The German experience - origin
and future of the Euro
By Horst Teubert
Dateline:13th February 2003
When at the end of the year 2001 in Germany the first Euro coins were
issued, it seemed as if the Emperor Charles V was, in a manner of speaking,
alive again. You may not know the Emperor Charles V. He was the father
of Philip II of Spain who sent his Great Armada to conquer England in
the time of your first Queen Elizabeth in 1588. Your history calls this
great fleet the Spanish Armada but it would be as accurate to call it
the European Armada, because Philip ruled over so much of Europe. If
it had succeeded, your religious, political and economic life would
have been dictated from the European mainland for more than 400 years
and we probably would not be holding this meeting! The Empire of Charles
V is widely seen as a predecessor of the European Union.
What has Charles V to do with the Euro? When the first Euro coins were
handed out, German newspapers published maps on which you could see
the "zone of influence" of the Euro, a zone which is much
bigger than the 12 western European countries that introduced the new
currency. The "zone of influence" of the Euro reaches from
the Caribbean Sea to the Indian Ocean and to the Pacific Ocean. You
pay with the Euro not only in the French Departments in South America
and in the Indian Ocean, but also in Kosovo and in Montenegro. Bound
to the Euro are the currencies in French Polynesia and New Caledonia,
besides the currencies of 16 countries in Western and Central Africa.
Politicians in the candidate states of the EU in Eastern Europe have
already started planning the introduction of the Euro You can say of
the Euro what could be said of the Emperor Charles V: He controlled
an "empire on which the sun never sets".
The German government is proud of this. The EU has turned into "a
first-class global finance power with the Euro", declares the German
Foreign Office on its website. And it declares further: "For the
first time the finance markets possess a credible alternative to the
dollar." This is especially important for German policy: Finally
they can compete with the USA. With the Euro Germany has got a currency
that makes this possible. German bankers are even hoping the Euro could
beat the dollar. The Chief Economist of the "Deutsche Bank"
declares: "In the not too distant future, in short, the Euro will
be to the dollar what Airbus has become to Boeing." The European
Airbus outstripped US-Boeing in the meantime.
The Euro is to compete with the dollar in the whole world, and for
that purpose German bankers offer the strangest suggestions. You know,
on the continent we have one-Euro-coins but no one-Euro-notes Recently
a German banker declared publicly that the one-dollar-note was world
famous; so the EU should introduce a
one-Euro-note because a coin could never become as famous as a note.
Of
course this is a very strange idea, but it shows how eager Germans are
to compete with the US.
Yet the Euro isn't a currency which can be influenced by all Euro-countries
to the same extent: Germany is the country with the strongest influence
on the new currency. When the first Euro-coins were introduced German
newspapers declared: "The Euro speaks German." It speaks German,
not French and not at all
English. The currency policies of the "European Central Bank"
which is situated in the German town of Frankfurt am Main has been established
according to German concepts and is formed by them. The statutes of
the "European Central Bank", the "convergence criteria"
and the "stability pact" correspond to concepts developed
by the German Ministry of Finance. The German Minister of Finance succeeded
in getting them accepted against concepts suggested by other countries.
Of course Germany, the strongest power of the EU, has enough influence
to shape the political general conditions for the Euro in accordance
with its national interests. You can recognize this very easily by the
"stability criteria". To make the Euro become a stable currency
an upper limit for new indebtedness of states was fixed at three percent.
The first state that threatened to exceed this limit after the introduction
of the Euro was Portugal, which was warned officially by the EU. The
second state that threatened to exceed the limit of three percent was
Germany - and Germany was not warned by the EU. As long as Germany itself
exceeds the limit
there won't be any consequences. When Germany again fulfills the stability
criteria, other states, which do not, will get into serious trouble.
You may now suspect that Germany advocated the introduction of the
Euro for
pursuing its own hegemonial concepts. That's an insidious idea but it
seems to be true. With the Euro Germany has a currency which is valid
in a large economic area; Germany played a decisive role in determining
the political rules for this currency; Germany is playing a decisive
role in keeping these rules.
Anyone who is familiar with German history will not be particularly
surprised at this assessment. Since the beginning of its expansionist
policy , Germany disguised its striving to become a super power with
the ambition of uniting the European continent. Propagandists of the
German Kaiserreich had already developed similar plans when the First
World War was prepared. They declared that Germany would put Europe
"in order" in a new and "natural" manner if the
continent was ready to grant Berlin's wishes.
Germany continued the old propaganda of uniting Europe after the Nazis
came to power in 1933 as well. When the German army occupied neighbouring
countries, Germany offered to the oppressed nations a system of economic
exploitation that was named "Europäische Wirtschaftsgemeinschaft"
(European Economic Community).
