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Berlin police say they've arrested three suspects in connection with a failed arson attack on a home for asylum-seekers.

Police said Friday that two men and a woman, whose names weren't released, were arrested in the area of the Thursday night attack.

 

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/arrested-unsuccessful-attack-refugee-home-berlin-33223794

Germany raises estimate on refugee arrivals to 800,000 this year

218,221 asylum applications filed in first half of 2015, and government more than doubles forecast for year from original 300,000

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/20/germany-raises-estimate-refugee-arrivals-800000

Riot breaks out at overcrowded refugee camp in Germany after resident tore pages out of the Koran and threw them in the toilet

  • At least 17 people were injured at an overcrowded shelter in Suhl, Germany
  • Group of 20 refugees chased down a man who tore pages out of the Koran
  • They turned their anger on security services who eventually saved the man
  • Raised tensions in nation which expects to host 800,000 migrants this year

 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3204828/Riot-breaks-overcrowded-refugee-camp-Germany-resident-tore-pages-Koran.html#ixzz3jS5sPOSd

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There's still so many potential immigrants out there and with population growth rates continuing to be high in Africa, that potential is only going to get higher in the future. At some Germany and other European countries will probably end up drawing a hard line to stop the immigration waves.

 

But anyway, about time for a Germany thread..

 

 

Look at them, they're crazy, who'd want to immigrate to there? ;) :D

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My bet is foreigher groups (Turks for ex) themselves will be the ones to say STOP enough is enough.

 

The "Jüdische Allgemeine" today had what I thought was a rather balanced commentary from the point of view of a group which frequently had to flee from persecution itself. Translation mine.

 

Safe in Germany?

 

They ony want to save their life, but citizens and politicians here are meeting them with mixed feelings

 

20/08/2015 - by Sergey Lagodinsky

 

The summer of 2015 seems to become a tears-and-goosebumps summer. There are no right and wrong emotions, but the line between the wish to help others and the drive of the German public to drown itself in its own emotion is most thin.

 

It is moving between the almost tears of [news anchor] Claus Kleber about the refiugee drama, which apparently created more sympathy than the civil war refugees themselves, the waves of indignation and unsubstantiated political accusations towards politicians, usually without a sense for the complexity of the situation, down to the internet crossfire which unfortunately honest [actor] Til Schweiger caught.

 

TEARS The political culture of concernment and hate does however hide the true shudder of the past months. It is displacing the goosebumps which the threats and attacks against refugees and their accommodations in Germany are causing, the tears which are shooting into your eyes at the view of sinking ships with entire refugee families and exhausted saved ones. And precisely this affection emerges in people who are doing something right and something important for others rather than incensing themselves: collecting clothes, teaching German, counseling people or taking them into their homes. These are the really moving emotions of this summer.

 

Political opponents are mauling each other over questions which additional countries could be considered safe and which alleviations politic have to grant to those fleeing from "real" states in crisis in return. But besides the question of safe states of origin the question remains unanswered whether Germany is a safe state of arrival at all.

 

Somebody who has ever lived in a real crisis zone and is not just informing himself on this via [French-German TV channel] Arte documentations appreciates the situation in Germany very well. Even accommodations with a common kitchen or a bed under a tent roof can bring relief to a war refugee. Provided he and his children feel welcomed by neighbors and have a perspective for the future.

 

INTEGRATION A perspective beyond summer means quite concretely: a solid roof above the head. For now it is summer, but very soon it will get colder and more wet. In the medium term therefore the question is posing itself, how Germany can offer humane accommodations and an integration perspective to the fleeing people. The numerous well-meant wishes do not always translate into well-done proposals.

 

Example: The wish for an immediate de-central accommodation of refugee families does not take into account that central accommodation facilities serve important functions at least in the initial phase of living in Germany. Because only here there is information and mutual exchange of experiences. If refugees are lacking social contacts, a de-central accommodation is pushing them into isolation and causes information deficits: Where to shop? To which school to send the children? How and where to file applications in time? A de-centeralization can only have success if personal support of the accommodated can be guaranteed. But is that even realistic with up to 750,000 refugees to be expected in this year?

