JVG No. 11 July 2014 - Jewish Voice From Germany

Transcription

interview
Society
philosophy
Israel’s Steinitz
French Le Pen
Horkheimer & Adorno
Friendship and
disappointment
seducing
the Citoyens
The Jewish
Frankfurt school
PAGE 8
PAGE 15
PAGE 17
Jewish Voice from Germany
PRICE € 3 | $ 4 german-american rel ations
Vol. 11 | JULY 2014
the first victims
Respect Needed
J
ust like personal relation- existence. And again, after the
ships, ties between states Berlin Wall fell in 1989 it was
must be based on mutual Washington’s backing that
respect to survive. The lack kept the door open for German
of this respect towards Germany reunification within the frameis the underlying cause of the work of the Western commucrisis in bilateral
nity of states.
relations with the
West Germany’s
United States.
European partGermany and ners, notably the
Since the Second
World War, GerUK’s Margaret
the United
man-American
Thatcher and
ties might best be
presiStates need one French
described as a fadent François
Mitterrand, opther-son relationanother, both posed
ship. This was esreunifipecially true of the
politically and cation. Italian
time after 1949,
Prime Minister
when the FedGiulio Andreoteconomically
eral Republic was
ti quipped that
founded. Support
he loved Gerfrom the US was a key factor in many so much that he wanted
the prosperity and growing in- two of them. But Washington
ternational recognition of West delivered the political leverage
German democracy. US troops to make a reality out of German
safeguarded West Germany’s reunification.
Perhaps necessarily, this paramount role of the US for the
foundation and success of Ger opinion
man democracy led to a paternalistic attitude in Washington
toward Berlin. Policymakers in
Washington disregarded that a
reunited Germany had “grown
up” and begun to flex its own
Middle East
muscles. Berlin’s refusal to join
Essentials for Stability
the invasion of Iraq was an iniPAGE 2
tial signal that however was not
taken seriously in Washington.
 Economy
That the Obama Administration spied on Germany and
bugged Chancellor Angela
Merkel’s cell phone is a sign of
recklessness spawned by presumptuous attitudes. The chanFrance
cellor’s warnings to stop the
An Absurd Economic Crisis
snooping were ignored. The
PAGE 10
most recent cases of espionage
by US intelligence services in
Berlin ministries and authorities
 finance
are “simply dumb,” as a German
minister called it. And suddenly, those same policymakers in
Washington feel exposed.
Germany has not forgotten
Savings
the
United States’ support. Both
The German Stock Angst
countries need one another, both
PAGE 13
politically and economically.
The current crisis in Eastern
 life
Europe shows how necessary a
unified NATO and EU response
would be – to stamp out the danger of a world conflagration with
its incalculable consequences for
the peace of the world.
A Mentsh
Washington would be well
Yael Deusel: Rabbi and Doctor
advised to show its German ally
more respect. Berlin would take
PAGE 23
note, with gratification.
■
Chaya Esther Pomeranz, collage JVG/photo: garryknight; Bobby Lightspeed; French Finds, Jeremy J. Shapiro, Israel Defense Forces, Facebook, Source: The Economist, Vol. 412 no. 8894, p. 22, John Robinson, Images_of_Money, Tobias Barniske/Abraham Geiger Kolleg
“
Naftali Fraenkel
Mohammed Abu Khdeir
Gilad Shaar
Eyal Yifrah
AND A VOICE OF HUMANITY
“The shedding of innocent blood is against morality, it is against the Torah and
Judaism, it is against the basis of our life in this country.” – Mother of Naftali
essay
Gabriel: Defend
Western Values
The West must stabilize itself
again as a community of values, postulates Vice-Chancellor
and SPD-head Sigmar Gabriel
against the background of the
Ukrainian crisis. Authoritarian
rulers have to understand that
the West will defend its core
values together, writes Germany’s Federal Minister of Economics in the JVG. Americans
and Europeans should prove
that their partnership is more
than “a profit alliance of cowardly moneybags.”
 PAGE 4
interview
Schmidt Favors
Pragmatism
Germany’s Federal Minister of
Agriculture, Christian Schmidt
(CSU) advocates freedom of
choice in the debate about genetically modified food. “Anyone who wants genetically modified products can have them,
and whoever doesn’t can turn
elsewhere,” Schmidt says in an
interview with the JVG. He decidedly supports TTIP negotiations: “Anyone afraid of competition has already lost.”  PAGE 3
Human Rights & Narcissism
T
oday Germany is a respected member of the international community, which
I recently saw spotlighted in
Israel. As rockets from Gaza
arced through the nighttime
sky over Tel Aviv, in a public
viewing zone on the beach
promenade I watched Israeli
soccer fans cheering the German team on against Brazil.
Just a couple of decades ago
that would have been unimaginable.
The World Cup triumph will
not make Germans arrogant.
In this edition we feature an
essay by Germany’s ViceChancellor Sigmar Gabriel
that, looking at the crisis in
Ukraine, demands more respect for human- and civil
rights. In an interview, German Cabinet member Christian Schmidt hails GermanIsraeli friendship. His Israeli
counterpart Yuval Steinitz
confirms that view, while
expressing disappointment
at Berlin’s current unwillingness to deliver warships to
Israel in light of the Jewish
State’s settlement policy.
Concern over the security of Israel and the region’s
people prompts us to offer a
commentary that identifies
the essentials of a negotiated
settlement.
The JEWISH VOICE views
the growing crisis in France,
in its society and economy,
which is making its mark on
the political situation. The
recent success of the Front
National in elections – with
its leader Marine Le Pen – is
a wake-up call.
Many citoyens of the Nation
of the Enlightenment, who
once fought on the barricades
for freedom and equality are
now turning in disappointment to Le Pen, who with her
xenophobic phrases is trying
to seduce the French.
Our author, the political scientist Claudia Schlembach, is
of the opinion that the French
are enthusiastic about the narcissist Le Pen because they see
themselves reflected in her.
Whilst our economic editor Siegfried Guterman who
lives in France thinks that the
French have lost their orientation.
The editorial staff
2 | Page Two
Spying is
not listening
Jan Sobottka
By Michael S. Cullen
“True partnership and true progress
require constant work and sustained
sacrifice. They require sharing the
burdens of development and diplomacy; of progress and peace. They
require allies who will listen to each
other, learn from each other and,
most of all, trust each other.”
So candidate Obama in his August
2008 Berlin speech. How ironic that
President Obama’s NSA has been listening in to Chancellor Merkel’s cell
phone, and certainly those of many in
her government. Obama no doubt
meant ’listen’ differently. Eavesdropping is not listening – but spying.
And spying is what the US has been
doing all along, and now, it turns out,
as many as a dozen German government officials have been on the NSA’s
payroll for many years, spying in ministries or in the Bundestag.
While this is
hardly startling in
the US, Americans must realize
that there is a fundamental problem here between
the state’s need
for information
and individuals
expecting privacy.
President Gauck and Chancellor
Merkel both grew up in a totalitarian state where they dreamed of
privacy, in which their mail would
not be intercepted or their phone
calls overheard. How would Americans feel if they knew that spouses
even spied on each other? Mr.
Gauck and Mrs. Merkel are not,
cannot be amused.
It pains me to say it: the American
information services are insensitive,
clumsy and paranoid – and – in the
end, they keep their eyes on the
wrong people and events. Not knowing that Mosul was endangered is inexcusable while listening to your
next-door-neighbor’s telephone calls.
Mrs. Merkels options, of course,
are rather limited. To call the US on
the carpet is not one of them. In the
end, this is a family feud, and it’s certainly not in Germany’s interest to
sue for divorce. In her quiet way,
Mrs. Merkel has stated that the services are wasting their energy, and
she will not try to suspend TTIP
talks. So the first notch on the dial:
expel the accredited senior US spy in
Germany.
The next steps will require that
both American and German officials re-calibrate their relationship.
One can only hope that my fellow
Americans will be less bullying and
the Germans more self-assertive. As
an American in Germany I’m disheartened when I see what play is
on offer. Will my German friends
look at me askance, will I lose my
bonus of being an American? For
the nonce, I’m putting this in the
marital feud box, where I’m the kid
in the middle, hoping that my parents don’t sue for divorce, don’t separate, don’t stay angry for long and
kiss and make up.
You always hurt the one you love. ■
middle east
Essentials for Peace and Stability
Resignation or interventionism are a license for war
By Rafael Seligmann
T
he Middle East is on fire, from
Libya to Iraq and from Turkey’s
southern border to Sudan. States
including Syria, Libya and Sudan
are falling apart. With the exception of
Tunisia, the liberation movements of the
Arab Spring have all been crushed by reactionary or fundamentalist forces. These
facts need to be recognized by decisionmakers outside the region before they
develop new strategies for the area or
stick stubbornly to old ones. One example of this is the idealistic but uninspired
Middle East peace initiative by US Secretary of State John Kerry.
Before the violence can be stopped, one
has to take stock of what has happened.
This is the basis on which a realistic vision for peace can emerge. To turn it into
reality, resolve, power and diplomatic finesse will be required. This applies especially to external mediators in this conflagration at Europe’s doorstep.
“
Redrawing
existing national
boundaries would
lead to anarchy
in the Middle East
and Africa
Currently we are seeing that only countries with a coherent history such as Egypt
and Iran can maintain a certain territorial
integrity – which, however, says nothing
about their domestic political stability.
Efforts toward peace and democracy in
these countries have proven – despite the
popular movements that arose – not yet
strong enough to overcome the forces of
inertia such as the army and fundamentalist religious groups. The former regime
of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and
the clerical establishment in Iran have
shown that by no means do majorities
won in general elections produce democracies when human rights are violated
and the separation of religion and state is
refused. This leads, instead, to domestic
oppression and external aggression.
Sacred soil
The current crises demonstrate moreover that, even after a century of existence, states established by the colonial
powers Britain, France and Italy such as
Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Libya do not
have the cohesive power to stand up
to massive centrifugal forces domestically and to foreign pressures. Even the
Ba’ath dictatorship in Syria, regardless of
its brutal use of force, is unable to do so.
That goes also for the Maliki government
in Iraq, which is marked by the blemish
of having been established under the
protection of the West, and especially
the United States.
The Arab-Israeli-Palestinian conflict
has been perpetuated bitterly for nearly
a century now. The essential factor here
is that Zionism is understood on the Arab side as a Western, imperialist movement and that the “occupation of sacred
Islamic soil by Zionists in Palestine,” as
Yasser Arafat once put it, is regarded as
sacrilege by Muslims worldwide. Jewish
Israelis, for their part, are convinced that
they must defend the existence of their
state when necessary by the use of force.
Auschwitz did not make pacifists out of
the Jews. Instead it affirmed their belief
that powerlessness just delivers them to
their enemies.
To ensure a minimum of stability in
the Middle East, today there should be
no efforts to redraw the existing national
boundaries drawn up by colonial powers. This would lead to anarchy in the
region. Its beneficiaries would be fundamentalist terrorist organizations such as
the “Islamic Caliphate” in Syria and Iraq.
States such as Jordan, Lebanon, Libya
and Algeria would descend into civil war
and collapse, as so many African states
have already done. Instead, the existing
states must be buttressed, though not
with military interventions, let alone oc-
cupations, associated with arms deliveries. Instead we need internationally supported agreements within the individual
states. It will take patience and the understanding of domestic circumstances.
One example is that Egypt’s former general Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is tolerated by
the majority of Egyptians and neighboring states, even if he is anything but a
bona fide democrat.
Essentials also have to be taken into
account in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. These are
■ abandonment of the use of force,
■ recognition of the cease-fire line
of 1949 as the borders of Israel
and an Arab Palestinian state,
■ the right of self-determination,
■ recognition of the right to existence of all states in the region,
■ removal of Jewish settlements in
the occupied territories,
■ abandoning the right of Arab
refugees to return to Israel
■ a ban on weapons exports to the
Middle East.
A political foundation
A decisive complement to these building
blocks must be an agreement by the five
permanent Security Council members plus
Germany with Iran. It cannot be reduced
to the level of a “technical” pact. Technical
details can be bypassed. The decisive element must be the political foundation. If
Tehran wants sanctions to be lifted and to
be treated as an equal member of the family of nations, then Iran must respect its
rules and recognize Israel’s right to exist.
If it does not, the clerical regime will continue striving to eliminate the Jewish State.
Signs of resignation have become apparent in the West. The Economist recently
included a sketch showing Israel as Palestinian territory. If this tendency continues, the entire region will break up. It is a
license for wars.
Peace, or at least stabilization, is possible, yet neither through resignation
nor interventionism, but solely through
a patient yet firm policy of reason.
■
Source: The Economist, Vol. 412 no. 8894, p. 22.
the cullen column
jewish voice from germany | July 2014
On this map in The Economist (July 2014) Israel has been given up and is already a part of Arab Palestine
July 2014 | jewish voice from germany
Politics | 3
“
Anyone who wants genetically
modified products can have
them, and whoever doesn’t
can turn elsewhere
Christian Schmidt
Romanticism and Reality
German Agriculture Minister on genetic engineering and Israel
What is the biggest challenge?
Many people can no longer relate to life
in the countryside. People have idealized
notions and forget that agriculture has to
be intensive to put enough food on the
table. Harmonizing romanticism with
reality is an exciting job.
What do you emphasize most?
Three points are especially important to
me: First, the development of rural areas
and their preservation as attractive economic and ecological spaces. Second, exporting our very high-quality agricultural
products. And third, as Germany’s Minister of Food and Agriculture, I am also responsible that food safety here maintains
its high standard, so that consumers need
not fear any substantial dangers for their
health in this area.
You are a transatlanticist and the President
of the German Atlantic Association. Do you
support the TTIP negotiations?
Yes, I firmly support the negotiations.
I don’t think much of the argument that
we would lose out in competition. Anyone
afraid of competition has already lost. However, the issue of standards in agriculture
and other areas will be difficult to agree on.
Because of its process safety and process
hygiene, Europe has a different approach
to food safety than the US. The trick will
be to prevent a few issues from forcing
the negotiations to return to square one.
In the US, genetically manipulated foods
are part of everyday life, in Germany less
so. What are Germans afraid of?
First of all, with medicines and immunizations produced through genetic engineering no one expresses any reservations, even if these contain live, genetically
manipulated organisms. Or in so-called
“white genetic technology,” the use of
genetically manipulated microorganisms
in the production of food ingredients
such as vitamins, flavors or also of enzymes, which are used for example in
making cheeses or bakery goods. There
is a pragmatic argument that anyone who
wants genetically modified products can
have them, and whoever doesn’t can turn
elsewhere. So that this freedom of choice
functions, in contrast to the US we have
the fundamental requirement to label
genetically modified foods that contain
genetically modified ingredients.
“
are killed after hatching because they are
worthless for the producers. That raises
ethical questions. In both Germany and
Israel we are working on a method, “ex
ovo,” to determine the egg’s gender at an
early stage, to know whether a male or
female chick will hatch. Then the egg can
be treated accordingly, so that we don’t
have any living animals that immediately
have to be killed.
From 1994 to 1998 you headed the GermanIsraeli Parliamentary Group.
What perspectives do you see in
the German-Israeli relationship?
