Suebia, eh ?

I realised this morning that one can hear emptiness.
All the usual sounds that can be expected in a large appartement building located in a reasonable quiet neighbourhood, with some green around – even large trees -, and parking spaces over ground, balcony door open, through a bog-normal Wednesday late morning, like water rushing through pipes for whatever use, elevator doors clunking, car doors slamming, trees rushing in a lovely breeze, the occasional toddler yelling a bit – just stand there with eyes closed & listen … the place is empty.
Of course there may be scientific explanations that involve rugs, curtains and pictures on the wall, let’s not forget the lack of ameublement, but this is not what I mean.
It is not about silly sound waves behaving different, is not something missing, it is something else, something additional I can’t name.
To step in routinely like done for ages – “ages” may mean ten years and perhaps a bit more – comes to a halt when the usual choreography of moves stops because there is no more place to put the wallet and the keys – the shoe cabinet in the Diele (it is impossible to translate the name of this little anteroom with “hallway” or “vestibule” – it is a Diele or a Flur ) is gone.
Obviously something changed.
It is easy to say “And of course I am ready to move for this job”, it is easy to plan such a move, and have a look at the different pieces of stuff that surround one. It is a bit more challenging to search for and finally find a new appartement that “fits the bill” in all – or at least all serious – points. It can be a bit of a task to fill boxes with stuff – that seemingly has a life of its own, even after years of culling ; this usually leads to some introspection – and finally “the day” arrives : All is prepared, professionals move in, and within two hours the place is cleared, engines start, and something new begins. This can be a bit upsetting, worrying even.
DOn’t get me wrong, dear reader : This is not about an ending of sorts, a drama, it is about the aftermath of a new beginning.
It is only about a middle-aged man who switches off the hoover in a large empty room, closes his eyes, and listens.

Never Say Never

I am sorry, dear reader(s – ?), if I bore you stiff with this post, but the last shenanigans of the great Leader of the Movement … well, I feel the urge to say something about this. The Leader has left Europe some days ago and describes his travels as huge success, a “home run”, seemingly something sporty. In short, great – what else ?
A direct result of this voyage is that Ms MERKEL said that the days when we (Germany and Europe) could unconditionally rely on the USofA are over. Chancellor MERKEL is not known for hefty vocabulary, for fist slamming and all this brutish and silly behaviour. Her caution is sometimes taken for weakness, and the opposition, and even members of her own party, often scold her and demand stronger words. So foreign commenters and watchers may find her remark unimportant, neglectable.
In fact it is as close as the German Chancellor will go publicly to saying “Fuck off !”. And she means it.
MERKEL had the chance to watch the Leader and all his bagage closely on several occasions, in different settings. And the conclusion she draws is that what one could call the “old West” came to an end. It is not the person of the Leader, it is more, more fundamental.
The last bit of sympathy I harboured for Mr SPICER evaporated when I heard what he had to say about this : He prattled over the “personal” “relation” between MERKEL and the Leader, this would be soo good blabla – right beside the point, missing the target exactly either intentionally, or, even worse, by not understanding what she said. She said expressis verbis that the USA are an unreliable partner now. This is very remarkable, and, of course, will have consequences.
SPICER, and so the criminal gang he speaks for, do not understand that politics is not a personal game, these brainless scumbags do not understand that they represent a state.
In fact Europe, what ever it is & will be in future, is on its own, in all respects of international politics. It is a real chance. The East’s psychological warfare will not bite in the long run.
In a certain way what I called “the old West”, what remained after the crumbling of the Soviet Union, is brought to an end by the administration of the Leader. Remember, and take serious please, what the Super Advisor said : “The Leader is only a tool”.
The actual “President” is unfit, inept and unqualified for the job. An impeachment is possible, but becomes imho more & more improbable, especially because of the total moral bancerott of the Republican party. A biological solution is possible, when the leader becomes too bizarre and has to step back (“terminated” ?) because of “health issues”. But in a way the person, the individual “Trump” is unimportant – the nihilistic spirit is already out of the bottle.
Those who financed this Leader are already in command of what they understand to be a “state”, the path back to “greatness” is already trampled free, the clock is already in the process of being turned back to some kind of “1950”. And if some climate accord is revoked or not – this is just maquillage, or call it a “collateral damage”. Of course this will be done with a great gesture & fanfare, isn’t it one of the Leader’s promises ?
At least one he keeps.
I already said it in a comment here, the Leader destroys the old Western order from within, and he will destroy the US civil society. Within months he not only weakened, but pulverised the former order, opening up chances upon chances for his Bruder im Geiste Vlad. The coming summer meetings will follow this blueprint.
I only hope that MERKELs message will be understood, the time for appeasement is over : The kindergarten does not want to play with the bully any more.
We don’t have to.

