If Germany Declared Peace

Germany has been, since World War II, an occupied nation. No peace treaty has ever been signed, occupying armies still remain there—and Germany continues to function under a foreign constitution, prepared by the victors of WW2.[1] It owns a massive amount of gold, three and a half thousand tons of it, more than any country except America—but is not in possession of it.

The time has now come for Germany to declare peace. Following the decision to pull out all 20,000 British troops from Germany by 2020,[2] this is an appropriate moment. Likewise the 73,000 U.S. soldiers and their 100,000 family members still in Germany should no longer be required to stay. Let Germany sign a peace treaty with the postwar occupying nations (the US, UK, France and Russia), and announce that it is no longer an occupied nation. What would the sovereignty of Germany mean, in the 21st century?

Pacific Intentions

It is inevitable that Germany is—and will be—mighty. Let it show this might by refusing to send its own military outside its own national borders. A mistake may have been made by it accompanying NATO strikes in Bosnia, Afghanistan, and Libya. Let it be affirmed and printed in German military-law manuals that its soldiers will not go outside German national boundaries even if ordered to do so, unless on a humanitarian relief mission and invited by the country concerned (or else in accord with the terms of the defensive 1949 North Atlantic Treaty,[3] which it signed).

The two World Wars were triggered by uncertainties about the borders of Germany: now that these are established, let Germany make clear that there is no further casus belli that it will accept. In a sense both World Wars were caused by the geographical spread of persons who felt themselves to be German being larger than the national boundaries (of 1871) of the new nation of Germany. It was confusion over the definition of what was Germany. Germany never wanted to fight Britain in either World War.[4] It should no longer accept the guilt constantly foisted upon it by the victorious WW2 powers, who dropped two million tons of bombs onto central Europe, mainly Germany. That does not give them any moral platform from which to prate at Germany.

That is now well past, and let it fade into history. Let Germany join the ranks of pacific nations, who do not attack others: India, Brazil, Venezuela, Iran. Let Germany not sell more nuclear submarines to Israel.

The US and UK are two nations which cannot exist without everlasting war (and likewise their child, Israel). Let Germany dissociate itself from them, by declaring its national independence and sovereignty. Let it declare peace. Let it have the inner strength to say “No” when requested to send its military abroad by the US/UK for some war—i.e., declare that it wishes to abide by the 1949 North Atlantic Treaty.

A peacemaker uses the art of balance, of balancing rival powers, and German statesmanship, at the centre of Europe, has to involve that. For example, suppose Germany declared that it would allow only one-tenth of US bases to remain in Germany and only with the proviso that none of their nuclear missiles were targeting Russia. That would send a shock all around the world. It would make people smile. A majority of Germans might (possibly) wish to retain the NATO “nuclear umbrella” of deterrence, and that would involve such a minimal US presence. Motion on such fundamental issues needs to be based upon the majority will of German citizens. In reply, the US declares it cannot divulge its nuclear policies to a host nation. Germany has requested a de-Gaulle strategy of “à toutes azimuths”—i.e. the nuclear missiles are there and ready, but not targeted at anyone! What would happen next? Such a move would at least give everyone an exciting topic of conversation. The hand of the peacemaker is gentle but has to have power behind it. In response, Germany might affirm that it would no longer be able to pay expenses of the US/UK troops stationed in Germany.

Whenever the US/UK misuses the UN for its war making, then let Germany affirm the UN principle that member-states have under-taken “to settle any inter-national dispute in which they may be involved by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security and justice are not endangered, and to refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force in any manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations.”

Let Germany’s military develop defensive strategies that lack provisions for entering other nations. When Germany exports arms, let these be, as far as possible, defensive technology, e.g. short-range anti-aircraft missiles. This matters because German technology can readily become the best in the world—indeed, maybe already is.

Freeing the Historians

Let Germany cease putting its own citizens in jail for thought-crime,[5] let it cease burning books written by Germans but instead allow its own historians to write its history. Let its historians finally walk free from jail.

Let German scientists ratify that a certain object of technology has not ever existed in the world, and could not ever feasibly be constructed: viz. the mass cyanide human gas chamber. That concept was only ever mere US/UK wartime atrocity propaganda. Nobody died in WW2 from being put into these, because they have never existed. Let Germans cease taking blame for this.

If SS-fighters did in the 1940s believe in “lebensraum,” i.e. expanding somewhat into Russia, that belief originated because of the naval blockade which Britain imposed in 1918 to force Germany to sign the unfair Treaty of Versailles. That caused three quarters of a million to die of famine, mainly German women and children, because Germany could not feed itself: the one, real atrocity story of WW1,[6] terminating a war which Germany did not want and did not start.[7] Maybe Germans should cease feeling guilty about that policy.