It may sound pessimistic,
but currently I don’t see any
big initiatives that can have
an effect. Nothing is moving
forward at the moment. We
have little influence on Abbas and his relationship to
Hamas. Fatah and Hamas
are, in my opinion, an emergency community of parties stranded by
world politics. The latest rocket attacks
from the Gaza Strip show that the idea of
destroying Israel is very much alive and
a political program. It’s understandable
that Israel defends itself against that.
Fatah and Hamas are an
emergency community
of parties stranded by
world politics
Several big German companies, notably
BASF, are transferring their genetic research and technology operations abroad.
Should we in Germany be a bit more open,
within the boundaries of safety?
I support the continued development of
genetic research in Germany – which, incidentally, was originated in Germany. The
fact that BASF Crop is now mainly in the
US is the consequence of an iconoclastic
attitude toward research here. I cannot
accept that. We must have space for genetic research, just as in other research
areas, so long as it is ethically justifiable
and limitable in its effects.
In March 2008 Chancellor Merkel told the
Knesset that “Israel’s security is non-negotiable for us.” In Israeli security circles people
are outraged that the already-negotiated delivery of corvettes is being blocked or at least
obstructed in light of Israel’s settlement policy. How do those two fit together?
I won’t comment on this particular
case. There is no absolute precondition.
Can we bring research back?
I hope so! That is also part of the additional research investment that the federal budget is devoting 3 billion euros to.
My principle, and ours, should not be to
dictate to research centers what they
work on, with the exception of ethical
issues, such as cloning.
Is there innovative collaboration in agriculture between Israel and Germany?
Yes, I’ve supported it and expanded our
cooperation with Agricultural Minister
Shamir. For instance, we have turned our
attention to the problem that male chicks
Including in arms sales?
Germany is in the process of launching
a very intensive cooperation with Israel
in the area of unmanned aircraft, and
will continue to do so.
Moving on to Europe, Vladimir Putin has
his eyes on neo-Russian, neo-Soviet irredentism, a kind of imperialism. How can
this policy be slowed or even stopped?
First of all, by naming it clearly and unmistakably. Second, by pointing out the
annexation of Crimea that violated international law. Third, we must find a European position. The possible third level
of sanctions will then most likely also be
economically more unpleasant. It is regrettable that the US approach is a different one than the European one. That
way sanctions sometimes lose their bite.
Should there be violence in the Baltic states
because of the Russian minorities there, a
clash between Russia and NATO could
result …
Despite it all I believe in Putin’s rationality. I assume that he knows that
where the flags of the North Atlantic Alliance and the European Union stand, he
has nothing to gain in this respect.
Last question: How do you stay close to the
people and maintain your personal humility?
When one is politically active only in
Berlin, that vanity fair, there’s always the
danger of losing touch with reality. After I go somewhere else, and sometimes
find myself in cowsheds, the danger isn’t
so great anymore. But when I notice that
I’ve set up my own little stand at this fair,
I think of Pope John XXIII – “Giovanni,
■
don’t take yourself so seriously.” Federal Minister Christian Schmidt talked
to JVG editors Elisabeth Neu and Rafael
Seligmann at the Reichstag building/
German Bundestag in Berlin
Minister
Schmidt and
JVG editor
Elisabeth Neu
JVG (2)
W
hat gives you the most satisfaction as agriculture minister?
It makes me very happy
that rural areas are still economically vigorous, and agriculture is
largely to thank for that. It’s very important, especially in light of our country’s
demographic trends.
It is a question of what we believe needs
to be done, especially in the two-state
solution. The Chancellor expressed the
position of the federal government during her visit to Israel. We believe that the
construction of settlements has to end.
For me, that means beyond the specific
issue of the corvettes that this is a dialogue among friends, not a topic that will
lead to contacts being frozen.
4 | Politics
VICE-CHANCELLOR Gabriel on Germany’s responsibilities
Let’s Stick Together
Freedom and human rights are essentials of Western politics
By Sigmar Gabriel
Western community of values. That is also
why Big Money’s ruthless pursuit of privilege
in a system of deregulated financial markets
undermines the rule of law in Western states.
That is why a Europe that sees itself as only a
forced collective under a common currency
remains far removed from its true goals. Because it has come to symbolize much more
than culture or geopolitics, “the West” has
not outlived its usefulness.
W
hen we talk about freedom
and human rights and how
to defend or revive them
in real instances, then
amid all the threats and shocks we see today, policy, the media and business need a
space where they are firmly anchored. Only
when one’s viewpoint is clear can one gain
a perspective on conflicts such as that in
Ukraine today.
For decades, one term represented this
anchor for policy and its standpoint in the
democratic world: “the West.” Transatlantic relations, and especially between Germany and the US and Canada, the NATO
alliance and the European Union, were an
expression of the common ground shared
by states and regions that felt they belonged to “the West.”
A partnership of convenience?
They considered themselves part of a
community of values that wanted to be
more than a shared economic or geostrategic alliance. “The West” espoused the
universal promise of freedom and equality
for the individual, respect for human rights
and the right of democratic participation,
protected by written or unwritten constitutions and the rule of law. For the great
majority of its states and citizens, the community of values of “the West” was for a
long time a relatively steady political and
cultural compass. In recent years we have
been rocked by a considerable number of
international crises that were unable to
“
Sigmar Gabriel during his speech at the Axel Springer Journalist Club
We now have to again strengthen
this community of values – not only
internally, but also externally
harm Germany’s economic prosperity. No
one talks anymore about the once proverbial “German angst”.
Still, alongside this image a new counterimage of new insecurities now exists that
cannot be blurred by German growth statistics. Since the collapse of the financial
markets the Eurozone, and with it the European Union, has been subjected to an
unprecedented political test of the limits
of European solidarity. The core of the
Union is developing unmistakable cracks
as destabilization along the European periphery advances. Syria has descended into
a hellish civil war with many thousands of
people killed and millions displaced. Every
day in Iraq we see the consequences of a US
intervention that broke international law
and the subsequent pullout. The Middle
East, always religiously and nationalistically incendiary, sees limited truces but
no durable peace. Turkey, meanwhile, is
torn between the participatory demands
of a protesting generation and the desire
for social peace. Ever since the revelations
of Edward Snowden – at the latest – we
have also known that, in an alliance with
internationally active intelligence services,
private-sector data monopolists have been
working to compromise private citizens’
control over their own information. The
ability to completely know and monitor
the individual was long a dark genre of literature before approaching reality in the
21st century.
Fundamental questions
The far greater consequence has been,
however, that our fundamental political
values have been called into question: of
refraining from the use of force, of the inviolability of borders, of resolving conflict
through negotiation and de-escalation,
and finally of freedom and human rights.
In union and allied with other Europeans
we must take seriously what is taking place
in Europe and its vicinity.
All this has become vividly apparent ever
since the good news from the Maidan in
Kiev – that the firing upon demonstrators
had stopped, a democratic constitution
was again in force and elections held – has
been replaced by concerns that military
confrontation is continuing. Seemingly all
at once we have been torn from our observer’s perch into a long-simmering and
suddenly explosive conflict that is now demanding a price from Germany in the form
of sanctions against Russia.
At its core the issue is what should constitute order for the states of Eastern Eu-
rope and what model we can offer to other
regions neighboring the European Union.
Ukraine’s current ordeal, as well as those
in other conflicts in the European neighborhood, ultimately pits civil rights and
the rule of law against allegiance to an
ethnic, sectarian or linguistic community.
It has always been easy to counterpoise
“the West” against the rest of the world culturally. Although what’s at stake is not any
claim to dominion by a geographically regional culture that would tell others what to
do, but the opposite: the universal validity
of an entitlement for all humanity to political freedom and self-determination. That is
also precisely why the scandalously unlawful
practices of the NSA and the conduct of big
Internet corporations striving for complete
access to personal data are violations of the
This article is based on a speech held by
Sigmar Gabriel during an event of the
JEWISH VOICE hosted by Axel Springer SE
in the Journalist Club in Berlin
JVG (2)
The pledges of “the West”
The universal nature of its principles
lends power to its message that the individual’s human rights are inviolable. In today’s dangers and shocks, policy needs a
place where it can anchor. Germany is not
stuck between two powers. As a democracy our country belongs to an international
community that still upholds the universal promise and right of political freedom.
That is why we now have to again strengthen this community of values – not only internally, but also externally. We cannot be
indifferent when, regarding the European
conflict over the integrity of Ukraine, commentators in authoritarian states point out
almost mockingly that “the West” upholds
its values only as long as its economic interests remain untouched. This viewpoint
makes clear that we are increasingly being
regarded as an economic partnership of
convenience. Europe now has the chance
to demonstrate the opposite. What will
change the attitude towards “the West” is
a series of actions: Supporting democrats
in Ukraine economically and politically,
investing sustainably and over the long
term in the country’s development and, if
needed, being prepared in the face of continued Russian aggression to give up economic privileges in our relations with Russia until conflicts on our continent are again
resolved at the negotiating table and the security of all of Europe’s neighboring states
is achieved. It will change our attitude, since
in recent years we too have supplanted the
universality of Western values through the
universality of globalized economic thinking
and conduct. And it will change the attitude
from the outside toward “the West” as a partner to be taken seriously that is more than a
profit alliance of cowardly moneybags. ■
Deutsche Bank
Corporate Citizenship
Passion for music
For 25 years, Deutsche Bank and the Berliner Philharmoniker
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Jan Felix Knobel, Junioren-Weltmeister im Zehnkampf
Deutsche Bank
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6 | Politics
MIDDLE EAST
The Wheel of Violence
Israel Defense Forces
Impressions from a trip to Israel in turbulent times
By Rafael Seligmann
O
ld soldiers can smell
war. Hardly had I landed in Israel to interview
Yuval Steinitz, the Minister for
Intelligence, Strategy and International Relations, when I
got a call from my 88-year-old
father-in-law. He had been a
soldier in World War II. Now
he felt the need to warn me of
a new war in the Middle East.
“Be careful Rafael!” I was a bit
alarmed, as I visit Israel several
times a year and the old gentleman had never warned me
against doing so before.
The situation was tense, as
so often before. The corpses of
three Israeli youngsters, Eyal
Yifrah, Gilad Shaar and Naftali
Fraenkel, had been found near
Hebron. Israeli security sources were almost certain that the
killers were Hamas supporters.
Soon afterwards an Arab boy
was abducted in East Jerusalem. His charred corpse was
soon discovered.
The horror of it all
Most Israelis and Jews worldwide doubted that one of their
number could have been the
perpetrator. “Jews don’t commit such crimes,” was their tenor. Yet individuals of all nations
are capable of atrocities. “Thou
shalt not murder,” says the Fifth
Commandment. Israel’s Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by a political fanatic.
The following day, several Israelis were arrested on suspicion of having killed 16-year-old
Mohammed Abu Khdeir. All Israelis with whom I spoke were
horrified. “Now the hatred of the
Israeli right has borne its fruit,”
remarked the left-leaning daily
Haaretz. “We too are monsters,”
said Tamar Naim, a teacher.
Since then, rocket fire on Israeli towns from the Gaza Strip
has kept growing. The Israeli
Air Force has responded by
bombarding suspected launching sites. And a ground offen-
sive has commenced. “Finally
we’re defending ourselves,”
said Ron Steg, a veteran of the
1973 Yom Kippur War.
While I was strolling down the
beach at sundown on Tuesday,
air raid sirens wailed. While
some tourists sought shelter,
the Israelis remained at the
beach cafés. Soon afterward we
heard the dull crack of a rocket
interception, and saw the debris
clouds in the sky.
That night in a beach café I
watched the World Cup semifinal between Germany and Brazil.
Germans and Israelis celebrated
Team Germany’s lopsided win.
In the distance, more rockets
were shot down.
When I visited my daughter
the next morning, more sirens.
The basement door was locked,
so we stayed on the staircase. The
first interceptions followed in 90
seconds. What must it be like for
the people in Gaza held hostage
by Hamas in its asymmetrical war
against Israel? Their children are
being forcibly traumatized, just
as in southern Israel too.
Later I drove to Jerusalem for
a meeting with Minster Steinitz. He stressed Israel’s friendly
relations with Germany but did
not hide his disappointment
that Berlin was blocking the export of warships to Israel.
Waiting for peace
In Jerusalem and later in Tel
Aviv, life appears to go its daily
way. But business in the cafés
and restaurants is slow, and hotels are largely empty.
The Israelis in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem have grown accustomed
to rockets being shot down by the
Iron Dome defense system. Prime
Minister Netanyahu calls for calm
in the populace. His government
approves an Egyptian-brokered
truce, but Hamas keeps firing
rockets. The Israelis respond
with fresh air strikes, and then the
troops go into the Gaza Strip. The
wheel of violence keeps turning.
The Israelis – and the Palestinians
– are again left to ask when peace
will finally come.
■
e xperiencing Israel
Mistrust Blocks Peacemaking
Young German parliamentarians favor new relationship
F
our years ago, I was walking through
the old town of Jerusalem during sunrise. Nobody was up and the narrow
alleys were still fast asleep. The nascent
rising burning sun of the Middle East was
sparkling on the polished surface of the
streets. From that time on this memory has
been alive inside me: Jerusalem, sheeted
with a thousand years of history, and the
awareness that this is the delightful freckle
where the bloody struggle has been taking
place since the beginning of time.
Having been in Israel twice before, now
I was on my first visit as an official member of the German parliament. Invited by
the American Jewish Committee (AJC), our
group of eight members of the German
Bundestag from different political parties
came here to speak with scientists, politicians, journalists, and analysts and to get
acquainted with the country. Most of the
travelers hadn’t been to Israel before. And
this trip was going to be more than a political exchange on the diplomatic level.
Hard work
When we arrived, the current peace negotiations had failed again and the Palestinian Government had announced a cooperation with Hamas. The conflict and
negotiations are older now than some of
the younger members of our group. Our
agenda was so compact that no auditing
authority could ever doubt that our days
in Israel were going to be hard work. The
timing of the meetings with Israelis and
Palestinians was tight and the main topic
was basically the hundred reasons why
peace and a two-state-solution would fail
again. Peacemaking, that became obvious,
is more complicated than it looks from a
German point of view. “How complex the
situation is,” said Bernd Rützel from the
Social Democratic Party (SPD), “can’t be
understood just by watching TV.”
Mistrust, the conflict, the deep-seated fear
of the Jewish Nation were very palpable. It
became clear during our visits at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Yad Vashem. It
is cemented into reality by the eight meters
high concrete wall, the border to East-Jerusalem on our way to Ramallah. Even
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech sounded cemented in
a particular way, when he warned
intensely of the danger of a new
Holocaust planed by Iran. Is that
the sound of willing peace?
Memory as an advisor?
