city:stuttgart

  • Press Release on the Protest in #Ellwangen March 14, 2019

    Ellwangen has become a symbol of our protest!

    Picket from 11 a.m. onwards, Am Fuchseck in Ellwangen, rally at 3:30 p.m.

    Refugees take legal action against their sentences.

    Trial dates before the Ellwangen district court on March 14, 2019 cancelled!

    Detained refugees must be released.

    Since May 3, 2018 various groups and trial observers have presented criticism of the brutal police operation carried out by 500 officials at the first reception centre in Ellwangen. The police operation itself triggered more than 25 criminal proceedings. Letters and e-mails to the police headquarters in Aalen, to the democratic factions in the state parliament and to the Ministry of the Interior, Digitisation and Migration were not answered, or only partially or briefly. Evidently there is little interest to question the legality of the police action.

    After the first trials began at the Ellwangen local court in July 2018 and a refugee was sentenced to six months in prison without probation for assaulting the police (tätlicher Angriff), there were already serious doubts about the legality of the police operation. Shortly afterwards, various groups wrote a multi-page inquiry to the Aalen police headquarters. The letter was sent to all democratic factions in the Stuttgart state parliament. It was also brought to the attention of the Ministry of the Interior.

    The letter of 29 August 2018 already pointed out that “there was sufficient time between the protest action on 30 April and the police action on 3 May 2018 to obtain a court order. Since the time span between the two police operations was long, this does not constitute an exigent circumstance (Gefahr im Verzug)”. This point was taken up now by the judge of the Ellwangen local court, because also rooms in a refugee accommodation are protected by the Basic Law article 13 GG “inviolability of the home”.

    After further proceedings at the district court Ellwangen and issuing of orders of punishment (Strafbefehl), numerous further inhabitants have taken legal action. In one case meanwhile the proceedings were terminated (Einstellung). The three scheduled trial dates for March 14, 2019 have been cancelled. The background to this is that the court has given up on the public prosecutor’s office to conduct further investigations. The proceedings are continuing, but hearings will not take place due to this court order for the time being. It is obvious that the police raid had no legal basis. And if a search has not been lawful, defendants did not make themselves punishable. In this context, we demand the immediate termination (Einstellung) of all cases and the annulment of all sentences already imposed on residents of the camp. We also demand the release of the detainees!

    Alassa M. took legal action before the Stuttgart administrative court against the police operation of May 3, 2018. Since his legal re-entry and renewed application for asylum, the public prosecutor’s office has tried to criminalise him in connection with the protest in Ellwangen and to present him as a criminal. Months later, criminal investigations are initiated and orders of punishment (Strafbefehl) issued. The impression of a political guideline by the Green Party – CDU-led state government, in particular by the CDU-led ministry of the interior, is obvious here.

    On Thursday March 14, 2019 we call for a protest to Ellwangen. We would like to commemorate the police operation that took place exactly a year ago in Donauwörth and of the questionable, violent role of the security personnel in the mass camps, especially in Bavaria. Mass camps, ANKER centres or first reception facilities are increasingly revealed as state institutions in which more and more basic and human rights of the residents are latently undermined. These institutions are increasingly developing their own dynamics and questionable power structures, which enable police operations such as those that took place in Ellwangen, Donaueschingen, Donauwörth, Plattling, Bamberg, Fürstenfeldbruck and other camps. We understand the protest in Ellwangen on March 14 also as a protest against these state power centres, which in the end can only be classified as a stage on the way to sealing off refugees and eliminating the right to asylum. Together we must put a stop to this development.

    First signatories

    Stoffwechsel e.V. Karlsruhe

    Aktion Bleiberecht Freiburg

    Freiburger Forum aktiv gegen Ausgrenzung

    Solidarity International

    Julia Scheller Landesvorsitzende MLPD Baden-Württemberg

    Haru Schuh Mannheim

    Justizwatch

    Forim Azilon – Asyl und Menschenrecht Konstanz

    Daniel Tandol

    Komitee für Grundrechte und Demokratie

    KOP – Kampagne für Opfer rassistischer Polizeigewalt

    Freundeskreis Alassa & friends

    Ausbrechen

    Unabhängiger Freundkreis Asyl Murrhardt

    Solinet Hannover

    Karawane Hamburg

    Lili Mirecki

    Antifaschistisches Aktionsbündnis Stuttgart & Region (AABS)

    OTKM Stuttgart

    IL Stuttgart

    http://cultureofdeportation.org/2019/03/13/press-release-for-march-14-2019
    #Allemagne #réfugiés #asile #migrations #violences_policières #manifestation #Anker-Zentrum

    In German :
    https://refugees4refugees.wordpress.com/2019/03/13/pressemitteilung-zum-protest-am-14-03-2019-in-ellwangen

  • 5 ans de prison pour le promoteur d’une « prostitution propre » * Great news !
    http://tradfem.wordpress.com/2019/02/27/5-ans-de-prison-pour-le-promoteur-dune-prostitution-propre

    Après presque un an de procès, les responsables du bordel Paradise de Leinfelden-Echterdingen ont été condamnés. Les représentantes des victimes parlent d’un signal adressé à la société allemande.

    Jürgen Rudloff, propriétaire du grand bordel Paradise de Leinfelden-Echterdingen (Esslingen), écope d’une peine de prison de cinq ans, son employé responsable du marketing de trois ans et trois mois. Un autre employé s’en tire avec une peine avec sursis. En outre, le produit des crimes sera confisqué, soit 1,3 million d’euros.

    Le tribunal régional de Stuttgart les a reconnus coupables de complicité dans la traite des êtres humains, la prostitution forcée et la fraude. Le tribunal a estimé qu’il était prouvé que Rudloff avait délibérément fermé les yeux sur les structures violentes de son entreprise. Il était uniquement important pour lui que son entreprise fonctionne. Au Paradise, des rockers forçaient les femmes à se prostituer et à leur remettre leurs revenus. Il s’agissait du premier procès à grande échelle à révéler les pratiques criminelles sous-tendant la prostitution légale.

    Traduction : #Tradfem
    Version anglaise en bas de la version française
    Version originale : http://www.swr.de/swraktuell/baden-wuerttemberg/stuttgart/Mammutverfahren-vor-dem-Stuttgarter-Landgericht-Urteile-im-Paradise-Prozess-erwa

  • Ku-Klux-Klan Deutschland: Polizei zerschlägt gewaltbereites Nazinetzwerk | ZEIT ONLINE
    https://www.zeit.de/gesellschaft/zeitgeschehen/2019-01/ku-klux-klan-deutschland-national-social-knights-durchsuchungen-razzien
    https://img.zeit.de/gesellschaft/zeitgeschehen/2019-01/national-social-knights-of-the-ku-klux-klan-deutschland/wide__1300x731

    Mit einer Großrazzia ist die Polizei in mehreren Bundesländern gegen ein mutmaßlich gewaltbereites kriminelles Netzwerk bekennender Nationalsozialisten vorgegangen. Bei dem Einsatz gegen die Vereinigung, die sich National Social Knights of the Ku-Klux-Klan Deutschland nennt, seien mehr als 100 Waffen wie Macheten und Schwerter beschlagnahmt worden, teilte die Staatsanwaltschaft Stuttgart mit. Durchsucht wurden zwölf Wohnobjekte in Baden-Württemberg, Bremen, Hamburg, Niedersachsen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Sachsen-Anhalt und Thüringen.

    France/Monde | En Allemagne, un réseau nazi proche du Ku Klux Klan démantelé
    https://www.ledauphine.com/france-monde/2019/01/17/en-allemagne-un-reseau-nazi-proche-du-ku-klux-klan-demantele

    Une opération de grande échelle, dans huit Etats fédéraux allemands, a été menée cette semaine. Une quarantaine de personnes, se présentant comme des « Chevaliers du National-Socialisme du Ku Klux Klan d’Allemagne », seraient concernées. Des armes ont été retrouvées. Si le phénomène semble marginal, dans le contexte actuel de montée de l’ultranationalisme, cette découverte inquiète les autorités.

    Ils ont formé une association du nom de « Chevaliers nationaux-socialistes du Ku Klux Klan Allemagne ». Une quarantaine de personnes au niveau national sont soupçonnées d’avoir des liens ou d’être membres de ce groupe.

    Dix-sept d’entre eux, âgés de 17 à 59 ans, sont au centre de l’enquête, centralisée à Stuttgart, mais qui a été menée dans huit Etats allemands : Bade-Wurtemberg, Brême, Hambourg, la Basse-Saxe, la Rhénanie-du-Nord-Westphalie, la Rhénanie-Palatinat, la Saxe-Anhalt et la Thuringe.

  • USA trekker seg ut, Russland rykker inn – NRK Urix – Utenriksnyheter og -dokumentarer

    https://www.nrk.no/urix/usa-trekker-seg-ut_-russland-rykker-inn-1.14342752

    Alors que les États-unis semblent réduire peu à peu leur présence en Afrique, la Russie a signé des accords de coopération militaire avec au moins la moitié des pays africains.

    USA trekker seg ut, Russland rykker inn

    Afrika består av 54 selvstendige stater. Russland har i løpet av de fire siste årene inngått et militært samarbeid med over halvparten av dem.
    Russiske og egyptiske spesialstyrker under en øvelse i Egypt i august 2018.

    Det handler om å lære moderne krigføring. Hvordan nedkjempe og utslette militsgrupper som ikke følger vanlige regler som gjelder for krigføring ?

    I tillegg trekker supermakten USA seg ut av Afrika. Mange av landene på det afrikanske kontinentet ser seg om etter en ny samarbeidspartner og militær støttespiller.

    –---------

    U.S. Prepares to Reduce Troops and Shed Missions in Africa - The New York Times
    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/01/world/africa/us-withdraw-troops-africa.html

    STUTTGART, Germany — Hundreds of American troops in Africa would be reassigned and the number of Special Operations missions on the continent would be wound down under plans submitted by a top military commander, a response to the Trump administration’s strategy to increasingly focus on threats from China and Russia.

    Defense Department officials said they expected most of the troop cuts and scaled-back missions to come from Central and West Africa, where Special Operations missions have focused on training African militaries to combat the growing threat from extremist Islamist militant groups.

    The plan by Gen. Thomas D. Waldhauser, the leader of United States Africa Command, follows an ambush in Niger last fall that killed four American soldiers and an attack in southwestern Somalia that killed another in June.

    In an interview with The New York Times, General Waldhauser said his plan would help streamline the military’s ability to combat threats around the world — but not retreat from Africa.

    –-----

    Russia to increase military presence in Central African Republic | Central African Republic News | Al Jazeera
    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/11/russia-increase-military-presence-central-african-republic-18111909031651
    /mritems/images/2018/11/19/665003303001_5968862195001_5968848897001-th.jpg

    Russia to increase military presence in Central African Republic

    With an arms embargo in place on the Central African Republic, Russia is ready to send military trainers to the country.

    #afrique #russie #états-unis #armement #présence_militaire

  • On peut se passer d’auto dans le rural, montrent l’Allemagne, l’Italie et l’Autriche
    https://reporterre.net/On-peut-se-passer-d-auto-dans-le-rural-montrent-la-Suisse-et-l-Autriche


    Mais faut mettre des trains et des cars, pleins !

    Depuis la réforme ferroviaire de 1995, l’Allemagne a rouvert 600 km de petites lignes et 300 gares. Et près de 300 km sont actuellement en cours de remise en service. Le seul Land de Rhénanie-Palatinat a relancé onze lignes qui avaient été fermées au trafic, pour remailler son réseau régional. Cette tendance concerne des lignes en zone urbanisée mais aussi bien des lignes en milieu rural — à l’exemple des cinq branches (15 à 20 km chacune) desservant petites villes et villages dans le Wurtemberg autour de Stuttgart, dont certaines abandonnées depuis trente ans.

    La ligne Merano-Malles, située dans le Tyrol italien, fermée en 1991, offrait une desserte squelettique de 4 ou 5 allers-retours quotidiens comme nombre de lignes régionales françaises. Elle a été rouverte en 2005 grâce aux collectivités locales, malgré les habituelles oppositions (trop cher, personne n’utilisera le train, tout le monde a une voiture…). Une offre ambitieuse a été mise en place : un train par heure de 5 h à 23 h. Résultat : 2,7 millions de voyageurs en 2010, soit environ 7.000 par jour ! Le succès est tel que l’électrification de la ligne et l’achat de rames électriques plus capacitaires viennent d’être décidés. Il ne s’agit pas d’une zone de forte densité de population, mais d’une région rurale.

