Berlin 10.40am / London 9.40am / Washington DC 4.40am
In public-state school in Yogyakarta Indonesia,15 years old, I starting to learn German language, thanks to the late Ms Titik. I’m still trying to explain to myself why it was love at first sound (German language). Now, I try every day (or week) to be 1st listener for podcasting from women who I loved in Germany.
The decision to learn a foreign language is to me an act of friendship. It is indeed a holding out of the hand. It’s not just a route to negotiation. It’s also to get to know you better, to draw closer to you and your culture, your social manners and your way of thinking. And the decision to teach a foreign language is an act of commitment, generosity and mediation. After German language, I try to learn Greek and Italian, and American slang, because one of my close friends in suburban America, and has a Greek descent and Italy descent.
The frost that has descended on Anglo-German relations since the UK voted to leave the EU in 2016 9popular known as BREXIT) arguably through to low(est) relation.
“Two narratives have dominated the view of Germany in the Brexit debate,” said Helene von Bismarck, a Hamburg-based historian specialising in British foreign policy. “There are the good Germans who will come to Britain’s rescue during the negotiations, and there are the bad Germans who are pushing us around in Europe.”
In contrast to what many people claim, Chancellor Olaf Scholz did not announce a Zeitenwende or turning point for German foreign policy (including to repair relation with UK). For the context: Biden - Olaf candid footage (in DC, in Hiroshima - G7 Summit, in Elmau-G7 last year, in Bali-G20 Summit last year, in Madrid-NATO Summit last year, in Vilnius-NATO Summit this year) arguably “a lot of”, if compare candid footage Olaf-Sunak.
Olaf just described the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a Zeitenwende, or watershed (the official translation used by the Chancellor’s office), for European security, which required a German response. To the best of my knowledge, he has never described his government’s policies as a Zeitenwende. In the public debate, however, Zeitenwende has become associated with the response itself, in particular with an increase in defense spending, a different Russia policy, or a changing German position on weapons deliveries.
Germany has been witnessing the erosion of almost all geopolitical certainties, on which its foreign policy has been based since unification, and then, 7 years ago, Brexit happened.
Berlin feels disappointed about “London divorced from Brussels.”. From Paris to Brussels, and Berlin to Warsaw and Bratislava, there is much sadness that the British are leaving. In the central and eastern European member states in particular, governments will fight tooth and nail to ensure their people can still travel to, and work in, the UK post-Brexit until today.
In his Foreign Affairs article on the “Global Zeitenwende,” Scholz also acknowledged that the Zeitenwende “goes beyond the war in Ukraine and beyond the issue of European security.” We must find our new ways in a very different world if we want to preserve what we hold dear. “If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.”
Britain’s view of Germany has oscillated historically between two different models. On one hand, there was the ‘good Germany’ of Beethoven and Goethe, the land of poets and thinkers. On the other, there was the view of Germany as an aggressive threat: first economic, then military. In the 1970s and 80s, during the wide-ranging debate on the ‘decline of Britain’, the two images were briefly fused, when the British began to admire German efficiency in industry, holding up Vorsprung durch Technik as a motto to emulate, uncoupling it from the fear of Germany as a political power.
But since reunification in 1990 the ‘bad Germany’ has dominated in the British mind again. Fear of German domination in Europe became a symbolic expression of euroscepticism, presenting a mythical image of Britain standing alone against Europe in 1940 and again in the 21st century.
Britain’s tortuous process of extracting itself from the EU has begun to change the German view of Britain. Among German liberals, in the broader sense of the word, British institutions and qualities such as pragmatism and common sense have been held up as the more desirable alternative to the French revolutionary model since at least 1848. Brexit has thrown all that into question.
There was some faint hope in European capitals that the UK might change its mind, that a way might be found to reverse the decision. At the very least, EU leaders believed that the UK would remain a member of the single market. “It was difficult to accept here. Some tried to convince themselves that it was just an advisory referendum and that it wouldn’t happen, and they never thought the UK could leave the single market.
26 Years ago, former German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble published a controversial and farsighted paper calling for a "hard core" and a two-speed EU as the best way of promoting a European "political union", including a raft of integrationist steps abolishing national sovereignty in order to shore up a monetary union which at the time had not even been introduced. The 1994 blueprint is now being implemented in the eurozone in response to the debt and currency crisis.
