BERLIN (Own report) - The German Green Party foundation published an appeal calling for a "substantial increase" in the German military budget and for maintaining US nuclear weapons in Germany. "Nuclear-sharing is a core element of the strategic connection" between the USA and Germany, according to the appeal, published on the webpage of the Green Party's Heinrich-Böll-Foundation on the occasion of US President Biden's inauguration. The "authors and signatories" include the chairwoman of the Green Foundation as well as a retired Bundeswehr lieutenant general, who, in 2014, as a high-ranking NATO functionary was in charge of NATO's realignment against Russia. The Greens, who are still reputed to be able to integrate and politically neutralize certain factions formerly involved in the peace movement, have for some time been increasingly reaching out to the Bundeswehr. For years they have been particularly popular among those in the top income bracket. Spearheading the defense of western hegemony in the global power struggle, the Greens have positioned themselves as adversaries of Russia and China. Read more

AMSTERDAM/WARSAW/ATHENS/MUNICH (Own report) - The German government continues to reject claims from foreign and German Nazi victims. In a television broadcast on the occasion of Holocaust Remembrance Day, the lawyer for Salo Muller, from the Netherlands, who had been persecuted by the Nazis, reported that written demands to this effect addressed to the German Chancellor received "form letters" in response. The demands made by Slovak petitioners and German citizens, who, as children, had been abducted from their polish parents and "Germanized," have also been rejected by the German government. On Wednesday, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz Concentration Camp, the abducted children will protest in Munich against the decades of refusal. On the occasion of January 27, a study will be published on the never retributed crimes that had been committed by the Nazi enterprise "Schenker & Co." Schenker is the predecessor of today's DB Schenker within the Deutsche Bahn Group worth billions. The DB Group also rejects paying material compensation. The German "commemorative culture," described as hypocritical, is being "financed and controlled by the political leadership of the Federal Republic of Germany," according to a study on Berlin's tactics used in circumventing the payment of its material debts created through German Nazi crimes. Read more

(Part two) - In occupied Yugoslavia, Franz Neuhausen, a known pre-war corrupt business swindler, was officiating as the "authorized representative for the production of metal ore in Southeast Europe." The long-time Reichsbahn representative and General Consul was not only an official German state representative in Belgrade, he was also Chair of the Supervisory Board of the "Südost Montan GmbH" in Berlin. Under Neuhausen, private and state forms of appropriation of someone else's property were so entangled that dividing up the spoils among the robbers was growing increasingly complicated. Germany's general representative was plundering Yugoslavia's precious metals as an official act; however he was occasionally siphoning some off for himself and for his political cronies in the Olympus of crime of Berlin's ministries, rather than formally turning them over to the private "Südost Montan." The extent of their looting can be seen by the considerable "urgency" [1] of a trip that "Frau Frieda Neuland," a "Gefolgschaftsmitglied" (allegiance member) of the "Südost Montan" had made from Berlin to Belgrade in January 1944 "to work at one of the affiliated plants," in Belgrade under Neuhausen's control. In the Schenker documents her trip is classified as urgent; it was undertaken during a phase of special demands on the organizational skills of Neuhausen, the Reichsbahn's attaché. The Reichsbahn's shipment of "two wagons of 20 tons of Yugoslav silver coins" was imminent.[2] Destination: refineries in the "Alt Reich." Read more

BERLIN (Own report) - With billions from its Covid-19 programs, Berlin is subsidizing the world's leading logistics groups. Top unrivaled companies in Europe, such as DB Schenker (Deutsche Bahn AG), DHL (Deutsche Post AG), Lufthansa, TUI, DER (Deutsches Reisebüro) or Kühne & Nagel are stabilizing their temporary Corona losses with state financing, in some cases increasing their 2020 sales and profit figures by five percent, in spite of the persisting economic crisis. Companies, such as DHL (Deutsche Post AG, 20 percent state-owned) are now announcing substantial purchases for a significant increase of their machines and are announcing rising profit forecasts for 2021 and 2022. Therefore, it is foreseeable that, within the EU, the monopoly positions of German logistics enterprises will lead to regional EU providers collapsing. The national concentration of the cross-border transportation potential resembles the situation during the years leading up to World War II. At that time, particularly Schenker & Co. was trusted to cover Europe, in the event of crisis or war. A study published on the occasion of the upcoming day of commemoration, January 27, highlights the political significance of a monopoly on European transportation and the role played by Schenker (already then and still currently state-owned) in the "reorganization of the continent." german-foreign-policy.com publishes today Part 1 of the expertise published in conjunction with the "Train of Commemoration." Read more

