Since publication of my report on German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier referring to the opposition AfD party as “rat-catchers” and hence, by implication, to its supporters as “rats”, I have been seeing many responses in social media supposedly debunking the report and insisting that Steinmeier was merely alluding to the legend of the Pied Piper. The original German title of the legend is Der Rattenfänger von Hameln or ‘The Rat-Catcher of Hamelin’.
But to get a sense of just how disingenuous these responses are, just have a look at the above historical postcard from precisely Hamelin. “Greetings from Hamelin” can be read to the right, and the final couplet in the accompanying poem or stanza reads: “A travelling singer who no one knows; a rat-catcher, that is my job.”
Or consider the below picture of the Glockenspiel figurines at Hamelin’s Hochzeitshaus (Wedding Hall).
Or the below picture from a 2009 parade in Hamelin. What are the children marching behind that Rat-Catcher/Pied Piper dressed up as?
Yes, we all know that in the legend – both in the German original and the English-language adaptation – the rat-catcher/pied piper will return to town to lead away the town’s children with his tune. But to suggest that the word “rat-catcher” means anything other than what it means because of the legend or that the root meaning has somehow been eclipsed in the German imagination is completely bogus, as the above images attest. (The images can be found on the German-language Wikipedia page on the legend here.)
Those most directly concerned by Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s “rat-catcher” allusion, i.e., the members and supporters of the AfD, understood perfectly well what was being said, and so too did virtually every other German-speaker of good faith, as innumerable outraged reactions in German-language social media make clear. Many of these reactions call for Steinmeier’s resignation.
But even supposing the German President did not “really” mean to compare AfD supporters to rats but merely to innocent children being led astray, how is that better? This would mean that instead of dehumanising AfD supporters, he will have infantilised them. And what is the German Government considering doing in order to ‘protect’ these innocent little children? It is considering banning the party they support and want to vote for.
Three cheers for German democracy!
Robert Kogon is the pen name of a widely-published journalist covering European affairs. Subscribe to his Substack and follow him on X.
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Deplorable, one might say
So do they want to ban this political party because it has a few ‘bad apples’ in it? Or do they want to ban it because the current Govt doesn’t like its views and lots of people support it?
Either way there would be a strong case to ban any popular party as you will always find ‘bad apples’ if you want to look for them, and the current Govt will always disagree with the Opposition.
I therefore think a strong case could be made for banning Labour today looking at its many misfit MPs (Burgon, Abbott, Osamor etc) and unbelievably harmful policies.
Don’t make the mistake of believing this sets any sort of precedent that goes both ways. These people own the courts.
Name Calling————When you have no argument you have no choice but resort to it. ———“Deplorables” “Climate Deniers” ——–No facts no reason just personal attacks
The Nazis compared the Jews (and Christians) to rats, vermin, diseases. Such depictions suffused the media and educational systems.
Good to see that the current group of Euro-Nazis feel compelled to reuse such cultural allusions, created by their forbears.
The Nazis compared the Jews (and Christians) to rats, vermin, diseases. Such depictions suffused the media and educational systems.
I think that’s an urban myth. It’s certainly an urban myth for Christians as there was as explicit faction of Nazi-Christans called Deutsche Christen (German Christians). Both Scholz and Steinmeier belong to the SPD, ie, the original socialist party. Referring to them as Euro-Nazis is therefore completely absurd. This party has always been anti-German and international to the core.
But the whole EU is “International to the core”. —-The UN’s star pupil.
What’s that supposed to communicate in this context?
It communicates that you are always in favour of being in the EU yet here you condemn a party for being “anti German and International to the core”—–You cannot have it both ways——–The EU is “International to the core”
You think that I must be in favour of the EU because I’ve been critical of your criticism of it. An obvious contradiction like the one above should be a strong hint that this assumption of yours is wrong.
