The German Subject 2025

The Germans are a people with an eventful past. It is not easy for outsiders to understand how a highly developed and, on the whole, successful nation has developed in recent decades, especially since the Merkel era. From the perspective of a citizen who immigrated to Germany, this book reflects on how Germans deal with the crucial issues of today. The decline of an economy that had previously seemed so successful, an increase in violence and crime, imbalances in social and medical care, job losses coupled with an extremely high shortage of skilled workers: the dangers to which the German people are exposed as a result of geopolitical changes and the shift in power between the West and the rest of the world are a loss of prosperity, rising government debt and, at the same time, increasing militarism and a readiness for war. But German citizens are not taking to the streets. They seem to be resigning themselves to their fate, which the political elite is selling them as having no alternative. However, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and violence are on the rise, more or less hidden from view. The parallels with developments at the beginning of the 20th century cannot be overlooked. Looking back on the turning point of the end of the German Empire, the First and Second World Wars, the post-war period and reunification, one particular phenomenon can be observed throughout: the subservience of the German people. This mentality of subservience led to followers, yes-men, accomplices and conformists obediently and unquestioningly following the actions and orders of the authorities. Even if they secretly complain about the authorities, they still come to terms with the situation and offer no resistance. Heinrich Mann aptly described this in his 1914 book ‘Der Untertan’ (The German Subject). And if you look closely today, you can see these same characters in a different guise, but with strikingly similar behaviour. This behaviour on the part of citizens is mirrored by a political and media elite who by no means do everything for the good of the people, but who very skilfully and in collusive cooperation pursue their own goals and, by conjuring up an alleged threat of war, impose extreme burdens on the citizens, their subjects. The lessons of history seem to have been forgotten again: from Bismarck to Wilhelm II to Hitler, two lost world wars, loss of homeland, identity, wealth, loss of state sovereignty. Our neighbours in Europe are reminded of times past, when war and destruction emanated from Germany and the citizens, the subjects, blindly ran to their doom. They wonder whether this history could repeat itself and whether they can still trust the Germans today.