who read the legacy papers SZ, FAZ, ZEIT, TAZ, WELT etc. with great faith in the supremacy of Western progressivism. But have no insight into the true significance of functioning labour unions e.g.
Of course too many in this country are still too rich to really see what is happening around them. It will take a few decades for that wealth to fade away and make space for reason.
None of these "elites" understand that all of this happening now is also a tradition of intellectual and cultural arrogance handed down since the rise of imperial Germany and it´s apex in Weimar intellectual life and production - which was a highly elitist self-image.
One main explanation why the fall into barbarism then, the exploitation of the Third World after WWII and the idiocy now - they all are part of the same mindset of interwar Germany regarding itself and being regarded by its "peers" as the "most developed country in the world". ffs.
p.s. Despite my critique, thanks for your publications! A needed new voice. I know credentials should never replace arguments. But, alas, in our world they do. So "diplomat" is put to very good use here.
Thanks so much, some really interesting observations, with which I agree in the most part.
One of my best friends at Sixth Form was a Vietnamese boat person who, by the time she was 16, spoke English just as well as me and whom I considered to be English.
My point about strategic interests is that German leaders are not pursuing any clear strategy, and, as you point out, focusing on the wrong battles, indeed, battles that we should even be fighting.
My apology if following appears in part OT and again is overly lengthy.
However I believe a broader picture also ought to be addressed. And some (non-German) readers might appreciate the sources and use them for their personal research. If that´s not too bold to suggest.
Much of what appears as incompetence by our governments was and now certainly is intentional.
That the Merz government has not much alternative is obvious if one takes into account who they truly report to – certainly not „we, the people.“
This is not new though. For many years now many laws passed by German Bundestag have been written by non-parliamentary entities often law firms e.g. located in London. With no accountability and no affiliation to Germany.
The alternative to Merz´s current path would mean acknowledging BRICS and the „jungle“ to quote Borrell. That´s gonna happen only over Merz´s dead body.
As the old administrations are concerned scaremongering, lying and manipulation were part and parcel of policy-making. A few examples:
#1 We now know with certainty that during COVID one government advisory commission was tasked to test scaremongering tactics to drive people into obedience. Most famous is a leaked passage where Ministry of the Interior suggested to keep children from playing with other children outside during Covid by telling them that by doing just that they would kill their grandparents. (via infecting them with the lethal virus caught in the playground.)
Another deeply troubling admission on this by German left (!) sociologist Heinz Bude (who was member of the advisory commission developing these sick concepts):
#2 I wouldn´t be suprised if we one day we learn via genuine records that dismantling non-alternative energy sources also to the detriment of German industry was in part very conciously done to enforce via TINA so-called „green“ policies without any regard for the general population. I.e. provoke a crisis without a way out.
#3 We know as a fact that Habeck in the summer of 2022 used all legal and illegal means, lies and internal intelligence to silence two major senior officials who had been responsible for Nordstream in the German Ministry of Energy and Commerce. They had been coordinating this huge project with Gazprom for many years and were highly respected. Habeck with his insane anti-RU stance met considerable resistance. So he simply claimed that said officials were agents from Moscow - without any proof beyond his private gossip - and called for internal investigation which of course ruined these two individuals´ careers and reputation. But did silence them.
Papers reported on it, DIE ZEIT especially ridiculously taking Habeck´s scandalous smear campaign seriously. Then came the explosions of NS2 and suddenly the topic was buried. Almost nobody reported when the allegations were eventually dropped because there had never been „any agents“. Naturally this was clear to any sane person from the get-go.
Habeck should have been charged at once with abusing his powers. These people were capable of every conceivable dick move.
For those who want to know about that final story here the 2 main initial German articles on the case. It´s one of the biggest scandals in recent German history which of course was DOA with our current media. Use google translate and C&P.
DIE ZEIT first reporting:
„Moscow is watching
Two senior officials in the Ministry of Economic Affairs are suspected of espionage, and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has been called in. The case is explosive for the German government.”
