"We need to consider very carefully at what point our society's absorptive capacity has been reached." Willy Brandt in a government policy statement in 1972.
"Chancellor Kohl said...that it would be necessary over the next four years to reduce the number of Turks by 50 percent - but he could not say that publicly... It would be impossible for Germany to assimilate the current number of Turks." (Minutes of meeting on 28 October 1982 between Helmut Kohl and Margaret Thatcher, reported in Spiegel Online on August 1, 2013.)
"The idea that a modern society would have to be able to establish itself as a multicultural society, with as many cultural groups as possible, I think is outlandish. After all, one can not turn Germany into a melting pot after a thousand-year history since Otto I. . " - Helmut Schmidt Frankfurter Rundschau, September 12, 1992
"We have to stop further immigration from foreign cultures."
Helmut Schmidt (2005)
"Europe can not become a new home for millions of people worldwide in need."
Helmut Kohl
"We reject a widening of immigration from third countries, because it would overwhelm the ability of our society to integrate."
(CDU Party Program 2002)
"If we continue to deny control of the asylum problem, one day we will be swept away by the voters, including our own, and we will be turned into whipping boys. I tell you, in the end, we are complicit when fascist organizations become active. It is not enough to warn against xenophobia; we have to tackle the causes because otherwise the population will deny us the intention, the will and the strength to get the problem under control. "
SPD elder statesman Herbert Wehner (1982)
"Chancellor Kohl said...that it would be necessary over the next four years to reduce the number of Turks by 50 percent - but he could not say that publicly... It would be impossible for Germany to assimilate the current number of Turks." (Minutes of meeting on 28 October 1982 between Helmut Kohl and Margaret Thatcher, reported in Spiegel Online on August 1, 2013.)
"The idea that a modern society would have to be able to establish itself as a multicultural society, with as many cultural groups as possible, I think is outlandish. After all, one can not turn Germany into a melting pot after a thousand-year history since Otto I. . " - Helmut Schmidt Frankfurter Rundschau, September 12, 1992
"We have to stop further immigration from foreign cultures."
Helmut Schmidt (2005)
"Europe can not become a new home for millions of people worldwide in need."
Helmut Kohl
"We reject a widening of immigration from third countries, because it would overwhelm the ability of our society to integrate."
(CDU Party Program 2002)
"If we continue to deny control of the asylum problem, one day we will be swept away by the voters, including our own, and we will be turned into whipping boys. I tell you, in the end, we are complicit when fascist organizations become active. It is not enough to warn against xenophobia; we have to tackle the causes because otherwise the population will deny us the intention, the will and the strength to get the problem under control. "
SPD elder statesman Herbert Wehner (1982)
Sadly, these quotations remind me of a quotation from Donald Trump that is all too true: "Politicians are all talk, no action."
ReplyDeleteThe former chancellors definitely read the German mood better than Merkel does. Merkel herself doesn't know what she wants. When Turkish-German Mannschafts-players posed with president Erdogan, then that got her and Steinmeier a bit concerned. But this is exactly the diversity that they propose is strengthening us. I myself am a bit overwhelmed with that 'diverse logic'.
ReplyDeleteGeneral De Gaulle:
ReplyDelete'It is very good that there are yellow French, black French, brown French. They show that France is open to all races and has a universal vocation. But [it is good] on condition that they remain a small minority. Otherwise, France would no longer be France. We are still primarily a European people of the white race, Greek and Latin culture, and the Christian religion.'
'Those who advocate integration have the brain of a hummingbird. Try to mix oil and vinegar. Shake the bottle. After a second, they will separate again. Arabs are Arabs, the French are French. Do you think the French body politic can absorb ten million Muslims, who tomorrow will be twenty million, after tomorrow forty? If we integrated, if all the Arabs and Berbers of Algeria were considered French, would you prevent them to settle in France, where the standard of living is so much higher? My village would no longer be called Colombey-The-Two-Churches but Colombey-The-Two-Mosques.'
Except a million Frenchmen roosted on Algeria uninvited for 130 years. Maybe the Algerians didn't want them either.
ReplyDeleteSo ? Is it reason for not signing ? Or for compensating with 3 million Algerians in France since 1968 ?
DeleteI miss Kohl. But I recognize certain aspects of him in Trump - that's what amuses me about the political circus these days.
ReplyDeleteThe former chancellors definitely read the German mood better than Merkel does. Merkel herself doesn't know what she wants. When Turkish-German Mannschafts-players posed with president Erdogan, then that got her and Steinmeier a bit concerned. But this is exactly the diversity that they propose is strengthening us. I myself am a bit overwhelmed with that 'diverse logic'.
ReplyDeleteWords, words, words - whilst "guest workers" were allowed to bring their families and never leave. None of these Chancellors acted on their words - unlike (for example) the Prime Minister of Hungary who actually means what he says. We will see in a few days whether Poland will go down the same path that Germany and other European nations have gone down in terms of mass migration from the Middle East and Africa. If you do not defend your borders you lose your country - ask Vortigern.
ReplyDelete