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Arab News
30-04-2025
- Business
- Arab News
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has the mind of a great architect
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched on March 17 the Saudi Architecture Characters Map, encompassing 19 distinct architectural designs that reflect the geographical, cultural and natural identity of the country's regions and cities. The initiative celebrates architectural heritage, enhances quality of life and revitalizes urban landscapes by innovatively reinterpreting traditional designs. It is expected to boost the economy by more than SR8 billion ($2.13 billion) and generate 34,000 jobs by 2030, primarily in the engineering, construction and urban development sectors. This marks a significant economic shift, transforming architecture into a viable economic asset. The project will roll out in phases, starting with Taif, Al-Ahsa, Abha and Makkah. Initial efforts will focus on the facades of existing buildings, alongside major projects, government structures and commercial properties. The designs will serve as a form of soft power, transcending mere cultural or architectural significance. Buildings will become part of a unique visitor experience, aiming to increase tourism spending. The guide introduces 19 geographical zones for architectural styles, expanding beyond the Kingdom's 13 administrative regions. The initiative is timely and pivotal, reinforcing regional identities through urban fabric, building densities, heights, materials and terrain adaptation. For instance, constructions in plains will differ from those in mountains, oases, coastal areas and deserts. Riyadh stands out as a leading city in adopting the Saudi architectural identity, particularly during the tenure of King Salman bin Abdulaziz as its administrative governor. This is evident in the Qasr Al-Hukm area, Tuwaiq Palace and other locations, positioning Riyadh as a reference point for this architectural map. Complementing this is the King Salman Charter for Architecture and Urbanism, approved in late 2021, which serves as a guiding framework providing a national methodology and strategy for urban design based on specific values. The charter also includes an award for the best creative institutional and student architectural designs. Throughout history, architecture has served as a significant barometer of civilizational distinction. Notable examples include the grandeur of Greek temples and the enduring presence of Roman theaters. During Germany's reunification in the 1990s, it undertook the reconstruction of its former parliament building, the Reichstag, originally erected in 1894. This act symbolized the renewed unity between its eastern and western halves. The redesign principles emphasized the building's importance as a democratic institution and its historical role in German life. A glass dome was incorporated to represent the transparency of the parliament, allowing visitors to observe lawmakers during debates and the passage of legislation. The Reichstag has since become a prominent landmark and tourist attraction in Berlin, drawing about 4,000 visitors a day. Another transformative approach was witnessed in Azerbaijan in 1991. Following its decision to shed the Soviet architectural style that dominated 33 percent of the buildings in its capital, Baku, the nation embarked on replacing it with structures that reflected its own history and culture. This resulted in iconic developments such as the Flame Towers, completed in 2013. Their name alludes to Azerbaijan's historical identity as the Land of Fire, a designation stemming from its rich natural gas reserves. A 2016 study published in the journal Omran explored the symptoms of what it termed 'urbanization disease,' particularly within the context of the modern Arab city. The study argued that this condition afflicts the subjugated individual in contemporary urban environments, where life has become a sphere of exploitation, noise and visual pollution and economic distress. From the study's perspective, the inhabitants of today's Arab cities are akin to caged predators in zoos. French sociologist and anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss, in his seminal work 'Tristes Tropiques' ('Sad Tropics'), posits that humans inhabit urban environments to fulfill their material and aesthetic needs, much like they use language to secure their communicative and symbolic requirements. He believed that language preserves ideas and beliefs, while architecture provides tangible forms to people's experiences and knowledge, intersecting with their cultural heritage and aligning with their historical priorities. In his five-volume novel, 'Cities of Salt,' the late Saudi novelist Abdulrahman Munif recounts the state of a small coastal village in the Gulf, once a haven for fishermen and returning travelers. It was transformed into an industrial oil city that no longer served anyone and its people became identical and lacked distinctive features. It is hoped that the Saudi architectural map will break these pessimistic stereotypes, especially about the Gulf oil city, and restore it to its humanity, ancient scents and intimate, open spaces. This is consistent with the vision of the ancient Roman architect Marco Vitruvius, who believed that architecture was based on three main things: strength that protects its inhabitants, utility that gives the building a function that people need and beauty that is distinctive.