“Russian Espionage: Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution investigates suspected espionage in the Ministry of Economics
Have Russian intelligence services infiltrated Robert Habeck's Ministry of Economics? The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution is investigating allegations against two officials.”
#4 This was the interview with chancellor Scholz by DER SPIEGEL where Scholz said that "We must finally deport people on a large scale". Did anybody protest? Nope. DER SPIEGEL in fact hailed him for this.
"We must finally deport people on a large scale."
The Chancellor's new stern approach: Olaf Scholz makes irregular migration a top priority and explains how he intends to reduce the number of refugees. He also has a message for the Jews in Germany."
So do we really believe these people just stumble into crises???
Do we really believe Merkel did NOT know what would happen once Syria would implode? (in this case we know she was informed well in advance, around 2013.)
The quality of analysis offered here is one reason why I often delete many Substack emails without reading them, but almost never ones written by Ian Proud! Right, and isn’t Vance already the heir apparent to Trump’s legacy? He’s less nativist, but transmits a lot of intelligent energy.
The rise of AfD in the East of Germany has nothing to do with being jealous of the richer West any more. That was certainly a thing in the 90s and 2000s, but now, the living standard in the East is pretty good, so the difference - while it still exists - is no longer that important. Yes, the East earns less, but rents etc. are also much cheaper.
The more important issue is that East Germans know the West relatively well because many of us work(ed) there, travel there, have friends and family members living there, etc. So we have a pretty clear picture of what is going on. And when you see the inner cities of West Germany, and it is full of migrants (the bad kind, no one has an issue with Poles, Spanish, etc.) kebab stores and mobile phone shops, train station are dirty and dangerous at night, etc., we really question if we want to have that at home.
The next big issue arises from the fact that the West still has a big disinterest in the East. 35 years after reunification, a third of West Germans have never been to the East and struggle to understand what has happened here and how people think and why we do so. Therefore, when we discuss the negative impacts of migration, for example, we are met with an impressive amount of arrogance: In the 90s, we were the lazy communists, now we are the nazis, angry because of [insert stupid argument here]. We are told that we don't understand democracy - when it was the East Germans disposing the last dictatorship on German soil. Our concerns are not taken seriously, downplayed, ridiculed, etc. Since there is no fruitful discussion, you can only vote AfD because they are the only ones hearing you.
What we in the East don't understand is how West Germans don't see all these problems. They don't get the migration problem (even though it is so evident), war risk with Russia, recession... they still think (and vote like) everything is fine. This boggles my mind. It seems to be that East Germans are - thanks to the experience of a dictatorship - are less susceptible to the propaganda than West Germans, who until very recently had no big reason to be sceptical of mainstream media.
From my East German perspective, these are the keys issues to understand why AfD is stronger in the East.
Thanks very much for these fascinating insights. Always great to have real texture from someone on the ground and in a position to provide that level of insight and analysis.
Your comment on inner cities resonated. When in 2019 I drove back to England from Moscow, I stopped off overnight in cities in Russia, Ukraine, Poland and Belgium - Antwerp, to be precise. I only felt ill at ease in Antwerp, staying at a hotel near the train station, the number of angry-looking migrants wandering around with no obvious purpose was surprising, to say the least.
The EU as a whole seems to be on the same suicidal path as it becomes more non-sensical and totalitarian every year, especially since Covid. Could it be that the goal is economic collapse, depopulation and introduction of the new financial system? Cue the CBDC. Just what Europeans have always dreamed of!
The WEF's alpha-test for global fascism is the EU.
There are a few minor cultural and social kinks to be worked out and perhaps a superior monetary regime (CBDC) imposed before you get to be happy and own nothing.