  • Baader Meinhof Muzak « MeckieMesserMuzak - 10. Oktober 2007
    http://meckiemessermuzak.blogsport.de/2007/10/10/baader-meinhof-muzak


    Cette compilation contient des pièces musicales composées et interprétées pour décrire la relation de leurs créateurs au Deutscher Herbst 1977 quand suite aux actions du groupe Rote Armee Fraktion l’état allemand se met en marche pour écraser tout ce qui est de gauche.
    C’est la deuxième vague de répression violente qui frappe l’opposition au système capitaliste après 1945. Dans les annéess 1950 c’est l’interdiction du parti communiste KPD et l’emprisonnement de ses membres qui force l’opposition à renter dans les rangs des armées de travail au service des maîtres du Wirtschaftswunder .
    Depuis la première moitié des années 1960 un nouveau mouvement met en question la domination de l’Allemagne et du monde par l’impérialisme étatsunien. Elle trouve son expression la plus radicale à travers les Bewegung 2. Juni de tendance autonome et Rote Armee Fraktion inspirée par les écrits de Mao Tsé-Tung. Après quelques défaites dûes à l’arrogance du pouvoir qui se croit trop en sécurité, l’année 1977 est le moment d’une série de contre-mesures qui frappent autant les militants pacifistes opposés au nucléaire et à la course à l’armement comme les groupuscules d’extrême gauche.

    La mort des militants RAF incarcérés dans la prison de Stuttgart-Stammheim sert d’avertissement à toute l’opposition au système : Pour défendre le régime en place l’état allemand est désormais prêt à prendre des mesures extrêmes au dela de la légalité officielle .
    Quand on compare les événements de Stuttgart-Stammheim de 1977 avec l’assassinat du journaliste saoudien Jamal Khashoggi on finit par comprendre que la différence entre un régime féodal corrompu et un régime capitaliste "démocratique" corrompu n’est qu’une question de conjoncture et de l’intensité des conflits internes.

    Le lien de téléchargement sous l’article est périmé, mais on trouvera toujours une copie de la compil en demandant aux copains.

    Pour les intéressés d’histoire track 4. contient la célèbre déclaration de guerre à la gauche radicale de Horst Herold, le président de l’office fédéral de police criminelle : Wir kriegen sie alle (on les aura tous).

    Baader Meinhof Muzak
    Songs und Toncollagen zur Rote Armee Fraktion (RAF)

    1.Baader Meinhof – Baader Meinhof.mp3
    2.Baader Meinhof – Theme from ‚Burn Warehouse‘ Burn.mp3
    3.Schorch Kamerun feat. Universal Gonzales – Menschenjäger.mp3
    4.herold-kampfaufgeben.mp3
    5.Abwärts – Computerstaat.mp3
    6.Eno-Snatch – RAF.mp3
    7.chumbawamba – ulrike.mp3
    8.Ammer-Einheit – Ulrike Meinhof Paradise, Vorspiel, Die Fuenfte.mp3
    9.Ammer-Einheit – I. Akt, 02.07.1967, Fernsehen.mp3
    10.Ammer-Einheit – II. Akt, 14.05.1970.mp3
    11.Ammer-Einheit – III. Akt, 08.05.1976.mp3
    12.Ammer-Einheit – IV. Akt, 18.10.1977, Requiem.mp3
    13.chumbawamba – meinhof.mp3
    14.schmidt-zu stammheim.mp3
    15.syph – pure-freude(klammheimlich).mp3
    16.materialschlacht_bka.mp3
    17.daf – kinderzimmer.mp3
    18.mittagspause – 1979Deutschland.mp3
    19.Mekanik Destruektiv Kohmandoeh – Im Land Des Ewigen Krieges.mp3
    20.Hanns Eisler – Die Internationale.mp3

    Horst Herold
    https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horst_Herold

    Seine auf die damaligen Terroristen der RAF und der Bewegung 2. Juni gemünzte Ankündigung „Wir kriegen sie alle“ wurde mehrmals künstlerisch verarbeitet, unter anderem zu hören auf dem „Verschwende Deine Jugend“-Sampler („Horst Herold - Wir kriegen euch alle“), auf dem „Gang nach Canossa II“-Sampler („D.Werk - Wir kriegen sie alle“) und als Endlosrille auf der LP Amok Koma der Gruppe Abwärts.

    Gerhard Richter
    https://www.gerhard-richter.com/en/search/?search=1977

    So you consider the RAF [Red Army Faction] dead as the victims of their own ideology?
    Yes, certainly. Not the victims of any specific ideology of the left or of the right, but of the ideological posture as such. This has to do with the everlasting human dilemma in general: to work for a revolution and fail…

    Conversation with Jan Thorn-Prikker concerning the 18 October 1977 cycle, 1989

    18. Oktober 1977 » Exhibitions » Gerhard Richter
    https://www.gerhard-richter.com/en/exhibitions/gerhard-richter-18-oktober-1977-626

    Gerhard Richter. 18. Oktober 1977
    Galerie Neue Meister, Albertinum, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Dresden, Germany, 19 March 2005 – 02 January 2006

    Dead » 18. Oktober 1977 » Exhibitions » Gerhard Richter
    https://www.gerhard-richter.com/en/exhibitions/gerhard-richter-18-oktober-1977-626/dead-7687/?p=1


    Tote, 1988 62 cm x 67 cm Catalogue Raisonné : 667-1, Oil on canvas

    The three paintings Dead [CR: 667/1-3] are based on photographs depicting the terrorist Ulrike Meinhof, a founding member of the Red Army Faction, that were taken after her suicide in prison in Stuttgart-Stammheim on 9th May 1976. The images were published in the magazine stern on 16th June 1976 and show close-ups of the head and upper body of a lying woman, whose eyes and mouth are partially open. Her dark hair is almost undistinguishable against the dark background whereas the bright clothes and pale skin of her face brightly stand out. Her somewhat overstretched neck reveals a dark deep line left by the noose.

    The three works show an almost identical image segment with only the angle and the proportions varied slightly in each painting. Besides their format, the three images also vary in their painterly execution. While the facial features of Ulrike Meinhof are relatively clear in the first version of Dead [CR: 667-1] they are blurred almost unrecognizably in the last painting [CR: 667-3] with bright and dark shades merging, contrasts paling and the overall black background fading to a uniform dark grey. Moreover, the position of the head seems to be slightly altered in each version. While the first painting is guided clearly by the original photograph, the second version shows the head with a slightly raised chin and the eyes almost completely closed which is carried forward even further in the third work. Because of the increasing blurring and the changing position of the head, Ulrike Meinhof seems to be removed further and further from reality with every painting, her mouth and eyes seem to close slowly. In death, she is withdrawn from the gaze of the public, the terrorist is given back a part of her human dignity that was taken from her by exhibiting her dead body in mass media. At the same time the dramatic effect is increased by the multiplication of the subject and the increasing blurring of details that seem like a cinematic fading out. The dead body seems to sink into the surrounding, impenetrable grey.

    The three likenesses appear like a search for an appropriate way of representation, carefully and gradually approaching death. The distinct close-ups set the paintings apart from other depictions of dead RAF members in the cycle and create a certain intimacy that affiliates the work with Youth Portrait [CR: 672-1]. Furthermore, Meinhof’s apparent isolation and loneliness are underlined by focusing solely on her face and upper body. In regard to iconography, the body lying parallel to the image plane is evocative of representations on predellas and hence creates a connection to a traditional European iconography of death. This prevents the paintings from being seen as ideological images or to turn into icons of martyrs[9]. Instead, the works pose the question as to the why of the events. As no other painting in the cycle the painting speaks of sadness, and “[…] sorrow, […] sorrow for the people who died so young and so crazy, for nothing.”


    Tote, 1988 62 cm x 62 cm Catalogue Raisonné : 667-2, Oil on canvas


    Tote, 1988 35 cm x 40 cm Catalogue Raisonné : 667-3, Oil on canvas

    #Allemagne #musique #peinture #révolte #terrorisme #année_de_plomb #Deutscher_Herbst

  • En matière de privatisation du transport ferroviaire, l’Allemagne a une bonne longueur d’avance sur la France.

    https://www.lunapark21.net/in-frankreich-wird-um-die-bahn-fuer-alle-gekaempft/#more-3487
    En France, on se bat pour « le train pour tout le monde »
    23 mai 2018, Sabine Leidig

    Ce qui a été mené à bout en Allemagne se heurte en France à une vague massive de grèves et de protestations : l’offensive contre le chemin de fer public écologique.

    Traduction résumée :
    An Allemagne, le statut de fonctionnaire a été supprimé pour les nouvelles embauches en 1994. Conséquence : les nouveaux salaires et retraites sont sensiblement plus bas. Comme en France, on a alors jeté l’opprobre sur les anciens cheminots « privilégiés ». Mais, les chiffres qui circulent sur l’âge du départ à la retraite et les salaires sont généralement faux.
    Aujourd’hui presque la moitié du chiffre d’affaire de la Deutsche Bahn est généré par des activités hors d’Allemagne. La France suit la même direction, avec des filiales dans deux douzaines de pays. Les milliards de subventions publiques se voient ainsi fourvoyés dans des opérations étrangères à risque.
    Depuis la réforme, l’étendu du réseau allemand a été réduit de 19%. En France, il le sera de 26%.
    Dans les deux pays, la libéralisation du transport en autocar fait que les bus à grande distance captent les clients des chemins de fer (d’ailleurs par la SNCF elle-même).
    La volonté politique affichée d’une protection du climat se voit contredite dans les faits : le réseau routier et les aéroports se développent. Les prix du train flambent : voyager en auto, en bus, en avion est, en comparaison, de moins en moins cher.
    Mais, en Allemagne, il n’y a eu que trois mouvements de protestation : entre 2005 et 2008 contre la cotation en bourse de la DB, contre la suppression des trains de nuit, contre le projet Stuttgart 21 [projet très controversé de restructuration de la gare de Stuttgart qui devrait coûter près de 10 milliards d’euros, contre les 2,5 prévus initialement en 1995…].
    En France, par contre, la grève s’est organisée, même si le cheminots grévistes y perdent leur salaire [voir la cagnotte de solidarité : https://www.lemonde.fr/entreprises/article/2018/04/04/sncf-une-cagnotte-de-soutien-aux-grevistes-depasse-190-000-euros_5280597_165.

    [Faut-il se contenter d’obtenir des ménagements, comme le chantait Boris Vian ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpW_eBJKw74

    (avec un clin d’œil féministe)].

    #SNCF #casse_services_publics #Deutsche_Bahn

  • Top Autonomous Vehicle Conferences to attend in 2018–19
    https://hackernoon.com/top-autonomous-vehicle-conferences-to-attend-in-2018-19-d3a526a41a9a?sou

    With the rise in popularity of Autonomous Driving technology, Computer Vision, and Deep Learning — The potential of AI has time and again proven to be colossal. This flourishing industry has given rise to influencers, researchers and a number of conferences. Conferences are one of the most prudent ways for researchers to present papers, conduct workshops and network with like-minded people.Here are some of the top Autonomous Vehicle conferences held worldwide which you should consider attending (Listed in upcoming order):Autonomous Vehicle Software SymposiumJune 5–7 | Stuttgart, GermanyThe Autonomous Vehicle Software Symposium — held alongside Autonomous Vehicle Technology World Expo, the Autonomous Vehicle Test & Development Symposium and the Autonomous Vehicle Interior Design & (...)

    #self-driving-cars #conference #machine-learning #autonomous-vehicles

  • Gregory Klimov. The Terror Machine. Chapter 16
    http://g-klimov.info/klimov-pp-e/ETM16.htm

    Stalin’s Party

    The days passed into weeks, the weeks into months. An incessant lapse of time in which there was no purpose, in which one only looked back and felt a great emptiness in the soul.

    Winter had come. The New Year of 1947 was approaching. In us Soviet men, who stood on the bound between two worlds, this aroused few cheerful memories and still fewer cheerful expectations. We had recently witnessed two noteworthy events: in the October there had been the first post-war elections to the Berlin municipal council, and in November the regular election of candidates to the Supreme Soviet of the U. S. S. R.

    The German elections aroused far greater interest among the Soviet residents in Berlin than one would have expected. Perhaps it was because they differed fundamentally from those to which we were accustomed. It was strange to see the pre-election slogans of the various parties. We were struck by the powerful and intelligent propaganda of the Socialist Unity Party. Here one sensed the long experience of Soviet propaganda; it was self-confident and shameless. We, who were the masters of the S. E. D. and knew what was behind it all, were particularly struck by this latter aspect.