Schäuble's mantra has consistently been that what's good for Europe is good for Germany, a conviction he delivers more persuasively than any other German politician except the former Greens leader Joschka Fischer.
Mr Wolfgang is old-fashioned, very serious European federalist, he's canny, proceeding stealthily by small steps on a long journey. "Pragmatism and flexibility are usually better than sticking to principles which only produce stalemate.
Schäuble declared that he still held to his 1994 "hard core" Europe proposals and explained what he meant: "We don't want a European superstate. What we should aim for is a new political order in which we further develop the powers of the national level. As much powers as possible must remain with the local, regional, and national authorities. But anything that can only work at the European level must be decided by European institutions and for that you need democratic legitimation. This is perhaps the briefest description of what is meant by political union."
In response to the crisis, Schäuble has urged the creation of a European Monetary Fund, would support a eurozone treasury and a eurozone finance minister, and is less opposed to Germany agreeing to pool eurozone debt than most in his country, although that is a very hard sell.
Juncker is expected to give up the chairmanship of the eurogroup body of the 17 single-currency governments early next year and Schäuble is frontrunner to replace him, although the French and others are resisting giving the key post to a German.
"Apart from unification, Europe is his biggest issue," said Schütz. "He'll do that job if he's offered it."
If the UK wants this kind of “Brexit” and refuses to compromise, that is what it will get and must have. Olaf Wientzek, co-ordinator of European politics at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, the thinktank of former chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats, insisted single market access and freedom of movement were inextricably linked. “I have been reading the British press and in some newspapers there is a hope that you can wiggle your way out of it. No. They are inextricably linked. It is a core principle. Here you are not cutting the fat. If we get the clear signal that there will be no compromise from the British, then I think it would be rather a hard Brexit.” The realisation has dawned that the dangers of anti-EU populism spreading in France and the Netherlands are far greater than that of losing the Brits, who were troublesome anyway and a brake on integration.
There is still a large Anglophile community with a longing for rolling hills, Shakespeare and Jane Austen. A lot of Germans think Britain has gone a little bit bonkers, but it will be all right in the end.
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Thank you, as always, for reading. If you have anything like a spark file, or master thought list (spark file sounds so much cooler), let me know how you use it in the comments below.
-prada- Adi Mulia Pradana is a Helper. Former adviser (President Indonesia) Jokowi for mapping 2-times election. I used to get paid to catch all these blunders—now I do it for free. Trying to work out what's going on, what happens next. Arch enemies of the tobacco industry, (still) survive after getting doxed.
Now figure out, or, prevent catastrophic situations in the Indonesian administration from outside the government. After his mom was nearly killed by a syndicate, now I do it (catch all these blunders, especially blunders by an asshole syndicates) for free. Writer actually facing 12 years attack-simultaneously (physically terror, cyberattack terror) by his (ex) friend in IR UGM / HI UGM (all of them actually indebted to me, at least get a very cheap book). 2 times, my mom nearly got assassinated by my friend with “komplotan” / weird syndicate. Once assassin, forever is assassin, that I was facing in years. I push myself to be (keep) dovish, pacifist, and you can read my pacifist tone in every note I write. A framing that myself propagated for years.
(Very rare compliment and initiative pledge, and hopefully more readers more pledges to me. Thank you. Yes, even a lot of people associated me PRAVDA, not part of MIUCCIA PRADA. I’m literally asshole on debate, since in college). My note-live blog about Russia - Ukraine already click-read 4 millions.
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Germany.... As for Europe one of the richest country but this Nation.. . That a year and a half gave me a lot to think about. . I came there to learn German, my father paid for this and finally I left Germany with better knowledge of English.. lol the whole world was there including nice girl from Columbia another from Equator, Spain, France , Swiss etc so how were we supposed to communicate?? English only... Lol... That didn't work.
Germany.... As for Europe one of the richest country but this Nation.. . That a year and a half gave me a lot to think about. . I came there to learn German, my father paid for this and finally I left Germany with better knowledge of English.. lol the whole world was there including nice girl from Columbia another from Equator, Spain, France , Swiss etc so how were we supposed to communicate?? English only... Lol... That didn't work.
Madame Hannah:
@Hannah thank you, danke. Thank you so much with your inbox-mail 10 minutes ago. I already replies to you