The whole program is more than worth it but if pressed for time around the 4900 minute he addresses the impossibilty of using immigrants as a fix for demographically caused issues:
Why Your Way Of Life Is Collapsing: Green Paganism & The Depopulation Bomb | Philip Pilkington
Germany's post-war boom was fueled in part by massive US investments, including the huge 2nd order impacts of allied occupation forces spending. It's largely this kind of reconstruction investment that made Germany an attractive place for Gastarbeiteren.
See also Japan.
The difference: Japan has maintained her "racist" (no) immigration policies consistently, while Germany has not. She has other problems, not least of which being the outrageous intrusions of the BoJ into their entire economy, with catastrophic effects. But the people are not being raped and murdered by muslim invaders that their own governments and media insist on calling "migrants".
Why 'ideological drive' towards net zero? These are International commitments made to prevent rising sea levels and nations going under them, which will drive further immigration. I think saying it's undermining German security a bit of a stretch, it does need to be done even if other nations aren't necessarily doing their bit.
I think part of the problem is that German has gone with a big bang approach and stuck with it even as war has broken out creating circumstances that might make more rational politicians delay, to minimise the short-medium term negative economic fallout. Such as, e.g. the accelerating de-industralisation of Germany in the teeth of high energy costs. The aspirations and the commitments are fine, but tell that to the manufacturing workers who are losing their jobs.
Thank you. And I agree. Vance is positioning himself as Trump's heir and not trying to act like Pence in offering a point of difference.
While everything mentioned in this article is correct. The reasons behind it are not even guessed at. Germany's problems are American made from the destruction of Syria and other Middle East countries (forcing millions to emigrate as refugees) to the sanctions against Russian energy resources and the cutting of the Nordstream oil pipeline, all of these actions are cumulative in the downfall of Germany's economic and societal problems. With friends and allies like the US, Germany doesn't need any enemies!
One important thing to keep in mind, I think, is that mass migrations no matter what the cause and/or the long term consequences were, have rarely been peaceful. Large scale migration is, at least in the short term, always a zero sum game: the newcomers will be competing with the incumbents for resources, sometimes violently--see, say, the Normans or the Lakota (the latter are often resented by the tribes that they shouldered aside for selling themselves as having been deprived of their "ancentral" lands they themselves took by force only a few generations before--global migration history is complex and has few true victims or villains in the long term.)
The thing about "civilization," among other factors, is that it can help with making migration relatively peaceful by reducing the tensions between incumbents and newcomers. But it too is a complex thing that certainly can't be conjured up on command. I don't think "civilization" works the way people opposed to migration seem to think: that it is fixed and uncompromisable. But creating a new civilization or adapting an old civilization to a new world is not a simple thing and relies on invoking old myths--would, say, Bavarians have accepted the millions Sudeteners who landed in their midst after World War 2, say, without myths associated with German nationalism, especially of the (mostly) Catholic South German variety, for example? This, in turn, points to why "civilization" stuff is still a big deal andvwhy it is dangerous to let it be the domain only of "extremists," whoever we might think they might be.
Very interesting observations, thank you.
I agree with a large part of your statement.
We could stop all industrial activity right now for a thousand years and the climate is going to do what it does, which is hopefully continue to stay warmer than a millenia long cooling trend.
Germany had a good 300 years at least of producing amazing art, music, medicine and philosophy. And it was German.
It is my understanding that the largest ethnic group in Europe that wants to immigrate to the Russian Federation is German.
"Good times make soft men. Soft men make hard times. Hard men make good times."
Western elitism is so debauched it nauseates me.
How bad must things be in these other EU nations on this list, that they leave their home country and move to Germany?
A very good question.
True—but that would mean Germany, and actual Germans, would cease to exist. Which, come to think of it, sounds exactly like what the globalists have in mind. Funny how that works.
I beg to differ:
"national security, economic prosperity and the safety of citizens."
None of this is in jeopardy by immigration. (In fact none of this is truly under threat except due to climate issues in the long term.)
The point is not immigration as such. It is the handling of the presence in the country.