One Last Time

I really hope that at some point in the future, when the Leader of the Movement will be dragged out of his court formerly known as the White House, preferably by his balls, historians will come to the conclusion that things started to go totally bonkers for this “administration” when the head of the FBI was sacked.
I think it is the time to get this orange ham out for real & seriously now. It is in the interest of the state, more damage needs to be averted, and the damage already done needs to be controlled and repaired.
I read in different articles that some months ago at a private meeting the Leader of the Movement asked the now sacked head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to express his loyalty towards the newly elected Leader.  The policeman found his spine and offered honesty. Seemingly not enough.
It was often mentioned that positions in the new “administration” were given to people not based on skill & qualification, but owing to the grade of loyalty they had shown to the Leader while he was fighting for the office (“Kampfzeit”). And this made me draw some not so nice parallels.
In the 19th century the German “Gelehrtenrepublik”, the republic of letters, was not especially known as a stronghold of forward thinking politics. But when a new king was appointed in Hanover some eggheads showed remarkable spine. The crowned ox demanded all officials to take an oath on him personally, but the officials had sworn on the constitution previously. While most people thought this to be a mere formality some professors in Göttingen decided not to swear and get into a personal binding to the neo-absolutist crowned idiot. They were called the “Goettinger Sieben” (Ger., Eng.), and I am proud that Jacob and Wilhelm GRIMM, the founding figures of German Volkskunde, were among them. They had to emigrate to Berlin, the rest is history.
In the 20th century another democratically elected, German Leader of the Movement, the Reichskanzler and later Fuehrer Adolf HITLER, demanded that all German soldiers swear an oath to him personally (“Führereid”, Ger., Eng.), so binding them to his person and fate, making them “faithful” (what a word in this connection !) to him. In my opinion the American Leader of the Movement demands nothing else.
This kills the basis of what we call “state”. The basis of state is law, not personal binding to the ruler.
If this story mentioned above is true – and I have no doubt that it is –  it shows clearly the nihilism of the actual American “president” : Nothing counts but the personal relationship, and this has to be based on loyalty. Alarmists may see this as another sign that what we see & watch is nothing else but a coup d’etat. The rule of law is in the process of being replaced by the rule of “loyalty” to the elected Leader of the Movement. The democratic state, hated by large parts of the “elite” and misunderstood by at least half of the populace, is not in the process of being rebuilt, it is in the process of being abandoned. It will be replaced by something new that is focused on and legitimated by the will of The Leader only.
In the historical science we call this “Diktatur”, dictatorship.
And I fear that half of the USAmerican populace is absolutely content with this.
And I wonder where the opposition is ?
The Democrats and those parts of the conservative party, who are still in command of their brains and not yet totally corrupt & morally rotten, should work together – for the goddamn state – or do they all want to watch as it is turned into a branch of & a vehicle for the Leader‘s (and his cronies) businesses ? Doesn’t his son-in-law already sell “golden visa” to rich Chinese ?
Yes, fake news, of course …
To make it clear : This “Leader of the Movement” is a danger, not only for the United States of America, but for the whole world. A man is in control, who can not control himself, who shits (excuses) on anything “democratic” and or “legal” as long as it is outside his limited understanding and not in favour for his “interests”, a man who simply does not share the values of enlightenment that are the basis of the modern state – Amerga once was the role model for this : She is based on this !
I already said it here, I say it again : Sometimes around 2007 Vlad bought “the Leader”, and this is the result.
The lever may be “this Russian thing”, and the health of the Leader – I seriously think that he is in the early state of dementia, Old Knudsen said it first.
In a way the “Leader” is unimportant, boring, & even predictable – it is much more important what the opposition does, if anything : If something new can come out of this terrible rule of scum.

Okay, this was it. Next post will be about books, I really need some ease, the last days were … interesting.