Our delegation were
official guests at the
memorial ceremony
for the victims of
the Holocaust. I
felt ashamed for every tear I could not
hide. I didn’t want
to be a “sentimental
German.” My inner eye visualized
the Nazis singing
Jorinde Gersina
By Michelle Müntefering
Christmas songs with Joseph Mengele
in the courtyard of Auschwitz, next to a
Christmas tree – right in the middle of
the Shoah. Marta Wise, who was a child
back then and survived, had told us the
story of her life earlier. I agonized with
the ceremony, with myself as a representative of the Germans, and about my
right to be deeply sad about this period
in German history. But how long will the
memory stay alive and the survivors be
part of our present? Will the intensity of
the Jewish-German relationship lessen
over time, as some discussions in Germany suggest? And is this memory actually a
“
German-Jewish relationship. Something
new is coming,” says Metin Hakverdi, my
peer from the Bundestag. And I feel my
thoughts reflected in his words.
Challenges for the young generation
The next day, when we slip into Tel Aviv
to visit a school and a start-up the common
ground of the challenges for the younger
generation becomes evident. Urban development, refugee questions, modern technologies are major issues. “Who knows
that Tel Aviv generates such innovative
and future-orientated business, just like
Silicon Valley?,” Christina Kampmann, who like me is one of the
youngest female members of the
SPD in the German Bundestag,
wonders. The younger generation
also makes a difference in the development here.
Back home, I am aware that
something new has to come.
Something which doesn’t deny the past
and at the same time creates a future in
which Germany and Israel can stay together. A future in peace with the Palestinians. And another lesson is learned: It
changes your perspective and sometimes
even convictions when you travel to the
place where it all happens. Israel, with it’s
polarity, diversity and directness certainly
won all our hearts.
■
Israel certainly
won all our hearts
good advisor to assess current Israeli politics?
At night, on the balcony
above the lights of Tel
Aviv, our Social Democratic group talked
about the nature of
xenophobia and antiSemitism and also
about the ability of
humans to live in
peace. “The historical
narrative will not suffice for the future of the
Michelle Müntefering, journalist and politician, has been a member of the German
Bundestag since 2013
8 | Politics
interview
We Are Disappointed With German Politics
Israel’s super minister Steinitz on the Palestinian Conflict and relations with Berlin
How can Israel find inner peace
again after the kidnapping and
murder of the three students and
the murder the Arab boy from
East Jerusalem?
Both crimes are horrible. We
are determined to punish both
atrocities with all severity. Every
human life is worth the same.
Our security forces seized the
alleged Jewish criminals quickly.
They will be punished severely.
Unlike the Palestinian authority,
in Israel everybody condemned
the crime immediately. The
prime minister, all ministers of
the government, all the main
Israeli media and 99 % of the
Israeli public … On the Palestinian side, there was a wave of enthusiasm and support after the
murder of the three Jewish boys.
This is the difference between a
civilized democratic society and
another kind of society. We are
ashamed that citizens of Israel,
Jewish citizens of Israel, committed this horrible crime.
How do you want to deal with
the reciprocal hate?
We prohibit any kind of agitation, be it nationalistic or religious. We prohibit it in public
and on the Internet. We want to
do everything so that people can
live in peace. When you look at
the Palestinian society, incitement against Israel is extremely
prevalent – on a daily basis even
by the public government controlled media. The Palestinian
education system shows very
strong anti-Semitic and of course
anti-Israeli incitement. Television and also magazines for children and teenagers continuously
agitate against Israel. That has to
stop. Even Abu Masen admitted
recently that they have a problem with anti-Jewish, anti-Israeli
incitement. At least they admit
that there is such a phenomenon.
In 2008, Chancellor Merkel told
the Knesset that for Germany Israel’s safety is not negotiable. But
now it looks like the German government would prefer to pull out
of the delivery of the agreed corvettes. Berlin says this is a reaction to Israel’s settlement policy …
We are disappointed. We value Chancellor Merkel a lot. The
same goes for my former colleague, finance minister Schäuble. Amongst friends, we can
have debates about the settlement policy but this has nothing
to do with our national security.
Israel has to survive and defend
itself in the middle of the Middle
East, in the hub of the most difficult, dangerous, hostile neighborhood on earth. Take a look at
the map: you see a tiny, miniscule
Jewish state and the huge Arab
and Muslim world around it –
Yuval Steinitz at his Knesset
office with Rafael Seligmann
Chaya Esther Pomeranz
W
hat are Israel’s military
goals in Gaza?
We have been
forced into this war. No state
can accept that its citizens are
being bombarded by a neighboring state. We are no longer
willing to accept the constant
shooting by Hamas. In the past
two years 10,800 missiles and
projectiles have been shot into Israel from Gaza. We tried
to stop this through discrete
intervention. But Hamas and
others have instead increased
the shooting – also on cities
like Ashdod, Be’er Sheva, Tel
Aviv and Jerusalem, including
the international airport Ben
Gurion. With our offensive we
wanted to shatter the terrorist
infrastructure of Hamas and
other terrorists once and for all.
stretching from Morocco to Iraq,
even Iran, which is our enemy too.
We are 6 1/2 million Jews here, 8
million Israeli citizens altogether,
circled by 350 million Arabs and
almost 80 million Iranians. They
all live under authoritarian regimes. In Syria, in Iraq there is a
merciless war. Not to mention the
hostility towards Israel … We are
the only Western style democracy
in this region, with free elections,
respect for minorities, respect
for homosexuals, the equality of
women, freedom of speech, of the
press, an independent judicial system … We have to defend all this –
and that’s not easy. We deserve to
get all the support from Western
countries, also from Germany. I
think the current German reac-
tion is wrong and I hope we will be
able to convince them to change
their minds.
Your family is from Germany …
Yes, from Braunschweig. My
grandparents fled the Nazis in
1934 and came here. They were
both doctors. But back then
there were too many physicians
here. So they moved to a village
and became poultry farmers.
Most of the people in the village
were German academics who
had become farmers. It wasn’t
until the 1950s that my grandfather could work as a doctor
again. My mother was educated
as a pianist, my father became a
doctor. The German Jews have
given Israel a lot. ■
Merck and Israel:
Partners in Innovation
“Creativity in research, imagination,
an entrepreneurial approach and
openness to partnerships: All of that
makes Israel attractive and important
to us.”
Karl-Ludwig Kley, Chairman of
the Executive Board of Merck
Innovation is at home in Israel. And we at Merck want
to be present wherever innovation takes place. For
that reason, we have been an active part of the
scientific community in Israel for many years. With
the Weizmann Institute of Science, for example, we
developed the fundamentals for two of Merck’s most
important products: the multiple sclerosis drug Rebif®
and the cancer therapy Erbitux®. We want to build on
these successes, strengthen our relationships in Israel,
and continue working towards innovative products.
Our goal: to improve the lives of people around the
world.
www.merckgroup.com
066_14_CM_BC_Weizmann_AD_250x180_CBH_RZ.indd 1
Close partnership with the Weizmann Institute of Science - from left: Prof. Mordechai Sheves (Vice President for Technology
Transfer, Weizmann Institute), Prof. Daniel Zajfman (President, Weizmann Institute), Karl-Ludwig Kley (Chairman of the Executive
Board, Merck).
02.07.14 08:46
economy | 9
What’s Good
Europe’s New National Socialists
A
bout a third of all voters at this May’s
Euro elections gave their support to
parties demanding an end to the European Union as we know it today. They all
have in common a sense of unease at the
Brussels bureaucracy and its ever-extending
political powers, at a nebulous and hard-tounderstand political union with its overlapping, contradictory and rival spheres of influence. Europe’s political contours resemble
those of a familiar state not as much as the
structure of the medieval Holy Roman Empire, with emperor and pope, electors and
robber barons, free cities, prince-bishoprics,
urban patricians and foreign powers all vying
for power. Determining who has authority
over what is reminiscent of physicist Werner
Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle: We can
never know both the position and momentum of an electron in its path around the
nucleus. Similarly, it seems that even with a
keen sense for institutional and personal rivalries, we still can never be sure about who’s
the boss, which sword is swiftest, or who’s
spoiling for a fight against whom. And that,
of course, spawns uncertainty and rejection.
The new Europe is a patchwork quilt economically, too. The strengths of the respective protest parties feed off of national
problems. Britain’s UKIP has been openly
anti-immigrant ever since the growing influx of Eastern European jobseekers collided with a scarcity of housing and the lack
of job positions caused by a recession. All
will be better once Britain leaves the EU,
both politically and economically, pledges
UKIP chief Nigel Farage.
Strength of protest
Meanwhile the “Alternative for Germany”
or AfD is trawling among those who distrust the euro and harbor resentment over
the series of international bailouts of Eurozone states to which there were allegedly
no alternatives. The Germans are probably
the least worrying of the new populists.
Speeches by Af D -chairman Bernd Lucke
resemble well-turned and soporific university lectures more than calls for rebellion.
The revolt, it seems, will take place in the
auditorium, complete with a list of speakers and debate over the rules of procedure.
Greek euroskeptics rail vociferously against
the austerity measures they believe were dic-
collage JVG/photo: NotFromUtrecht
The European maze
tated in Berlin, while regarding financial aid
packages totaling hundreds of billions as the
inalienable Hellenic right to support by the
heirs of its pan-European culture.
Rejection of regulations
With all the differences, however, there
is also one big parallel. It’s the rejection of
big, all-encompassing regulations, a criticism of globalization that hits home at
this level. Marine Le Pen argues that at
France’s biggest construction site, the gas
port at Dunkirk, only four out of ten workers are French and that Romanians there
work for 30 percent less money, because
the social levies are calculated according
to the workers’ countries of origin, she
says. Fear is also growing in Germany that
people could claim social welfare benefits
there who had never lived in the country
and never paid into its social welfare system. In the UK people fear that too many
migrants are plundering the free National
Health Service. It’s the new, borderless Europe with freedom of movement for workers. On the one hand that’s an achievement, but on the other it’s an attack on
social welfare systems that were built up
on the basis of national circumstances and
that function only in a national context.
It’s the attraction that the entitlements of
the prosperous in Western Europe have on
the more disadvantaged people of the EU’s
east. The pattern repeats itself in the debates on the euro and budgets. Ever since
the single currency eliminated the possibility of making adjustments through ex-
change rates, the real reduction of excessively high wages in Greece, Portugal and
Spain has been taking place through real
wages and non-wage costs. It is therefore
felt immediately. It is the pain caused when
differences are exposed, when a common
currency makes prices, wages and social
welfare entitlements comparable with just
the click of a mouse, and, in the next step,
leads to harmonization and adjustment of
price systems.
And because that’s not enough, the
planned transatlantic free trade agreement
TTIP could soon become reality as well. In
Germany it infuriates both the right and
the left. The one faction believes it will betray the achievements of Germany’s social
welfare state to the interests of US corporations, while the other camp fears that the
economic niches for small business owners, local entrepreneurs and midsized companies will be bulldozed. In the past the
European Union could argue credibly that
the common market would supply prosperity to all. But in the wake of the euro crisis that pledge is no longer heard. Its place
has been taken by fears that more concessions to big multinationals will choke off
the small shop on the street corner.
Who’s afraid of TTIP?
That also raises the attractiveness of something the French call national socialism
with a blitheness that sends shivers up German people’s spines. French jobs for French
people, protection from unfair competition on the labor market, financing, when
needed, through the Banque de France, i.e.
one’s own currency instead of through the
European Central Bank, which they say is
not coincidentally based in Frankfurt and
therefore a mere operative for Germany’s
Bundesbank. They would also shield key
industries such as steelworks through economic patriotism carried out by a strong
state that serves the common good. Those
are the demands of the Front National, and
they are completely at odds with the idea
of a big European or even bigger transatlantic market.
Blurred categories
Yet they can be found in this or that couleur
in pretty much every European left- or rightwing party. In Germany it’s found, implicitly, in the latent belief in the parental state,
which completely negates free markets. The
public outcry against neoliberalism has not
only torn the financial markets off their pedestal, but has washed away the waterworks
too. It’s now a Europe-wide consensus that
municipal waterworks, most of which proved
to be economic failures in the past, are of existential importance to European citizens
and that water should never, ever be supplied by a private sector company.
Are small solutions and grassroots movements preferable to the big ones? Is a
protectionist system and the shielding of
regional characteristics better than the pizza-flat world of neoliberalism, whether in
the guise of the EU or TTIP? Is competition
anything more than the overused dictum
of a borderless capitalism facing down the
seemingly protective hand of a paternalistic
social welfare state, which must now itself
seek shelter from the self-exploitation of
migrant workers? The classical categories
of politics are becoming blurred. In 1966
the Austrian poet Ernst Jandl wrote about
“light and reft” being confused easily. And
now they’re here, language in Europe is
confused at all levels, as different colors
and parties fight both for and against one
other. Jandl warned all those who believed
the two can always be “diffelentiated.” He
concluded that would be a
“ralge ellol.”
■
Roland Tichy is a JVG
columnist. He is one of
Germany’s most renowned
economic editors
Heike Rost
By Roland Tichy
START-UPs
Technology, Talent and Tolerance
Wibbitz
Israel has got what it takes to be the entrepreneurial nation no. 1
By Simon Vaut
T
he IAI (Israeli Aircraft Industry) fighter aircraft
"Lavi" was planned in the
1980s as the mainstay of the Israeli Air Force with high maneuverability, a uniquely designed delta-wing airframe and
a software-rich system. Despite
successful prototype testing,
the project was cancelled. The
venture however had a lasting
result: the technological knowhow accumulated by the almost
1,500 engineers employed on
this project laid the foundation
for Israel’s high-tech boom. It
triggered the high economic
growth and the phenomena
that the co-authors Dan Senor
and Saul Singer described in
their acclaimed book as the
“Start-up Nation.” According to
the research of Senor and Singer, Israel now has the highest
density of start-up companies:
3,850, that is almost or one for
every 2,000 Israelis. Israel has
also more Nasdaq-listed corporate headquarters than all of Europe combined, and attracts annually more venture capital
than Germany and France together. “Silicon Wadi”, the concentrations of hi-tech industry
in Tel Aviv, the academic city of
Rehovot and hi-tech clusters in
Haifa is considered second in
importance only to its Californian counterpart Silicon Valley.
International technology companies like Intel, Google and
SAP have set up research and
development facilities there but
the number of IT start-ups is
growing even faster.
It is hard to see the roots of
Israel’s start-ups when you visit
Wibbitz, a developer of state of
the art text-to-video technologies. The start-up’s facilities in
Tel Aviv look more like a college dorm than a military site.
Programmers relax in their office by playing darts or table
tennis. Bikes lean next to their
desks. The “work uniform”
is very casual with t-shirts,
shorts and flip-flops. CEO and
Co-Founder Zohar Dayan, who
developed the first prototype
of Wibbitz, explains that he
always had a strong passion
for innovation and launched
his first start-up while still at
middle-school. Wibbitz was
his breakthrough: founded in
2011, the company has already
raised $2.3 million from investors like Li Ka-Shing’s Horizons
Ventures which invested also
in Facebook and Spotify. The
business model is to cleverly
re-package textual content into rich and informative video
summaries that can be viewed
on smartphones.The  PAGE 13
10 | ECONOMY
L A GRANDE NATION IN GRAND TROUBLE
Liberté, Egalité, Absurdité
France’s economic crisis threatens the cohesion of the EU
By Siegfried Guterman
battles (e.g. Alstom and Peugeot) to keep
at least a remnant of industrial production
inside the country. Meanwhile the search
is on for partnerships for new, growth-oriented policies within the Eurozone, or people just sit back and hope for better days. A
clear approach or resolute action imposing
unpopular measures is nowhere to be seen.