When working briefly with refugees from Afghanistan and former Yugoslavia it always was striking to me that the children who had either come here young or actually been born here spoke German perfectly while having trouble with their nominally native tongue. "Integration" happened with the blink of an eye.
Put money and a plan on the table and you will create the most viable and appreciative work force and citizenship of those who arrive here.
"incomaptible" - what on Earth is Vance talking about? (If someone is incompatible it´s "his" class of superrich. What a hypocrit.)
Why were Turks (I am blending here your assessment in with Vance´s admittedly) from 1962 more compatible than Syrians, Spaniards, Afghans today?
The real and only issue here is this goddam crazy war and the EU wanting to fight Russia and China. Lets assume we had nothing of that but still the state of immigration - we´d have almost none of the problems now.
Take away the war and the insanity at large and it works perfectly fine. Or lets say: There is a good path to prosperity and solving the climate problem. The only one we really "have" at hand.
Having said that Germany is on a suicidal path, indeed. And nothing will change it. I repeat that: nothing. This place is lost.
The top 30% who control the country in government, academia, arts, science and the economy are so delusional it´s fruitless to even talk to these people. And add to that another 20% of their loyal followers, those who regard AfD as "the threat," those who read the legacy papers SZ, FAZ, ZEIT, TAZ, WELT etc. with great faith in the supremacy of Western progressivism. But have no insight into the true significance of functioning labour unions e.g.
Of course too many in this country are still too rich to really see what is happening around them. It will take a few decades for that wealth to fade away and make space for reason.
None of these "elites" understand that all of this happening now is also a tradition of intellectual and cultural arrogance handed down since the rise of imperial Germany and it´s apex in Weimar intellectual life and production - which was a highly elitist self-image.
One main explanation why the fall into barbarism then, the exploitation of the Third World after WWII and the idiocy now - they all are part of the same mindset of interwar Germany regarding itself and being regarded by its "peers" as the "most developed country in the world". ffs.
p.s. Despite my critique, thanks for your publications! A needed new voice. I know credentials should never replace arguments. But, alas, in our world they do. So "diplomat" is put to very good use here.
Thanks so much, some really interesting observations, with which I agree in the most part.
One of my best friends at Sixth Form was a Vietnamese boat person who, by the time she was 16, spoke English just as well as me and whom I considered to be English.
My point about strategic interests is that German leaders are not pursuing any clear strategy, and, as you point out, focusing on the wrong battles, indeed, battles that we should even be fighting.
My apology if following appears in part OT and again is overly lengthy.
However I believe a broader picture also ought to be addressed. And some (non-German) readers might appreciate the sources and use them for their personal research. If that´s not too bold to suggest.
Much of what appears as incompetence by our governments was and now certainly is intentional.
That the Merz government has not much alternative is obvious if one takes into account who they truly report to – certainly not „we, the people.“
This is not new though. For many years now many laws passed by German Bundestag have been written by non-parliamentary entities often law firms e.g. located in London. With no accountability and no affiliation to Germany.
The alternative to Merz´s current path would mean acknowledging BRICS and the „jungle“ to quote Borrell. That´s gonna happen only over Merz´s dead body.
As the old administrations are concerned scaremongering, lying and manipulation were part and parcel of policy-making. A few examples:
#1 We now know with certainty that during COVID one government advisory commission was tasked to test scaremongering tactics to drive people into obedience. Most famous is a leaked passage where Ministry of the Interior suggested to keep children from playing with other children outside during Covid by telling them that by doing just that they would kill their grandparents. (via infecting them with the lethal virus caught in the playground.)
Another deeply troubling admission on this by German left (!) sociologist Heinz Bude (who was member of the advisory commission developing these sick concepts):
„Heinz Bude and the restructuring of society“
March 1, 2024
https://indikativ.jetzt/heinz-bude-und-der-umbau-der-gesellschaft/
Or here via investigative journalist Aya Velazquez (who was involved in publishing the RKI-Leaks)
https://www.velazquez.press/p/im-maschinenraum-des-heinz-bude?utm_source=publication-search
#2 I wouldn´t be suprised if we one day we learn via genuine records that dismantling non-alternative energy sources also to the detriment of German industry was in part very conciously done to enforce via TINA so-called „green“ policies without any regard for the general population. I.e. provoke a crisis without a way out.