    I well remember one incident that occurred during the Berlin elections. One Sunday morning I and two other officers decided to take advantage of the fine weather to go for a motorcycle ride. We borrowed three heavy military motorcycles from the Auto Battalion and tore out of Karlshorst along the Frankfurter-Allee.

    On our way to the Alexanderplatz we overtook a slowly marching column of men with crimson banners and flags in their hands. The demonstrators made an exceptionally depressing and joyless impression. Men in Thaelmann caps and red armbands were bustling backward and forward along its sides. We accelerated to drive past. It had been organized by the trade unions of the Soviet sector to express the wishes and desires of the German people. Attendance was compulsory. Any man who didn’t turn up was in danger of losing his job. It was pitiful and absurd to see this flock of sheep moving along under the supervision of the herdsmen in Thaelmann caps.

    I don’t know how it came about, but all the three of us Soviet officers began to ride our powerful military motorcycles round and round that column. The demonstrators looked at one another anxiously, assuming that we were a military patrol sent to ensure that the procession didn’t melt away. The herdsmen stared at us in astonishment, and as we drove close to the edge of the column they had to jump aside to avoid being knocked down. For our part, we were sickened at the sight of this shameful comedy, and on the other hand we enjoyed not having to take part in it ourselves for once.

    On that same day a Soviet patrol shot an American who was attempting to photograph a similar demonstration in the Soviet sector of Berlin. Evidently someone was of the opinion that such photographs might have the same effect on the close observer that that procession had made on us.

    The elections were held on 21 October. I have never known people in the Soviet Union to take any interest in the results of elections to the Soviet elected authorities. But on that election day in Berlin I doubt whether there was one man in Karlshorst who was not interested in the results. Most interesting of all was the fact that the S. E. D. came last but one of the parties. Not much was said about this eloquent circumstance.

    In the S. M. A. Administration for Industry the Berlin elections led to the following conversation between Captain Bagdassarian and Major Zhdanov:

    “You know,” Captain Bagdassarian said, as he pointed to the results printed in one of the newspapers, “when I think of these elections I get a queer thought. All the parties are voting. Supposing the Communist Party gets a majority. Does it mean that the others will let it take over the power?”

    “Yes, it looks like it,” Major Zhdanov answered uncertainly.

    “That’s funny! If the Communist Party comes to power, its first step will be to wring the necks of all the other parties. Yet these other parties are ready to give the power into the Communist Party’s hands without making any resistance. That doesn’t make sense!”

    “You can’t make sense of this democracy business all at once!” the major sighed.

    “It’s utter idiocy!” the captain agreed.

    “Perhaps it isn’t so stupid after all.” The major knitted his brows in the attempt to get to the bottom of it all. “Democracy as a political form is the will of the majority. If the majority votes for communism, there will be communism. True, very few are voting for it at the moment!” he ended on a different note.

    “All the same, it’s queer.” Captain Bagdassarian ran his fingers through his curly hair. “They all sling abuse at one another, but nobody puts anybody else into prison. But we do just the reverse: one says nothing and is put in prison. A man doesn’t even think, and still he’s put in prison...”

    In December 1946 the Officers’ Club in Karlshorst was the scene of electoral meetings at which candidates were nominated for the U. S. S. R. Supreme Soviet. On the day set apart for the Administration for Industry all the workers in the Administration had to be present in the Club, which had been decorated for the occasion with additional portraits of the leaders, and red bunting.

    We sat for some time in the hall, utterly bored. At last the chairman called on a speaker, who had been previously arranged. With a paper in his hand the speaker went to the platform and, speaking in a monotonous tone, began to explain how happy we all were that we ourselves could elect the representatives to our country’s supreme governmental authority. Then a further speaker went to the platform to propose our candidate from the Special Electoral District formed by the Soviet Occupation Zone.

    Then the candidate himself came out from the wings and told us his life story. He was a general, but I doubt whether he had ever spoken in such a humble and lackadaisical manner in his entire previous military career. The second candidate was someone quite unknown to all of us. We knew such a person existed only when he went to the platform not from the wings, but from the body of the hall. He was chosen to play the role of candidate ’from the very heart of the people’. Both candidates had been put forward in advance by the S. M. A. Political Administration and had been approved by Moscow.

    We all waited impatiently for this boring procedure to finish, especially as it was to be followed by a film show. When the chairman announced that he proposed to take the vote the hall sighed with relief, and everybody hurriedly raised their hands without waiting to be invited. Armed with pencils and paper, the tellers hurried through the hall. The audience began to murmur with impatience. At last the votes were counted, and the chairman asked in a drowsy tone: “Those against?”

    There was a dead silence. Nobody stirred.

    The chairman waited for a moment or two, then looked round the hall. Then, to intensify the effect of the unanimous decision, he asked in a tone of assumed surprise: “Nobody against?”

    And thus we elected two men ’chosen of the people’ to the U. S. S. R. Supreme Soviet.

    The turn of the year brought several innovations that made one take yet another glance back over the eighteen months that had passed since the capitulation of Germany.

    In the early autumn of 1946 the United States Secretary of State, Byrnes, had made a speech in Stuttgart, soberly surveying events since the end of the war and indicating the main features of American foreign policy. Only now, after eighteen months, were the Americans beginning to suspect that it was hard to sup out of the same bowl as good old Uncle Joe.

    Byrne’s’ speech was not to the Kremlin’s liking, and it was given a sharp answer in Molotov’s speech on the occasion of the revolutionary celebrations on 7 November. So much importance was attached to this speech that it was made the subject of compulsory study in all the political study circles throughout the S. M. A.

    There was no attempt to conceal the connection between the Byrnes and Molotov speeches from the senior officials of the S. M. A.; the two speeches were studied simultaneously, and those taking part in the discussion had to unmask the American’s imperialist intrigues and to stress Molotov’s peace-loving policy. But Byrne’s’ speech was regarded as too dangerous for the less politically educated workers, and they were allowed to discuss only their own leader’s speech.

    These two political speeches can be regarded as marking the beginning of the cold war. In the Control Commission Allied relations cooled off still more and went no further than diplomatic courtesy required. Decisions affecting the future of Germany were more and more removed from the Control Commission meetings to the private offices of the Kremlin and the White House.

    This situation also served as a signal for a final tightening of the screw on the Soviet post-war front. The S. M. A. Political Administration issued an instruction accusing minor Party authorities of having lost contact with the masses and neglecting political educational work. This was the crack of the whip. One could guess what would follow. In fact the first consequence was a change of Party organizers in all the S. M. A. departments. This was followed by measures to tighten things up all through the Soviet machinery.

    Hitherto the Soviet residents of Karlshorst had lived and worked without engaging in political study. Anybody who knows anything about Soviet life will know what that meant. The higher authorities were secretly astonished, the smaller fry quietly rejoiced; but one and all held their tongues, on the principle of not mentioning the devil in case he appeared. But now political studies were started, including study of the Short History of the C. P. S. U. And it had to be carried through in shock tempo at that. Evidently to make up for lost time.

    The next step was a campaign to raise labor discipline. It was decided to remind Soviet citizens abroad that there was such a thing as the Soviet labor code. Brand-new boards with hooks and numbers were hung up in all the departments, and every worker in each department had to take off and re-hang his own allotted number four times a day. In the Soviet Union these boards are the object of fear, but their effect on us was rather to get our backs up.

    The head of the Administration for Industry, Alexandrov, entrusted his number to his chauffeur, who very quickly lost it. We officers regarded the boards as an insult and took it in turn to remove several numbers at a time. But once more Soviet law with all its consequences hung as a threat over the head of every one of us.

    Then a hysterical ’vigilance’ campaign was inaugurated. Personnel Departments were instituted in all the S. M. A. offices with the obvious job of keeping closer watch on the workers. Once more extensive questionnaires were drawn up ’for Soviet citizens abroad’. These with their endless list of questions had to be filled afresh every three months. Many of us kept a copy of the questionnaire and our answers, and next time simply copied the old answers on to the new form.

    A demobilized lieutenant of the N. K. V. D. forces was appointed head of the Personnel Department in the Administration for Industry. From the very beginning he behaved with such rudeness and insolence that many of the officers, who were of higher rank, were infuriated. His room was in the basement, and he would ring someone up: “Comrade Colonel, come down to me and fill in your questionnaire.” But as often as not he got the answer: “If you need it filled in, bring it up to me. At the moment I’m still a colonel, I believe.”

    An order issued by General Dratvin, chief of staff of the S. M. A., was circulated for the information of all members of the S. M. A. In it, without actually mentioning names, he stated that the wives of quite a number of highly placed Soviet officials were going to the Berlin western sector while their husbands were at work, and were forming impermissible acquaintances among officers of the western powers. The order spoke in very sharp terms; it referred to fashionable restaurants, expensive furs, and, to crown all, agents of foreign intelligence services. All the accused women were returned to the Soviet Union at twenty-four hours’ notice, and the husbands were sternly reprimanded for their lack of Bolshevik vigilance.

    The secret purpose of this unusually frank order was revealed in its second paragraph, in which all members of the S. M. A. were strictly forbidden to visit the western sector, and were reminded of the necessity to be particularly vigilant in the circumstances of residence abroad. The women were chastised in order to serve as a warning to others.

    In conclusion General Dratvin threatened the application of sterner measures to all who violated the order... down to and including return to the Soviet Union. In saying so much, the general went too far. For thus officially, in the words of the S. M. A. chief of staff, return to one’s native land was recognized as serious punishment for Soviet citizens abroad.

    None of this was anything new to us. We had experienced it all before, at home. But coming after we had won the war, after we had looked forward hopefully to changes in the Soviet system, and above all after our comparatively free life in occupied Germany, this abrupt return to former practices gave us furiously to think. Or rather, to avoid thinking if possible. That was the only hope.

    II

    I had made Major Dubov’s acquaintance during the war. Even a brief comradeship at the front binds men together more strongly than many years of acquaintance in normal conditions. That may have been the reason why we greeted each other as old acquaintances when we met again as fellow workers in the S. M. A

    He was over forty. Outwardly stern and incommunicative, he had few friends, and avoided society. At first I regarded his reserve simply as a trait of his character. But after a time I noticed that he had a morbid antipathy to anybody who began to talk politics in his hearing. I assumed that he had good reasons for his attitude, and never bothered him with unnecessary questions.

    It so happened that I was the only person Dubov introduced to his family. He had a charming, well-educated wife, and two children. When I came to know his family, I realized that he was not only a good husband and father, but also a rarely decent fellow morally.

    His one great passion was hunting. That brought us still closer together. We often drove out of Berlin on a Saturday and spent all day and all night hunting, cut off from Karlshorst and the entire world.

    On one occasion, tired out after hours of wandering through the dense growth of thickets and innumerable little lakes, we flung ourselves down to have a rest. The conversation happened to turn to discussion of an officer we both knew, and I casually remarked: “He’s still young and stupid...”

    The major gave me a close look and asked with a queer smile:

    “And are you so old and wise?”

    “Well, not quite,” I answered. “But I’ve learned to keep a still tongue in my head.”

    He again looked at me fixedly. “Tell me, has anything ever happened to you... of... you know what?”

    “Absolutely nothing,” I replied, realizing what he was hinting at.

    “Then why aren’t you in the Party?” he asked almost roughly.

    “I’ve simply not had the time,” I answered shortly, for I had no wish to go further into details.

    ’Now listen, Gregory Petrovich, it’s not a joking matter," he said slowly, and I caught an almost fatherly note in his voice. “For a man in your position it smacks almost of a deliberate demonstration. It might even have serious consequences for you.”

    “I’m doing my job as well as any Party man!” I retorted.

    He smiled, rather sadly. “That’s how I argued once,” he said with bitter irony.

    Then, without my prompting him, in an objective sort of tone he told me his story: how he had come to join the Party, and why he avoided people who talked politics.

    In 1938 Dubov was an engineer working in a Leningrad factory producing precision instruments. He was a capable engineer, and held a responsible post connected with the construction of instruments for the air force and the navy. He liked his job, devoted all his free time to research, and bothered little about politics. Despite his responsible post he remained a non-Party man.

    One day he was summoned to the director’s room. From that moment he was not seen in the works again. Nor did he return home. His wife found out what had happened to him when the N. K. V. D. men turned up at their apartment in the middle of the night, made a thorough search, and confiscated all her husband’s personal property. Next day she went to the N. K. V. D. to ask for news of him. She was told they knew nothing about him, and was advised not to worry, nor to worry others. If there were any need, she would be informed.

