Berlin, Germany (Weltexpress). German war propaganda knows no bounds. Where even the worst crimes of the supposedly ‘good guys’ are publicly celebrated and encouraged, it hardly stands out when the Chancellor himself spreads Nazi jargon. This makes it clear that fascism does not need the AfD at all. For years, German media, experts and politicians have been railing that the AfD alone is shifting ‘the discourse to the right.’ The Office for the Protection of the Constitution is monitoring the party, an armada of well-paid ‘experts’ is researching and pontificating on the subject, and the self-proclaimed bourgeois “centre” of rank and name sees itself as a bulwark ‘against the right.’
No wonder: anyone who spouts as much right-wing propaganda as some ‘middle-of-the-road’ politicians and ‘quality media’ outlets has to distract attention by projecting their own morass of ideas onto an enemy stereotype.
This morass is obviously deep and dirty. It is increasingly being revealed in an unabashed manner by the highest ranks of the state. This includes not only actions such as politically promoted and media-applauded public advertising and recruitment events for fascist military groups such as the Ukrainian Azov Brigade. Verbal propaganda is needed to ideologically rally the population behind the imperial war course.
This has long since escalated to such an extent that it brings to mind dark chapters in German history. Leading German media outlets are openly drumming up support for the most serious crimes against international law, including mass murder and a bombed-out nuclear meltdown. Their bellicose disinformation campaigns are constantly being embellished with new battle cries. And the Chancellor is openly spouting slogans in Nazi jargon.
Media tips for crimes
The list of inhuman, racist and bellicose verbal gaffes by German politicians, officials and leading media outlets is now so long that a thick book could be written about the last twelve months alone. Therefore, only the tip of the iceberg of the last few days will be highlighted here.
As is well known, Iran, like Russia, which is also very rich in raw materials, is considered the arch-villain in propaganda-driven Germany. International law be damned: Israel’s illegal attack on this country on 13 June was met with downright glee in German newsrooms, along the lines of: ‘Finally, the mullahs are getting what they deserve.’
Now the media are even giving tips on how the US can help its ‘aircraft carrier’ in the Middle East destroy underground nuclear facilities in Iran: with gigantic bunker busters that Israel does not have in its arsenal. By the time the article appears, this may already have happened, as the Axel Springer newspaper Bild, known for its almost daily smear campaigns, announced on Thursday with gleeful anticipation.
A disaster waiting to happen
The ideological preparation of the average German citizen for such illegal, murderous actions in the Middle East has been in full swing for days in almost all of Germany’s leading media outlets. The headline in Wednesday’s Handelsblatt even sounds like a direct call to action, complete with instructions: ‘How the US could abruptly destroy Iran’s nuclear programme.’ According to the article, the US has ‘the world’s most powerful bunker-busting bomb,’ which can only be dropped by its own special aircraft.
Many other media outlets, including t-online, but also public broadcasters such as ZDF, rode the same wave of propaganda: Keep hammering away at the Persians, screw international law and the environment, that’s their message.
These are blatant calls for a criminal, man-made disaster. Yet the Western justification for Israel’s attack on Iran is a blatant lie. This is easy for anyone to research and has even made its way into the German media landscape. For example, the Tagesspiegel recently reported, citing US intelligence sources, that Iran is neither on the verge of building a nuclear bomb nor planning to develop one.
The audacity with which the German media nevertheless bases its propaganda on the same old lie that Israel’s prime minister has been trumpeting for 30 years is aptly described by journalist Mathias Bröckers in a recent article.
The Chancellor’s Nazi jargon
It comes as no surprise that Chancellor Friedrich (BlackRock) Merz (CDU) can no longer hide his bellicose anticipation of such an illegal, highly likely to be disastrous and murderous strike. Long before his election as Chancellor, he made a name for himself with lies and smear campaigns against the unemployed and foreigners.
But Merz even has genuine Nazi jargon up his sleeve, as half the world has now realised: for today’s chancellor, the warlike mass murder that Israel is clearly committing in violation of international law in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and now also in Iran is merely necessary ‘dirty work for all of us.’ Is he aware that SS members once tried to justify their mass murders of Jews and other minorities in court using exactly the same words?
The answer to this rhetorical question is actually irrelevant. Anyone who, as German chancellor, declares the illegal, mass slaughter of Arabs and now also Persians by bombs, cannons and starvation in the context of illegal wars of aggression to be mere ‘dirty work’ that Israel is thankfully doing for Germany must then accept being labelled a Nazi.
With German ‘fighting power’ to fascism?
Of course, the indignant outcry over Merz’s statement – which, incidentally, was first formulated as a question by a public journalist herself – followed immediately. But no one dared to mention the very clear Nazi reference in it. No major media outlet dared to demand what could only be demanded: Merz’s dismissal as chancellor.
The fact that this did not happen is probably because German reality, including the discourse, has long since slipped into a warlike, fascist-like rut. There is no other way to describe it when German politicians and media welcome Ukrainian fascists, relativise publicly expressed extermination fantasies of Israeli politicians, have been waving through arms deliveries for Israel’s monstrous campaign of destruction in the Gaza Strip for over 20 months, accompanying all this with feigned ‘concern’ at best, and meticulously persecuting activists who take to the streets to protest against it.
In the media’s frenzy of war propaganda, with ever new battle cries, from drumming up support for German ‘warlike capabilities’ to Springer’s evocation of a new German ‘fighting power’ that Germany ‘must acquire as quickly as possible,’ even genuine Merz-style Nazi jargon no longer stands out. One might ask oneself: How far are we from this current state of affairs to fascism? Where is the threshold?
Fascism from the centre
At least one thing is certain: the bourgeois ‘centrist parties’ have brought this development about all by themselves. The AfD was not even necessary for this; it is itself only a symptom of this development. But, as we know, the warmongers of the self-proclaimed ‘centre’ do not like to look in the mirror.
Instead, they create their own villains and inflate them into scapegoats, denying them all human rights: whether they are Russians or Arabs, mullahs or Palestinians, Muslims or unemployed. The main thing is that the dollars keep rolling in and their imperialism can continue as usual. Who would be so mischievous as to suspect the extremists of being in this very ‘centre’?