Yahoo
20-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Hitler's Terrible Tariffs
From almost the moment Adolf Hitler took office as chancellor of Germany, tariffs were at the top of his government's economic agenda. The agricultural sector's demands for higher tariffs 'must be met,' Hitler's economic minister, Alfred Hugenberg, declared on Wednesday, February 1, 1933, just over 48 hours into Hitler's chancellorship, 'while at the same time preventing harm to industry.' Foreign Minister Konstantin von Neurath was concerned about lumber imports from Austria and a 200-million-Reichsmark trade deal with Russia. With several trade agreements about to expire, Hitler's finance minister, Count Johann Ludwig Graf Schwerin von Krosigk, insisted that 'immediate decisions' needed to be made. Hitler told his cabinet he had only one priority—to avoid 'unacceptable unrest' in advance of the March 5 Reichstag elections, which he saw as key to his hold on power. Hitler had what one might call a diffident, occasionally felonious disregard for financial matters. He owed 400,000 reichsmarks in back taxes. His understanding of economics was primitive. 'You have inflation only if you want it,' Hitler once said. 'Inflation is a lack of discipline. I will see to it that prices remain stable. I have my S.A. for that.' (The S.A., or Brownshirts, were the original paramilitary organization associated with the Nazi Party.) Hitler held Jews responsible for most of Germany's financial woes. Hitler relied on Gottfried Feder, the National Socialist Party's long-serving chief economist, to develop the specifics of an economic program. Feder had helped concoct the strange brew of socialism and fanatical nationalism in the original 25-point program of this putative 'workers' party.' In May 1932, Feder outlined what would become the first Nazi economic plan a 32-page position paper designed for ready implementation were Hitler to suddenly find himself in power. High on Feder's agenda for a Hitler economy were tariffs. [Timothy W. Ryback: What the press got wrong about Hitler] 'National Socialism demands that the needs of German workers no longer be supplied by Soviet slaves, Chinese coolies, and Negroes,' Feder wrote. Germany needed German workers and farmers producing German goods for German consumers. Feder saw 'import restrictions' as key to returning the German economy to the Germans. 'National Socialism opposes the liberal world economy, as well as the Marxist world economy,' Feder wrote. Our fellow Germans must 'be protected from foreign competition.' Even though Hitler's own foreign minister, Konstantin von Neurath, was concerned that the strategy would spark a trade war, and could drive up the price of imported eggs by 600 percent, Feder's tariffs fit into Hitler's larger vision for 'liberating' the German people from the shackles of a globalized world order. The crash of 1929 had plunged Germany, along with much of the rest of the world, into an abyss. Markets collapsed. Factories were idled. Unemployment soared. In the early 1930s, one out of three German workers was unemployed. But Hitler had inherited a recovering economy: In December 1932, the German Institute for Economic Research reported that the crisis had been 'significantly overcome'; by the time Hitler was appointed chancellor, in January 1933, the economy was on the mend. Thus Hitler's main economic task as chancellor was not to mess things up. The German stock market had rallied on news of his coming to power. 'The Boerse recovered today from its weakness when it learned of Adolf Hitler's appointment, an outright boom extending over the greater part of stocks,' The New York Times reported. But rumors of potential tariffs and the abrogation of international agreements, along with Hitler's challenges to the constitutional order, sent alarm bells clanging. The conservative Centre Party warned Hitler against 'unconstitutional, economically harmful, socially reactionary and currency endangering experiments.' Eduard Hamm, a former economics minister who served on the board of the German Industry and Trade Association, dispatched a stern letter to the new chancellor instructing him on the 'legal, economic and psychological prerequisites for building capital.' The free-market system, Hamm reminded Hitler, was based on trust, the rule of law, and adherence to contractual obligations. Hamm went on to explain that even though Germany imported more agricultural products than it exported to its European neighbors, these countries provided markets for German industrial production. (At the time, Germany imported on average 1.5 billion reichsmarks annually in agricultural products, while exporting an average 5.5 billion reichsmarks in industrial and manufactured goods.) 'The maintenance of export relations to these countries is a mandatory requirement,' Hamm wrote. If one were to 'strangle' trade through tariffs, it would endanger German industrial production—which, in turn, would inflict severe self-harm on the German economy, and lead to increased unemployment. 'Exporting German goods provides three million workers with jobs,' Hamm wrote. The last thing Germany's recovering but still-fragile economy needed was a trade war. Hamm urged Hitler to exercise 'greatest caution' in his tariff policies. But Hitler made no effort to reassure the markets, insisting that the tariffs were necessary and that he needed time to fix the ruined country his predecessors had left him. 'Within four years the German farmer must be saved from destitution,' Hitler said in his first national radio address as chancellor. 