Foreigners living in France experience
the country’s problems and sometimes
absurd contradictions especially clearly.
Anyone requiring medical attention generally encounters highly qualified physicians. Practices are overflowing; waiting
times seemingly endless due to oft grotesque organization procedures. When
one needs a painkilling injection an infirmiere makes a house call. Medications
can be had at rock-bottom prices. Customers often leave pharmacies with shopping
bags full of pills, ointments and essences.
S
ince June, the restaurant “La Belle
Etappe” in Brignoles in southern
France has been offering a new
multi-course meal: the menu crise.
Anyone contending that the people of
France take no notice of their country’s
economic troubles is very wrong. Preferably dealing with crises by digesting them
in an agreeable manner is the very image
that Germans have of the French. And indeed, in the Provencal countryside – and
not only there – all the talk from Brussels
about austerity with no alternatives is, at
best, making for plenty of animated table
talk. There is apparently no stomach for
turning over a new leaf for La Grande Nation by swallowing a package of painful
belt-tightening. And why should there,
asks the prominent French philosopher
Emmanuel Todd, if the negative effects of
French extravagance are far more agreeable than those of German efficiency? Perhaps if the Germans learned to be less efficient, they might enjoy life a bit more …
“
If only France were a country of the economic significance of Luxembourg, one
might be excused for smirking at this attitude. France, however, is the world’s number 5 national economy, one of its strongest
exporters and home to some of the biggest
corporations on earth. The CAC 40 share
index is packed with global players in many
economic sectors. Most importantly, however, France is an anchor for the EU. The
European Union would simply not be viable without its economic clout and political
stability. If, as a consequence of the country’s problems, the Front National someday takes the reins of government, the EU’s
death knell would begin sounding.
France’s biggest employers’ associations
have declared their “deep concern for the
future of our country. It has become apparent that the government does not follow up its words with action.” Yet there is
general consensus regarding the character
of France’s economic difficulties. On the
one hand there is the bloated state. France
has 90 civil servants for every thousand
inhabitants. In Germany that figure is 60.
Public sector spending totals 57 % of GDP,
the highest in the Eurozone. In Germany
those expenditures
are 45 % of GDP.
The French budget
has a sustainability
gap of over 3.5 %,
well above the EU’s
3.1 % average. The
French tax burden
is the EU’s second
highest. In the Eurozone only Belgium has a tax burden comparable to France’s, at 46.7 % of
GDP. More sobering facts: France’s overall debt totals nearly 100 % of GDP. The
French share of global exports adds up to
just 3.1 % – Germany’s is nearly three times
higher. And finally the country’s global
competitiveness rating has slipped from
12th to 23rd place.
Unemployment and a lack of competitiveness are two more troubles in the French
hexagon. More than 3.3 million people in
France, well over ten percent, are jobless.
A 35-hour workweek, the SMIC gross mini-
“
John Robinson
Still the world’s no. 5 national economy
mum wage of 9.53 euros per hour, a retirement age of 62 and uncommonly dense state
regulation of the labor market and social welfare are all hobbling the French economy.
Don’t write France off
Perhaps even more striking are comparisons of annual effective working times.
While workers in Germany spent an average
The country appears to be
slipping into a baleful mix
of lethargy and helplessness
of 1,904 hours on the job, the French spend
an average of six weeks fewer, or 1,697 hours
total, in the same time. That puts them second to last in he EU, just ahead of Finland.
And notably, it was during the stewardship
of the conservative presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy that working hours
were cut the most. Perhaps both men took
to heart a book by their compatriot Paul Lafargue. His work The Right to Be Lazy raised
a furor in the late 19th century, possibly also
because he married the daughter of a certain Karl Marx.
What’s more, France is losing its industrial base, with small and midsized companies being pushed into a marginal existence. The economy has been recovering
very sluggishly from the stagnation phase
that began in 2012. Hardly surprising, taking a glance at some startling statistics: In
no other country of the EU has the producing economy lost as much significance
in the past decade as in France. French
industry’s share in gross value creation
currently amounts to just 10 %; in Germany the figure is 23 %. That’s far less
than even in Germany’s structurally weak
eastern region and only just above the
level of Greece. Per capita industrial output (measured in purchasing power parities) is higher in practically every eastern
European country than in France. In the
homeland of mercantilism, the economic
engine of industrial exports is being strangled. All that must be laid at the feet of
François Hollande, but even more so his
predecessors in office.
Just hope for better days
Given this crush of vexing problems the
country appears to be slipping into a baleful mix of lethargy and helplessness. First
the idea of a state-steered economy experiences a renaissance, then massive schemes
to jump-start the labor market pop up (the
30-billion-euro “pact for responsibility”)
and then the state intervenes in takeover
Loss of
industrial base
Anyone in need of a repairman faces a
journey through hell. There’s no chance
of arranging a proper appointment, workers come and go as they wish, depending
on the humidity and current availability
of leisure activities. They drag individual
jobs into eternity – to their own disadvantage – provide mediocre quality yet
demand astronomical fees. Construction
costs easily reach 3,500 euros per square
meter. Foreigners looking to build often
form collectives and have qualified crews
flown in from Germany and even the UK.
Some joke that Berlin’s blighted airport
construction project is actually in the
hand of a French construction mafia.
Pillar of global economy
Despite it all, France is (still) a pillar of
the global economy. In the aviation, energy,
pharmaceutical, chemicals and electronics
sectors French corporations are among the
world’s best. In luxury items, for many there
is no alternative. In many industrial centers
the country’s infrastructure is outstanding.
France has excellent roads and its highspeed railroad network is the biggest in Europe. With a birthrate of 1.99, the country’s
demographic trend is comparatively stable.
Family policy in France has created a good
foundation for reconciling work and family.
About 80 % of all mothers with two children
also hold a paying job. Environmental protection has been enshrined at the constitutional level since 2005.
Despite all the country’s contradictions
and absurdities it would therefore be premature to write France off. That’s if Paris
manages to get its budget under control,
bolster its industrial base and nurture innovation, and the government musters
the courage to tell the people the truth
over unavoidable hardships and pass the
same, a severe crisis can still be avoided.
Ultimately, it will be up to the French
people themselves, to accept tough times
before improvement comes, to overcome
the crisis. If they fail, the fallout would be
economically and politically explosive. It
■
would be felt in all of Europe. www.evonik.com
Chemistry class just relocated
from Room 216 to cyberspace.
When the Evonik Cyber Classroom screen lights up,
watch students’ eyes do the same. Thanks to creative,
interactive lessons set in a 3D environment, students
are getting psyched about science. Our virtual classroom
lets us pass on the chemistry torch at schools near our
facilities and cultivate the next generation of researchers
for industrial powerhouse Germany.
12 | ECONOMY
HUNGER FOR YIELD
Spudy & Co family office
By Jens Spudy
Compared to investors in Englishspeaking countries, who tend to
be far more open
to putting their
money into equities, Germans
rather put more
emphasis on interest-bearing vehicles, i.e. fixed
income. That applies not only to life insurance policies – possibly the Germans’ favorite
investment – but which currently
yields only a 1.25 % guaranteed rate,
but also to savings and money market accounts, which in most cases
now mean a loss in purchasing
power when one factors for inflation.
It also includes 10-year German
bonds, whose (taxable) yield has
withered to just 1.3 %. The demise
of interest rates is largely due to the
big central banks, who deliberately
push capital into higher-risk investments through their low-interestrate policies.
Instead of opting for stocks, however, many investors turn to lowerrated bonds such as those from
emerging markets or risky corporate paper. Even crisis-wracked
Spain can now – thanks to the ECB’s
implicit coverage assurances – take
on new debt almost as cheaply as
the United States. Recently, riskaverse investors have also let themselves be enticed by SME bonds.
These small- and midsized companies, the SMEs, form the backbone
of the German economy. Sounds
like a solid investment, right? Many of their names are also familiar,
which generates trust that is often
justified. But a string of bankruptcies has shown recently that SME
bonds are anything but a surefire
investment.
The sometimes-strange fruit
spawned by this hunger for yield is
illustrated by a recent case from London. There, a Mexican restaurant
chain recently offered customers an
8 % “Burrito bond” to raise up to three
million pounds to finance the chain’s
expansion in central London. The
burritos are, according to reports,
larger than average, and probably so
are the risks, as the extremely thin,
33-page offering memorandum
strongly suggests.
Given the unfavorable relation of
opportunity to risk that some bond
issues now contain, risk-averse investors must first learn that there
is no such thing anymore as a riskfree investment, and that a fixed
interest rate is no guarantee for a
successful investment. Investors in
share markets are much better
served as long as they are willing to
ride out price fluctuations over the
longer term. In many stocks the
dividend is now higher than the
corporate bond’s yield. And in contrast to stocks, these bonds have no
additional potential, as they are
generally repaid “only” 100 %. ■
Jens Spudy is chairman of Spudy & Co.
Family Office wealth management
NEW TECHNOLOGical age
The Next Big Step: “The Internet of Things“
And the winner is: Germany
By Jürgen Kluge
T
he idea is not that new. In fact,
some 15 years ago a brand manager at Procter & Gamble became interested in RFID (radio
frequency identification) tags to help
manage the supply chain. Kevin Aston
shortly after moved to MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), helped to
start the RFID research consortium, now
called Auto-ID Lab and is currently behind a company developing home automation systems. Now the time seems ripe
for a new era. The dawn of the “Internet
of Things” is rapidly approaching. The
next development stage – not to say revolution – of the industrial age.
Three drivers joined
Three drivers work together to make it all
possible: To begin with, there is Moore’s
law, still unbroken. Every 12 – 24 months
the power of integrated circuits (IC’s)
doubles. An exponential law with close to
unbelievable power. You might remember
the old myth of the inventor of chess who
demanded from the Emperor a grain of
rice on the first field of the board, 2 on the
second, 4 on the third and so forth.
Secondly, we have Metcalf’s law. A rule
of thumb on the value of networked
communication systems. It scales with
2
N , N being the number of participants.
One fax machine, one mobile phone and
the like are not of much use, a few hundred thousands are, let alone billions of
devices in use or shortly envisioned.
And finally, there are Big Data Analytics
with more powerful software and computers to run on. If it is possible to search
the telecommunication traffic of whole
countries, what else could you do? SAP’s
HANA software introduced in 2010, utilizes in-memory computing technology
to provide real-time data and analysis, is
maybe a better and more business-type
example.
The self-enforcing interaction of these
three trends basically drives computing
power and storage to infinity and computing costs to nearly zero. Opening up
the possibility to integrate small computers into nearly everything from garments to spare parts, from raw materials
for machinery to the machines that do
the processing, from logistic containers
to – yes – your refrigerator. Tens of billions of things will be connected in the
“Internet of Things.”
Infinite computing storage
Which industries will be affected by
the change? Nearly all, could be a reasonable answer. A few examples will
suffice: To begin with, utilities: Smart
meters for electricity and water/gas will
enable a smart grid to better manage
our resources. In insurance, telematics
will lead to more accurate risk pricing.
Where capital goods, factory automation, and automobiles are concerned,
process optimization, reduction of down
time, a new generation of Toyota’s famous lean manufacturing at unheard of
levels of complexity. And smarter, faster,
and cheaper logistics will help facilitate
transportation. And on and on and on.
In any kind of production, the old advantages of large scale can now be re-
Wilgengebroed
The spudy Column
alistically combined with a customer
specific production in minimal lot size.
The race for domination of the next industrial area is on. Who are likely to be
the winners? The “old” manufacturers of
equipment and system solutions like the
Siemenses and General Electrics of the
world with their long and deep understanding of their industry and customers or the IT-companies coming from
the chips and software corner? Who is
going to set the open standard for the
next years?
The Internet of Things is the extension
of the Internet into the real world. It
connects everyday objects with the
Internet and integrates them into the
web. Things can thus be augmented
with information or can serve as access points to the Internet with ample
possibilities for applications
There might be an answer that sounds
slightly against the odds and the zeitgeist. But a similar, hence much smaller
example might tell. When 30 years ago
the laser found its way into industrial applications, the big winners were not the
scientific, R&D-driven US laser companies from Silicon Valley but rather the
“old” metal cutting companies. They adopted the new technology very rapidly
and had the in-depth understanding of
customer and application.
And, the added value for any industrial
product manufactured for years and decades – like a machine tool, a turbine, a
car – will stay and not decline as rapidly
as the added value from software or electronics. We will still need machine tools
to manufacture physical things, turbines
to power planes, and cars to ride in. And
yes, they will become intelligent, connected, networked and smart, but they
will remain physical goods and keep
most of their added value. So chances are
that a GE or Siemens will still be around
in 20 years might be much higher than
for an Apple or even Google. Maybe a
reason why even Google is contemplating to enter manufacturing of physical
goods like cars.
If the future develops in this direction,
there is a good chance that Germany
might be on the winning side. Not having given up “real” manufacturing with
a skilled workforce and a sophisticated
industry structure of large and mid-sized
companies, spending many R&D euros in
this field, it could be the place where part
of the revolution will be taking place.
It takes speed and allies
And it’s already happening. At the recent opening of the world’s largest trade
fair in the field of technology (Hannover
Fair), the word was out that the German
industry has a two-year lead in this field.
“Wir müssen uns sputen …” (we have to
hurry up …) was the message by German
Chancellor Merkel at her traditional walk
around the fair. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, a major German daily
newspaper, ran an article titled “Moore’s
law is threatening the German industry”
and made the point in the subtitle: “For
Germany it’s the greatest chance in the
21st Century.”
What is needed to take the chance and
succeed for Germany? First of all: Speed,
speed and again speed to set the example, and finally the standard. Then new
alliances are required, e.g. with IT rich
countries like Israel or Finland. One with
a proven and smart start-up scene, the
other with the fertile remainder of the
Schumpeterian creative destruction of
Nokia. And last but not least: well educated and trained people.
The challenge is clear; Germany will
work on it and come up with smart and
reliable solutions. Wasn’t “Fortschritt
■
durch Technik” a German claim?
Jürgen Kluge is a Senior Advisor to Bank of
America Merrill Lynch. He is a Professor of
Mechanical Engineering at the Technical
University Darmstadt
economy | 13
savings
Once Burned Twice Shy: The German Stock Angst
When it comes to their money, the federal citizens rely on caution
By Klaus Dieter Oehler
S
hare prices are rising relentlessly.
In New York the Dow Jones Index
surpassed the 17,000 mark for the
first time in its 135-year history.
And Germany’s benchmark index, the
DAX, likewise set a historic new high.
Stocks, it seems, belong in every investor’s portfolio.
But the reality is different. Most Germans still put their money into savings
accounts or other, supposedly
safe investments. They know
perfectly well they are getting
hardly any interest, and that
even the low inflation rate is
leaving them with an effective
loss. This “creeping expropriation,” as critics call it, has existed since 2011. Yet more than half of all
Germans openly admit they don’t want
to be bothered by their financial affairs
and nearly 40 percent believe they know
nothing about them anyway.
all households own corporate shares;
at the height of the Internet boom that
figure was even 67 percent. The reason
is Germans’ innate need for security,
say skeptics
and point out that
are, ahem, gone with the wind. By comparison, the near-zero yield from German
government bonds sounds pretty solid.