    Dubov spent more than a year in the investigation cells of the N. K. V. D. He was charged with sabotage and counter-revolutionary activity. The sentence was the standard one: ten years’ imprisonment, to be spent in one of the camps in Central Siberia, where new war factories were being built. There he continued to work as an engineer.

    He discovered the real reason for his arrest only two years later. Among a fresh batch of prisoners he recognized the former chief engineer at the Leningrad factory for precision instruments. Dubov was delighted to see him, but the man seemed restrained and avoided Dubov as much as possible. But as the months passed the two engineers struck up a friendship based on their common memories of freedom. One day the conversation turned to the reasons why they had been sent to the camp.

    “Someone denounced me,” Dubov said.

    The chief engineer looked away, then sighed, and laughed bitterly. “Would you like to know who it was?” he asked.

    Dubov stared at him distrustfully.

    “I did it,” the other man said, and hurried on without giving Dubov a chance to comment: “We regularly received orders from the N. K. V. D. to provide them with so many persons possessing such and such qualifications. The lists had to be drawn up by the Party organizer and confirmed by the chief engineer and the director. What could I do? I too had a wife and children....”

    “But why was I put on the list?” Dubov asked.

    “Because you were not a Party member,” the former chief engineer said. “The Party organizer put you down.”

    Dubov said nothing for some time, then he looked wearily at the other man and asked: “But how did you get here?”

    The engineer only shrugged his shoulders helplessly.

    Dubov spent four years in the camp. But during all those years he did not suffer as much as his wife and children. Under Soviet law a political prisoner’s guilt extends to include his family. His wife was morally and physically shattered. Their children grew up in the knowledge that their father was ’an enemy of the people’, and felt always that they were not like other children.

    In 1948 he was released before the expiration of his term. With no explanation given, he was completely rehabilitated and the conviction quashed. He was called up straight from the camp into the army. That was the real reason for his premature discharge. Without seeing his family he went as an officer directly to the front.

    At the front he was an exemplary officer, just as he had been an exemplary engineer in Leningrad and an exemplary prisoner in the Siberian camp. He was just to his men and ruthless to the enemy. And he was devoted to his native land, with all its Party organizers and prison camps.

    Shortly before the end of the war he received another battle decoration, and in addition was singled out for the honor of being invited to join the Communist Party. This time he did not hesitate. Without a word he filled in the questionnaires. And without a word he accepted the Party ticket, which the corps commander’s political deputy presented to him.

    In the S. M. A. Major Dubov was regarded as one of their most reliable and knowledgeable engineers. He was given the responsible task of transferring the German industry in the Soviet zone to new lines, but his rank and position remained unchanged. Why? Because, although he had been completely rehabilitated and the conviction had been quashed, in his personal file was a curt note: ’Conviction under article 58.’ That was enough to cast a shadow over all his future life.

    III

    During my stay in Karlshorst I formed a close friendship with Captain Belyavsky. Little by little I came to know his story too, though he talked about himself very reluctantly, and only dropped hints. In 1936 Belyavsky was in Spain, where he was a lieutenant in the staff of the Republican forces. This was about the time that the Yezhov terror was at its height in the Soviet Union, and one night his father was arrested, to vanish without trace. Belyavsky was immediately recalled from Spain and demobilized. Until 1941 he shared the fate of other relatives of ’enemies of the people’; in other words, he was outside the pale.

    All those spheres of Soviet life in which the first requirement is a completed questionnaire were closed to him. Only a Soviet citizen can understand all the significance of such a situation. When war broke out in 1941 he was not called up for the army, since he was ’politically unreliable’. But when the German forces began to lay siege to his native city, Leningrad, he went to the military commander and volunteered for service. His request was granted, and that same day, as an ordinary private, he was flung into the fight - in a punitive battalion. In other words, straight to his death. But fate was more merciful to him than the Soviet regime, and he escaped with a wound.

    He spent the next three years as an ordinary soldier, going right through the siege of Leningrad. His service was exemplary, and he was recommended again and again for officer’s rank, but each time the questionnaire put an end to the story. In 1944, when the Soviet armies were suffering from a very serious shortage of officers, he was summoned to the staff once more.

    The colonel who interviewed him pointed to the entry: ’article 58’ on his questionnaire and asked: “Why do you always mention that?”

    Belyavsky did not reply.

    “Is it that you don’t want to fight?” the colonel asked sharply; he avoided looking at the decorations on Belyavsky’s chest. Belyavsky only shrugged his shoulders. The decorations rattled a little, as though answering the colonel’s question.

    “If you continue to make such entries, I must regard it as an attempt to avoid military service,” the colonel said. “Take a new form and fill it in properly. Leave a space for your service rank.”

    Private Mikhail Belyavsky did not return to his company. But next day First-Lieutenant Belyavsky was on his way to Moscow. In his pocket he had an order to proceed to the Military-Diplomatic College of the Red Army General Staff. Men were needed in wartime, and there was no bothering about a thorough examination of questionnaires. There would be plenty of opportunity for that after the war. And so Mikhail Belyavsky entered one of the most privileged military colleges in the Soviet Union.

    He was discharged from the college in the autumn of 1945 with the rank of captain, and was sent to work in the Soviet Military Administration. That was nothing extraordinary. Many of the students were freed from further study even in the middle of their second-year course, in order to take up a post.

    Captain Belyavsky’s personal file, which was kept in the S. M. A. Personnel Department, was in spotless order. All through his documents the phrase occurred again and again: ’Devoted to the Lenin-Stalin Party’. That was a stereotyped remark and was to be found in almost every officer’s personal file, but it was truer of him than of the majority.

    Certain days were set apart for political instruction, and on one of these days Belyavsky went to his office two hours earlier, as was his custom, and unfolded his papers. The educational circle to which he belonged was of a rather higher level, for it consisted exclusively of men with advanced education. With earnest faces they pored over the pages of the Short Course, though they must have known that the book was full of lies and falsifications.

    The leader of the circle, who normally was one of themselves, began proceedings by asking:

    “Well, who’s prepared to open on the third chapter? Any volunteers?”

    They all bowed their heads even lower over their books. Some of them began to turn over their papers hurriedly; others fixed their eyes on the table as though collecting their thoughts with a view to speaking later. There was no volunteer.

    “All right, then we’ll follow the list,” the leader proposed. There was a sigh of relief.

    The majority of the circle leaders kept alphabetical lists of their circle members. Each member knew whom he followed. And so the question was settled quite simply. The first on the list began to deliver a summary of the chapter, while the one who was to follow him read farther, underlining passages with red pencil. In this way the majority of circles got through their course without difficulty.

    All the members of Belyavsky’s circle had worked through the Short Course several times already. They were all bored to tears. When each had done his duty he sat gazing out of the window, smoking, or sharpening his pencil.

    Everything went off as usual. The speakers droned away monotonously. The leader sat with his eyes on his notebook, not even listening. It was a hot day, and everybody felt sleepy. And in that drowsy kingdom something happened to Captain Belyavsky that he himself would have had difficulty in explaining.

    When his turn was reached he had to expatiate on the passage which deals with the Entente’s three anti-Soviet campaigns. The theme had a heroic quality and there were parallels to the experiences of the war just ended. As soon as Belyavsky began to speak the leader raised his sleepy eyes and stared at him in astonishment. And one by one all the others began to gaze at him in bewilderment.

    For he spoke as though addressing a meeting. His voice had a note of unusual conviction. It sounded a note of faith, of challenge. He depicted the three foreign interventions in Soviet Russia after the 1917 revolution, and cleverly linked them up with the invasion and destruction of the Nazi armies in 1941-1945. He did not summarize the Short Course; he spoke extemporaneously, from a heart burning with conviction. The bewildered looks of his fellows expressed the mute question: ’Has he gone mad? Why all this unnecessary bother?’

    It happened that the circle that day included the Instructor from the S. M. A. Political Administration, who was there as observer. Belyavsky’s speech attracted his notice; obviously he had not often heard anyone speak with conviction in these circles for political education. He made a note of the name. Next day Belyavsky was summoned to the Political Administration.

    “Listen, Comrade Captain,” the instructor said to him. "I’m amazed at you. I’ve been looking through your personal file. An exemplary officer, the finest of testimonials, and yet you’re not a Party member. That simply won’t do. The Party must interest itself in men like you...

    “No, no, no...” he raised his hand, as though afraid Belyavsky might make some objection. “You made a very remarkable speech in the political circle yesterday... And yet you’ve never been drawn into Party work. We shall assign you to the task of giving political instruction to the officers’ wives. That to begin with. And secondly, you must put in your application for Party membership at once. No objections! Get that?”

    Belyavsky had no thought of objecting. Membership of the Party connoted a full and valid position in Soviet society. His heart was filled with joy; he shook the instructor’s hand with genuine gratitude.

    The November revolutionary celebrations were drawing near. In addition to having charge of a political education circle, Belyavsky was entrusted with the preparations for the festival. He plunged headlong into social and political activity and devoted all his free time to it. Spiritually he was born again. But above all he rejoiced because the Party had forgotten his past, because he was no longer a lone wolf. Only now did he fully realize how bitterly he had felt his alienation from society.

    Just about then an insignificant incident occurred which had unexpected consequences.

    Belyavsky was a keen motorcyclist. While working in the S. M. A. he had had innumerable specimens of motorcycles pass through his hands, and in the end he had picked on a very fine BMW sports model for himself. All Karlshorst knew that machine, and many a young officer stood to admire it as it flashed by.

    One evening, as he was riding past the house where Valia Grinchuk lived, he saw a light in her rooms, and decided to drop in and see her. He leaned the motorcycle against the railings, but did not lock it up, as was his habit, for he did not intend to stay long.

    Valia had guests, the company was a merry one, and he stayed longer than he thought. He left about ten o’clock. When he got outside his motorcycle had disappeared. He looked about him, thinking someone must be playing a practical joke. But there was no sign of it anywhere.

    He broke into a string of curses. Obviously someone had stolen the machine. But what infuriated him most was the knowledge that the thief must be one of his own, Soviet, people. No Berlin thief would ever have dared to take anything from Karlshorst, least of all a motorcycle.

    The Karlshorst commandatura was only a few paces away. He went and reported the theft to the officer on duty. The lieutenant sympathized with him and promised to find out whether the theft had been committed by one of the commandatura guards. He knew well enough who were responsible for the majority of the thefts that took place in Karlshorst.

    Belyavsky had no great faith in the commandatura, and he decided to go straight to a German police station situated just outside the sealed-off Soviet area. He returned accompanied by a German policeman and a police dog. At the spot where the motorcycle had been left the policeman put the dog on the scent. It made directly for the next wicket gate and began to paw at it.

    Belyavsky knew that the Party organizer for the Administration of Justice, Major Yeroma, and his deputy, Major Nikolayev, lived there, and he thought the dog was completely on the wrong trail. But each time they tried out the animal it persistently led them to that wicket gate. In the end Belyavsky shrugged his shoulders hopelessly and let the German policeman go.

    Next day he happened to be passing the gate at which the dog had pawed, and he decided to go in and make inquiries. He found four young women sitting in the sitting room. One of them was the wife of Major Nikolayev; another was the wife of the head of the S. M. A. Political Administration, General Makarov.

    All the women were rather problematic wives, wives only within the bounds of Karlshorst. Almost all the high S. M. A. officials had exceptionally young wives. Marshal Sokolovsky’s wife was several years younger than his daughter was. Such things were the result of the war.

    Belyavsky apologized for troubling them, explained why he had called, and inquired whether they had noticed anything suspicious the previous evening. They exchanged embarrassed glances and expressed their indignation at the theft. They seemed bored, and they invited him to stay awhile. Quite an animated conversation followed, a conversation, which played a large part in the further developments, chiefly because he made a very good impression on those young women.

    After searching fruitlessly for a week he had resigned himself to | the loss of his favorite machine, when one evening he was called | to the telephone. He was astonished to hear a woman’s voice

    “Is that Comrade Captain Belyavsky?” the unknown asked, and went on hurriedly: “You mustn’t mind my not mentioning my name. I I’m one of the ladies who... you remember, you called to inquire | about the motorcycle.... I phoned up to let you know that your machine is in the cellar of the house you called at. Go at once and you’ll find it. You can guess who took it.... Please don’t tell anybody how you found out. I wouldn’t like...”