'Within four years unemployment must be completely overcome.' Hitler provided scant details as to how this was to be accomplished. By this point, he had broken even with the tariff cheerleader Feder, and had abandoned most of the action items for developing a nationalist and socialist economy. These items had included increased taxation of the wealthy; state supervision of large corporations; and the prohibition of 'new department stores, low-priced shops, and chain stores.' As chancellor, Hitler left his own plans for the German economy intentionally vague. His chief priority, as he told his ministers, was to secure an outright majority in the March 5 Reichstag elections. Hitler calculated that he needed between 18 million and 19 million votes. 'There is no economic program that could meet with the approval of such a large mass of voters,' Hitler told party leaders. But although the average voter may not have cared about the details of the Hitler economy, the markets did. The initial surge in stocks that greeted Hitler's appointment halted then dipped and flattened amid the political and economic uncertainty of Hitler's chaotic first weeks as chancellor. The German Industry and Trade Association issued a public warning on tariffs. 'Germany has the largest export surplus of all major trading countries,' the association reported. 'This situation calls for double caution in trade policy measures that could lead to countermeasures.' Hans Joachim von Rohr, who worked at the Reich's nutrition ministry, went on national radio to explain the logic of Hitler's tariff strategy. 'The products that Germany lacks must be made more expensive; then farmers will produce them in sufficient quantities,' Rohr explained. 'And if foreign competition is kept at bay by tariffs and the like, city residents will prefer domestic production.' Rohr offered lard—'Schmalz'—as an example. If Germany raised the import duty on Schmalz, a staple of the German diet, the German farmer would be motivated by the price increase to raise 'three-ton pigs,' the main source of lard, instead of the more common 'two-ton pigs,' the major source of bacon. The problem, as one critic observed, was that bacon was more lucrative than lard, even as 'lard pigs' consumed more feed than 'bacon pigs.' Switching from bacon pigs to lard pigs, this critic calculated, would ultimately drive the pig farmer into bankruptcy. He noted further that the international trading system had been in place for 200 years and proved itself beneficial to all parties. Hitler's proposed 'national economy,' with its self-defeating tariff policies, would plunge the country into a 'severe crisis' that could cost hundreds of thousands of jobs. And that was even before any damage wreaked by retaliatory tariffs. The Hitler tariffs, announced on Friday, February 10, 1933, stunned observers. 'The dimension of the tariff increases have in fact exceeded all expectations,' the Vossische Zeitung wrote disapprovingly, proclaiming the moment a 'fork in the road' for the German economy. It appeared that Europe's largest and most industrialized nation would suddenly be returning 'to the furrow and the plow.' The New York Times saw this for what it was: 'a trade war' against its European neighbors. The primary targets of the Hitler tariffs—the Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands—were outraged by the sudden suspension of favored-nation trading status on virtually all agricultural products, as well as on textiles, with tariffs in some cases rising 500 percent. With its livestock essentially banished from the German market, Denmark, for example, was facing substantial losses. Farmers panicked. The Danes and Swedes threatened 'retaliatory measures,' as did the Dutch, who warned the Germans that the countermeasures would be felt as 'palpable blows' to German industrial exports. That proved to be true. [Read: Worse than Signalgate] 'Our exports have shrunk significantly,' Foreign Minister Neurath informed Hitler in one cabinet meeting, 'and our relations to our neighboring countries are threatening to deteriorate.' Neurath noted that informal contacts with Dutch interlocutors had been 'bruskly broken off.' Trade relations with Sweden and Denmark were similarly strained, as were those with France and Yugoslavia. Finance Minister Krosigk anticipated that the agricultural sector would require an additional 100 million reichsmarks in deficit spending. Hitler launched his trade war on the second Friday of his chancellorship. That evening, he appeared in the Berlin Sportpalast, the city's largest venue, for a rally in front of thousands of jubilant followers. It was his first public appearance as chancellor, and it served as a victory lap. Hitler dispensed with the dark suit he wore in cabinet meetings in favor of his brown storm-trooper uniform with a bright-red swastika armband. In his address, Hitler declared that the entire country needed to be rebuilt after years of mismanagement by previous governments. He spoke of the 'sheer madness' of international obligations imposed by the Treaty of Versailles, of the need to restore 'life, liberty, and happiness' to the German people, of the need for 'cleansing' the bureaucracy, public life, culture, the population, 'every aspect of our life.' His tariff regime, he implied, would help restore the pride and honor of German self-reliance. 'Never believe in help from abroad, never on help from outside our own nation, our own people,' Hitler said. 'The future of the German people is to be found in our own selves.' Hitler did not refer specifically to the trade war he had launched that afternoon, just as he did not mention the rearmament plans he had discussed with his cabinet the previous day. 'Billions of reichsmarks are needed for rearmament,' Hitler had told his ministers in that meeting. 'The future of Germany depends solely and exclusively on the rebuilding of the army.' Hitler's trade war with his neighbors would prove to be but a prelude to his shooting war with the world. Article originally published at The Atlantic