Various details of this project of dominance resemble the post-war-plans
of the European Economic Community. You can learn many interesting details
in a document that was translated into English by Mr. Spalton and published
under the title "Nazi Plans for European Union". The original
document was published under the title "Europäische Wirtschaftsgemeinschaft"
(European Economic Community) in the year 1942 and was an attempt to
sketch the "economic face of new Europe". The publication
contains a revealing introduction written by the then president of the
"Herein Berliner Industrieller" (Club of Berlin's Industrialists),
Heinrich Hunke, who continued his career after 1945.
When economic experts and bankers contemplated the European Economic
Community at the beginning of the 1940s, they discussed the future of
the different European currencies as well. On this occasion plans were
created which recommended the introduction of a common European currency
- under the condition that it was dominated by Germany. It was a question
of standardizing the European monetary area and achieving trade advantages
for the German economy. Additionally, the European currency was expected
to compete against the pound and especially against the dollar.
The unification of Europe and the introduction of a common European
currency can not just be traced back to plans that were developed by
anti-nazi-resistance until 1945. Experts of Nazi Germany developed their
own concepts that even - as a historian declared recently - anticipated
the Euro To give you a more precise
idea of this I will quote some sentences of a document that was written
in 1944 by a member of "IG Farben". The German economic expert
wrote:
"Whether Europe can hold its own with the super powers USA, Russia
and Greater East Asia and become equal to them depends on whether it
can find its way from national divisions and the endless struggle of
its nations for dominance to achieve real European cooperation. (...)
We all here in Europe are small in comparison with the three super powers
if we are divided, and we will become powerless and weak-willed against
them if we remain separated. It is fruitless to imagine that we were
able to hold our own as Latvia or Sweden, as Hungary or Greece, as Spain
or Italy and - in my opinion - even as France or Germany. Let us realize:
We continental Europeans have only the choice between co-operation or
subordination, to get along together and to unite in a healthy unity
or to become subjects ourselves to a foreign rule from overseas."
The German economic expert then demands the building up of a "European
Economic Alliance" and promises to the occupied countries independence
in that alliance: "If the creation of the European large-area economy
the Führer repeatedly proclaimed that aims of our policies shall
be carried out in the form of an economic alliance, our intention is
not to infringe on the territories of the occupied countries and of
the little nations with regard to their national independence."
The draft ends with suggestions about a "Bank of Europe" and
about the introduction of a common European currency, the "Europagulden"
or European Guilder.
This example gives us a deeper insight into the role of the propagandists
discussing the unification of Europe and also into the introduction
of a common European currency. For a long time the origins of European
unification and the European currency in the bureaucracies of Nazi Germany
were put under a taboo, and to a certain degree they are still. But
recently historians started to reconstruct the past history of the European
Union and the Euro in the particular debates of the Nazis, and they
have been discovering very interesting connections.
This little excursion into German history reveals that the introduction
of a common European currency agrees - under appropriate circumstances
- with the German striving to become a super power. Of course nobody's
trumpeting this forth. The slogans used in Germany to campaign for the
Euro are completely different. The
Euro is a practical thing. Germans can go on holiday in France, Spain,
Italy or Greece without having to change money. Only rebellious states
like Great Britain are to blame for my having to change my German euros
into pounds when traveling to Derby... The Euro contributes to international
understanding, according to the
arguments of the propagandists. It raises consciousness in all Euro-countries
that Europe belongs together and should not quarrel. With that the Euro
is said to support peace in Europe.
Here I may introduce a short excursion and show how German politics
disturbs peace in Europe most effectively - with its politics of ethnic
groups ("Volksgruppen") and with its plans of regionalisation.
These are two different concepts that are very important in understanding
German policies.
The "Volksgruppenpolitik" - a policy which claims to preserve
and to empower
ethnic minorities - is an old German specialty. German ideology is based
on the political view that an homogenous population with a common origin,
common roots and common language forms a "Volk". Living together
in such an imagined community is considered as the uniquely adequate
form of living together. This approach differs totally from the concept
of living together in a nation state. A good example is the former Yugoslavia.
The standpoint of the German government is that people in Kosovo who
speak Albanian are another "Volk" from the people who speak
Serbian. Germany concludes that "Kosovo-Albanians" must receive
special rights to demarcate themselves from the Serbs. Germany demanded
similar things for Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia. You know very well
the outcome of this German policy in former Yugoslavia: The former nation
state broke into four parts and probably will break again into Kosovo,
Montenegro and Serbia. Existing concepts in Germany advocate the ideology
of "Volk" that all European countries consist of many peoples
and will break apart, even Great Britain and France. Only one country
will not break for it consists of one "Volk" only: Germany.
Another German concept is the concept of "regionalisation".