#3 We know as a fact that Habeck in the summer of 2022 used all legal and illegal means, lies and internal intelligence to silence two major senior officials who had been responsible for Nordstream in the German Ministry of Energy and Commerce. They had been coordinating this huge project with Gazprom for many years and were highly respected. Habeck with his insane anti-RU stance met considerable resistance. So he simply claimed that said officials were agents from Moscow - without any proof beyond his private gossip - and called for internal investigation which of course ruined these two individuals´ careers and reputation. But did silence them.
Papers reported on it, DIE ZEIT especially ridiculously taking Habeck´s scandalous smear campaign seriously. Then came the explosions of NS2 and suddenly the topic was buried. Almost nobody reported when the allegations were eventually dropped because there had never been „any agents“. Naturally this was clear to any sane person from the get-go.
Habeck should have been charged at once with abusing his powers. These people were capable of every conceivable dick move.
For those who want to know about that final story here the 2 main initial German articles on the case. It´s one of the biggest scandals in recent German history which of course was DOA with our current media. Use google translate and C&P.
DIE ZEIT first reporting:
„Moscow is watching
Two senior officials in the Ministry of Economic Affairs are suspected of espionage, and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has been called in. The case is explosive for the German government.”
31.08.2022
https://archive.is/KZCPK
HANDELSBLATT following:
“Russian Espionage: Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution investigates suspected espionage in the Ministry of Economics
Have Russian intelligence services infiltrated Robert Habeck's Ministry of Economics? The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution is investigating allegations against two officials.”
31.08.2022
https://archive.ph/qYePK
#4 This was the interview with chancellor Scholz by DER SPIEGEL where Scholz said that "We must finally deport people on a large scale". Did anybody protest? Nope. DER SPIEGEL in fact hailed him for this.
"We must finally deport people on a large scale."
The Chancellor's new stern approach: Olaf Scholz makes irregular migration a top priority and explains how he intends to reduce the number of refugees. He also has a message for the Jews in Germany."
20.10.2023
https://archive.is/3N2IO
So do we really believe these people just stumble into crises???
Do we really believe Merkel did NOT know what would happen once Syria would implode? (in this case we know she was informed well in advance, around 2013.)
Or Ukraine, or Congo, or Sudan, or or or.
The quality of analysis offered here is one reason why I often delete many Substack emails without reading them, but almost never ones written by Ian Proud! Right, and isn’t Vance already the heir apparent to Trump’s legacy? He’s less nativist, but transmits a lot of intelligent energy.
Thank you very much for your kind comment.
The rise of AfD in the East of Germany has nothing to do with being jealous of the richer West any more. That was certainly a thing in the 90s and 2000s, but now, the living standard in the East is pretty good, so the difference - while it still exists - is no longer that important. Yes, the East earns less, but rents etc. are also much cheaper.
The more important issue is that East Germans know the West relatively well because many of us work(ed) there, travel there, have friends and family members living there, etc. So we have a pretty clear picture of what is going on. And when you see the inner cities of West Germany, and it is full of migrants (the bad kind, no one has an issue with Poles, Spanish, etc.) kebab stores and mobile phone shops, train station are dirty and dangerous at night, etc., we really question if we want to have that at home.
The next big issue arises from the fact that the West still has a big disinterest in the East. 35 years after reunification, a third of West Germans have never been to the East and struggle to understand what has happened here and how people think and why we do so. Therefore, when we discuss the negative impacts of migration, for example, we are met with an impressive amount of arrogance: In the 90s, we were the lazy communists, now we are the nazis, angry because of [insert stupid argument here]. We are told that we don't understand democracy - when it was the East Germans disposing the last dictatorship on German soil. Our concerns are not taken seriously, downplayed, ridiculed, etc. Since there is no fruitful discussion, you can only vote AfD because they are the only ones hearing you.