Atlantic
20-04-2025
- Business
- Atlantic
Hitler's Terrible Tariffs
From almost the moment Adolf Hitler took office as chancellor of Germany, tariffs were at the top of his government's economic agenda. The agricultural sector's demands for higher tariffs 'must be met,' Hitler's economic minister, Alfred Hugenberg, declared on Wednesday, February 1, 1933, just over 48 hours into Hitler's chancellorship, 'while at the same time preventing harm to industry.' Foreign Minister Konstantin von Neurath was concerned about lumber imports from Austria and a 200-million-Reichsmark trade deal with Russia. With several trade agreements about to expire, Hitler's finance minister, Count Johann Ludwig Graf Schwerin von Krosigk, insisted that 'immediate decisions' needed to be made. Hitler told his cabinet he had only one priority—to avoid 'unacceptable unrest' in advance of the March 5 Reichstag elections, which he saw as key to his hold on power. Hitler had what one might call a diffident, occasionally felonious disregard for financial matters. He owed 400,000 reichsmarks in back taxes. His understanding of economics was primitive. 'You have inflation only if you want it,' Hitler once said. 'Inflation is a lack of discipline. I will see to it that prices remain stable. I have my S.A. for that.' (The S.A., or Brownshirts, were the original paramilitary organization associated with the Nazi Party.) Hitler held Jews responsible for most of Germany's financial woes. Hitler relied on Gottfried Feder, the National Socialist Party's long-serving chief economist, to develop the specifics of an economic program. Feder had helped concoct the strange brew of socialism and fanatical nationalism in the original 25-point program of this putative 'workers' party.' In May 1932, Feder outlined what would become the first Nazi economic plan a 32-page position paper designed for ready implementation were Hitler to suddenly find himself in power. High on Feder's agenda for a Hitler economy were tariffs. Timothy W. Ryback: What the press got wrong about Hitler 'National Socialism demands that the needs of German workers no longer be supplied by Soviet slaves, Chinese coolies, and Negroes,' Feder wrote. Germany needed German workers and farmers producing German goods for German consumers. Feder saw 'import restrictions' as key to returning the German economy to the Germans. 'National Socialism opposes the liberal world economy, as well as the Marxist world economy,' Feder wrote. Our fellow Germans must 'be protected from foreign competition.' Even though Hitler's own foreign minister, Konstantin von Neurath, was concerned that the strategy would spark a trade war, and could drive up the price of imported eggs by 600 percent, Feder's tariffs fit into Hitler's larger vision for 'liberating' the German people from the shackles of a globalized world order. The crash of 1929 had plunged Germany, along with much of the rest of the world, into an abyss. Markets collapsed. Factories were idled. Unemployment soared. In the early 1930s, one out of three German workers was unemployed. But Hitler had inherited a recovering economy: In December 1932, the German Institute for Economic Research reported that the crisis had been 'significantly overcome'; by the time Hitler was appointed chancellor, in January 1933, the economy was on the mend. Thus Hitler's main economic task as chancellor was not to mess things up. The German stock market had rallied on news of his coming to power. 'The Boerse recovered today from its weakness when it learned of Adolf Hitler's appointment, an outright boom extending over the greater part of stocks,' The New York Times reported. But rumors of potential tariffs and the abrogation of international agreements, along with Hitler's challenges to the constitutional order, sent alarm bells clanging. The conservative Centre Party warned Hitler against 'unconstitutional, economically harmful, socially reactionary and currency endangering experiments.' Eduard Hamm, a former economics minister who served on the board of the German Industry and Trade Association, dispatched a stern letter to the new chancellor instructing him on the 'legal, economic and psychological prerequisites for building capital.' The free-market system, Hamm reminded Hitler, was based on trust, the rule of law, and adherence to contractual obligations. Hamm went on to explain that even though Germany imported more agricultural products than it exported to its European neighbors, these countries provided markets for German industrial production. (At the time, Germany imported on average 1.5 billion reichsmarks annually in agricultural products, while exporting an average 5.5 billion reichsmarks in industrial and manufactured goods.) 'The maintenance of export relations to these countries is a mandatory requirement,' Hamm wrote. If one were to 'strangle' trade through tariffs, it would endanger German industrial production—which, in turn, would inflict severe self-harm on the German economy, and lead to increased unemployment. 'Exporting German goods provides three million workers with jobs,' Hamm wrote. The last thing Germany's recovering but still-fragile economy needed was a trade war. Hamm urged Hitler to exercise 'greatest caution' in his tariff policies. But Hitler made no effort to reassure the markets, insisting that the tariffs were necessary and that he needed time to fix the ruined country his predecessors had left him. 