    He hurriedly thanked her and put down the receiver. He sat for a moment considering what he should do next. For the thief could be no other than the S. M. A. Party organizer for the Administration of Justice, Yeroma himself. Finally he decided to ask a Lieutenant-Colonel Potapov and Major Berko to go with him as witnesses. On their way to Major Yeroma’s house they picked up the officer on duty at the commandatura.

    Major Yeroma was not at home. At the commandatura officer’s request the cellar was opened. There they found the missing motorcycle. The commandatura officer drew up an official report on the theft and discovery of the machine. In his simplicity he wrote: ’The thief is Major Yeroma, of the Administration of Justice, and Party organizer to the Administration of Justice.’ The report was signed by all the witnesses, including Major Yeroma’s wife.

    As the four officers struggled to haul the heavy machine up the stairs, between their groans and pants the officer could not help remarking: “One man couldn’t have got it down there by himself. He must have had at least two others to help him.”

    It transpired that the day the machine was stolen Major Yeroma was returning late in the evening from the Political Administration, accompanied by two other officers of the Administration of Justice. As he approached his house the Major noticed the machine and, without stopping to think, persuaded the other two officers to help him put it in his cellar. Probably it would not have been found if Belyavsky hadn’t chanced to call on the young women.

    They knew that Major Yeroma had got hold of a motorcycle the previous evening, but they had no idea where he had obtained it. When Belyavsky told his story they put two and two together, but they did not tell him what they were thinking, for obvious reasons. After he had gone they quarreled among themselves. The young wife of the head of the Political Administration took Belyavsky’s side and declared that the machine must be returned to him.

    In his indignation he decided to take steps to bring the culprits to justice. He wrote reports of the affair to General Dratvin, the S. M. A. chief of staff, to the Political Administration, and the S. M. A. Military Prosecutor. If justice were done, Major Yeroma should be expelled from the Party, stripped of his officer’s rank and sentenced to imprisonment for theft. So the law prescribed.

    When Major Berko heard what Belyavsky intended to do he advised him not to be in any hurry. A charge against Yeroma involved much else besides him, and in such cases it was advisable to be prudent. He suggested that Belyavsky should first go and see Yeroma personally, and they decided to call on him during lunchtime.

    They found him at home. He was sitting at the table, with his tunic unbuttoned and unbelted. Before him was an aluminum dish of steaming beetroot soup. He did not even look up when the visitors were shown in, but went on spooning up his soup.

    “Well, Yeroma,” Belyavsky said, “how did my motor-cycle get into your cellar?”

    “I found it,” the major answered with his mouth full of food, and not batting an eyelid.

    “I shall send a report to the Political Administration.” Belyavsky was so taken aback by the Party organizer’s impudence that he didn’t know what else to say.

    Yeroma went on eating, or rather guzzling his soup; the sweat rolled down his face. When he had finished the dish he picked it up and poured the last few drops into his spoon. Then he licked the spoon and smacked his lips.

    “You’ll never make any impression on him with a report,” Berko said in a rage. “Spit in his plate and let’s go!” They went, slamming the door behind them. The same evening Belyavsky went to the office of the head of the Political Administration and handed the adjutant on duty his report. While the adjutant was reading it with some interest General Makarov himself came out of his room.

    “Another case relating to Yeroma, Comrade General,” the adjutant reported with a smile.

    “Ah! That’s good!” the general observed. “He’s already on our list for bigamy...”

    The adjutant afterwards explained to Belyavsky that, following his superiors’ example; Yeroma had taken a new wife to himself. But in doing so he had made one tactical error: unlike others, he had registered his marriage at the Soviet register office in Karlshorst. But he had not taken the trouble to obtain a divorce from his first wife, who was in Russia.

    Belyavsky then went to the S. M. A. military prosecutor, Lieutenant-Colonel Orlov. Orlov knew Belyavsky personally, and he told him frankly: “We can’t take him to court. In this case it all depends on the Political Administration. You know yourself it’s a Party matter.”

    If Belyavsky had had more experience in Party matters, he would probably have avoided measuring his strength against the Party. Meanwhile, the Political Administration had received a resolution from a local Party group recommending Captain Belyavsky’s acceptance as a Party member. His application was accompanied by brilliant testimonials to his conduct during the war. But now the affair of the stolen motorcycle was beginning to be talked about all over Karlshorst. In order to smother the scandal the Political Administration decided that it must close the mouth of one of the two antagonists, and the choice fell on Belyavsky.

    Quite unexpectedly he received the order that he was to be demobilized and returned to the Soviet Union. He knew at once what was behind that order. What he did not know was that on his return he was to be brought to trial. The explanation was quite simple. Not long before the motorcycle incident he had filled up one of the regular questionnaires. This time, in accordance with new, strict instructions, it was sent to the local M. V. D. departments in all his previous places of residence, to be checked. It was returned from Leningrad with the comment: ’father sentenced under article 58.’ So he was demobilized and sent back to the U. S. S. R., where he was tried for making a false statement which he had been forced into making under threat of court-martial.

    Belyavsky’s collision with the Party in the person of Major Yeroma was not a decisive factor in his recall to the Soviet Union. He belonged to a category of people whose fate was predetermined. That was shown by the fact that almost at the same time Major Dubov also was demobilized and recalled. Only the S. M. A. Personnel Department and Major Dubov himself knew what was behind that order. He, too, had to take his postwar place in life.

    IV

    Two men in my close circle of acquaintances had been cut out of life and thrown overboard. I respected them as men and liked them as colleagues. Others, too, thought of them as fine exemplars of the new Soviet society. Neither of them had anything in common with the old classes, which, according to Marxism, were destined to be eliminated. They had both been created by the Soviet world and were, in the best sense of the words, true citizens of Soviet society. Yet they were condemned, irrevocably condemned to death. To spiritual death at the least. And there are millions of similar cases.

    That can easily be proved. During the thirty years of the Soviet regime at least thirty million people have been subjected to repressive measures on political grounds. As the families of all such people are automatically classified as politically unreliable, if we assume that each of them had only two relatives at least sixty million people must be on the black list.

    If ten million out of the thirty million died in prison camps, and at least another ten million are still in the camps, while ten million have served their time and been released, we get a figure of eighty million people whom the Soviet State has turned into its enemies, or, at least, regards as its enemies. That explains why in every section of the Soviet state apparatus there are personnel departments charged with the scrutiny and check of questionnaires. Today it is indubitable that the main class of the new Soviet society consists of millions of automatic enemies of the Soviet State.

    This invisible class of enemies who are also slaves permeates all society from top to bottom. Is it necessary to cite examples? One could mention the names of many marshals of the Soviet Union, as well as Stalin prize-winners, who have been in N. K. V. D. prisons; and these would be names known all over the world. Of the millions of petty collisions between State and individual who can speak?

    State and individual! Involuntarily I think of Valia Grinchuk, an undersized girl, and a partisan fighter who in the fight for her freedom took up arms. She fought bravely. She not only defended her freedom against the foreign enemy; she climbed the ladder of Soviet society. She raised herself out of the gray mass and became an individual. And hardly had she achieved this when she felt the heavy hand of the State.

    Her duties often took her to the Allied Control Commission. There she came to know a young Allied officer. There could be no outward objection to this acquaintance, as she visited the Control Commission in the course of her work. After some time the acquaintance developed into a personal friendship.

    One day she was summoned to the Party organization. She was given to understand quite amiably that the Party knew of her acquaintance with an Allied officer. To her astonishment, that was all that was said, and it seemed that the Party leaders were quite sympathetic in regard to the friendship. Some time later this incident was repeated, and she had the impression that they were even encouraging the acquaintance.

    Time passed and this friendship between a Soviet girl and an Allied officer developed into a genuine attachment. But now she was once more summoned to the Party organization, and, as a Party member, was confronted with the demand to harness her love to State interests.

    Next day she was taken to hospital. The doctors found she had a very high temperature and blood pressure, but could find no visible reason for her condition. Weeks passed without any change for the better.

    One day an elderly, experienced neuro-pathologist came to her ward, studied her case history, and shook his head as he asked her: “Have you met with any great unpleasantness... in your personal life?”

    “No!” she curtly replied.

    She spent more than two months in hospital. When she was discharged she applied on health grounds to be transferred to work which did not bring her into contact with the Control Commission. Through acquaintances she informed her lover that she had been recalled to Russia. Valia had the heart of a soldier.

    Only very few people knew the connection between these incidents. Everybody continued to regard her as a fine officer who was assiduously doing her duty in Soviet society. And only a few noticed that she began to leave off wearing her officer’s tunic with its decorations, and took to ordinary feminine clothes.

    All these things happened to people who were close acquaintances of mine. They affected me personally because sooner or later I, too, would have to join the Party. There was no other choice, except to face up to a future, which for Major Dubov and Captain Belyavsky had become the present.

    Today there is no Communist Party in the Soviet Union. There is only Stalin’s Party with its obsolete facade. The aim and end of that Party is power, indivisible power. The ideal Party member should not have any independent thought; he must be only a dumb executive of the higher will. A striking example is provided by Party organizer Major Yeroma, a bestial brute and an ideal Bolshevik of the Stalin school.

    I was wearing Soviet officer’s uniform and I was a child of the October Revolution. If I had been born twenty years earlier, I would perhaps have been a convinced Marxist and revolutionary, active in the October Revolution. Today, despite everything, I was still not a member of the Communist Party. If I had not been faced with the necessity, the indubitable necessity, it would never even have entered my head to join the Party, which was called the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

    Sommaire https://seenthis.net/messages/683905
    #anticommunisme #histoire #Berlin #occupation #guerre_froide

  • As court case looms, Germany’s likely leaders pledge to protect diesel
    https://www.clientearth.org/court-case-looms-germanys-likely-leaders-pledge-protect-diesel

    As court case looms, Germany’s likely leaders pledge to protect diesel

    News / 6 February 2018

    Germany’s incoming government has vowed to do everything in its power to stop diesel restrictions coming into force. Environmental lawyers have denounced the move, criticising protection for industry at the expense of public health.

    Germany’s air quality is so poor that it is in the midst of legal proceedings by the European Commission, as well as a spate of regional court cases taken by ClientEarth and Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH). Triggered by this wave of court actions, three separate German cities (Münich, Stuttgart and Düsseldorf) have been asked to introduce “Dieselfahrverbote” – areas where diesel vehicles older than a certain age will not be allowed to drive. According to German courts, restricting diesel vehicles is by far the fastest way to bring down illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution.

    –------

    Juin 2017
    Pollution : Munich tire le coup de grâce contre le #diesel
    https://www.tdg.ch/economie/entreprises/Munich-tire-le-coup-de-grce-contre-le-diesel/story/31014351

    Après Hambourg et Stuttgart, Munich veut chasser le diesel de son centre. La ville du siège de BMW prévoit d’interdire de circulation tout véhicule ne répondant pas aux normes Euro 6, environ 300 000 voitures. « Je ne vois pas d’autre alternative pour réduire la #pollution, les niveaux sont devenus effrayants », a déclaré mardi le maire social-démocrate Dieter Reiter (SPD). Quand on sait qu’en Allemagne deux BMW sur trois roulent au diesel, une telle mesure est loin d’être populaire.

    A l’automne, le Tribunal administratif fédéral de Leipzig doit donner son avis sur le droit des communes à restreindre la circulation. Si les juges donnaient leur feu vert, le maire de Munich légiférerait dans la foulée, du moins l’a-t-il promis.

    Le lobby #automobile riposte

    BMW et le lobby de l’automobile ne se laisseront pas faire. Une interdiction généralisée exclurait en Allemagne près de 13 millions de véhicules des centres, a calculé la puissante association ADAC. « C’est ni plus ni moins une dépossession de bien », peste son vice-président, Ulrich Klaus Becker.

    La résistance s’organise également à Stuttgart, ville de l’automobile par excellence avec Porsche, Daimler (Mercedes) mais aussi le sous-traitant Bosch. Lovée dans une cuvette, la capitale du Bade-Wurtemberg accuse les plus hauts pics de pollution du pays. Le maire écologiste, Fritz Kuhn, a décidé au début du mois de mai de procéder à des interdictions dès 2018.

    #écologie

  • Workers of Germany, Unite: The New Siren Call of the Far Right - The New York Times
    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/05/world/europe/afd-unions-social-democrats.html?mabReward=ART_TS7&recid=10QNLdudNovobmvNWE

    BOTTROP, Germany — Guido Reil is a coal miner, like his father and grandfather before him. He joined a trade union at 18 and the center-left Social Democratic Party at 20. Fast-talking and loud, he has been an elected union representative for over a decade.