If You Write It, They Will Read It

Now let’s imagine you are a nobleman, living at the beginning of the 16th century in Middle Europe. You hang around the court of the Emperor and help to administer the Reich.
Your ruler decides to promote you and sent you as ambassador to the Czar.
What do you do ?
Certainly you turn to your database – that is the library – and look for a tome, manuscript or print, that describes what you need to know, like where to go, how to travel, whom to bribe.
Shock Hubbub, Panick & Confusion – no such book : You have to write it yourself !
Enter Sigmund von HERBERSTEIN (1486-1566) (Ger., Eng.).
Sigmund was a third son, so his chances to inherit a lot were pretty small. But his father took care to give his son a good education, and – what is even more important – this education fell on a good soil : Sigmund was interested in nearly everything, and very curious.
From 1514 on he lives at the court of Emperor Maximilian I. (1459-1519) (Ger., Eng.), he stays in service until 1553, for nearly forty years.
At the beginning of the 16th century existed only few permanent representations, usually a ruler choose one person for a special commission, a special envoy. HERBERSTEIN carried out 69 such missions, 30 saw him visiting Hungary, 15 took him to Poland and two into the Moscow State.
The first major journey was not successful. He was sent to Denmark in 1516 : Isabella (1501-1526) von Habsburg was married to king Christian II. of Denmark, who had earlier met an Netherlandish girl, taken her to Copenhagen and lived openly with her. The girl’s mother, an innkeeper called Willems, seemingly run the state. The king not only deeply insulted his wife, but also the house of Habsburg in toto, and there was no successor in sight due to a lack of consummation. Within a few years this remarkably dumb sovereign had insulted all rulers in the neighbourhood, was forced to flee the country and take asylum in The Netherlands where his legal wife died.
HERBERSTEIN should admonish the crowned ass, what he did to no avail, but in such a way that the king was not upset (and not cancelled his connection to the House of Habsburg). Interestingly Sigmund’s last mission in 1553 was to accompany another young Habsburgian princess, Catherine, to Cracow, right into another unhappy marriage.
Also Sigmund’s second mission in 1517 was not successful, when he was sent to Moscow to broker an armistice between Poland and the Moscow State. Nevertheless he showed great diplomatic skill in this mission – and he stayed in business. He reported to the Emperor personally, and old Maximilian seemingly was fascinated by the stories about this strange land & country in the East. So when a second mission to Moscow was necessary in 1526, now under the emperors Charles V. and Ferdinand I., it was only natural to have Sigmund take part in it – even Madrid (Charles V.) proposed his name. HERBERSTEIN was not only sent over in diplomaticis, but Ferdinand told him to collect any information about the country, the society, and put special emphasis on the religious situation. In the end Sigmund von HERBERSTEIN was sent to write the first regional and cultural study about unknown Russia.
He returned back to the Emperor’s court at the 13th of February 1527, and shortly afterwards presented his report. Sadly we know nothing about this report’s fate. In the 1530s Sigmund was looking for a humanist to work on his text, to have it stylistically improved, but we do not know what came out of this. It is not clear if the text that was finally printed 22 years later – in 1549 : Instant success, 20 more imprints until 1600 – is identical or, if not, how close related to the first version.
HERBERSTEIN lived on to see the success of his book, and in his autobiographical writings, which are also very instructive, he mentions that knowing the Slovenian language was very helpful for him. Sigmund was born in Wippach in Slovenia, and he put a lot of effort in learning the language of his peasants as a youth. So knowing a Slavonic language was very helpful for him on his travels in the East, less perhaps in Poland where the nobility was fluid in Latin and Italian, two other languages Sigmund verifiably spoke.
His text * is an interesting read, still after five hundred years.

* I used : HERBERSTEIN, Sigmund von : Das alte Rußland. In Anlehung an die älteste deutsche Ausgabe aus dem Lateinischen übertragen von Wolfram von den STEINEN. Mit einem Nachwort von Walter LEITSCH. Unter herausgeberischer Mitarbeit von Paul KÖNIG. 2. Auflage Zürich 1985 (Manesse Bibliothek der Weltgeschichte) (Rerum Moscoviticarum commentarii).
LEITSCH (1926-2010) was an Austrian professor of history at the university of Vienna, I used his Nachwort / postface.