What we in the East don't understand is how West Germans don't see all these problems. They don't get the migration problem (even though it is so evident), war risk with Russia, recession... they still think (and vote like) everything is fine. This boggles my mind. It seems to be that East Germans are - thanks to the experience of a dictatorship - are less susceptible to the propaganda than West Germans, who until very recently had no big reason to be sceptical of mainstream media.
From my East German perspective, these are the keys issues to understand why AfD is stronger in the East.
Thanks very much for these fascinating insights. Always great to have real texture from someone on the ground and in a position to provide that level of insight and analysis.
Your comment on inner cities resonated. When in 2019 I drove back to England from Moscow, I stopped off overnight in cities in Russia, Ukraine, Poland and Belgium - Antwerp, to be precise. I only felt ill at ease in Antwerp, staying at a hotel near the train station, the number of angry-looking migrants wandering around with no obvious purpose was surprising, to say the least.
Thank you!
"What we in the East don't understand is how West Germans don't see all these problems."
It used to be called brainwashing.
Now it is called education.
The EU as a whole seems to be on the same suicidal path as it becomes more non-sensical and totalitarian every year, especially since Covid. Could it be that the goal is economic collapse, depopulation and introduction of the new financial system? Cue the CBDC. Just what Europeans have always dreamed of!
The WEF's alpha-test for global fascism is the EU.
There are a few minor cultural and social kinks to be worked out and perhaps a superior monetary regime (CBDC) imposed before you get to be happy and own nothing.
So enjoy the ride! We are getting there.
'I am an advocate of economic migration'
The whole program is more than worth it but if pressed for time around the 4900 minute he addresses the impossibilty of using immigrants as a fix for demographically caused issues:
Why Your Way Of Life Is Collapsing: Green Paganism & The Depopulation Bomb | Philip Pilkington
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvGdu1vAtgc
With the observation 'Our energy policies seem tied to a pre Christian Gaia worshipping pagan idea that the earth is holier than humans'
And guess who are the most totemic in their planet worshipping...Our teutonic friends. ready to once again gather around big trees...
And here his ACR paper:
Family Matters: Why Our Choices Determine Our Economic Prosperity
https://www.arcforum.com/research-papers/choices-family-matters
Just downloaded the full research. Thanks!
Germany's post-war boom was fueled in part by massive US investments, including the huge 2nd order impacts of allied occupation forces spending. It's largely this kind of reconstruction investment that made Germany an attractive place for Gastarbeiteren.
See also Japan.
The difference: Japan has maintained her "racist" (no) immigration policies consistently, while Germany has not. She has other problems, not least of which being the outrageous intrusions of the BoJ into their entire economy, with catastrophic effects. But the people are not being raped and murdered by muslim invaders that their own governments and media insist on calling "migrants".
Why 'ideological drive' towards net zero? These are International commitments made to prevent rising sea levels and nations going under them, which will drive further immigration. I think saying it's undermining German security a bit of a stretch, it does need to be done even if other nations aren't necessarily doing their bit.
I think part of the problem is that German has gone with a big bang approach and stuck with it even as war has broken out creating circumstances that might make more rational politicians delay, to minimise the short-medium term negative economic fallout. Such as, e.g. the accelerating de-industralisation of Germany in the teeth of high energy costs. The aspirations and the commitments are fine, but tell that to the manufacturing workers who are losing their jobs.
Good luck with getting any part of Asia, Africa or South America on board with those "international commitments".
Probably easier to end mass migrations by stopping the economic exploitation and frequent bombing runs.
Sea levels have been rising since the last ice age began to end.
Kiribati is still not underwater, despite some undefined period of rising sea levels.
Nobody believes this nonsense for one reason and one reason only; the people pushing it have been wrong about everything.