    But two years ago, after the arrival of hundreds of thousands of refugees in Germany, Mr. Reil switched to the far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD. Competing in state legislative elections last May, the party won 20 percent of the vote in his home district with his name on its list — and the Social Democrats slipped 16 percentage points from a previous election.

    “Those are my former comrades,” Mr. Reil said, chuckling. “They came with me.”

    How is a far-right party drawing voters from labor, a traditional bastion of the left? The question is not academic, but goes directly to the heart of the emerging threat the AfD presents to Germany’s political establishment, including Chancellor Angela Merkel.

    The AfD shocked Germany in the fall when it became the first far-right party to enter Parliament since World War II. But that breakthrough not only shattered a significant postwar taboo. It has also enormously complicated the task of forming a new governing coalition, leaving Germany and all of Europe in months of limbo.

    Ms. Merkel and her conservative alliance are negotiating a coalition deal with their former governing partners, the left-leaning Social Democrats. If they do, the AfD will be Germany’s primary opposition party, leaving a wide opening for it to pick up even more traditionally left-leaning voters who fear the Social Democrats have been co-opted.
    Continue reading the main story

    Many fear that the AfD, as the leading voice of the opposition, would have a perfect perch to turn the protest vote it received in national elections in September — it finished third with 13 percent of the vote — into a loyal and sustained following.

    “If we go back into government, the AfD will overtake us,” predicted Hilde Mattheis, a Social Democratic lawmaker from Baden-Wurttemberg, where that has already happened.
    Continue reading the main story
    Photo
    Mr. Reil driving by the Prosper-Haniel mine in Bottrop. He has worked in six mines, five of which have closed. Credit Gordon Welters for The New York Times

    The 92 AfD lawmakers, who have been busy moving into their new parliamentary offices in central Berlin, have not been shy about using the spotlight.

    One, Jürgen Pohl, recently addressed Parliament and criticized the labor market changes that former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of the Social Democratic Party passed from 2003 to 2005, saying they created a host of poorly regulated, precarious jobs.

    The AfD, Mr. Pohl said, “is a new people’s party that cares about the little people.”

    When some center-left lawmakers guffawed, Mr. Pohl pointed at the television cameras. “Go ahead and laugh,” he said, “your voters are watching.”

    Indeed, they are. The AfD has already overtaken the Social Democrats as the second-biggest party in state elections across much of what was formerly East Germany. In Bavaria, it is not far behind.

    But Mr. Reil believes his party has the greatest potential in places like Bottrop, in the Ruhr area, once the industrial heartland of West Germany and long a bastion of Social Democratic and union power.

    The Ruhr has produced coal since the 16th century, and it shaped modern Germany in the process. It powered the Industrial Revolution, two world wars, the postwar economic miracle and even European integration: The coal and steel community was the seedling of the European Union.

    But today, Bottrop and surrounding cities are in decline.

    Mr. Reil has worked in six mines, five of which have closed. Along with some 2,500 others, he will take early retirement, at 48, after the last mine ceases production in December.

    With the mines, most bars have closed, too, as has a whole social and cultural scene that once kept the area alive.
    Continue reading the main story
    Photo
    Mr. Reil won 20 percent of votes in a district where the AfD had never fielded a candidate before. Credit Gordon Welters for The New York Times

    The AfD’s “pro-worker” platform (“pro-coal, pro-diesel and anti-immigration,” as Mr. Reil puts it) resonates in Bottrop as well as on the factory floors of Germany’s iconic carmakers in the former east and the wealthy south of the country.

    As elections loom nationwide for worker representatives who bargain with management on behalf of their fellow employees, lists of candidates close to the AfD are circulating at several flagship companies, including Daimler and BMW. There are plans to create a new national workers’ movement, Mr. Reil said. The working name is the Alternative Union of Germany.

    “The revolution,” he predicted, “will be in the car industry.”

    Trade union leaders, currently on strike for higher pay and a 28-hour workweek for those wanting to care for children or elderly relatives, publicly dismiss such talk as “marginal.” But privately, some worry.

    One of Mr. Reil’s allies, Oliver Hilburger, a mechanic at a Daimler plant near Stuttgart, founded an alternative union called Zentrum Automobil in 2009, four years before the AfD even existed.

    Mr. Hilburger, who has been at the company for 28 years, is not a member of the AfD but he votes for it. He thinks the party and his union are a natural fit.
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    When it emerged that he had once played for a band associated with neo-Nazis, the news media reported the fact widely. But that did not stop his colleagues from giving his union 10 percent of their votes and electing him as one of their representatives.

    This spring, Mr. Hilburger, who calls his musical past “a sin of youth,” is fielding more than 250 candidates in at least four factories. Several of them, he said, are immigrants who have lived in Germany for years and support the AfD.

    “There is a feeling among workers that the old unions collude with the bosses and the government,” Mr. Hilburger said.
    Continue reading the main story
    Photo
    Mr. Reil with AfD supporters during an informal meeting at a bar in Essen. Credit Gordon Welters for The New York Times

    “The bosses and the media talk about skills shortages and how we need even more immigration,” he said. “We want to talk about a shortage of decent jobs for those who are already in the country. The AfD has understood that.”

    The AfD is ideologically divided, with many senior members staunchly capitalist and suspicious of labor unions.

    The strategic focus on the working class speaks to the challenge of turning protest voters into a loyal base, said Oskar Niedermayer, a professor of political science at the Free University in Berlin.

    “Breaking into the union milieu is key to that strategy,” Mr. Niedermayer said.

    He warned that the reflex to ostracize the AfD could backfire. Some unions are advising members to shun anyone in the AfD. Some soccer clubs are planning to outright bar them. And as Mr. Niedermayer pointed out, lawmakers from other parties have systematically blocked every AfD candidate for senior parliamentary posts.

    “It confirms them in their role as victims of the elites,” he said. “Workers who see themselves as victims of the elites will only identify with them more.”

    As the AfD appeals to Germany’s left-behinds, it is also trying to tie them to other parts of the party’s agenda, like its hard line on immigration.

    For instance, the battle cry of Frank-Christian Hansel, an AfD member of Berlin’s state Parliament, is to save the German welfare state — but for Germans.

    “If you want social justice, you need to manage who is coming into your country,” Mr. Hansel said. “Open borders and welfare state don’t go together.”
    Continue reading the main story
    Photo
    An advertising board near the Prosper-Haniel mine. Mr. Reil said the AfD was “pro-coal, pro-diesel and anti-immigration.” Credit Gordon Welters for The New York Times

    It is the kind of rhetoric that sets the AfD apart from the traditional left, even as it goes fishing for voters in Social Democratic waters.

    For the AfD, it is not just those at the bottom against those at the top, Mr. Niedermayer said. It is insiders against outsiders. Social justice, yes, but only for Germans.

    In Bottrop, this message plays well.

    Residents complain about some refugees being prescribed “therapeutic horseback-riding” and courses in flirtation, courtesy of taxpayers, while public schools are in decline.

    “They get the renovated social housing, while Germans wait for years,” said Linda Emde, the manager of one of the few remaining bars. “But when you speak up against migration, they call you a racist.”

    Ms. Emde had voted for the Social Democrats all her life. But in September, she and her husband switched to the AfD.

    Mr. Reil, who never managed to rise through the Social Democrats’ local party hierarchy, is now a member of the AfD’s national leadership team. At the monthly meetings, he sits at the same table as the aristocrat Beatrix von Storch and Alice Weidel, a professor.

    The two female lawmakers are perhaps best known for a recent social media rant about “barbaric, Muslim, rapist hordes of men.” But for Mr. Reil, the point of his comment was that he had risen socially.

    “What do a miner, a princess and a professor have in common?” he jokes. “They are all in the AfD.”

    Follow Katrin Bennhold on Twitter: @kbennhold.

    Christopher Schuetze contributed reporting from Berlin.

    #Allemagne #extrême_droite #syndicalisme

  • Diesel : Volkswagen, Daimler et BMW accusés de tests sur des humains et des singes
    http://abonnes.lemonde.fr/pollution/article/2018/01/29/diesel-des-constructeurs-allemands-soupconnes-de-tests-sur-des-humai

    Steffen Seibert, le porte-parole de la chancelière allemande Angela Merkel, a qualifié ces expériences d’« injustifiables d’un point de vue éthique » et il a réclamé des comptes aux constructeurs. « La confiance en l’industrie automobile est à nouveau écornée », a réagi le ministre des transports et de l’agriculture, Christian Schmidt, précisant que les groupes concernés seraient convoqués devant la commission d’enquête du Bundestag mise en place après le scandale du « dieselgate ». En septembre 2015, VW avait été contraint de reconnaître le trucage de onze millions de ses véhicules pour minorer les rejets de NOx lors des tests d’homologations.

    Le géant allemand a présenté ses excuses et pris ses « distances avec toute forme de maltraitance animale ». « Nous sommes convaincus que la méthode scientifique choisie à cette époque était erronée, a déclaré le groupe de Wolfsburg. Il aurait été préférable de renoncer à une telle étude dès le début. » Stephan Weil, le ministre-président de Basse-Saxe, un Land actionnaire de VW, l’a lui jugée « aussi immonde qu’absurde ».

    Le scandale a monté d’un cran, lundi 29 janvier, quand la Süddeutsche Zeitung et la Stuttgarter Zeitung – le quotidien de Stuttgart où Daimler a son siège – ont révélé que les tests conduits par l’EUGT concernaient aussi des humains.

    Entre 2012 et 2015, vingt-cinq jeunes adultes en bonne santé ont joué les cobayes. Cette fois, l’expérimentation ne se déroulait pas à Albuquerque mais à l’hôpital universitaire d’Aix-la-Chapelle. Une fois par semaine, ces personnes étaient exposées pendant trois heures dans une pièce de 40 mètres carrés à des concentrations de NO2 pouvant atteindre jusqu’à trois fois la valeur limite d’exposition professionnelle (950 µg/m³). A chaque séance, ils devaient de surcroît passer un moment à pédaler sur un home-trainer. Publiée en 2016, l’étude a conclu à l’absence d’« effets inflammatoires sur les voies respiratoires » des cobayes.

    Le groupe Daimler s’est dit « consterné » par « la mise en place et l’ampleur de ces tests » et a « condamné fermement » cette étude. La firme de Stuttgart, qui produit les Mercedes, assure n’avoir aucun lien avec ces recherches mais indique qu’elle va tout de même diligenter une enquête. De son côté, BMW a démenti y avoir participé.

    Une étude publiée en mai 2017 dans la revue Nature évaluait à 38 000 le nombre de morts prématurées causées à l’échelle de la planète en 2015 par les excès d’oxydes d’azote du « dieselgate ».

    #Dieselgate #VW

  • #Diesel : Volkswagen, Daimler et BMW soupçonnés de tests sur des humains et des singes
    http://www.lemonde.fr/pollution/article/2018/01/29/diesel-des-constructeurs-allemands-soupconnes-de-tests-sur-des-humains-et-de

    Environ 25 jeunes adultes en bonne #santé auraient été contraints d’inhaler pendant plusieurs heures du Nox à des doses variées, rapporte lundi 29 janvier la Stuttgarter Zeitung, le quotidien de Stuttgart, la capitale du Bade-Wurtemberg où #Daimler a son siège. Les #tests étaient effectués dans un institut lié à l’université d’Aix-la-Chapelle. Publiée en 2016, après l’affaire des moteurs truqués de Volkswagen, l’étude n’a pas pu déterminer l’impact des gaz d’échappement sur les #cobayes, selon le quotidien.

    Daimler s’est dit « consterné » par « la mise en place et l’ampleur de ces tests » et a « condamné fermement » cette étude. La firme de Stuttgart qui produit les #Mercedes assure n’avoir aucun lien avec ces recherches mais indique qu’elle va tout de même diligenter une enquête.

    Ces révélations interviennent quelques jours après celles du New-York Times. Sur la base de documents issus de la procédure judiciaire visant #Volkswagen aux Etats-Unis, le quotidien américain affirme que l’#EUFT a également réalisé ses #expérimentations sur des #singes. Dix primates enfermés dans une pièce devant des dessins animés ont dû respirer les #gaz_d’échappement d’une Beetle, la successeuse de la légendaire Coccinelle. Cette fois, l’expérimentation a été menée dans un laboratoire d’Albuquerque, aux Etats-Unis, en 2014. Deux ans plus tôt, l’Organisation mondiale de la santé avait classé le diesel comme #cancérogène.

