German coup d'état, The Comedy

Analysis, by Walter James Blumberg: The Austrian based Habsburgs were always watching their neighbors in what is now Germany, back when it was a collection of 300, well maybe over 30 but it seemed like 300, or so independent feudal monarchies. Austria did not want any one of them to wield too much power. In 1848 the Austrian Habsburg monarchy had its own problems with quelling takeover coups. Financially it was not good for these little German kingdoms. Feudalism had supplied the funds for them to build that one big castle that defined their little princely state, but by the time of the French Revolution it was getting harder to sell the idea of peasant tenant farmers working like dogs to feed the monarchs and create export surpluses while feeding themselves. Otto v. Bismarck without formal governmental authority brought his Prussian rath upon the Austrians who were aligned with Bavaria, Wurttemberg, Saxony, Hanover, Baden and several smaller German States with the help of a newly united Italy in a "7 Week War" in 1866 against Austria which caused some of the cowed and compliant German States to side with Austria and share in the defeat. How Bismark not only started this war but got Austria to declare war on Prussia was over the rulership of Schleswig Holstein, the beautiful Northern most Kingdom North-West of Berlin that has port cities on the Baltic such as Kiel, Lübeck and Flensburg on the Danish Border. It was, and remains strategic, and a plan had been put forward by the Schleswig diet in an effort to appease the Habsburgs and allow them to rule Holstein and Prussia to rule Schleswig. Bismark knew the Austrians would have to go through Prussia to accomplish this and pulled the plug on any Austrian involvement, causing Austria to declare war on Prussia to save face. By provoking Austria to declare war Bismark knew this would keep the English from getting involved. Prussia, a conservative and militaristic kingdom defeated Austria and restored prestige. Those German kingdoms previously mentioned that felt forced to ally with Habsburg Austria shared in the defeat. But what if they had all been united under one German leadership as one Nation State, and they now knew they could checkmate Austria. So Bismark spawned a German unification movement that changed the landscape of European politics.

Jump ahead to 1870. Bismarck knew that the tenuous unification needed a kick start, which was to be the Franco-Prussian War of 1871. He cleverly picked a fight with German arch enemy France which was ruled by Napolean III who lacked the warfare skill-sets his uncle had which turned Europe upside down in the early 19th century. France declared war against Prussia, against Bismarck's threat of German unification plus the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine which was a contested part of France. This war declaration on the part of France against Prussia again kept the English out of it, and Prussian troops were consistently victorious which caused the little princely states to see the advantage of German unification. In the battle of Sedan in 1870 Napolean III was captured causing his exile to England where he would remain and live out the last few years of his life in miserable squalor. Wilhelm Camphausen's painting of Bismarck and Napolean III sitting next to each other in ordinary chairs that had been dragged outside a house adjacent to the battlefield shows the victorious Bismark in what can only be described as Bismarck saying, "I'm going to make you an offer you can't refuse". The war continued on without Napolean III until finally ending in January 1871. Bismarck had already assembled the kings and princes of all the little German states at the palace of Versailles and so by mutual agreement the new and ominously powerful country of Germany was born. Germany became a superpower overnight, and the two most powerful countries up to that time, England and Russia, and the "Great Game" they had been playing which included the protection of India by no less than four lost wars in Afghanistan by England to prevent Russia from having easy access to their empire in India suddenly became unimportant now that this third superpower Germany had sprung up like a mushroom in a dark wet forest, and so vexed them and the rest of Europe politically that it probably set the stage for World War 1.

The victorious Germany, with its capitol in Prussian Berlin built a monument to their Victory, the Victory column or Siegess?ule. A Bronze frieze, which had already been peppered by 50 caliber rounds during the Battle of Berlin depicted the four major battles and wrapped the bottom of the round column, which was topped with an 8-meter-high statue of the Roman Goddess Victoria. When the French drove into Berlin in 1945 to occupy their portion of Berlin it took them a few weeks to figure out what they were looking at. They punched a few more 50's into it then tore it off the base except for a few parts that were glued on too well. The pieces must have weighed 1000 kilos each and they disappeared. I would walk to it in the early 1980's to have a look and it was in the park which dead ended with the Berlin Wall, the inaccessible Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag which all ended up in the Western occupation Zone. It was in the middle of a large traffic circle, probably busy with traffic in the 1920's and 30's but empty now, and you could access the monument by using one of the four underground tunnels from each sidewalk corner. There were public bathrooms that were as old as the monument and the entire area was surround by woods. Occupied West Berlin was safe, but it had a cool and sinister feel you don't find anymore. East Berlin was full of underground tunnels which allowed the traffic to pass uninterrupted as people walked under the streets accessing the U-Bahn or subways. They have all been filled in and streetlights have been installed, even at the Victory column. The column became such a famous Gay cruising area during the days of the wall that a magazine was named after it. It is no longer famous for this and unlike the old days is full of tourists and cars.