 

We should do good without being naive. We should help without neglecting political responsibility towards the people in need in our emotion. We should help without de-humanizing the refugees once again through our drive for do-gooderdom.

 

EDUCATION It is people coming to us, not saints. They too are loving and hating, working and loafing. Some are diligent, others lazy, some are suffering, others lying. Some will arrive well in Germany and enrich this country. Many others however will not. Some children will quickly learn German and become doctors or writers. Other children will become "problem cases" in overcrowded schools.

 

Some will become entrepreneurs, others criminals, and some will become both, just as many Germans in our country. And yes, many arrivals of today could march on German streets against Israel or even against Jews one day. Just like numerous people with roots in the Middle East or Turkey did last summer. That, too, belongs to reality.

 

But that does not matter at this time, because most are not coming to Germany to please us. They are fleeing to Germany to save their own live and the live of their children. Somebody who considers this people good people wholesale has no head. Somebody who wantsa to deny them a right to life and to security has no heart. And before we switch on our head, we have to prove that we have a heart.

 

About integration problems we have to talk later. This is written on another political page - by the way, next to the chapters about political treatment of radical right-wing youths in Saxonian Switzerland or the German-descended rioters of [central Berlin square] Alexanderplatz. But first of all we are opening chapter one of the political book. And this chapter is called humanity.

 

The author is a lawyer and writer in Berlin.

 

From my experience, there are three kinds of people when it comes to this. The first write to our office, and usually all others in parliament too, to complain about the masses of "jungle negros and camel drivers" inundating Germany to suck our money and rape our women and children. The second are the busybody do-gooders who write to complain that the government is not doing enough to help the refugees (or the fair-weather volunteers who quit once the going gets tough, or the attention whores who complain that they get no recognition and support for their work from authorities who are already working at the limit of their own capacities). The third write to us and say "I have this empty house with four flats, only the bathrooms need some work, how can I turn this into a refugee accommodation? There's these abandoned US barracks, how's their status and can't we use them for this purpose?"

 

Overall, you know the situation is tough when the UN High Commissioner says that Germany and Sweden are left with taking in too much refugees. Germany is currently receiving 43 percent of all asylum applications in the EU, and indeed about 40 percent are from folks coming from the West Balkans (Kosovo, Albania, Serbia, Macedonia - ca. 77,000 of 203,000 applications this year so far) who are not so much fleeing political, religious or ethnic persecution and violence rather than economic hardship, and are clogging up the system to the detriment of those in real need of refuge. France and Germany just launched another initiative to establish a more just distribution within the EU, but the Eastern Europeans in particular, who are less affected (in part by being less attractive) so far are obviously hesitant to share a greater part of the burden with associated cost and other problems.

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There's still so many potential immigrants out there and with population growth rates continuing to be high in Africa, that potential is only going to get higher in the future. At some Germany and other European countries will probably end up drawing a hard line to stop the immigration waves.

 

But anyway, about time for a Germany thread..

 

 

Look at them, they're crazy, who'd want to immigrate to there? ;) :D

That is damned good beat!~

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There's still so many potential immigrants out there and with population growth rates continuing to be high in Africa, that potential is only going to get higher in the future. At some Germany and other European countries will probably end up drawing a hard line to stop the immigration waves.

 

But anyway, about time for a Germany thread..

 

 

Look at them, they're crazy, who'd want to immigrate to there? ;) :D

That is damned good beat!~

When they founded the band, they wanted to create german music. So they took the avantgarde of Kraftwerk, took inspiration from industrial (Laibach and others) and made it into a 4/4 marching music beat. You know, germans always clap on the 1. No off-beat please forrr zee germans.

