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| Germany's Stern Magazine Calls For Conscription Of Young People To Take Up Arms "To Defend Diversity" In Pro-War Propaganda Piece |
| 2025-04-01 |
| Via Remix News, Stern Magazine is calling for mass conscription of German youths to join the army, including to ensure the defense of "freedom and diversity." The reaction to the article has been harsh to say the least, with hundreds of negative comments directed at Stern. The article, entitled "Others no longer defend us? Then we must do it ourselves!" claims that "the USA no longer wants to protect Germany. This brings a bitter realization: Our unbearable complacency must end." The solution? Start drafting German youth to fight the future wars. The author, Tilman Gerwien, a German male noticeable well past the age of someone who might typically be drafted, says that the days of a "dollhouse-like Bullerbu" are over and "we have to grow up." He details the left’s traditional stance against conscription, which saw German youths demanding American troops leave Germany, was "not only a matter of conscience, but also a lifestyle." He noted that at demonstrations against NATO, "people hopped around in peace-loving spirits, chanting ’Out of NATO, into fun!'" All of this has to end, according to Gerwien. There is no way to know if Gerwien was ever a part of these previous protests or ever shared those sentiments at one time, but it is notable that he is now old enough to not have to face the draft himself. Lucky him. He is a part of the trend of the German establishment left suddenly becoming gung-ho in recent years, especially since Putin invaded Ukraine. The old Green Party ideals of removing NATO from Europe and pursuing an anti-war agenda have been jettisoned. In this sense, much of the establishment left has become outright hawkish. With Trump now in office, the hawkishness from this German establishment has now gone into overdrive, with the Greens joining forces with the CDU to promote a defense-oriented Germany. Will Germans fight for the "New Germany?" Of course, the "New Germany" does not exactly have people lining up to fight for it, and that is a real problem for the establishment. Much of the conservative youth no longer see a Germany they would lay down their lives for, and in fact, the "New Germany" openly despises these AfD-voting youths, and maybe even sending them to the front would solve this "problem." Meanwhile, the left-wing youth is coddled and mostly pacifist. This "Spiegel/Stern left" may like the idea of soldiers going off to fight on their behalf, but they don’t actually want to do the fighting themselves. The old notions of "honor" and "heroes" have been widely mocked and denigrated by the German elite, which Stern acknowledges, So, who will fight? Well, in the end, there doesn’t have to be a "reason" for conscription. Youths in Germany, just as in Ukraine, will be forced to the front for the likes of Stern’s editorial staff when push comes to shove, but it’s a nice thought for these journalists that these youths will at least think they have something worth dying for. So, what should they die for? Stern addresses this problem, as the very atomized and multicultural society it promotes reduces the will for Germans to die face down in some trench at the frontline. The magazine writes, "Taking all of this into account, Germany faces a tremendous challenge. We must dare to embrace more ’heroism’ — and less hedonism. More communal commitment and less responsibility-avoiding individualism. And be careful not to lose sight of what we want to defend: freedom and diversity. If the pendulum swings too far toward individualization, we become defenseless. If the focus is too strongly on defense, the ghosts of the past are awakened, keyword ’national community.’ It’s important to find the balance." See, Stern doesn’t want right-wing people who love their country fighting a patriotic war at the front. This could lead to people voting for the AfD, and then... Hitler will come back. This is the logic of Der Spiegel, Stern, and many others. They instead want iPhone-wielding hipsters who love diversity dying in the trenches. These iPhone-wielding youths should be at the front to defend guys like Gerwien so they can go to Vietnamese restaurants, attend book readings from African authors, and enjoy art installations from Brazilian LGBT activists. German youth should die for all the above, not for the "German people," or the "German flag," or "hearth and home" or any of that other fascist nonsense that typically united nations and led men to lay down their lives for each other and their families. Stern also appears relatively sure this youth will indeed be dying as well, saying they "will have to take up arms at some point." "At the very latest, when conscription comes into effect, ’they’ (the Bundeswehr) will be all of us — even if only because our children and grandchildren will have to take up arms at some point," writes Stern. "This raises the question: What are we prepared to fight for and, when push comes to shove, to die for? The fact that we are being asked to answer for the first time in decades is the true ’turning point.'" However, as Stern writes, German youths are not just fighting for diversity, but also for "freedom." Notably, if you have any problem with "German freedom," such as Germany’s harsh free speech laws, then your freedom should be curtailed with a visit from the police, as is increasingly the case in Germany. Of course, freedom and democracy are tied together, and German youths should be fighting at the front to defend a government increasingly intent on banning the second most popular party in the country, the AfD, which just hit a new polling high this week at 23.5 percent. But freedom also means banning political parties, and we must all fight for the right to ban political parties whose opinions we do not agree with, especially if that party is opposed to the war in Ukraine, which all German youth (future soldiers fighting for diversity) should support.. It all sounds very confusing, but "freedom and diversity" certainly sound good as long as we don’t look at the details. It is also worth noting that despite Germans being called to "defend diversity," the cover of Stern is remarkably lacking in diversity. It’s two White people, a boy and girl. Considering Germany’s youth are becoming more and more diverse, one would think that it would have been the perfect opportunity to feature a Black or Arab person. Go to any clothing store in Germany or any other Western country, and the classic motif of the Black male paired with the White female is ubiquitous. However, as those on the right often point out, when the threat of real wars start, the White males suddenly start appearing more and more frequently in the recruiting ads of the armed forces. Laughably, the Stern call to action quotes military historian Sönke Neitzel, who told the magazine in support of conscription: "What are we waiting for?" "That 100 percent of the population is in favor of it?" He claims people won’t like it, but it simply has to happen. Well, maybe they could at least wait until there is 20 percent of the population supporting such measures? A new Forsa poll shows that only 17 percent of Germans are willing to take up arms and die for their country. In short, Stern’s vision of an army of conscripts ready to die for Germany sounds a bit like Hitler at the end of the war, who was completely separated from reality and moving armies around on the map that did not exist. Of those 17 percent, how many of them are older people or women who actually would not take up arms or even be forced to take up arms should the call to war come? As Remix News reported in the past, the Ukrainian army has had something the German army did not, which was a patriotic, hardcore, right-wing element that was willing to "die for Ukraine." Not all of these soldiers were neo-Nazis, but many certainly were. A huge number of these soldiers are already dead, and the war may be coming to an end. Ironically, Ukraine may end up more like Germany in the end with the death of these soldiers, as calls by Ukrainian business leaders to accept the mass importation of migrants to replace the soldiers lost are becoming more of a mainstream idea. Germany’s push for conscription will continue, with hundreds of billions being directed into weapons purchases. The only problem is that Germans are not going to want to fly these fighter jets or drive these tanks. As the X comments note, Germans do not seem especially enthusiastic. One user writes: "Why should you fight for a country that you can’t even be proud of?" Another responds: "You’ve failed with your miserable war training and war mentality. Only 17% of Germans want to defend Germany with weapons in hand, according to the latest Forsa survey. You won’t have my children, you miserable indoctrinators and arms industry lobbyists!" Another asks how old the boy on the cover of the magazine is: "Shouldn’t the question be: Would you give your child? How old is the boy on the cover? 17? Man, man, man... This is on the level of ’Jesus would have been vaccinated.'" Some do not even want people to buy Stern, period. "No—don’t fight! And don’t buy that stupid state propaganda magazine either," wrote another. |
| Posted by:The Walking Unvaxed |
| #11 I kinda feel like it's too late for Europe, the frog is already in the pot and the water is heating up. Their leaders are deliberately destroying their cultural identities by dilutions with muslim colonizers. Given that, I feel like the only way out is likely to be the nightmare fuel that Europe used to be capable of that they lack the spine for now. Things like the Saint Bartholomew's Day massacre. Unless there's a second coming of Charles Martel or someone like him to lead the charge against the invaders Europe has invited to pillage them. |
| Posted by: Silentbrick 2025-04-01 17:04 |
| #10 Nobody will invade Russia. We just want to keep Russia out. That works for me. We don’t want to invade Russia either. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2025-04-01 15:08 |
| #9 They instead want iPhone-wielding hipsters who love diversity dying in the trenches. Those that survive will no longer be what they began as. Though, to be fair, that's anyone whose seen a friend die brutally in front of them. Me included. I kind of wish there were a 130-year-old Ernst Junger still alive in Germany to write a response article to Tilman Gerwien's. That would be a hoot. |
| Posted by: Secret Master 2025-04-01 14:42 |
| #8 Yeah, because defend diversity will bring millions into the draft offices. Fucking morons. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2025-04-01 14:01 |
| #7 ^😎 |
| Posted by: Grom the Affective 2025-04-01 12:42 |
| #6 |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2025-04-01 12:40 |
| #5 MLF, we'll scare Brezhnev. |
| Posted by: Grom the Affective 2025-04-01 11:34 |
| #4 In 1989 the Bundeswehr had 509,000 troops. Never more. Nobody felt threatened by it. That said, I don't think we need the draft. We need a lean competent professional military acting in concert with other major European nations like France, Poland, U.K., Italy. Nobody will invade Russia. We just want to keep Russia out. |
| Posted by: European Conservative 2025-04-01 11:00 |
| #3 Raise a large army. March through Poland. Attack Russia. Hmmmm....haven't we seen this before? How did it work out? The cost of defanging several hundred years of German militarism says - No. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2025-04-01 10:27 |
| #2 Rather than drafting their reluctant youth who have been thoroughly indoctrinated against war and nationalism, why not just get rid of the army? Without soldiers and guns for fighting, we can all live in peace and harmony. Wouldn't that be nice? |
| Posted by: SteveS 2025-04-01 09:30 |
| #1 The Stern article is behind paywall... |
| Posted by: European Conservative 2025-04-01 09:22 |