Arguments in favor of investing in
stocks, on the other hand, are hardly
heard at all. Many people in Germany
still regard stocks as speculative paper.
And yet hardly any other financial instrument is as closely tied to the real
economy. A stockholder buys a piece of
a company. Anyone who likes to drive
a BMW or Mercedes Benz and trusts
the company’s management to keep
building good cars can take part in
this future by buying shares. And
should the managers take the
firm in the wrong direction, the
“
No risks
twice in the past 15 years, share prices
have taken big falls.
What’s more, negative examples keep
piling up that further heighten the German people’s awareness of the risk. Prokon, a builder of wind farms, collected 1.4
billion euros from investors, then went
bankrupt. These people’s investments
The retirement nest egg
The question should actually be, is there
any alternative? Germans have handed
more than 70 percent of their private
wealth to banks and insurance companies, or they hoard it as cash. They trusted their financial professionals to make
sure their assets at least didn’t shrink.
But the situation has gradually changed,
and adapted more and more to US circumstances. For decades, Americans
have had to build up private capital to
supplement their Social Security pen-
Even without the low interest rates and a
lack of alternatives, Germans have always
been suspicious of stocks
investor can always sell his or her shares.
But owning shares demands patience.
Not every fall in price is a reason to sell.
Images_of_Money
When it comes to
money, Germans
simply don’t want
any risks, as nearly all
surveys into the matter
have found. But even the
professionals are groaning,
especially those selling life
insurance, who don’t know how
they could still achieve the yields
they had promised their clients in a
stubbornly low interest environment.
The customers need those yields to accumulate an adequate financial cushion
for their old age.
Even without the low interest rates and
a lack of alternatives, Germans have always been suspicious of stocks. Not even
nine million people take part directly or
indirectly on the stock markets. In the
US, by comparison, more than half of
But aren’t share prices already too high?
Are further increases still possible?
Foreign investors
The statistics tell a clear story. Since
the financial system’s near-meltdown in
the wake of the Lehman Bros. collapse in
2008, the DAX has gained more than 150
percent in value, an amazing return. But
looking to the past is little help, German
savers say, and ask themselves, rightly,
whether they might have missed a big
opportunity. Certainly, the German economy has proven exceptionally resilient
during the crises of recent years. It was
mainly foreign investors who recognized
that. The result has been that more than
half the capital of Germany’s DAX companies is owned by foreign stock investors.
sions. That explains the high percentage of stock ownership in the US, where
pension funds used to handle people’s
retirement benefits but, since the 1980s,
employees have been given more responsibility in managing their own
funds. In Germany, these incentives do
not exist. Companies also do too little to
offer themselves as an investment to the
people. That perpetuates the impression
that investing in shares is something
only for professionals who negotiate the
best prices among themselves. And the
savings account remains the most popular means of taking one’s hard-earned
money and preparing for a rainy day.
That’s how Germans save.
■
Klaus Dieter Oehler has worked for more
than 20 years as a financial editor for the
daily Stuttgarter Zeitung
 continued from page 9
app allows users to consume
stories from news, sports, and
business sites in the form of
summarized video clips and
watch them conveniently on
their mobile devices. Articles
originally drafted in text-form
become interactive video clips
that merge images, video clips,
info-graphics and text-tospeech. “Textual web content
simply isn’t designed for consumption on mobile devices.
There’s just too much tapping
and zooming in and out to
comfortably enjoy reading the
news,” explains Zohar. “By automatically converting articles
to Wibbitz makes it easy and
fun to finally enjoy the content
again, rather than fiddle with it
to make it fit to the screen.“
Wibbitz, too, has roots in the
military: Co-Founder Yotam
Cohen served for 6 years in
the Israeli navy as an officer
of a combat ship. It was here
that he gained leadership skills
which now come in handy in his
daily work. The Israel Defense
Forces (IDF) give their officers
more command authority than
“
Every
obstacle can
be overcome
any other country, empowering them to make fast decisions
without authorization. Thus the
Israelis, serving two or three
years in the military, gain leadership experience at a very young
age. Zohar: “Every obstacle can
be overcome and every wall can
be broken.” The culture of the
IDF, where privates can disagree
with generals and soldiers don’t
have to salute officers, de-emphasizes status and age, and
stresses talent. Young soldiers
are encouraged to find solutions
with a “rosh gadol” (thinking
big) approach. This fosters traits
that build entrepreneurship. The
IDF are also a powerful network
for business and social contacts
which makes it easy for veterans to find business contacts,
e.g. for venture capital, later in
their career. Zohar also stresses
the academic excellence in Israel where for a population of
only 8 million people there are
8 universities and 27 colleges.
A number of them rank at the
world’s top in international sur-
Wibbitz
Technology, Talent and Tolerance
Enjoy the content: Innovation by Wibbitz
veys. Immigration is yet another
source of Israel’s entrepreneurial base: about 800,000 people
from the former Soviet Union
migrated to Israel since 1991.
One in three immigrants was an
engineer, scientist or technician.
This unique blend of technology, talent and tolerance is the
source for hi-tech products ranging from the delta-wing aircraft
to smartphone apps and make
Israel the world’s no. 1 entrepreneurial nation.
■
Simon Vaut is a political advisor
to the SPD Parliamentary Group
in Brussels and Berlin
14 | history
Soldier Ezechiel
Hasgall in a trench
near Notre Dame
de Lorette, 1916
Leo Baeck (left)
in his hometown
Lissa, 1918
Field Rabbi Jacob Sänger
Belonging and E xclusion
Caught in Conflict
The Jewish Experience of World War I
By Hartmut Bomhoff
and Richard Henschel
I
am still ok and living”, wrote
Australian Jewish soldier,
18-year-old Idey Alexander,
from the French battlefields
to his sisters in Melbourne in
the days following the Armistice of World War I. This summer, exhibitions, symposia and
book launches mark the 100th
anniversary of the beginning of
the Great War. Quite a number
of them describe the war as a
pivotal time of change for the
Jewish community in Europe
and far beyond.
In Germany, the Jewish Museums of Munich and Berlin
address the historical event
of WW I from a Jewish perspective. The focus is on the
experiences of Jewish German
soldiers and their families between 1914 and 1918. Through
letters sent from the front, diaries, photographs, and other
personal objects, they explain
the everyday life of war. The
patriotism of many German
Jews and their war effort also
play a role. One rich source
is an extensive collection of
748 letters from the warlines
written by 77 pupils of the
Reichenheim Community Orphanage to the director, the
philologist Dr. Sigmund Feist.
“I see no parties anymore, I see
only Germans,” Kaiser Wilhelm
II proclaimed on August 4, 1914
in his speech from the balcony
of Berlin’s Royal Palace. Five
weeks before in Sarajevo, the
Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip
had gunned down the heir to the
Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his
wife Sophie. The assassination
sparked the July Crisis, which
would culminate in the start of
the first modern war of mass destruction. The total number of
deaths would include about 10
million military personnel and
about 7 million civilians. Regardless of their party affiliation
or religion, the German people
followed the call of their head of
state. They included – as in 1813
and 1871 – members of the Jewish
faith as well.
land. The nobility of our fourthousand-year history obliges us
to do so. We expect our youth
to rally to the flag with joyful
hearts,” the Jüdische Rundschau
newspaper wrote in its leader after the Kaiser’s proclamation.
Although German Jews had
officially enjoyed equal rights,
enshrined in the constitution
since 1871, familiar old stereotypes and prejudices within society remained practically un-
Love of the fatherland
changed. The First World War
was therefore the next good
opportunity for German Jews
to show that loyalty and love of
the fatherland did not depend
on one’s religious creed. In the
following four years 96,000 of
them fought at the front. 12,000
were killed and 30 percent were
decorated.
“German Jews! In this hour we
must demonstrate anew that we
Jews, proud of our tribe, belong
to the best sons of the father-
“
Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin
The Jewish Census
In October 1916, the German
General Staff ordered a census of all Jewish soldiers in the
Dear Mr. Director,
How long has it been since you last received a sign of life from me!
A full year of military service now lies between then and now, rich
with unaccustomed, very physical labor, hardship and deprivation,
but also brightened up by some valuable experiences, and, every
now and then, a little success. R. Römer, November 7, 1916
Pastoral care
Leaflet from 1920: “To German mothers! Do not tolerate
that a Jewish mother is scorned in her grief”
the opposite was true: With
the intention of enlisting his
underage son in the Prussian
corps of cadets, he wrote to the
War Ministry to “devote our energies to the Fatherland above
and beyond the call of duty.”
But egged on by anti-Semitic
organizations and parties, during the war the opinion grew
within the German officer corps
that the Jewish community was
shirking its duty to take up arms.
“Everywhere their faces are grinning, except in the trenches,”
and “In Berlin one sees only cripples and Jewish boys,” some propagandistic accusations claimed.
The letters of Professor Max
Rothmann demonstrate that
army to determine how many
actually served on the front
line. The fabricated census was
publicized with great fanfare,
suggesting that the Jews were
not fulfilling their obligations.
The actual results showed that
Jews fought in disproportionally large numbers on the front
lines, but this was never released to the general public.
However, Jews in the German army were generally not
victimized by anti-Semitism,
concludes the US rabbi David
J. Fine in his dissertation Jewish
Integration in the German Army
in the First World War. “I find
that Jewish soldiers found integration and that anti-Semitism
was not a significant factor in
their war experience. Theirs was
a war where they found themselves as Jews, men, soldiers and
Germans, fighting for a future
that might have been,” he says.
Field rabbis such as Leo Baeck
(1873 – 1956) reflected the presence of German Jewish soldiers
at the fronts of the First World
War. The conflict saw the establishment of an institutional Jewish pastoral ministry in the field,
alongside the Protestant and
Catholic ones. Besides providing
actual religious pastoral services, the main tasks of these field
rabbis included distributing religious literature and “love donations” from back home, conducting entertainment evenings
and lectures and serving in field
hospitals. With the introduction
of their military pastoral care the
Jewish communities and organizations also hoped that more of
German society at large would
recognize the efforts of the Jewish community and its faith.
Viewing the development of society after the war, it becomes clear
that the system of Jewish pastoral
care represented only an episode
in the history of Jews in Germany.
But its importance points to a level
of integration and emancipation
for the Jewish minority that had
never been achieved before.
Caught in conflict between belonging and exclusion, the First
World War provides a central reference point for German-Jewish
commemorative culture. “Public
memory of the sacrifice of German-Jewish soldiers in the Great
War has been gradually subsumed into the much greater catastrophe of the Holocaust,” says
historian Tim Grady. “It was only
in the late 1950s that both Jews
and other Germans began to rediscover and to re-remember this
largely neglected group.”
■
WAR! Jews between the Fronts
1914 – 1918. Exhibition at Jewish Museum Munich, until February 22, 2015
The First World War in Jewish
Memory. Exhibition at Jewish Museum Berlin, until November 16, 2014
Privatbesitz/Abraham Hasgall, Jüdisches Museum Frankfurt am Main/Privatbesitz, Gidal Bildarchiv/Salomon Ludwig Steinheim-Institut
Arts & Culture | 15
NARCIsSISM AND POLITICS
The Seductress
Ready for the couch: A psychoanalytic portrait of the French and Marine Le Pen
I
n theory in a democracy, informed
voters elect their representatives
according to rational criteria. After
gathering all the information they
need, they opt for the politicians they
believe are best suited to carry out their
duties in the interests of the population.
In reality, many vote for politicians like
Marine Le Pen, who use populist slogans to affect people emotionally, so
that they cast their ballot according to
gut feeling instead of using their heads.
Hitler would never have won an election otherwise. But let’s focus on the
phenomenon of Marine Le Pen, whose
aim is to make right-wing radicalism in
France socially acceptable.
Marine Le Pen carries on the ideas
of her father, in her own way – and far
more successfully. She is smarter than
he, which isn’t hard, and more charming, a grande dame, blonde and attractive. It is only “a detail of history” that
the father is no longer proud of his
daughter. He sabotages her work, and
she has banished him from the Front
National’s official website, because she
no longer believes he’s controllable –
but not in every respect. She still uses
many of his methods, and certainly for
the same purposes. He could recognize
that, but there is no place for the slightest subtlety in his all-or-nothing, eitheror agenda. He now only refers to Marine
as “madame,” the two have broken off
contact. That’s no unique occurrence
in the family. Marine’s older sister was
thrown out of the family home, before
the eyes of the media, because she refused to be obedient. The daughters
grew up in this environment, spurred
on by a thirst for recognition – from
those who always dangle the carrot just
out of reach and say, yes, you do it almost as well as I do.
A new scapegoat
Blood is thicker than water, the
proverb says. It refers to the majority, but not to a small group of
fighters who regard even family
members purely according to their
usefulness. Not everyone can manage
that, because people are always absorbing things like emotions, sympathy and
values. But some turn their backs when
the admiration is not reciprocated, saying, “they’re all rotten.” Nothing is
as it used to be. The paint is
scratched, the shine, the
grandeur – all fallen victim to this reality that,
to add insult to injury,
has taken the form of
one’s own daughter.
The father cultivated
anti-Semitic clichés.
Marine has discovered a scapegoat: Les
Gitans.
Someone must be
to blame when greatness crumbles, when
doubts nag whether
the new paths one has
pointed out have become
dead ends, maybe ever
since Waterloo. For all in-
clined to pinpoint responsibility, there
is much to analyze and a great distance
to look back. The ongoing Waterloo is
complex. It’s navel gazing, and quite an
effort. “I am treated in an undignified
way. This conduct hurts me, especially since I think I am completely free of
blame,” Jean-Marie Le Pen is quoted as
once having said.
How could one better illustrate a narcissistic disorder? Failing to recognize
the special circumstance, incorrectly
answering the question of guilt. Selfreflection is nothing
for people who, when
push comes to shove,
cut blood ties to avoid
having to take responsibility for their
own conduct. Casting
blame is far easier to
communicate. At least
a quarter of all French
feel better understood that way. This is
Marine’s home. She reduces complexity to the level of guilt, thereby avoiding
the question of responsibility.
“
She whips up hatred and debases others
at a primitive level of self-defense. Debasing others is the flip side of idealizing
all those who recognize her grandiosity.
There exists a suspicion among the
people. Half of all French have signaled
that they want their country protected
from globalization, which they regard as
a threat. It’s all enemies, all loss of control, change, insecurity whether the old
ways still work. The distrust would be
resolvable only if one were to give the
it’s good that the police interrogated
Sarkozy and Hollande is delivering
catastrophic economic data. They’re all
rotten! Tous pourris! That’s also what
Marine gives the people, a battle cry in
the war for votes. The time is ripe for
seduction.
The masters of chaos
La Grande Nation is groping, switching from right to left, and sometimes
leaning in extreme directions.
It’s likely that this isn’t all
being done with conviction.
People are disappointed by
all the empty promises. This
is the milieu in which narcissistically disturbed people
get the attention they crave.