 

Or so the story is told. ;)

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Rammstein can into the friend over zee atlantic:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NAM3rIBG5k

 

And Japan!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQw05e26I-k

 

This edited video has been on the net for a long time. Probably not made by a Japanese but the anime is of course Japanese. I think this video was the first time I heard Rammstein music :lol:

 

Oh, fyi, the red headed girl is supposed to be German in the story.

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Despite being born and raised in Germany (not all in one shot, mind you, but I've got about 12 years overall in country, 10 of them past the age of 8, and the last two at about 30) there is one thing I just do not understand, and really need some help wrapping my brain around:

 

 

I mean, I was there for the fall of the wall and even got to visit the DDR before and after the fall (but before reunifcation)... and I knew he was popular then... but that he still was 15 years later? Neither ever made sense to me.

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Meh. I think his "immense popularity" in Germany is more urban legend than a reality, a self-serving myth so he can still into relevance. I suppose it turned out for him that he made about as much money in Germany as in the entire US in his heydays, but it happened a few years after the US peak of that beach series right when the reunification opened an even bigger market, so he milked it as much as he could (and I can't blame him for that). But the reality is that the German market for entertainment media is one of the largest worldwide (third only to the US and Japan, I think), so even a moderate popularity can still pay for a living.

And then you realize, as an aging artist, that these most loyal fans are probably going to pay you for decades if only you manage to maintain a relation. Just look at the Star Trek cast and their convention touring. If you have substantially more fans in some (large) regional market you'd probably concentrate your efforts there to maintain the fan base. Which of course creates an even weirder impression elsewhere.

 

That's not to say that there isn't a substantial number of people over here with remarkably bad taste - just like anywhere else in the world. ;)

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I dunno... he's always seemed so very, very much more popular when I was in Germany than in the US, and I was in the US during the Baywatch era. I'm not saying he was universally popular (basically nobody is anywhere), but so much higher than ever made sense.

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Oh, come on. There are also softer stars worth watching, like Helene Fischer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZkejDqTuSM

 

 

Not the kind of I normally listen to, (Volksmusik / Schlager Musik), but she is worth watching, and has a large following in Germany.

 

And she also covers in English:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu5xG60lmBg

 

Interestingly enough, born in Russia.

 

Obscure reference from Facebook:

(Probably her grandparents had a dackel: Volgadeutsch → Volksdeutsch → Heim ins Reich → Deutsch)

 

 

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Oh, come on. There are also softer stars worth watching, like Helene Fischer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZkejDqTuSM

 

 

Not the kind of I normally listen to, (Volksmusik / Schlager Musik), but she is worth watching, and has a large following in Germany.

 

And she also covers in English:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu5xG60lmBg

 

Interestingly enough, born in Russia.

 

Obscure reference from Facebook:

(Probably her grandparents had a dackel: Volgadeutsch → Volksdeutsch → Heim ins Reich → Deutsch)

 

 

 

So, the German Celine Dion is easier on the eye than the original one.

But why bother when you already got Ute Lemper?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHFXEPYU0FQ

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In view of Tony E's veneration for Heino and David Hasselhoff, this is a good excuse to repost the video of the Große Zapfenstreich on the occasion of Theodor zu Guttenberg's farewell as defense minister.

 

von und zu! von und zu! ;) I miss Gutti. :(

 

 

OTOH, Heino, Hasselhoff and zu Guttenberg mentioned in the same sentence....i`m running for a cold shower! :ninja:

 

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In view of Tony E's veneration for Heino and David Hasselhoff, this is a good excuse to repost the video of the Große Zapfenstreich on the occasion of Theodor zu Guttenberg's farewell as defense minister.

 

No offence, but what is it with Germans and torches? I realize that the torches are an integral part of the Zapfenstreich but I know from personal experience that people (Swedes at least) who see this for the first time invariably compares it to the torchlight parades the Nazis held in the 30´s.

Does any of todays Germans make this connection?

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