Let Germany cease paying out two or three billion euros to “Holocaust victims” every year—which mainly goes into the coffers of Israel.[8] Germany suffered enough deaths in the last World War;[9] it does not need to atone for the deaths of others. If people believe that the Nazi Endlösung der Judenfrage involved an intention to exterminate Jews, then let the German government offer a reward to anyone who can show documents expressing this intent—or showing that it happened. Let that judgment be made by a jury of German citizens.

Germany has just honored the 70th anniversary of the Wannsee conference: let it send a letter to the big Holocaust Memorial centre now located there, requesting any documents be produced showing a lethal intention. Maybe the decision there implemented of deporting Jews from Germany was regrettable, but if so it had been made on 46 earlier occasions by most other European countries. Debate on this question is possible—and maybe the future of Europe depends upon us having such a debate.

A slab at Auschwitz used to state that four million had been murdered there, a figure later reduced to one million, it being implied that Germans were responsible for this. In northern Germany the huge database at Bad-Arolsen now claims to contain the complete archive of all persons who lived and died in the German labor camps during WW2:[10] do not its documents give a total of 73 thousand deaths at Auschwitz, and 290 thousand for all of the labor camps? Let the German government permit free and open debate on this topic. Clearly, if the Arolsen archive has inadvertently omitted to record 95% of all wartime deaths at the Auschwitz labor camp, then something would need to be done about this! That hardly sounds like German efficiency. The German government must not have any defined position on this matter, other than that of allowing historians to debate the subject.

Clearly, a German government should not hold a view on any matter which requires historians to evaluate. But it might wish to request that the Arolsen Archive give an answer to the question posed recently by Jürgen Graf: “Can you adduce any documentary evidence proving that even a single Jew was killed in a gas chamber in any National Socialist concentration camp?”[11] It is time for the world to hear an answer to that—the official answer, from the Arolsen Archive management team. Having adjusted German law concerning the non-outlawing of historical truth, it could and should request the Arolsen Archive to state publicly its total, i.e. the total number of persons in its records who lived and died in the German WW2 labor camps.

If and when it does these any of things, the US and UK media will respond with cries of “Nazi, Nazi!” and a particular ethnic group will claim to be “hurt.” One then needs an inner strength not to respond. Let Germany recover its own self-identity and not allow others to define it. Twice in the 20th century were world wars (as opposed to local conflicts) precipitated by Britain declaring war on Germany; let Germany stop feeling guilt about this.

Condemnations of Nazism should apply equally to Zionism; as identical national ideologies, appearing in the 1930s, both based on racial superiority, racial purity, and military expansionism, they shared in common a drive to have Jews deported from Europe to Israel.

The Gentle Giant

Let Germany take a new pride in its old culture: a nation of musicians, poets, mystics, writers, artists, and philosophers. Let it thank the US/UK for writing out a German constitution after the War, but declare that it is no longer required—then write out its own. German culture has (I suggest) key characteristics of being good and true, with thorough workmanship, which is why the world needs it. Let it not accept the definitions which others keep wishing to give it.

A recent opinion poll found that 89% of Germans do not believe the official version of 9/11.[12] No other European nation has that depth of insight. That philosophical intelligence—that common intelligence shared by the German people—is able to see through fabrications made by US/UK military intelligence. That’s why the world needs it

As regards the historical accident of Germany having more iron and coal under its soil than neighboring nations, let it cultivate an attitude of friendly benevolence by favorable trade deals to its near neighbors concerning these raw materials. Let it be the friendly giant of Europe.

Let it deal with the slow, gradual concept of “confidence-building measures” by way of reassuring any nervous neighbors of Germany’s pacific intentions. Slowly, confidence is built up. Let it politely explain that German taxpayers will no longer pay stationing costs of foreign armies.

A Golden Question

Let Germany request back its gold from America.[13] Its massive gold reserves may not reside in the Bundesbank coffers,[14] but rather in Fort Knox, with some in London.[15] For comparison, Venezuela requested in 2011 that its gold be returned from deposits in the Bank of England and that has happened; its gold has now been repatriated. Germany would need to have its gold returned for these arguments of sovereignty to make sense.[16]

If and when Germany gets that gold back, let Germans consider in their hearts the concept of a gift: giving say five hundred tons of it to Russia, to heal memories of trauma between these two great nations, from the two world wars: an unsolicited gift. (This is a native American tradition of “potlatch”—of one tribe giving a gift to another, such that the recipient is obliged by the generosity.)

What is it that a pacific Germany should stand for? After the War its shattered cities lay desolated like lunar landscapes. Its recovery in the 21st century as a pacific nation would signify the resurrection of the human spirit (Mahler’s 2[nd] Resurrection symphony). The primary questions are maybe not economic, about the fate of the euro, which everyone talks about, but are rather about the cultural self-identity of the German people.

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