They are masters of chaos and
despair. When others buckle
and succumb to disaster,
these people rise to the top,
with clear slogans and clear accusations. That can only be someone with
no mind for responsibility, who spares
no time to think about a vision for the
country, a vision that could lead the
nation out of its crisis.
With simple, empty words – “All rotten,” “The French come first” – populist
politicians kindle emotions, disregard
the issues, and catch the masses. They
create an artificial charisma. They are
loved during these phases – and when
they manage to overcome the hurdles of
democratic structures. But already in the
medium term, as many
studies have shown that
inquire into pathologies at the leadership
level, these kinds
of leaders take the
group towards everdeteriorating results,
because the seduction, which they’re
pretty successful at,
is always followed by
paralysis and, then,
destruction.
So far, Marine has
been “successful.” She
could succeed in steering a narcissistically
disturbed country into
international isolation,
sidelined to such an
extent that France, La
Grande Nation, can no
longer return to its earlier
grandeur and is removed
from the web page of public
debate, openness and reflection. But she probably won’t
succeed, because the majority
of the French people is begin
ning to define limits, recognize dependencies in the global
context and stand up to them
not with isolation but with their
abilities. They are searching for
responsibility and practical ways
forward, not guilt.
In this universe, Marine does not
exist. It requires sustainable concepts, a strategy, and empathy. ■
arine Le Pen reduces complexity
M
to the level of guilt, she avoids the
question of responsibility
“Les Français d’abord”
No one would have to take any of this
seriously were not the whole Grande Nation fearful of being removed from the
website. Marine knows that a part of
France comes to grips more easily with
the country’s troubles when scapegoats
are provided who come from outside:
Sinti, Roma, corrupt politicians, globalization. And she has succeeded in bringing France to regard the vanishingly
small number of Roma families as one
of France’s greatest problems ever. Her
position is as clear and easy to understand as the world and its events are not.
people images and show them that this
openness would be the foundation for
future growth. But Marine gives them
balsam instead of strategies. Les Français d’abord. The French come first. That
is the idea that at least a quarter of all
French citizens agree on.
Slogans divert attention from policy.
It’s the same with guilt: You’re the enemy. I’m good. Responsibility is digital. And this digital reference brings us
back to the open systems, in which people swarm like locusts over their own
grandiosity. Danger! Too bad it didn’t
work out with the World Cup. But
collage JVG/photo: garryknight; Bobby Lightspeed; French Finds
By Claudia Schlembach
Claudia Schlembach is a research
associate at the Hanns-Seidel-Foundation
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Arts & Culture | 17
By Dieter Sattler
INSTITUTE for SOCIAL RESEARCH
n October 18, 1914, Frankfurt University opened
its doors. Its statutes expressly banned any form of discrimination. Whereas Jewish
professors were being turned
away from other universities, in
Frankfurt they constituted a
third of the faculty. The institution’s intellectually liberal spirit also attracted a circle of
young, gifted, left-leaning academics. They included the psychoanalyst Erich Fromm, literary scholar Leo Löwenthal,
political scientist Franz Neumann, economist Friedrich Pollock and social philosopher Max
Horkheimer. In 1931 the latter
became director of the Institute
for Social Research, founded in
1924 by the Jewish philanthropist
Felix Weil. This was where the
Freudian-Marxist discipline of
Critical Theory, also known as
the Frankfurt School, was born.
The Jewish Frankfurt School
O
its exile years. Thereafter it became an exclusively leftist liberal
reform project.
Habermas, now 85, does not
tell his students in China or Iran
that all is well in Western democracy. His chief points are to
defend the living world against
its “colonization” by power,
money and technology, and second to fight against institutional
tendencies to deprive people of
their rights of participating in
and helping shape their democratic environment.
Axel Honneth, today’s Director of the Institute for Social
Research, says Critical Theory is
experiencing an “odd currency.”
His students are still fascinated
today by criticisms of a “completely economized existence,”
finding that especially Marcuse
and Benjamin provide points of
departure for contemporary efforts at emancipation.
Frankfurt’s Goethe University celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. It was the first
institution of higher learning established solely through a citizens’ foundation. Many of its
founders, benefactors and faculties had a Jewish background. A similar foundation gave
rise to what is probably the university’s most famous branch: The Frankfurt School.
Jewish traditions were cut
These young theorists would be
joined later by the likes of Theodor W. Adorno, Walter Benjamin and Herbert Marcuse, all of
whom were scions of assimilated
Jewish families. Although these
young scholars didn’t identify
as religious, messianic expectations found acceptance in their
thought.
Looking back, Horkheimer
admitted to having hidden religious and moral impulses that
were certainly denied during his
early years. Nonetheless, unlike
basic Marxism, Critical Theory
dealt seriously with religion and
metaphysics.
The practical political goal of
the Frankfurt School of helping
establish a “liberated society”
came to nothing. The Nazis came
instead. But, as Löwenthal once
said, Critical Theory ultimately
saved the lives of Horkheimer’s
circle. The group’s research on
the “psychological condition of
Jeremy J. Shapiro
Messianic expectations
The masterminds of the Frankfurt School: Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno in 1964
workers and employees” found
that the people tended to think
as reactionaries, not progressives. And so, by January 1933,
Institute chief Horkheimer had
already made all precautions to
rescue lives and foundation capital. Most of the Institute’s members fled to the US.
Closed by the Nazis
On the day the Nazis seized
power, Horkheimer’s house was
searched by the SA. His Institute
was closed in March. The Nazis
quickly installed Ernst Krieck, a
fanatical party member, as Rector of the Goethe University and
revoked every Jewish professor’s
teaching license.
Four years after the collapse
of Nazi Germany, Horkheimer
and Adorno returned to Frankfurt. In 1951 the Institute was
reopened, and Horkheimer was
elected Rector of the Goethe
University. The vast majority
of the Institute’s members remained in the US and pursued
their own careers there. Despite
some tensions, Critical Theory
gradually became a vehicle for
transatlantic dialogue.
Chief theoretician of democracy
Its personification was Adorno’s
and Horkheimer’s best pupil,
Jürgen Habermas. He took substantial elements of Anglo-Saxon Pragmatism and Speech Act
Theory and, with his “Theory of
Communicative Action,” became
the chief theoretician of Western
democracy. The Frankfurt School
parted company with its social
revolutionary tendencies during
But what about the Jewish traditions in Critical Theory? They
were cut short brutally in the Holocaust. Adorno and Horkheimer
were only two leading minds who
returned to Germany from exile.
Walter Benjamin died whilst fleeing from the Nazis. The broad
base of Jewish culture in Germany which once spawned Critical
Theory no longer exists.
The current faculty at the Frankfurt School does not include any
Jews. Does this have an effect on
its content? Yes, says Honneth.
“The historical and philosophical
intellectual motifs that decisively marked early Critical Theory
no longer play any part.” Over
the years, the fascinating social
philosophy of Horkheimer and
Adorno has become just dry social science.
■
Dieter Sattler is the head of the
politics section of the daily
Frankfurter Neue Presse.
He wrote his Ph.D. on Max
Horkheimer
GERHARD C. STARCK FOUNDATION
By Elisabeth Neu
T
he question of “what does
Jewish identity mean in
Germany” is as old as the
presence of emancipated Jews in
this country. So it’s no surprise that
the issue has also long been the
focus of Jewish student seminars,
and not only since the Shoah. The
Gerhard C. Starck Foundation takes
a refreshingly different approach.
Even at its ten-year anniversary the
institution could deliberately forego any pseudointellectual branding. Instead, early this summer it
invited all its current fellows and
alumni, as well as outstanding academics and others to Fischbachau,
in the foothills of the Bavarian
Alps. The results of the gathering
were remarkable.
That applied first of all to the
overall atmosphere among the
participants. It was informed by
the character of the foundation,
which according to its statutes
promotes the “continuing education of especially talented
Jewish people with bonds to the
German language and culture.”
The foundation’s endowment is
the estate of attorney Gerhard
C. Starck, son of a German industrial leader and a Jewish
mother to whom he was especially close. Starck also learned
more about Jewish culture
through his friendship with the
businessman Icek Ostrowicz. It
was in particular Ostrowicz, a
Shoah survivor, who made sure
the generous legacy now serves
to support young Jews who want
to further their education.
Despite their outstanding academic achievements, the participants at the gathering were
anything but nerds and bookworms. Instead, these young
people were marked by an intelligence leavened by good humor. Most are the children of
immigrants from former Soviet
states. Yet there were no lamentations over the hard fates of
immigrants to be heard, and
certainly no demands that German society do more for them.
Indeed, the spirit of Fischbachau was imbued with the
many opportunities available to
young, hard-working people in
Germany today.
The essence of Judaism
Helmut Schwarz, President of
the Alexander von Humboldt
Foundation and an internationally acclaimed molecular
chemist, spoke to the attentive
JVG
Simply the Best … Students
Father of the pill Carl Djerassi amidst Starck fellows
audience on the possibilities
offered by research today.
Then Carl Djerassi took the podium. Now 90, the Viennaborn chemist was one of developers of the birth control pill
and gained global fame for his
work. Since then, Djerassi has
moved on. He writes novels,
nonfiction books and collects
art. A core theme in his writing
is his confrontation with Judaism. An agnostic, Djerassi
wrestles with Jewish identity.
But can Judaism survive without the faith, without Mosaic
law? This was the point at
which a fierce debate commenced. Djerassi regards Judaism as a community of people
brought together by fate. Others present, including Icek Ostrowicz, a group of younger
participants and the present
author asserted that Judaism
will continue to depend on its
religious, cultural and historical values. ■
18 | ARTs & CulturE
SAVU PETRA DAN
By Wiebke Peters
W
hen I was two to three years old
I took a pencil and drew some
fantastic foolish things as Picasso did.” Savu Petra Dan’s artistic talent was
obvious at a very early stage. Born in Bucharest in 1903, he studied at the Romanian capital’s Art College from 1926 to 1933. Much to
his father’s dismay, since he feared that as an
artist his son would have to suffer through
poverty. So Dan attended the art college secretly. But his father found out and refused
to speak with his son for three months.
An artist in the – secret – making
“I came home every evening like a thief
and ate quietly, not speaking one tone,”
Dan recalled. But one day he returned to
see a big smile poking out from underneath
his father’s moustache. A friend of his had
taken him to an exhibition where he could
see how much money an artist could earn …
From that moment on Savu Petra Dan had
the full support of his father. Unfortunately
Dan’s father died in 1931, three years before
his son’s paintings had been accepted for
the state exhibition. From 1945 to 1958 Dan
had several exhibitions of his own and annually his works were picked for state exhibitions. Moreover, Dan was engaged by
King Carol II as his court painter and in
1946 was awarded the Prize of State of the
Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs
of Romania. The Pinacotheca in Bucharest,
several state institutes and many museums
purchased Dan’s paintings.
But there were also dark chapters in
his life. Dan was imprisoned at BergenBelsen concentration camp in Germany
from 1942 to 1945. Not much is known
about this period in his life, but many of
his pictures testify to his suffering during that time.
In 1961 Savu Petra Dan immigrated to Israel as he found it “impossible to live among
the communists.” Initially, the Romanian
authorities would not allow Dan and his
wife Tereza, who was also a painter, to leave
the country “because my mother was Jewish.” Finally the authorities gave them permission to emigrate, on the condition that
he had to leave more than 200 pieces of his
work behind.
In 1962, Tereza and Savu Petra Dan had
their first exhibition in Netanya, it was a
great success with a huge turnout and ample media coverage. From that point on
Dan was well known in several countries.
He sold more than 1,000 paintings across
the world, for example to the US, Canada,
Brazil, Argentina and South Africa His
paintings were also exhibited in numerous
galleries and art museums.
Tereza Dan died in 1976 “as the stupidity
and wickedness of men destroyed her life,”
as her widower later wrote. Art was his
deepest calling and gave him the strength
to carry on: “This is the meaning of my life
and I love this meaning. Life is too short
and even if I were to live another 200 years I
would have so much to do: Subjects of great
impressionistic composition, my head is full
of that. God gave me a great fantasy.”
In his early years Savu Petra Dan preferred
expressive oil-on-canvas paintings, however
later on his paintings became more abstract.
He also created portraits and compositions
of landscapes but most of his paintings testify towards the deep sufferings and feelings
of man’s struggle of life and death. A series
of impressionistic paintings are based on his
traumatic experiences at the concentration
camp with titles such as: Behind the Barbed
Wire, Please, Don’t Crucify Me Anymore,
H.R. Schmitt (2)
A Great Painter Rediscovered
Survivors of the Concentration Camp, Mass
Grave and Dictator. These large-scale, oilon-canvas paintings are his very personal
witnesses of the Holocaust.
Inner fantasies
His portraits showing people in certain
emotional situations also depict the circumstances which bring up those feelings,
so their expressivity becomes even stronger. In his landscape works and compositions, however, the artist was working very
subjectively exploring his inner fantasies.
Savu’s “theme-paintings” resemble the
old-style academic type which followed
the dictum that art should try
to imitate nature and which one
seldom saw in the West since the
advent of photography. With his
technical competence Savu Petra
Dan found many admirers.
In 1974 he moved to Germany
where he lived with his second wife
Ingrid. He died in 1986 in Frankfurt
am Main. Savu Petra Dan is listed
in the renowned painters’ encyclopedia of the German publishing
house Saur (Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon).
However, he did not live to see his deepest
wish fulfilled: “I want a big atelier and the
strength to do all for mankind that is inside
of my head, as I cannot take anything with
me at the end of my life.”
Savu Petra Dan left deeply moving, artistic, timely documents for mankind. It is
well worth to turn one’s attention to his
works which so vividly depict the Jewish
experience of the past century. ■
A selection of Dan’s paintings can be
seen at Bank Schilling in Wiesbaden
from 23 September to 23 October 2014
HAMBURG
Hamburg’s Israelite Hospital:
Now and then
Heine’s Legacy
Israelitisches Krankenhaus/Hamburg (3)
A generous patron epitomizes Jewish-German symbiosis
By Siegfried Guterman
H
einrich Heine surpassed
the Romantic esthetic
and introduced everyday language into German poetry. That is his legacy to Germany. The following verses
offer a taste:
“A man of action, he did what
could be done, to charity he gave
his days’ wages in the sunset of his
life, through humanity, resting
from work through good deeds.”
Interested in who this vigorous humanitarian might have
been, to whom Heine dedicated
his poem? It was his uncle Salomon Heine, a man whose legacy
to Hamburg is of outstanding
importance, even if it has since
faded from popular memory.
The title of Heine’s poem under discussion is “The New Israelite Hospital in Hamburg.” It
pays tribute to an event that sees
its 175th anniversary in 2014. In
1839 Salomon Heine established
a hospital foundation in memory of his deceased wife Betty. Its
purpose was to ameliorate the
disastrous conditions in Ham-
burg’s hospitals, especially for
poor people of any confession.
In 1841 the cornerstone was
laid for the Israelite Hospital of
Hamburg. It opened its doors to
patients two years later.
