I really do think that germans as a whole compared to other peoples/nations tend to carry quite the amount of pathology and schizophrenic thinking in them. The three primary things that made this probably quite a bit worse than in other nations is what happened in, first, WW1 and after it, secondly, when the Nazis took over and WW2 happened, and thirdly, what happened after WW2 and how what happened before that point was processed afterwards by the population as a whole throughout the generations until today.
I think a very unhealthy way of processing that history after WW2 made it possible that pathology was carried much more through the generations then in other people/nations. One big component is the “You are the most evil and guilty people ever“ hammer that was nailed strongly on germans after WW2 without any real and open debate and resolve about what happened and real justice being served, and secondly, the “denazification“ that was more of a ruse because a really large portion of people that were responsible for very evil things did continue to work and be installed in almost every major sections of German life in high positions, upwards from highest positions down to quite low positions almost without a break from the NAZI times. This increased the sense of injustice even more at some level in almost every ordinary german because everyone saw/felt at some level that “denazification“ was done very much in a double standard way. Many people that didn’t have much or almost no blood on their hands were labeled the biggest evil people/Nazis ever and lost almost everything, mostly in the middle and lower classes of society, while MANY of the real evil doors with lots of blood on their hands (mostly in higher privileged leading classes)
were not punished at all, and contrary to that, very much continued to be employed and being in charge over many people in positions of power continuously after WW2.
As a result of things like the above almost every family in Germany after WW2 had at least some people in them that participated in real evil to one extent or the other while many people in those families where then faced with a schizophrenic way of thinking and feeling about things.
On the one hand, all of a sudden, everything that happened before the end of WW2 was officially labeled pure evil in which every german participated and should feel guilty as hell about it in a black and white fashion, which quickly resulted in a society were almost everyone even within the families on the surface became very apocalyptic and “the opposite of NAZI and very much against it“ in their open discourse, while secretly, in every family there were at least quite some people that admired or even still thought NAZI like. Some openly/knowingly so, others unconsciously. And I think openly so in secret within families was quite more common then you would think.
So while many people including privileged ones in positions of power professed to be the exact opposite of NAZI openly after WW2, in secret, the many pathological ways of thinking and behaving continued behind a facade of very liberal thinking/being in many families because the initial traumas and doings weren’t processed in any healthy way at all. Then put on top of that that many people in such families had hefty/real war traumas.
So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that many people nowadays in Germany, including in leading classes such as people like Merz and Baerbock, at the first glance seem to be very liberal/green/left/nice, but not far below that surface appearance you can easily detect that they exhibit very pathological views and thinking patterns that are practically very similar as during and after the end of WW2 IMO.
I have noticed first hand by growing up in Germany as a half blood (father greek) that in many families, including my German side, the NAZI mentality was still very present under a liberal/left surface. Not seldomly that could be seen by open displays of cruelty towards others (often toward non pure blooded germans) and superior thinking and generally just pathological thinking and behavior not just towards others but also within families towards each other. I’m old enough to remember things happening or being present within such families I couldn’t quite square as a young person with the official Zeitgeist in Germany.
Within my own german side of the family I saw in private quite many open displays of NAZI thinking and behavior, such as two of my German cousins pretty straightforwardly being Nazis and doing things like watching enthusiastically TV when a big earthquake happened in turkey and loudly and happily celebrating every time the number of innocent dead civilian dead was reported to increase in turkey. They hated none germans with passion. They likely inherited that mindset within the family. That was quite surreal, weird and strange to see for me as a young person in contrast to the official Zeitgeist. Cousins from the other side of the german family were raised similarly it seems: from a very early age they pretty openly were harassing my brother and me with open NAZI paroles because we were not pure germans. They were also very young themselves.
My german grandfather had a rather close relative living in another german family (his older brother maybe?) in another village. My grandfather was quite fond of the man. I remember how we once visited him and his family and I was quite surprised/perplexed seeing him openly and very proudly running around in Nazi military uniform full of war medals day in and day out proudly telling us stories such as him escaping a death squad that was about to shoot him, by jumping through a window behind him at the wall were he was supposed to be shot, seconds before they were shooting at him.
You can probably imagine how strange it was for me to see things like this play out in my immediate family when I was growing up as a half blood, juxtaposed to the official Zeitgeist that was all around and we were tought in school about NAZI times and how everything is now supposed to be so very much different. It was like seeing double standards everywhere constantly.
Given a history like the one I described above, I naturally tend to be quite critical of the ability of germans as a whole, even today, after so many years have passed, to not fall/contribute towards evil under any facade, quite strongly, once again. If anything, what happened during and after Covid left me even more concerned of what a society like this might be capable of that has been so thoroughly brainwashed and infused with pathological and schizophrenic thinking/behavior.
One of the things that struck and shocked me most during Covid was how quick ordinary people in Germany including bosses of relatively small companies were to behave the worst, doing their best to actually outdo the government in measures and reporting people, before the government was even implementing such measures!
What I see in many germans seems to be a thinly veiled boiling of pathological thinking and emotions under a surface of “very liberal/green and decent“ thinking and behavior. A dangerous mixture IMO.
As sad as it might sound, I think we shouldn’t underestimate the pathological undercurrents that seem to be still flowing quite strong behind facades in Germany.
Merz
