RAIN OF FIRE

Germany’s lebensraum
CESAR G. BONILLA

LAOAG CITY -- The Alpha Phi Omega (APO) fraternity and sorority from Divine Word College of Laoag, Beta Lambda Chapter once again proved their mettle in helping our less fortunate brothers and sister in Bacsil South, Laoag City in so many ways like through “Operation Timbag” and feeding, giving of used garments, clothes, toys and providing entertainment to weary souls of this area.

According to Brod Robert de los Santos, project director of Gawad Kalinga – Timpuyog ti Bacsil South, the APO promoted bayanihan spirit among local folk so they could help each other. Patrick Ryan C. Miguel, APO Grand Chancelor of DWCL, was in unison with Brod Robert’s impressive program spearheading the humanitarian advocacy of the Gawad Kalinga. This frat brother of mine is a religious man and lives well in accordance with Christian virtues. ***
It is provided for under the Constitution that freedom of expression is an inalienable right of an individual. In this respect, the reminiscence of the Mendiola massacre in 1987 of Filipino farmers who protested and condemned the elimination of human lives by the government at that time is worth commemorating to remind us that the government should be the one protecting the people and not the one killing them.

It was alleged that Mayor Alfredo Lim of Manila prevented this massive protest by Filipino farmers. The ghost of the past continues to hunt the memory of those responsible for the bloody massacre and the living souls concerned so much with the tragedy have been driven to reopen the Pandora’s box to know the truth about this incident. Justice is dead when ignorance cripples the people while the government suppresses the masses from exercising freedom of expression and liberty.
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This reminds us of Germany’s lebensraum or living space that propelled the once powerful empire to world history under the leadership of its giant demagogues who wanted fortune, fame and power. The fourth Germany was composed following the reunion of West and East Germany into which the Third Reich had been partitioned after its defeat in World War II. It was proclaimed in Berlin in front of the old ‘Reichstaf Building’ and in all parts of Germany and all other countries where West and East Germany has official missions, amid ceremonies, hauling down and hoisting of flags, drinking of champagne and beer and singing of the national anthem.

The Third Reich was the cruelest of the three past Germanys. But its partition, the East under communism, and the West under democracy coupled with a free-market economy, have convinced leaders in the Kremlin, especially Gorbachev, that communism was a hopeless ideology while democracy was still the real wave of the future.

The first Germany was formed through turmoil and wars, staring with the great reform movement of Martin Luther in 1517, through the Napoleonic Wars that brought an end to the “Holy Roman Empire” in 1806, and the creation of German Confederation in 1815 under the Hapsburg domination. But the Prussians defeated the Danes in 1864, the Austrians in 1866 and the French in 1872 to become the undisputed leader in German affairs.

A Unified Germany, the first Germany, emerged in 1871 under the great Prussian Prime Minister Otto Van Bismarch. At the end of the ‘French – Prussian War’ in 1872, William I of Prussia was proclaimed “Emperor of Germany.” The aggressive diplomacy of William 11 helped bring about World War I, 1914-1918. At the start of the war, Germany was at the peak of prosperity. A social democratic revolution forced the abdication of William II and the conclusion of an armistice. In 1919, Germany accepted the harsh terms of the “Treaty of Versailles’ and the ‘Republican Constitution’ drafted at Weimar.

This was the Second Germany – “The Weimar Republic.” The Weimar Republic was beset at the start by extreme agitations instigated by communist and nationalist movements due to mass unemployment, while a currency inflation wiped out the nation’s savings. After 1925, came economic recovery.

The foreign policy Stressemann restored Germany as a great country that began in 1920 again plunged into near bankruptcy. By 1932 an Austrian army corporal who was a failed artist house painter named ‘Adolf Thiers’ found himself the head of the biggest single party in the Reichstag.

Although he lacked a majority, dissensions among his opponents made possible his appointment as Chancellor of Germany. Thus was born Hitler’s Third Reich. From the point of view of some historians, the dark ages in Europe had been begun when Hitler established absolute dictatorship and reduced all German life to Nazi control. He repudiated the Treaty of Versailles and plunged Germany into a program of intensive rearmament.

In 1936, he demilitarized the Rhineland and in 1938, he annexed his native Austria making Germany an ally of the Facist Halian under Benito Mussolini. Hitler seized Czechoslovakia, Bohemia and Moravia. After protecting his rear by concluding the Nonaggression Pact with the USSR in 1939, he invaded Poland and started World War II. The barbaric war resulted to genocide.

If the theory that the history of the two Germanys finally convinced the Kremlin leadership that the dictatorship and straight-jacket economy were untenable and led to the crumbling of the Berlin Wall and the Gorby reforms in the USSR and rehabilitated East Germany, it might also convince other countries to follow suit. The new Fourth Germany has a history to uphold which it can do only if it can leave definitely to the past the reckless foreign affairs policy of Wilhelm II and the ruthlessness of Hitler’s dictatorship and anti-Semitic politics. Certainly, the history of Germany will enliven students of history and political science to ponder man’s greed and thirst for power