To that point, Salomon Heine
had already gone down a long
road. At 17 he left his hometown
of Hanover for Hamburg. He
had practically nothing in his
pocket, but plenty of hopes for
a better life, work and perhaps
even respect as a person like any
other in his head. Heine started
out as a messenger at Bankhaus
Popert, became his own boss
as a broker and, together with
Marcus Abrahm Heckscher in
1797, founded his own banking
business that would carry his
name from 1818. Word spread
of his business acumen, people
talked about the “Rothschild of
Hamburg.” More remarkable
was his conviction that humanitarian activity was the greatest
of all virtues. The list of his donations and generosity is practically endless. It included his
headstrong, literarily inclined
nephew Heinrich, of whom he
once said, “Had he ever learned
anything proper, he’d never
have had to write books.”
But Heine’s generosity was important chiefly for Hamburg. After the devastating fire of 1842 he
committed his personal wealth
to helping reconstruct the Hanseatic city. Heine became a figure integrating Christians and
Jews, in whom all the virtues
of an honorable businessman
joined with those of an outstanding benefactor. Salomon
Heine had no lack of recognition for his work, but he was
denied his civil rights as long
as he lived.
With his foundation for the
Israelite Hospital, Heine left a
legacy that still shines today.
The hospital is one of Germany’s best, extraordinary in both
the medical arts and care. And
of course the spirit of its benefactor Salomon Heine, that of
humanitarianism and generosity, still pervades the complex.
The foundation’s centenary
was simultaneously the nadir
of its history. In 1939 the hospital building was seized and
its operations driven into the
abyss of Nazi marginalization.
Now 75 years later, the foundation and hospital are once
again an integral part of Hamburg’s health care landscape,
and moreover a beacon for the
long history of the GermanJewish symbiosis in Europe. ■
Arts & Culture | 19
president of the german federal assembly Stephan Weil in Israel and the Palestinian Territories
Returning Home with Deep Concern
By Richard Henschel
er Saxony, Michael Fürst. Was it
a signal aimed at the steadily escalating situation in the Middle
East? “How many Palestinians live
in Lower Saxony?” Peres asked.
“Two thousand,” Shammout answered, seemingly surprising the
Nobel Peace Prize winner.
The talks with the Israeli head of
state focused mainly on the peace
process launched by US Secretary
of State John Kerry. Afterwards
Weil invited the outgoing president to address a central ceremony on April 26, 2015, marking the
70th anniversary of the liberation
of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Peres, 90, pledged to
have the offer examined.
When Bundesrat President
met with Foreign Minister
Avigdor Lieberman, the latter
stressed the importance of Israel’s good relations with Germany. But Lieberman also expressed concern at the rise of
racist and neo-Nazi parties. He
appealed to the conservative
parties of Europe to refuse any
G
ermany is committed to
the security of the State of
Israel. No one should be
surprised that, on this foundation, difficult topics are discussed
as well.” That was the statement of
Lower Saxony Premier Stephan
Weil in his capacity as President of
the Bundesrat (Federal Assembly)
Germany’s second chamber of
parliament, ahead of his four-day
visit to Israel and the Palestinian
Territories.
Weil has a reputation as a pragmatic and balanced politician with
substantial experience on legal
and financial territory. He found
his political home with the Social
Democrats as a young man, earned
his spurs in municipal politics and,
in February 2013, through the traditionally Social Democratic office
of the Mayor of the regional capital
Hanover, ascended to the post of
State Premier of Lower Saxony.
Carrying on a long tradition, the
Bundesrat president visited the
Holy Land in the spring of 2014.
One month after the latest round
of peace talks between Israel and
the Palestinians collapsed, the
delegation met Israeli President
Shimon Peres for an hour of talks.
The delegation included the chairman of the Palestinian Community in Hanover, Yazid Shammout,
who had been invited by the head
of the Jewish Federation of Low-
Kolja Baxmann (2)
Meeting with President Peres
Stephan Weil with acting President Peres …
“
Nothing is
certain in
this region
… and during a Knesset session
cooperation in the European
Parliament with racist groups.
Deeply touched
Together with a group of five
school kids from Lower Saxony,
the state premier visited the Yad
Vashem Holocaust Memorial. “The
history of the Holocaust must be
expanded at German schools, especially because there are so few
eyewitnesses left who can share
their authentic experiences,” Weil
said. “That really touched me deeply,” he added after placing a wreath
in memory of the six million Jews
killed by the Nazis.
The visit’s second-to-last day
took the Bundesrat President to
further talks in the West Bank. In
Ramallah Palestinian Prime Min-
ister Rami Hamdallah met with
the delegation for an hour. It was
a historic day, in which the Palestinian unity government of Fatah
and Hamas was to be sworn in. “If
one has the will to make peace,
it can succeed!” Hamdallah said
according to a member of the
delegation. This goal now seems
practically unattainable.
Weil also met with Yasser Abed
Rabbo, General Secretary of the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
“Only one thing is certain in this region, and that’s that nothing is certain,” Rabbo acerbically remarked.
When asked about his impressions,
the State Premier said after his trip
to Israel: “I went with little confidence and I return with deep concern and fear.” Unfortunately, his
fears should prove true. ■
jewish museum berlin
A Mathematician Needn’t be a Triangle
It won’t be easy to cultivate and develop
this heritage, and I am grateful that Michael Blumenthal has agreed to assist me
for the next two years with his incredible experience. Two major tasks await
the new director. The first is the design
and implementation of a new permanent
exhibition. After 15 years the present exhibition has matured, and the time has
come to renew it.
Two major tasks ahead
he second major task is to build the
T
recently established Academy of the Jewish Museum Berlin as a forum of public
debate about present-day issues. In addition to the current program on migration
and diversity, I envision the Academy as
a place of vibrant debate about the history of the three monotheistic religions
and how this particular history, with
all its political and social implications,
shapes our life today.
Over the last few weeks I have frequently
been asked: You have never worked for
a museum before – how come that you
accepted the position of the director of
the Jewish Museum Berlin? Quite correct,
I answered, but as a university profes-
sor I have long
ago learned
that research
and teaching
belong together. Teaching
means to communicate what
one has learned
and hopes to
know into the
public domain,
that is, to make it relevant for and accessible to a wider public. It is also to listen
carefully to feedback from the public, and
adapt our teaching accordingly.
This is in essence what a university professor does, and I think is at the heart
of the job description of the director of
Jewish museum.
Expertise and a dedicated team
The other question I have been asked is
more delicate: You are not Jewish, don’t
you think the director of a Jewish museum should be Jewish? This question has
accompanied me all my life as a professor of Jewish Studies. My predecessor at
the chair of Jewish Studies at the Freie
Yves Sucksdorff
I
n the summer of 2013, after 15 happy
years at Princeton University, I decided to retire from my chair in Jewish Studies. My wife Barbara and I relocated to Berlin where we had lived for
many years before moving to Princeton,
even though I was not looking forward in
particular to the European notion of “retirement.” Among the many important
things I learned in the US is the fact that
there is no such thing as “retirement”: as
long as life goes on, one continues to learn
and to practice what one has learned.
But still, to become the Director of the
Jewish Museum Berlin is an enormous
challenge. To begin with, to accept the
offer to succeed Michael Blumenthal felt
more than bold. I cannot say that I did
this lightheartedly – but finally I took
comfort in the fact that, as nobody is fit to
fill his shoes, I might as well give it a try.
Under Michael Blumenthal’s exceptional
leadership, the Jewish Museum Berlin is
today one of Europe’s largest and most
popular Jewish museums and a beacon
of the rich museum scene in Germany.
German Jewish history and culture, a history of almost 2000 years, has once again
arrived at the very heart of the capital of
the new German republic.
Jens Ziehe
New director Peter Schäfer on challenges and his plans
Berlin’s Jewish Museum
Universität Berlin, Jacob Taubes, had
a very succinct response: A mathematician doesn’t need to be a triangle. I
am indeed of the opinion that neither
a professor of Jewish Studies nor the director of a Jewish museum need to be
Jewish. What counts is their professional expertise, and it is this expertise that
I hope to utilize for the benefit of the
Jewish Museum Berlin. But, of course, I
am aware of the significance of entrusting this vitally important museum to a
non-Jewish German, and I accept that
challenge with some trepidation and
much energy for what lies ahead. And
I know that I have a splendid, knowledgeable, and dedicated team to support me with this task.
■
20 | ARTs & CulturE
Striking a chord
Jan Kreyßig
A Promise for the Future
The Young Philharmonic Orchestra Jerusalem Weimar
By Christoph Stölzl
T
hey study at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and, in
Weimar, at the Liszt School of
Music. When young Israelis find
their way to Weimar to rehearse with
young Germans, motifs of memory reverberate during their stay in the city of Classicism. But our orchestral encounter, now
having completed its third edition, also
looks to the future. Each concert is a new
construction in the here and now, its blueprint a musical score that mostly came
from the past. By the same token, the
Young Philharmonic Orchestra Jerusalem
Weimar is meant to be an edifice for the
future. It should be hewn from affection
and curiosity, and the cultures from which
the young musicians hail.
Historical fractures
Peter Michaelis
In the summer of 2011 the young musicians played their first concerts, in Weimar in commemoration of the victims of
Buchenwald, at the Wartburg Castle in
Eisenach, in Berlin’s French Cathedral –
itself a symbol to religious tolerance –
and then in December in Ben Gurion’s
kibbutz Sde Boker, in Jerusalem and
Tel Aviv. Their repertoire consisted
mostly of works that reflected historical fractures and catastrophes, and
which they found new audiences for,
overcoming denial and forgetting. Michael Wolpe of the Jerusalem Academy
of Music and Dance is the spiritus rector of the concert programs. He seeks
and finds works by Jewish composers
whose names have been forgotten in
the wake of the 20th century’s persecutions, or who themselves died in the
Holocaust. The 2011 tour, for instance,
acquainted audiences with the great
works of Karl Goldmark, Henri Herz
and Victor Ullmann.
In the summer and fall of 2013, in
their second tour, the Musical Director of the Dresden Philharmonic, Michael Sanderling – scion of a legendary
musical family and son of Kurt Sanderling, a Jew who fled Germany 1936
for Moscow – became the orchestra’s
director. He was so taken by the young
artists’ enthusiasm and ability that he
will continue the project in the future.
The program consisted of works by
Mendelssohn, Goldschmidt, Mahler
and Shostakovich. After its celebrated concerts in Weimar, Bayreuth
and Dresden, the orchestra embarked
on a tour of Israel, playing in Tel Aviv,
Haifa and Jerusalem.
Live broadcast
This last concert was recorded and
broadcast live by Israeli radio. “In music there is no falsehood. In music, the
pure sounds of friendship and understanding, inspiration and geChristoph
nius resound,” said then Israeli
Stölzl
President Shimon Peres in a vid-
eo greeting to the orchestra. The Israeli
audiences responded enthusiastically
to each one of the concerts. Wolpe also
drew a positive conclusion from the 2013
Israel tour: “We found a path for dialogue and it seems as if, with the passage
of time, our dialogue is bearing more and
more fruit. We need a dialogue and we
need the orchestra, not least to play the
forgotten Jewish composers whose work
we have so far hardly known.”
“
The audiences in
the Israel Festival. For the young musicians as well as a thoroughly knowledgeable audience, the encounter with the
brilliant Bach opus that probes the nature of the sacred made for an unforgettable experience – which took place in a
city that for millennia has epitomized all
religious yearning.
The chamber orchestra of the Liszt
School of Music and instrumentalists of
both participating schools had already
rehearsed the work for the
2014 Bachfest in Weimar.
The Mass was performed for
the first time in Weimar’s
Municipal Church of St. Peter and Paul under the direction of a renowned specialist in ancient music, Konrad
Junghänel.
Israel responded
enthusiastically to each
one of the concerts
The concert series in Germany began
with the traditional Presidential Concert
in Weimar. A project such as the Young
Philharmonic Orchestra Jerusalem Weimar stands for a “better, peaceful and
reconciled future,” German President
Joachim Gauck said in his address. The
concert’s total proceeds of more than
25,000 euros were donated to the International Youth Encounter Center of the
Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation.
The rhythm of the orchestral encounters
has been set to a two-year return tempo.
And a smaller project can also be realized
in the intervening time, thanks to financial assistance by the State of Thuringia.
One project of this kind was the 2014 joint
performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s
Mass in B Minor on Pentecost Sunday in
Jerusalem’s Henry Crown Hall, as part of
Exciting perspectives
Planning for 2015 is in
full swing. It is the year in
which the 50th anniversary of the commencement of diplomatic relations between the Federal Republic of Germany
and Israel will be celebrated. Programmatic talks among Maestro Sanderling,
Michael Wolpe, Yinam Leef (Rector of
the Academy of Music and Dance Jerusalem) and Michael Obst, Vice President
of the Liszt School of Music have taken
place. The program will again include
a collection of exciting works to stimulate the historical narrative, by Ignaz
Moscheles (Liszt’s great contemporary),
Paul Ben-Haim (the composer of the
founding generation of Israel) and Kurt
Weill. We are hopeful and look forward
to a new phase in the German-Israeli
musical dialogue. ■
Christoph Stölzl is the President of the
Liszt School of Music Weimar
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22 | ARTs & CulturE
that I would go to Israel. I was
already on my way.
I’m On My Way
askii
Modern, religious,
completely normal
By Itai Abelski
I
was born in 1989, in the second generation after the Holocaust, a descendant of Jews
from Eastern Europe who settled in West Germany after the
Shoah. They were among the
so-called Ostjuden who helped
revive the Jewish congregations
in the 1950s there after they had
been extinguished.
I enjoyed a Jewish upbringing,
went to a Jewish kindergarten
and later, once a week, I visited
the Jewish youth center, religion school and sports club. I
regularly attended two-week
Jewish summer camp holidays.
Although our family only more
or less followed the traditions,
we regularly went to synagogue
on Shabbat. My grandfather,
originally from a shtetl named
Munkacz, handed down this
tradition to us and we have kept
it alive. Here, in the synagogue,
is where I first found my spiritual bond with Judaism, an idea
of my Jewishness. Even today I
feel a sense of protection when
I visit my hometown synagogue.
Uncomfortable at home
What makes us Jewish today
– our families, or the congregations that we join from time
to time, or is it our own inclination? Who are the German
Jews? Where are the German
Jews? One often reads about
a German-Jewish symbiosis.
More often, though, I hear
Itai Abelski
A Jewish boy from Düsseldorf is formed by
attending a yeshivah in Jerusalem
Besides the “regular” subjects
to prepare for my universityprep exam, my new school also
taught Jewish Philosophy and
the Talmud. One year turned
into three. I lived on the school
grounds in a village in central Israel. Now, at 15, I was living the
life of a modern, religious Israeli.
I was totally normal, no longer
different because I was a Jew.
I decided to attend a Talmud
school in Jerusalem’s Old City
after taking my
final school exam. Daily life
in a yeshivah
is regimented.
Everything revolves around
learning. The
subjects are the
old texts of Judaism that have
been passed on
for generations.
In a yeshivah
you get up early to be ready for
morning prayers. Then comes
the first seder: A pupil will study
together with another, often
more experienced colleague, in
a group of two called a chavruta.
about anti-Semitism and resentments against Jews. In a recent global survey by the AntiDefamation League, 27 % of the
German population confirmed
this, again. When I read comments on Facebook or in the
press about Jews or Israel, I feel
uncomfortable in my own home
country. Of the 800 students in
my high school, four were Jews.