For the record, in a distant, ideal universe, Germany would withdraw from both the EU and the UN. This would cause the former to collapse and at least bring the latter into serious financial difficulties as both are predominantly funded by plundering the German taxpayer. The consequences could be interesting, principially, a military intervention in Germany by some coalition of England, France, the USA and Russia, as explicitly authorized by the UN treaties. IMHO, this would be a risk worthy of being taken as it would at least force everyone to play with an open hand.
No-one has a monopoly on an insult. Any group will use such comparisons when it suits. Here’s the IDF using “roaches” and “rats”.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-785378
I don’t think they said that about Christians, given that they themselves were Christian.
“I have informed Sir Brandon Lewis that I will be referring to him personally in this debate. He is the only Minister of the 97 in question who has claimed two severance payments in 2022-23, totalling almost £33,000. The second payment was worth three months’ pay after just seven weeks in the job as Justice Secretary. Does my right hon. Friend agree that at the height of a cost of living crisis it was nothing short of a disgrace that the right hon. Gentleman felt entitled to claim so much money from the taxpayer when delivering so little in return?”
Nice little earner.
https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2024-02-06a.174.0
You’ve correctly noted that the correct interpretation, namely, referring to AfD supporters as people whose feeble, ie, childish, minds made them fall for cunning false leaders seeking to lead them to their own doom, is – in a democracy, where these people are commonly called voters – even worse then likening them to rats being led to their doom for the same reason. The central motive of the pied piper story is not that he sells his services as rat catcher to the city of Hameln but his ability to cause others, be they rats or children, to follow him blindly to their own detriment by playing tunes on his flute.
The central moral of the legend is revenge. There was a breach of contract when the Town officials / citizens failed to pay the ratcatcher his fee. He was betrayed. It seems supporters of the AfD feel the same way.
Seems he is just following the line of the rest of the West Elite Tyrants. Remember these beauties
Hillary Clinton Trump supporters in other words half the American people “Basket of deplorables”
Justin Trudeau called those who didn’t take the covid 19 spike, Misogynists, Racists, he closed the Bank Accounts of the Truckers and those who donated via Go fund me. Remember what Go fund me did folks next time someone asks you to use them.
Macron – Publically stated he wanted to Piss off the unvaccinated
Biden- demonised the Unvaccinated and called them spreaders amongst other forms of othering and abuse. Biden even now trying to jail his political rival.
So what the German Minister is saying is no surprise, this true basket of deplorables in Government across the west are contemptuous of the citizens who pay their wages, they believe themselves to be superior and chosen by God to dictate to us.
There are many other examples of their hatred and disdain towards us openly and arrogantly displayed over the past 5 years and more in the case of Ms Clinton.
The Globalist New World Order is a mix of communism and fascism. I like to call it neo-communism. Is it any wonder then that they have inherited the language and practices of their predecessors?
Macron – Publically stated he wanted to Piss off the unvaccinated
Not really. The verb he used was emerde (probably misspelled) which is a compositum based on the merde – a vulgar French term for poo. Drag them through the poo or Dunk them into the poo are probably sensible translations of that.
“Moi, d’habitude je ne suis pas là pour emmerder les Francais. … Eh bien là, les non-vaccinés, j’ai très envie de les emmerder.”
Could also be translated as “to shit on”. Either way the choice of words is a fair bit ruder than “to piss off”.
Cause them to get covered with shit is my intuitive choice for an English version but that’s an awkward (IMHO) indirect construction.
Google translates it as “annoy”
Do they think they would get away with banning the AFD…That is the question.
Probably not, as the SPD has repeatedly tried to get the NPD banned (formely the National Democratic Party of Germany, nowadays apparenty called Heimat!)
which is a real nationalist party and the German supreme court has always rejected that. But this won’t them stop from trying when they think something can be gained from forcing the AfD through the procedure. This is, after all, the party which was part of the German government through all of Corona and hence, they obviously don’t mind bending any rules to the maximum amount these can be bent when they expect to profit from this.