It plans that parts of nation states - so-called "regions"
- get more rights of their own. This strengthens the regions but, as
a logical consequence, weakens the nation states. EU-policies are -
as Germany wanted - supporting the regions: They are getting money and
support from Brussels. The crucial outcome of the concept of regionalisation
is that the supported regions align themselves more and more with Brussels
and tend to
lose their ties to the nation states. By these means the EU gains increasing
influence on the regions. Who wonders that the strongest EU-power -
Germany - profits from these developments! Recently some French complained
that Alsace can't be controlled completely by Paris any more and they
cite a growing German influence. Germany influenced Alsace after occupying
it in 1870 and 1940; both times Alsace was made part of the German "Reich".
As you may recognize, German policies imply very dangerous aspects
that are not supporting peace in Europe at all. Therefore it's somewhat
misleading to claim that the Euro upholds peace; for the Euro is supporting
German hegemony over Europe.
In spite of all this propaganda, the Euro isn't very popular in Germany.
The reason for this is that many Germans were proud of the D-Mark, a
currency which is associated with German economic growth after the Second
World War, and therefore symbolizes a great success. Now many Germans
are disappointed that this
symbol of success was taken away. Furthermore many companies used the
introduction of the Euro at the beginning of the year 2002 to increase
prices. Official statistics say there hasn't been a significant increase
of prices but many Germans have a different perception.
Nevertheless, because Germany has a very strong position inside EU
the Germans actually need not reckon with an economic crisis in Germany
because of the new currency. I think the actual economic crisis in Germany
- we have 4,6 millions of unemployed at the moment, the highest number
for many years, and the number is
increasing - I think the actual economic crisis is mainly due to political
decisions made by the German government and not due to the Euro With
the Euro came rules for the finance policy of the European countries;
these rules are a danger for many European nation states, especially
the smaller ones, because they lost the freedom to make a finance policy
corresponding to their needs. It's another thing for Germany. Germany
has the power to break the rules which came with the Euro, and in fact
it does so. So the Euro may be blamed for unemployment in Portugal or
Greece, but hardly for German unemployment.
Beyond this background, the strong German economy has created the prerequisites
to expand totally in the countries that introduce the Euro Already now
the German economy controls every day greater parts of Europe. An example
is the German energy company RWE, one of the biggest German energy companies.
The enterprise bought - among other things - the gas monopoly in the
Czech Republic, possesses about 50 percent of the gas market in Hungary
and bought recently 85 percent of the polish energy company Stoleczny
Zaklad Energetyczny. Buying the British gas producer Highland Energy
RWE invaded into the British energy market, taking over Innogy Holding
RWE bought the leading company of power supply in Great Britain.
RWE is not the only German holding buying parts of the British energy
market. Eon - in the meantime the biggest private energy holding of
the western world - bought Powergen and TXU-England last year and now
possesses a leading position as power and gas supplier. Eon wants to
strengthen its position, now with Midlands Electricity which is to be
bought by Eon-subsidiary Powergen.
Economic influence of course causes political influence. You can recognize
that very clearly if media holdings are sold. There are complaints in
Eastern Europe against the German media holding WAZ ("Westdeutsche
Allgemeine Zeitung"); it is said that the holding now possesses
a monopoly of public opinion. At present Bodo Hombach, a German social
democrat, is a leading manager of WAZ. Previously Hombach had been Minister
of the German Chancellor and then EU-coordinator on the Balkans. WAZ
now possesses direct or indirect control over 23 newspapers, 38 magazines
and 10
advertising papers in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria,
Croatia and Yugoslavia. In Bulgaria the holding publishes the daily
newspaper with the highest circulation, the greatest political weekly
newspaper, the women's magazine with the highest circulation and the
only evening newspaper and controls - measured by circulation - 80 percent
of Bulgarian daily press. Most media in the Czech Republic are also
owned by German holdings; last year the Czech government complained
that its view of the Benes decrees is hardly printed in national media
which print a view that is similar to the German view.
Citizens of the affected countries certainly will not profit by the
fact that German companies get an easier access to their markets after
introducing the Euro, since - if companies are bought by German groups,
control over the companies shifts to Germany and can't be influenced
by the local population. What people want doesn't count at all. An example:
There were massive protests in Poland last year when the German RWE
bought the Polish energy company Stoleczny Zaklad Energetyczny; conflicts
in parliament dragged on for a whole day and a night. One member of
parliament who was protesting against the sale to the German company
was finally removed from the parliament forcibly at five o'clock in
the morning by guards.
This can happen if someone is defends his country's interest against
German influence. Already now Germany is the greatest power inside EU,
and it does all it can to enlarge its power more and more. It is trying
to weaken the sovereignty of other nation states, to weaken their resistance
and strengthen the German position. The Euro is one of the means that
support the German policies, besides other means such as German ethnic
group policies or the German concept of regionalisation. That all could
end in a Europe dominated by Germany - a vision Germany aimed at twice
within the last century. I can't do anything but warn you against German
hegemony
over Europe.
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