That’s 0.5 % – a huge number!
That’s three times more than
the actual average, which still
suffices to raise anti-Semitic
sentiments among a quarter of
the population.
In 10th grade we pupils were
suppose to spend a year abroad,
to gain new experiences, learn
new languages and so on, as we
were told. It was clear to me
Discovering myself
Here the aim is to explain
a text and its background to
one’s learning partner using
logical arguments. This special
kind of study helps pupils to remain focused, it hones judgement and the ability to put
thoughts into words and develop logical arguments. Much
time and reflection is spent on
finding the right study partner.
Once the foundation for cultivated argumentation has been
Bomhoff Recommends:
JVG
and an imam can actually realize their
shared dream, the world’s first house of
prayer and learning for three religions
will open its doors in Berlin in four years’
time. Kuehn Malvezzi, the local architects responsible for the design, have
conceived a core element allocating
three equal spaces for prayer conjoined
by a communal, 32m-high domed space
for talks, discussions, and study of texts
sacred to each of the three religious traditions. Believers, individuals from all
religious backgrounds, as well as nonbelievers will be welcome.
Some dub this initiative “The Wonder of
Berlin,” while others doubt that this new
kind of shared covenant is possible in
Germany. Situated at Petriplatz, a square
in the very center of Berlin, the House of
One would fill a void which was once the
site of the first church in Berlin, dating
back to the 12th century. Badly damaged
at the end of World War II, the church
was subsequently destroyed in 1964 by the
communist East German authorities fifty
years ago.
“A place that has darkness in its past has
the potential for peace in its future,” says
Proud and fearless
As long as I live, I will never
forget one experience: my first
Shabbat in Jerusalem. We were
all dressed for the occasion in
white shirts and danced joyfully
down the stairs to the Kotel, the
Western Wall. We sang prayers
about togetherness, peace, trust
in God and joy that Jews can begin the day of rest in Jerusalem,
the Eternal City.
Tears ran down my face. I felt
that I was part of a special generation, living in freedom and
democracy, as a Jew who can
proudly live his Jewish identity
and should, but often doesn’t
dare to. I thought of my grandfather Yankel, who survived the
horror of the Holocaust, but who
watched eight of his siblings incinerated in the crematorium
of Auschwitz. Why? Because
they were Jews. And so I stood
on that Friday evening, together
with my Jewish brothers and sisters, and for the first time I was
free and fearless of being what I
am – a German Jew.
■
ISSN 2193-4800
Do Seek Common Ground
These days we
wonder what interfaith dialogue
can achieve especially in a time of
international crises. Does it work
at all? We witness
assaults and agitation around the
world. In a modern society torn
by secular and
fundamentalist
forces alike, less and less people are aware
of the extent to which Judaism, Christianity and Islam are interlinked. And often
this lack of understanding leads to a slippery descent into hostility, prejudice and
violence. As a tide of sectarianism sweeps
across the Middle East and beyond, interfaith dialogue could gain a more important role.
In Berlin, a visionary project for interfaith dialogue, launched as the House
of One, hopes to bring a synagogue, a
church and a mosque together under
one roof. If a Protestant pastor, a rabbi
laid, a chavruta is generally
maintained for many months.
Afterwards, together with
the presiding rabbi, the entire
class studies emunah, moral
literature, Jewish thought, the
prophets and Halakha. Often
the core of the matter is discovering one’s own self and the insight that allows an individual
to work on himself an entire life
long. Special attention is given
to lashon hara (evil tongue),
charity, and yetzer hara (the evil
impulse).
As the Pirkei Avot says, the
Ethics of the Fathers: Who is
wise? He who learns from all
people. Who is strong? He who
conquers his evil inclination.
Who is rich? He who is satisfied
with his lot. Who is honored?
He who honors others.
Rabbi Tovia Ben-Chorin. “As a Jew I associate Berlin with pain and deep wounds
but that is not the end of the story. For
me, Berlin is all about remembrance and
rebirth,” the Jerusalemite whose parents
fled Nazi Germany describes his commitment to the project. “This house will be
a home to equality, peace and reconciliation,” hopes Pastor Hohberg, while Imam
Kadir Sanci praises the atmosphere of
openness “that gives us, Muslims in this
city and in this country, a publicly tangible place to call home.”
When Daniel Libeskind started to built
Berlin’s Jewish Museum, he called this
project of reconciliation “Between the
Lines.” The first line is straight, broken
and fragmented, the other one tortuous
but indefinite. The House of One has a
very similar approach but includes Islam in a “laboratory for developing mutual understanding and respect.” The
place could indeed provide a space to
find common ground and to build new
alliances. We have the chance to create
something amazing, but we cannot do it
without the support of people who believe in this project.
■
ZKZ 24792 PvSt
JEWISH VOICE FROM GERMANY
Publisher, v.i.s.d.p.
Dr. Rafael Seligmann
Design
Lukas Kircher
Editors-in-Chief
Hartmut Bomhoff, Dr. Elisabeth Neu
Layout
Michal Blum, Carola Piegert
Editorial Staff
Jonathan Berkmann, Sabine Dultz,
Siegfried Guterman, Richard Henschel,
David Heywood-Jones, Dr. Susanne Mauss,
Karen Macmull, Dr. Tong-Jin Smith
Authors
Michael S. Cullen, Dr. Roland Tichy
Translation
Nicolas Kumanoff
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life | 23
A MENTSH
“Madam Doctor is a Rabbi too”
Y
es, I always had to be better too,” said Rabbi Yael
Deusel and laughed
when a colleague from the US,
Sally Priesand, recently recounted how it was to be the
first woman ordained in the US
Reform movement: “I was always held to a higher standard,
and often male rabbis and lay
leaders told me to be ’patient’”.
Deusel’s humor and hearty
laugh are contagious, but over
the years she has also had to
overcome adversity – at least
twice: once as a Ph.D. urologist
and senior doctor in a hospital,
and then becoming Bavaria’s
first female rabbi.
Spiritual home
When the Nuremberg native
was ordained in the Bamberg
synagogue in November 2012 she
was already over 50 years old.
She had long before taken up
the mantle of her family’s buried Jewish heritage. She was active in the Jewish Community of
Bamberg on cultural issues and
soon became a board member,
as well as a delegate to the Central Council of Jews in Germany.
Alsterufer 36
20354 Hamburg
www.spudy.de
She integrated her yearning for
Israel in her childhood – “Back
then this country seemed like
paradise on Earth, there where
the oranges grew on trees” – with
her profession. Deusel became a
fellow at Hassadah University
Hospital in Jerusalem and would
go on to work in several medical
capacities in Israel. For her, Israel is “our spiritual home.”
Today hardly any of her patients remark, “Oh, Madam
Doctor is a rabbi too,” but the
road to the smikhah was an arduous one. Somehow she had to
combine her service in a Bamberg hospital and the time-consuming study at the Abraham
Geiger College in Potsdam. It’s
not by chance that the psalm
verse that Yael Deusel selected
as her ordination quote, reads
“You are the source of life; we
see light in your light.”
Rabbi and mohelet
She is emancipated as a matter of course and demands
equal rights, including in Israel.
“I’m not going to sit in the back
of a bus just because someone
says that’s where the women
belong.” Yet religious traditions and rituals are impor-
tant to this rabbi. “Rituals are
not empty activities. They give
you something to hold onto in
life,” she recently wrote. “One
cannot abolish them without
a replacement, without taking
something essential away from
Judaism. What one can do is
to change rituals to the extent
that our lives today demand.”
Committed to tradition
In her master’s thesis in Jewish Studies, Deusel – who also
works as a mohelet – dealt with
the topic “Brit Mila – Medical
and Halakhic Aspects,” just
at the time in which a heated
public debate was underway
in Germany on banning religious circumcision. Her 2012
book My Covenant, Which You
Shall Keep, in which she clearly
comes out in favor of circumcision, has become a standard.
This spirited woman expresses her opinion, for example
when people tell her that it’s
time to stop focusing on the
traumatic past. “Time heals
many wounds, but it is a terrible cosmetician. And in this
case the scars are substantial.”
Today, 2,000 Jews again live
in Bamberg, mostly immi-
Tobias Barniske/Abraham Geiger Kolleg
By Hartmut Bomhoff
At ease with both medical and pastoral care: Yael Deusel
grants from the former Soviet states. Nearly half are also
members of the local synagogue congregation. Many
are traditional in their viewpoints, and far from all were
enthusiastic to see a woman
rabbi with a kippa and prayer
shawl stand before them and
tell them what the deal is. “She
knows how to speak with everyone, always and again after
that,” a colleague says. Rabbi
Yael Deusel is a mentsh. ■
Osterwaldstraße 10
80805 München
www.spudy.de
24 | religion
REMEMBRANCE
Judah Found No Rest
Dreams and Visions
in the Wake of
Tisha b’Av
can’t. By his own testimony, he can at best
dream dreams. Only the youth get chezyonot. Our future always lies with youthful promise. So I ask: in the councils of
power, our Federations, synagogues, and
governing boards of institutions, where is
the voice of our 20- and 30-year olds?
Truth is: usually, nowhere – partly by their
own choice, but a choice conditioned by our
failure to invite them in. We, the older generation, tend to look for every new chazon.
The history we know best has prepared us
for disasters around every corner. We even
thrive on the threat of a chazon every so
often. We raise money on it, galvanize the
community around it. What we are not very
good at – us elders, I mean – is trumpeting
the promise of a chizayon, precisely what
the next generation would bring.
Dnalor 01
Light of redemption
Arch of Titus in Rome: Parading the spoils from the Temple in Jerusalem
By Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman
S
ummer time, and the living is
easy …” Carefree vacations, long
summer days, and outdoor concerts. Alas, that’s not what my
Jewish calendar says. There, I discover we
are bein ham’tsarim, “in narrow places,”
hemmed in, trapped! Bein ham’tsarim
comes from Lamentations 1:3: “Judah
found no rest; her pursuers overtook her
in all the narrow places.” It is the period
from the 17th of Tammuz, when the
Temple walls were breached, to the
ninth of Av, when the Temple was destroyed, not quite a time of mourning,
but of seriousness, certainly, leading up
to what is a mourning day, Tisha b’Av,
the ninth of the month of Av itself.
Destruction of the Temple
The narrative of Tisha b’Av centers on
the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, first by the Babylonians in 586 BCE,
then by the Romans in 70 CE. The Roman
siege of Jerusalem implied the end of Jewish sovereignty in ancient Israel as well as
the official onset of the Jewish diaspora.
Traditionally, Jews around the world sit on
floors or low benches, read from the Book
of Lamentations and fast to commemorate historical destruction and other tragic
events from throughout Jewish history.
The current attitude of the Reform
movement toward Tisha b’Av is ambivalent, mirroring the movement’s historical position that a fast day marking the
end of the temple era is inconsistent with
contemporary Judaism. For the founders
of the movement, the destruction of the
temple, however disastrous in its time,
also sparked a new commitment, since
it ended the temple cult and signaled
an evolution of the Jewish People to the
higher purpose of spreading God’s word
throughout the world. Nonetheless, this
period of bein ham’tsarim should turn us
inward. The Temple was destroyed, say
our sages, because of sins our ancestors
committed. We prepare for Tisha b’Av
best by admitting our own tendency to
fall short of absolute virtue.
The prophet Joel
One of the biblical texts which vividly
portray human dependence upon God
is the Book of Joel. Hardly anyone reads
the prophet Joel nowadays. In part, it is
simply too painful. His opening vision of
a plague is devastating. Then too, he reverses both Micah (4:3) and Isaiah (2:4)
who promise a future when, “They shall
beat their swords into plowshares, and
their spears into pruning hooks: Nation
shall not take up sword against nation;
They shall never again know war.” Joel
turns it around. His idea of consolation
is that Israel will prepare specifically for
war; “They shall beat their plowshares into swords and their pruning hooks into
spears” (4:10).
But there is another side to Joel. I learned
it years ago, listening to Reform Jewish
teenagers singing a melody by the popular composer Debbie Friedman: “Your old
shall dream dreams, and your youth shall
see visions” (Joel 3:1). At the time, so many
years back, I identified with the youth who
would see visions. Older now, I settle for
the first part of the verse, dreams. But I admit it: dreams fall short of visions. Dreamers are not visionaries.
Gift of the holy spirit
Visionaries see promise beyond our
present that the old dismiss as just a
dream. Joel calls their visions chezyonot
(singular: chizayon). A chizayon, says the
Midrash, is one of ten names by which
the gift of the holy spirit is known.
The reason this comes to mind is that
Tisha b’av is preceded by Shabbat Chazon, “The Sabbath of Vision.” Chazon and
chizayon are similar names for the same
thing: “vision” – but a chazon is negative; a
chizayon need not be. “Chazon denotes divine censure” says the medieval commentator Redak. It designates our failures, our
sins, our historical nadirs. Shabbat Cha-
zon, then, is not a happy Sabbath. It gets
its name from its Haftarah reading, Isaiah
1:1, where the prophet envisions, “Your land
will be desolate; your cities burned!”
Some commentators think chazon here
refers not just to the haftarah, but to all
of Isaiah, whose final verse (66:24) predicts maggot-infested corpses lying in the
fields; “a horror to all flesh.” Traditionally,
we follow 66:24 by rereading verse 66:23
(“All flesh will come to worship Me”) so as
not to end on such a note of terror.
Youthful promise
Why does Isaiah see a terrifying chazon
while Joel, living in no better time, and
prone to seeing the worst anyway, sees a
hopeful chizayon? The answer is that Joel himself does not see the chizayon. He
The Talmud rules that if the preparation
day prior to Tisha b’Av falls on Shabbat,
instead of limiting our joy then, “We may
eat and drink all we need, even as much as
a banquet of King Solomon” (Ta’anit 29b).
A kabbalistic tradition extends the teaching to say that Shabbat releases the light of
redemption, so when Shabbat and Tisha
b’Av intertwine, even the sacred light hidden away in the tragic memory of Tisha
b’Av can be freed. This report contains an
important lesson: Even our deepest day of
mourning has the promise of redemption.
But redemption requires a chizayon of
what might be, not just a chazon of what
we think always was. We need a chizayon
of tomorrow’s promise, not just a chazon
that relives yesterday’s suspicions.
Even in a week devoted to fasting for our
past, it is no mistake to imagine a glorious
future – a future that comes soon, not in
some far-off messianic era. That imagination is unlikely to come from a generation
that has mostly known trauma. We need
desperately to empower a new generation,
unspoiled, unjaded, capable not just of passing dreams but of realizable and promising
visions. Our forefathers knew about this
need. The seven Haftarah readings that follow the mournful liturgy of Tisha b’Av are a
rising crescendo of faith in a better time to
come, culminating in the promise of Rosh
Hashanah: the hope that God’s purposes
will someday be realized worldwide.
■
Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman is professor
of Liturgy, Worship and Ritual at the
Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute
of Religion in New York City Become a subscriber
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JVG No. 11 July 2014 - Jewish Voice From Germany

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