"Mischung" Impossible!
This article appeared in the November issue of Tichys Einblick, a high-end opinion magazine in Germany. The word "Mischung" reflects its similarity to "mixture" in English; but in the context of modern Germany, it really refers to "integration," reflecting the massive influx of immigrants into Germany between 2015 and 2016, instigated by the policies of former German chancellor Angela Merkel.
Driven from their home countries by war, overpopulation, and unemployment, a million immigrants streamed across the Europe on foot, headed for Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, or any European country where they could find a new home. An historian needs to weigh that against the experience of Armenians emigrating from Turkey, during the time of the Ottoman Empire, Jewish emigrants from Europe after World War II, or Hindu and Muslim emigrants after British India dissolved into independent nations.
Specifically in Berlin, "Mischung" refers to the wretched coalition government that came to power after the last election. The largest coalition party "Die Linke," or the "Left-Wing Party," did not get but 25% of the votes. Mischung also refers to the vindictive leadership of Die Linke, which is over-represented by immigrants. Berlin's splintered leadership under the vindictive Linke Party promises nothing but disunity and conflict, making it nearly a mission-impossible!
In the cover photo, for instance, the Linke leaders in Berlin pose triumphantly for a publicity photo. One party member holds up a sign that reads "Immobilien Konzern enteignen!" In English, it reads "Confiscate private property!" reflecting Die Linke's origin as the resurrected Communist party of the former East Germany. Property, Karl Marx has written, should belong to the state, not to private firms—including private industry, and private agriculture.
I have to ask myself why any educated, responsible politician would support such a poorly thought-out, vindictive policy-initiative, in the context of a freedom-loving nation? Why does anyone think that creating congruent policy in such a schizoid environment is going to work? Perhaps Die Linke Party should like to try its hand again at running its own country.
Democrat-Socialists would reply they don't think in terms of owning anything; but let's be honest. If they did have their own country, not even the rank-and-file members would want to live there, much less the rest of the public! Confiscation works better as a vindictive threat to costantly hold over the society, not as an enduring reality.
Another member of Die Linke, a pretty 33 year-old woman named Jorinde Schulz, publicized the familiar leftist slogan "Defund the police!" The sheer idiocy of this, a crypto-Communist wanting to defund the police, as she creates a de facto police-state, like the former Soviet East Germany, is crazily hilarious! Who else but the police will enforce confiscation of private property? Why does any responsible politician take these people seriously?
Another Democrat-Socialist, Kevin Kühnert, the former chief of the "Jusos," or "Young Socialists," publically floated the idea of using "democratic means" to "collectivize" firms like the auto-maker BMW. He substituted a more user-friendly term like "collectivize" for "confiscate." He stated that collectivizing German corporations is "the only way to defeat capitalism."
But what about the stock market, the securities industry in general? Maybe it you defeat capitalism, you will also defeat the stock market and all the pension plans, college endowments, and charitable causes that depend on its profitability, year after year. Like its other floated proposals, the threat of confiscation works better as a threat, rather than an ongoing reality, to extort concesions from the capitalist economy. Democrat-Socialists would rather that, than build something independently of it. If you don't "own" it, you also avoid having to take responsibility for it.