    Le constructeur allemand a présenté ses #excuses jugeant cette « méthode scientifique inappropriée ». Stephan Weil, le ministre-président de la Basse-Saxe, actionnaire majoritaire de Volkswagen, l’a jugée « aussi immonde qu’absurde ».

    #cobaye_humain #je_m'excuse_de_le_faire_exprès #pollution #voiture

  • L’Afrique de l’Ouest dans l’œil du cyclone US
    http://www.dedefensa.org/article/lafrique-de-louest-dans-loeil-du-cyclone-us

    L’Afrique de l’Ouest dans l’œil du cyclone US

    Depuis la mort de quatre soldats des Etats-Unis au Niger, tombés dans une embuscade le 4 octobre dernier, les citoyens américains découvrent l’Afrique et la présence de leur armée sur ce continent. Cet engagement n’est pourtant pas nouveau. Sous les deux mandats de Barack Obama, leur présence militaire n’a cessé de croître. SOFRICA, le commandement des opérations spéciales en Afrique dont le siège est à Tampa en Floride, et Africom, le commandement des USA pour l’Afrique, basé à Stuttgart en Allemagne, ont multiplié leurs bases et leurs opérations (1). Selon Vice News : « En 2006, seulement 1% de tous les commandos américains déployés à l’étranger se trouvaient en Afrique. En 2010, ils étaient 3% ; en 2016, ce nombre avait bondi à plus (...)

  • LE SCANDALE DU DIESEL ALLEMAND AUX EFFETS MAL MESURÉS, par François Leclerc
    http://www.pauljorion.com/blog/2017/07/25/le-scandale-du-diesel-allemand-aux-effets-mal-mesures-par-francois-lecle

    À quoi tient la réputation de qualité de la production industrielle allemande et la prospérité du pays qui en découle ? Les scandales à répétition qui secouent son secteur automobile aux États-Unis et en Europe mettent la première à rude épreuve, en attendant la suite. Tout a commencé avec Volkswagen, puis s’est étendu à l’ensemble de la profession pour finalement atteindre Bosch en tant que sous-traitant fabricant des moteurs.

    Triste époque ! par leur ampleur, les amendes auxquelles les constructeurs sont condamnés pour le trucage des émissions de CO2 de leurs véhicules rappellent celles que les banques ont subies pour le même motif de tricherie. Comme si, les structures capitalistiques des premières où on retrouve les secondes aidant, les mêmes comportements prévalent par osmose dans les mondes économique et financier.

    Les constructeurs multiplient les rappels coûteux de millions de leurs voitures pour les modifier. Mais le mal est fait, l’industrie automobile allemande est descendue de son piédestal et a perdu sa réputation d’excellence dans le domaine du diesel. Les conséquences commerciales sont inévitables et se font déjà sentir sur les marchés d’exportation.

    Les constructeurs allemands ont tardivement réagi et le gouvernement a pris l’initiative, voyant avec inquiétude un fleuron de son activité industrielle durement mis en cause. Un plan défensif de sauvetage du diesel a été collectivement élaboré devant la menace que représente l’interdiction de la circulation des véhicules diesels dans des villes comme Stuttgart, le siège de Daimler et de Porsche et Munich, celui de BMW ! Mais le problème ne sera pas résolu pour autant, car il est craint que l’augmentation de la consommation qui résultera de la modification des réglages augmente les rejets de CO2… Sauver le diesel ne va pas être simple, d’autant que tous les véhicules utilitaires et poids lourds sont motorisés ainsi.

    Le scandale a rebondi avec les révélations de l’hebdomadaire Der Spiegel selon lequel un cartel clandestin aurait été constitué par les grands fabricants allemands de l’automobile. Comparé, le vaste trucage de onze millions de véhicules diesel par le groupe Volkswagen serait peu de choses si comme cela semble bien parti les faits se confirment. Ce groupe, déjà très éprouvé, aurait pris les devants en informant les autorités de l’existence du cartel, espérant bénéficier de la politique de la Commission qui encourage ce type d’initiative en exonérant son auteur de toute amende ! Il aurait encore pu être tenté de régler discrètement l’affaire, vu le contexte, mais Der Spiegel a dévoilé le pot aux roses.

    Liés à l’origine à la manipulation des émissions polluantes mais ayant ensuite élargi leur champ d’action (1), des groupes de travail secrets auraient fonctionné depuis les années 90, formant une entente strictement proscrite au nom du respect de la concurrence et de la protection des consommateurs. On peut toutefois s’attendre à ce que la Commission et l’Office anti-cartel allemand instruisent cette nouvelle affaire avec lenteur, vu ses nouvelles conséquences sur l’industrie automobile allemande. Non seulement en raison du montant des amendes qui sont prévues dans ce cas (2) mais également des conséquences financières qui commencent à en résulter.

    Les quatre plus grands constructeurs allemands représentent en effet 43% du chiffre d’affaires des 30 entreprises de l’index boursier DAX. Et leur cours est fortement à la baisse, leur PER (ratio cours sur bénéfices) ayant déjà chuté à 8, la moyenne de celui des 26 autres compagnies étant de 26. Les détenteurs de leurs actions ainsi que les souscripteurs des fonds de pension qui sont dans ce cas vont en faire les frais.
    Mais cela ne s’arrête pas là. Conséquence du cumul des milliards d’euros d’amendes déjà reçues, ainsi que des procès intentés par les clients et fournisseurs qui sont encore à venir, l’industrie automobile allemande est financièrement atteinte. Il ne faudrait pas en rajouter alors que le secteur est en pleine mutation, dans la perspective de la venue de la voiture à propulsion électrique qui s’accélère, ce qui réclame de lourds investissements dans les nouvelles technologies. Or le savoir-faire allemand réside dans la maitrise du diesel et les constructeurs ne sont pas en pointe dans ce domaine ! L’affaire ne se limite donc pas à un contre-temps passager : une des bases de la croissance économique allemande et de ses résultats à l’exportation est menacée.

    L’institut allemand Ifo publie un baromètre du moral des entrepreneurs faisant référence. Déjouant les attentes, elle rend compte de son humeur « euphorique » dans son dernier bulletin. Entraînés par la force de l’habitude et leur vision court-termiste, les 7.000 chefs d’entreprises interrogés ont-ils pris la mesure de ce qui se passe ?

    (1) Les échanges auraient porté sur le développement de véhicules, les systèmes de freinage, les moteurs diesel et essence, les transmissions et les systèmes d’échappement.

    (2) Daimler en a fait l’expérience l’an dernier, la Commission lui a infligé un milliard d’euros d’amende pour s’être mis d’accord sur les prix de vente de ses camions avec trois autres fabricants européens. L’amende peut aller jusqu’à 10% du chiffre d’affaires de l’entreprise, et donc atteindre presque 50 milliards d’euros pour les constructeurs allemands, en se basant sur leurs revenus de 2016. 

    Pour faire suite à la publication de Simplicissimus : https://seenthis.net/messages/617499

    #Allemagne #Industrie #Pollution #Diesel #Carambouille #Daimler #Porsche #BMW #Volkswagen #Bosch #Automobile #Ad-Blue

  • Württ. Kunstverein Stuttgart: Titos Bunker

    The point of departure for this exhibition, on show at the Württembergischer Kunstverein from May 27 to August 6, 2017, is a particular place, Tito’s bunker in Konjic (Bosnia and Herzegovina), which is equally negotiated as concrete location and as open-ended metaphor.

    From 1953 to 1979, the former head of state in Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito, initiated the top-secret construction of a gigantic and—at least theoretically—nuclear-safe bunker in Konjic, a town situated around 40 kilometers south of Sarajevo (and today located in Bosnia and Herzegovina). This shelter, drilled 300 meters deep into the mountain and occupying a space of 6,500 square meters, was conceived for the survival of 350 chosen representatives of the country’s political and military elite of that time—including just one woman: Jovanka B. Broz, Tito’s wife. Tito himself outlived the accomplishment of the structure by just one year.
    Not until the 1990s did the existence of this construction project, which cost 4.6 billion US dollars, become public knowledge. At this time, still no global atomic war had happened, fortunately, but the nation (or more precisely: its “elites”) that was (were) to be rescued in this bunker had disappeared: it was quasi atomized.

    In 2011, the two artists Edo und Sandra Hozic succeed in launching the Project Biennial D-0 ARK, whose site was to be Tito’s Bunker. From the very beginning, their aim has been to amass a collection of art through the biennial that would ultimately serve as a basis for a museum in the bunker.


    http://www.wkv-stuttgart.de/en/program/2017/exhibitions/titos-bunker
    http://www.wkv-stuttgart.de/en/program/2017/exhibitions/titos-bunker/konjic

    #tito #bunker #art #exposition

  • Iveta Apkalna organiste lettone, ambassadrice culturelle de la Lettonie, en concert ce 23 janvier 2017 à la Maison de la Radio - Paris

    [Lettonie - Francija : Informations, actualités, échanges, coopération, amitiés France- Latvija] https://www.lettonie-francija.fr/Iveta-Apkalna-organiste-musicienne-lettone-1306

    Iveta Apkalna organiste lettone en concert ce 23 janvier 2017 à la Maison de la Radio - Paris

    Ambassadrice culturelle de la Lettonie, la musicienne lettone danse sur les orgues du Monde !

    Iveta Apkalna danse sur l’orgue ! Organiste appréciée pour jouer des musiques contemporaines ; elle présente des compositions commandées par le compositeur libanais Naji Hakim et les compositeurs lettons Ēriks Ešenvalds et Arturs Maskats. Dans sa ville, Riga, régulièrement elle joue avec l’Orchestre National de Lettonie sous la direction d’Andris Poga. Iveta Apkalna a fait sa mission d’apporter la splendeur de la musique d’orgue dans les salles de concert du monde.

    Iveta Apkalna sera ce lundi 23 janvier 2017 à 20h à la Maison de la Radio - Paris et jouera des œuvres de Kalejs, Esenvals, Vasks, Pärt, Prokofiev, Chostakovitch, Ciurlionis.

    Iveta Apkalna, organiste de Lettonie douée d’un impressionnant sens musical

    L’organiste lettone Iveta Apkalna impressionne avec son profond sens musical, l’éclat technique et un sens aigu de l’impact de la musique. Iveta Apkalna réussit à donner une perception spécifique au « roi de tous les instruments de musique ».

    Les orgues de nombreuses églises européennes et nord-américaines ont résonné lors de ses concerts, plus souvent l’orgue de la Cathédrale de Riga où elle joue fréquemment.

    A 17 ans en 1993, elle joue sur l’orgue de la Basilique d’Aglona lors de la visite officielle du pape Jean-Paul II en Lettonie. Son répertoire est dédié à l’ensemble de la musique pour orgue, de Bach aux compositeurs contemporains. Elle se produit régulièrement avec l’orchestre de la Kremerata Baltica du violoniste letton Gido Kremer.

    Depuis son concert avec l’Orchestre philharmonique de Berlin sous la direction de Claudio Abbado, elle joue dans de prestigieuses salles de concert à travers le monde, dans des festivals de renom et avec des orchestres de premier plan comme la Radio Bavaroise ou la Philharmonie de Los Angeles sous la direction de chefs remarquables Comme Mariss Jansons, Gustavo Dudamel, Marek Janowski, Simone Young ou Andris Nelsons.

    Iveta Apkalna, première titulaire de l’orgue de la Philharmonie de l’Elbe

    En 2016, elle devient première titulaire de l’orgue de la Philharmonie de l’Elbe à Hambourg.

    La pièce maîtresse de la Philharmonie de l’Elbe à Hamburg - Pour le Grand Hall - un orgue de concert unique a été développé et inauguré en janvier 2017.

    L’instrument convient non seulement parfaitement à l’architecture spectaculaire de la salle, mais résout également d’une façon excitante cette idée, qu’à Hambourg de nouveaux repères culturels résonnent : la musique accessible à tous. Ainsi, l’orgue se situe quelque part au-dessus des têtes des spectateurs, mais se trouve à côté et à l’arrière de la terrasse. Certains des 4765 tuyaux sont visibles et tangibles montés dans l’espace. L’Orgue été construit par la quatrième génération de l’atelier renommé Klais Orgelbau à Bonn. Sa conception a été préparée par Manfred Schwartz, qui a depuis le début accompagné le projet en tant qu’organiste expert.

    Iveta Apkalna a gagné la reconnaissance internationale dans diverses compétitions internationales prestigieuses.