The DB AG's globally operating logistics company Schenker, a Deutsche Bahn subsidiary, is the state-owned successor of a criminal organization. This has been confirmed by new documents accessed in German archives by the "Train of Commemoration" on tips by British historians. According to these documents, Schenker had organized for the "Reichsgruppe Industrie" (Nazi state-controlled industrial business association) [1] the transfer of loot to Germany, plundered Europe-wide from countries under Nazi Wehrmacht occupation. Particularly during the last years of the war (1943-45), Schenker was involved in wide-ranging plunder raids stretching from Athens in the south, through the Balkans, from Lisbon in the west, Oslo in the north and in the east from Warsaw to within the Soviet Union. The spoils flowed into the coffers of the German state, which then shared them with such companies as Mannesmann, Rheinmetall, Siemens or AEG. However, even seemingly harmless family enterprises were having Schenker & Co. - in cooperation with the Deutsche Reichsbahn (German railroad) - deliver deported laborers and spoils from Eastern Europe. Read more

BERLIN/WASHINGTON (Own report) - On the occasion of US President Joe Biden's inauguration yesterday, the German government is holding out the prospect of closer transatlantic cooperation, while insisting on an independent position, concerning key controversial issues. "We will not always agree with the new administration" despite all the cooperation, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas announced, after all "Europe" has its own interests. With the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) that the EU reached with China, just prior to the change in personnel at the White House, the EU clearly rejects the "decoupling," advocated by the US government, including the Biden administration. Moreover, yesterday, a leading CDU foreign policy expert published a plea for renewed cooperation with Russia, which is clearly rejected by Washington. In their quest for an independent EU world power status, Berlin and Brussels can rely on majority support within the population. According to a recent survey, 67 percent of the residents of ten EU countries and Great Britain favor greater military independence; two thirds reject siding with the USA in the power struggle with China. Read more

BERLIN/MOSCOW/WASHINGTON (Own report) - The United States is imposing, for the first time, concrete sanctions on a company, because of its participation in the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. In one of its last official acts, the Trump administration announced that it would impose sanctions on the Russian pipe-laying vessel Fortuna. Whereas, Moscow has declared that it will nevertheless do everything it can to complete the pipeline that will bring Russian natural gas directly to Germany, more companies from several European countries –including the German company Bilfinger - are abandoning the Nord Stream 2 project due to threats of US sanctions. The pull-out is not without its risks, because the companies are thus demonstrating their vulnerability to blackmail from the United States - a disadvantage, for instance, on the highly attractive Chinese market. Since Russia is vigorously pursuing the expansion of the natural gas pipelines to China, the EU risks losing its privileged purchasing position. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas recently warned that there is "no need to talk of European sovereignty" if that means "bending to Washington's will." Read more

BERLIN/IDLIB (Own report) - The German Federal Prosecutor's office is investigating the support of a Syrian jihadi terror organization, which has, in fact, profited from the German government's Syria policy. The investigation focuses on an international network financing Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). HTS, in turn, is the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda, which controls the self-proclaimed insurgent Idlib governorate in northern Syria. HTS is accused of the most serious violations of human rights, including murdering those accused of "adultery" and "blasphemy." Such executions are a fundamental element of jihadi rule. The German government had repeatedly put Syria and Russia under heavy pressure not to attack HTS - to the benefit of the terrorist organization. The proceedings against HTS are not the first of their kind. Already in 2016, supporters of another terrorist militia had been found guilty by a German court - the same terror militia, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, foreign minister, at the time, had sought to have included, at all costs, in peace negotiations. Read more

BERLIN (Own report) - The German foreign policy establishment is entering the second year of the Covid-19 pandemic with new plans for EU global power. Whereas in particular western powers and their allies have been overwhelmed by new waves of the pandemic, at times being confronted with rapidly increasing numbers of casualties, "Internationale Politik" (IP), Germany's leading foreign policy periodical, is debating the question of "what Europe lacks to assume global power." The demand that the Union must have more courage to assume global power had already been raised in several leading German media organs last fall. According to a poll, nearly half of all Germans surveyed agree that the EU can "play a strong role in global policy," similar to that played by the USA and China - particularly followers of the Green Party (52 percent) and those of the FDP (56 percent), along with the generation aged between 18 and 29 (70 percent). Whereas, the IP calls on "Europe" to enhance its "international impact", former EU commissioner Günther Oettinger cautions against the "complete overconfidence" evident in many EU capitals - "a kind of hubris." Read more