A Hungarian conservative on Germany’s problems

Germany, the country many Europeans expect to lead the continent out of today’s crisis, is in crisis herself. A conservative Hungarian historian blames “the generation of 1968” for Germany’s problems

“Left-wing liberal intellectuals have kept Germany in a state of spiritual terror for decades, causing terrible destruction” – historian Mária Schmidt writes on komment.hu.

Schmidt remarks that Germany’s school system used to be the best in the world, until the left-wing rebels of the sixties managed to ruin it, when they occupied the leading intellectual positions in Germany. A hundred years ago, almost ten thousand Americans were studying in German Universities. At present, none of Germany’s universities are to be found among the world’s best fifty institutions. In an effort to expand equality, the liberals have introduced a new spirit according to which performance is no longer valued.

In Germany “everyone conforms” to the liberal creed and those who don’t are finally discredited, Maria Schmidt contends. “Speech is a lot less free in today’s Germany than it used to be in Hungary during  Kádár’s last decade”, although the communist control machinery was then still intact, she claims.

She believes Germany has still not come to terms with her past. The post-war generation was ashamed of their fathers and refused to ponder the suffering millions of Germans had to go through during and after the war. “We will not be able to meet the new challenges of the 21^st century as long as Europe’s strongest nation is still a prisoner of the 20^th,” Mária Schmidt concludes.

Tags: Germany, liberalism