    En 2002, après avoir remporté les épreuves européennes préliminaires et remporté les finales mondiales du Concours international d’orgue de la Banque Royale de Calgary au Canada, elle a reçu le prestigieux prix Johann Sebastian Bach cette même année. En 2003, elle reçoit le Great Music Award de la Lettonie pour des réalisations spéciales en musique.

    Iveta Apkalna {JPEG}

    En outre, elle a remporté le premier prix ainsi que quatre autres prix spéciaux au concours international d’orgue M. Tariverdiev à Kaliningrad, en Russie. Elle a reçu le « Prix d’excellence en culture 2015 » du ministère letton de la culture et a été nommée ambassadrice culturelle de la Lettonie.

    Iveta Apkalna est devenue la première organiste à recevoir le titre de « Meilleure interprète » décerné par le Prix allemand de la musique ECHO Klassik en 2005. En 2008, la chaîne de télévision allemande et française ARTE a diffusé un documentaire intitulé « Dancing with the Organ ».

    Dans le journal allemand WAZ, elle est été descrite ainsi : " ... l’artiste joue avec une virtuosité telle qu’ Argerich à l’orgue. Vous reconnaissez qu’elle doit également avoir été une excellente pianiste. ... Cet artiste peut revendiquer un rang exceptionnel. "

    Concerts à venir d’Iveta Apkalna
    Pour la saison de concerts 2016/17 [1]] elle suivra une invitation de Gustavo Dudamel en concert avec l’Orchestre philharmonique de Los Angeles dans le Walt Disney Concert Hall. En outre, Iveta Apkalna jouera dans les principales salles de concert d’Europe, le Konzerthaus de Vienne, le Mozarteum Salzburg, l’Alte Oper à Francfort, la Frauenkirche à Dresde, l’Elbphilharmonie de Hambourg, la Philharmonie de Cologne, la Philharmonie Essen, la Philharmonie de Berlin, le Konzerthaus Dortmund, l’Auditorium de la Maison de Radio France, au Luxembourg, au Festival de Luzern ainsi qu’en Asie au Centre National des Arts du Spectacle de Pékin et au Shanghai Symphony Hall.

    A Liepāja le 3 mars 2017 dans la nouvelle salle “Grand Ambre” pour le Festival des Étoiles.

    Née le 30 novembre 1976 à Rēzekne en Lettonie, Iveta Apkalna a étudié le piano et l’orgue à l’Académie lettone de musique Jazeps Vitols et a poursuivi ses études à l’École de musique et de théâtre de London Guildhall. Elle a reçu une bourse du Service allemand d’échange académique, ce qui lui a permis d’étudier dans la classe soliste pour orgue à l’Académie nationale de musique et de beaux-arts à Stuttgart. Iveta Apkalna vit actuellement à Berlin et Riga.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqBnNE08lBo

    Dans les Hauts de France, nous aimerions subir une invasion musicale lettone et revoir sur scène les concerts d’Andris Poga, Iveta Apkalna, Gidon Kremer et la Kremerica Baltica, Maris Sirmais et le Choeur de Lettonie, et de nombreux autres artistes et chorales de Lettonie.

    #Lettonie, #Apkalna, #Organiste, #musique, #HautsdeFrance, #Orgue

  • Gerda Taro, photo-reporter de l’ombre | L’Histoire par les femmes
    https://histoireparlesfemmes.com/2017/01/06/gerda-taro-photo-reporter-de-lombre

    J’ai même cru comprendre que Robert Capa s’était approprié certains de ses clichés en effaçant son nom... Ce qui l’a fait disparaître des écrans radars. Ce que ce site raconte de cette manière :

    Passionnée par les évènements et ralliée à la cause des républicains qui la surnomment « la petite rousse », Gerda n’hésite pas à se mettre en danger pour prendre des clichés au plus près des combats et des opérations militaires. Les clichés sont signés Capa et Taro, et Robert gagne une reconnaissance mondiale tandis que sa compagne ne connait pas le succès.

    Comment on réécrit l’Histoire.

    Photographe brillante et courageuse, Gerda Taro a été la première femme photo-reporter de guerre et a couvert la Guerre d’Espagne. Son travail reste dans l’ombre de celui de son compagnon, Robert Capa.
    Une jeune révolutionnaire

    Gerda TaroGerda Taro nait Gerta Pohorylle, le 1er août 1910 à Stuttgart (Allemagne). Elle est issue d’une famille juive de classe moyenne, originaire de Galicie en Pologne. Dans un internat suisse, Gerta bénéficie d’une éducation bourgeoise et s’initie, entre autres, à l’art et à la politique.

    En 1930, la famille Pohorylle déménage à Leipzig en raison de problèmes financiers. Gerta y rencontre l’étudiant en médecine Georg Kuritzke, auprès de qui elle développe ses idées révolutionnaires. Gerta se joint à des groupes de gauche opposés au nazisme ; en 1933, elle est arrêtée pour distribution de tracts anti-nazis. A la fin de la même année, face à la montée de la répression contre les opposants politiques, Gerta quitte l’Allemagne pour s’installer à Paris. L’ensemble de la famille Pohorylle finira par choisir l’exil progressivement ; Gerta ne les reverra plus.

  • #Éducation #sexuelle à la télévision nationale de la Norvège — Partie 1
    http://canal311.com/fr/education-sexuelle-television-nationale-norvege-11


    Vu et approuvé par la Minilecte

    L’avantage de Pubertet est qu’il est diffusé à la télévision nationale. En outre, les chapitres sont téléchargés sur Internet. Tous les jeunes peuvent y accéder » soutient Normann, qui avoue avoir regardé la série avec ses enfants âgés de onze ans. » Ils ont apprécié le spectacle et j’ai profite de l’occasion pour leur parler de sexe » a-t-elle ajouté.

    Comme prévu, et compte tenu de sa fonction didactique, le spectacle n’a pas de limites d’âge. Il est adapté à tous les publics. » Les règles applicables aux medias en Norvège établissent qu’une limitation n’aura lieu que si le contenu est nocif pour le jeune public ». Voici ce que la responsable de la production avance, puis elle ajoute : » Pubertet ne nuit pas à personne. Bien au contraire ».

    • "Pubertet est une série dans le programme scientifique « Newton » pour les jeunes. Épisode favori favori de mes filles (5 et 7 ans) déjà vu une bonne dizaine de fois : « puppene » (Comment fonctionnent et à quoi servent les seins).

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJObfWe8Fmk


      http://tv.nrksuper.no/serie/newton-pubertet/DMPV74100215/sesong-1/episode-2

      Je confirme, ce programme est génial et Line Jansrud, la pédiatre qui présente cette série avec grand talent et subtilité est totalement géniale aussi, devenue une figure nationale. C’est simple, il FAUT voir tous les épisode de cette série. Les ados peuvent avoir des réponses très élaborées et en même temps très compréhensibles à des questions qu’elles·ils n’osent pas poser à leurs parents, et c’est très bien.

      Dans l’épisode sur les relations sexuelles, il y a un passage très important où elle prend bien soin d’expliquer quelque chose qui pourrait beaucoup aider dans l’éducation : "l’amour, c’est plein de combinaisons possibles, une fille aime un garçon, un garçon aime une fille, une fille aime une fille, un garçon aime un garçon, un garçon aime une fille ET un garçon, une fille aime une fille ET un garçon ". Voilà les messages appropriés qu’il faudrait répéter à la jeune classe pour développer la connaissance, la tolérance et la normalité de tous les choix et les orientations sexuelles. C’est là :

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PeQG61W4i0&list=RD2PeQG61W4i0#t=121

    • A vous lire j’ai l’impression d’assister à des scènes de mon adolescence quand la sexualité nous paraissait comme quelque chose de pure et quasiment sacré.

      Theater Rote Grütze
      https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theater_Rote_Gr%C3%BCtze

      Das erste Projekt war 1973 das Aufklärungsstück Darüber spricht man nicht. Bis heute (Stand: 2006) wurde das Stück in über 40 Inszenierungen im In- und Ausland gezeigt, darunter in Japan, Kanada und Kenia. Danach folgte 1976 wieder ein Aufklärungsstück mit dem Titel Was heißt hier Liebe. Das Stück wurde 1977 mit dem Brüder-Grimm-Preis des Landes Berlin ausgezeichnet und 1978 verfilmt.

      Was heißt hier Liebe ? - Trailer - Theaterhaus Stuttgart
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYj49PEFXJM

      Cette pièce avait le mérite (parmi d’autres) de présenter sur scène (pour les ados) l’orgasme. C’était simplement drôle et émouvant (et instructif bien sûr).

    • Pendant ce temps... A #Genève, on coupe les moyens de l’éducation sexuelle à l’#école
      Des classes devront se passer d’éducation sexuelle

      Faute de moyens et suite à l’arrivée de nombreux élèves migrants, l’Etat a dû suspendre certains cours.

      Des classes devront se passer d’éducation sexuelle
      http://www.lecourrier.ch/144718/des_classes_devront_se_passer_d_education_sexuelle

      Et... parce que, l’article dixit... l’Etat doit utiliser ces moyens pour des cours supplémentaires pour des migrants (réfugiés, en réalité).

      Bravo l’Etat de Genève !

  • « Une politique écologique moderne et une bonne politique économique ne sont pas incompatibles »
    http://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2016/05/16/une-politique-ecologique-moderneet-une-bonne-politique-economique-ne-sont-pa

    Une petite « révolution verte » a eu lieu jeudi 12 mai à Stuttgart, dans le sud de l’Allemagne, un moment historique passé presque inaperçu chez nos voisins français. Dans le Land de #Bade-Wurtemberg, l’écologiste allemand Winfried Kretschmann, ministre-président sortant, a été réélu chef du gouvernement après les élections parlementaires de la région en mars. Die Grünen (les Verts) avaient remporté ces élections avec 30,3 % des voix et sont ainsi devenus le premier parti, devançant la CDU conservatrice.

    Cette fois-ci, plus personne n’a prédit la « ruine de la région » comme cela s’était produit lors de la première élection de Winfried Kretschmann il y a cinq ans

    #écologie_politique

  • #Allemagne : l’AfD choisit une ligne très à droite, mais pas extrême
    https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/international/010516/allemagne-l-afd-choisit-une-ligne-tres-droite-mais-pas-extreme

    Réuni pour un congrès « fondateur » à Stuttgart, le parti ultraconservateur allemand s’est doté d’un programme fédéral. Les 2.400 délégués ont entériné les choix d’une direction évitant tout dérapage vers l’extrême droite. La nouvelle cible de l’AfD est désormais l’islam politique. Pour la sortie de l’Euro, le retour au nucléaire et au charbon, ou l’instauration de référendums populaires, le parti rêve, sur le plan social et moral, d’un retour en arrière avant 68.

    #International #AFD #euro #islam_politique #islamophobie

  • A son congrès, l’AfD choisit une ligne très à droite, mais pas extrême
    https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/international/010516/son-congres-l-afd-choisit-une-ligne-tres-droite-mais-pas-extreme

    Réuni pour un congrès « fondateur » à Stuttgart, le parti ultraconservateur s’est doté d’un programme fédéral. Les 2 400 délégués ont entériné les choix d’une direction évitant tout dérapage vers l’extrême droite. La nouvelle cible de l’AfD est désormais l’islam politique. Pour la sortie de l’Euro, le retour au nucléaire et au charbon, ou l’instauration de référendums populaires, le parti rêve, sur le plan social et moral, d’un retour en arrière avant 68.

    #International #AFD #Allemagne #euro #islam_politique

  • Barentsburg, la vie dans un village russe de l’Arctique | Actualités russes

    http://fr.rbth.com/tourisme/2016/03/04/barentsburg-la-vie-dans-un-village-russe-de-larctique_573219

    L’Allemand Dieter est l’un des nombreux touristes qui se rendent à Barentsburg pour voir comment on vivait à l’époque soviétique. Dieter habite à Stuttgart. Toute sa vie, il a travaillé comme ingénieur. Aujourd’hui, il est à la retraite et voyage avec son épouse dans des endroits exotiques.

    « Nous n’avons jamais été en Russie ni en URSS, car c’est assez difficile d’obtenir un visa », raconte Dieter. « Pour venir à Spitzberg, nous n’avons pas besoin de visa. Nous avons donc décidé d’y passer nos vacances pour voir de nos propres yeux comment vivent les Russes ».

    #svalbard #barentsburg #pyramiden #ex-urss #soviétisme #norvège