I had time on one trip, so I flew to Paris with my diplomatic passport and on a tip from the French Embassy demanded to be let into the basement of the Louvre. The removed friezes were piled up against a cinder block wall covered by a canvass tarp. After complaining through channels, they were restored to the column in 1987 by Fran?ois Mitterrand for a commemoration of the 750 anniversaries of Berlin. Small pieces are missing, the bullet holes are still there, but enough restoration has been done to give you a feel for the pride the new German Nation had in what was to be its last victory before the horrific events that would beset Germany and the rest of the World in the 20th Century.

Prince Heinrich XIII, the descendant of a small German Monarchy before they were all abolished after WW1 as part of the Weimar Republic's Constitution held a title that is meaningless except for history. The monarchies that ended up in West Germany in 1945 at least got to keep the castle if there was one still standing. Many could no longer afford the upkeep, a situation similar to England's grand estates when inheritance tax went into effect to pay for the National Health Service. The worst situation was if your land, your homes, your castles ended up in East Germany or anywhere in the Soviet Sector. Your property was confiscated for use by the state. Many of the descendants of these micro monarchies are making claims to get their land back, with varying degrees of unsuccess. The Radziwill family of Poland and Lithuania comes to mind so it's not just Germany. The Habsburgs got hit pretty hard and I chose to use the picture above which is happier and forward thinking and a lot more attractive than the picture of old Heinrich XIII in handcuffs to point out there is still Royal wealth and descendants who want to do fun things and not overthrow countries, and this young man has moved on brilliantly and knows titles and fast cars might get you girls but are politically meaningless. ?I have no doubt that the biggest scandal this Habsburg heir to the throne got himself into is using aluminium beryllium alloy as a piston material instead of 2618A, which is basically the same as RR58, the aluminium alloy used in the famous Rolls Royce Merlin aero engine pistons. But I digress, into chemistry and metallurgy.

If I were asked to comment on just one of many occurrences that affected German reunification after the wall fell it would be the assassination of Detlev Rohwedder, head of the Treuhand, the government agency tasked with liquidating or selling off East German businesses and assets that were outdated, not performing, or subsidized by the state to keep people working. A job similar to being president of your condo board; you're never going to make anyone happy, get blamed for everything, and do it without pay. There is a great documentary about it on Netflix, "The Perfect Crime". I strongly recommend it. Perhaps even worse was the appearance of Citibank, who rolled out consumer banking branches everywhere, flooded the unified Germany with money, gave out credit cards and 10,000 Euro loans like they were gummy bears, and put record numbers of people in bankruptcy. Then they disappeared selling to a French bank just as the damage was being evaluated. It's a different system, a social system, and American banks just don't work.

Prince Heinrich XIII is the front man of an alleged takeover of the German State. If it wasn't so funny, I would continue but I can't even do an analysis without embarrassing myself with hobgoblins and conspiracy and a covid anti vaccination group that is actually formidable, but the Q-anon connection and Russian involvement have turned this into a super-sized Reichsbürger with cheese. One thing I noticed, I haven't seen one mention of guns or weapons so big ups for that, and in the United States with its antimonarchical foundations and Monroe doctrine and constitutional protections this might be nothing more than a comedy, but Germany is still haunted by the ghosts, the Zeitgeist (I had to do it, I had to use that word) of the 20th century and anything that smells of coup smells of Hitler. Trump's "January 6 plot" is not going to get you pictures of Seal team six wearing balaclavas surrounding a handcuffed Trump, and boy does his lunacy have so much in common with the German prince. We don't have that history, that stigma to overcome that the Germans do and so it's not enough to be judicial and litigious in Germany. Zero tolerance. In a country that has a policeman stationed 24 hours a day outside every Synagogue in the country the Germans have something to prove and maybe that's good for all of us.

Walter James Blumberg writes on civilian and political German subjects and the cold war.