'Within four years the German farmer must be saved from destitution,' Hitler said in his first national radio address as chancellor. 'Within four years unemployment must be completely overcome.' Hitler provided scant details as to how this was to be accomplished. By this point, he had broken even with the tariff cheerleader Feder, and had abandoned most of the action items for developing a nationalist and socialist economy. These items had included increased taxation of the wealthy; state supervision of large corporations; and the prohibition of 'new department stores, low-priced shops, and chain stores.' As chancellor, Hitler left his own plans for the German economy intentionally vague. His chief priority, as he told his ministers, was to secure an outright majority in the March 5 Reichstag elections. Hitler calculated that he needed between 18 million and 19 million votes. 'There is no economic program that could meet with the approval of such a large mass of voters,' Hitler told party leaders. But although the average voter may not have cared about the details of the Hitler economy, the markets did. The initial surge in stocks that greeted Hitler's appointment halted then dipped and flattened amid the political and economic uncertainty of Hitler's chaotic first weeks as chancellor. The German Industry and Trade Association issued a public warning on tariffs. 'Germany has the largest export surplus of all major trading countries,' the association reported. 'This situation calls for double caution in trade policy measures that could lead to countermeasures.' Hans Joachim von Rohr, who worked at the Reich's nutrition ministry, went on national radio to explain the logic of Hitler's tariff strategy. 'The products that Germany lacks must be made more expensive; then farmers will produce them in sufficient quantities,' Rohr explained. 'And if foreign competition is kept at bay by tariffs and the like, city residents will prefer domestic production.' Rohr offered lard—'Schmalz'—as an example. If Germany raised the import duty on Schmalz, a staple of the German diet, the German farmer would be motivated by the price increase to raise 'three-ton pigs,' the main source of lard, instead of the more common 'two-ton pigs,' the major source of bacon. The problem, as one critic observed, was that bacon was more lucrative than lard, even as 'lard pigs' consumed more feed than 'bacon pigs.' Switching from bacon pigs to lard pigs, this critic calculated, would ultimately drive the pig farmer into bankruptcy. He noted further that the international trading system had been in place for 200 years and proved itself beneficial to all parties. Hitler's proposed 'national economy,' with its self-defeating tariff policies, would plunge the country into a 'severe crisis' that could cost hundreds of thousands of jobs. And that was even before any damage wreaked by retaliatory tariffs. The Hitler tariffs, announced on Friday, February 10, 1933, stunned observers. 'The dimension of the tariff increases have in fact exceeded all expectations,' the Vossische Zeitung wrote disapprovingly, proclaiming the moment a 'fork in the road' for the German economy. It appeared that Europe's largest and most industrialized nation would suddenly be returning 'to the furrow and the plow.' The New York Times saw this for what it was: 'a trade war' against its European neighbors. The primary targets of the Hitler tariffs—the Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands—were outraged by the sudden suspension of favored-nation trading status on virtually all agricultural products, as well as on textiles, with tariffs in some cases rising 500 percent. With its livestock essentially banished from the German market, Denmark, for example, was facing substantial losses. Farmers panicked. The Danes and Swedes threatened 'retaliatory measures,' as did the Dutch, who warned the Germans that the countermeasures would be felt as 'palpable blows' to German industrial exports. That proved to be true. 'Our exports have shrunk significantly,' Foreign Minister Neurath informed Hitler in one cabinet meeting, 'and our relations to our neighboring countries are threatening to deteriorate.' Neurath noted that informal contacts with Dutch interlocutors had been 'bruskly broken off.' Trade relations with Sweden and Denmark were similarly strained, as were those with France and Yugoslavia. Finance Minister Krosigk anticipated that the agricultural sector would require an additional 100 million reichsmarks in deficit spending. Hitler launched his trade war on the second Friday of his chancellorship. That evening, he appeared in the Berlin Sportpalast, the city's largest venue, for a rally in front of thousands of jubilant followers. It was his first public appearance as chancellor, and it served as a victory lap. Hitler dispensed with the dark suit he wore in cabinet meetings in favor of his brown storm-trooper uniform with a bright-red swastika armband. In his address, Hitler declared that the entire country needed to be rebuilt after years of mismanagement by previous governments. He spoke of the 'sheer madness' of international obligations imposed by the Treaty of Versailles, of the need to restore 'life, liberty, and happiness' to the German people, of the need for 'cleansing' the bureaucracy, public life, culture, the population, 'every aspect of our life.' His tariff regime, he implied, would help restore the pride and honor of German self-reliance. 'Never believe in help from abroad, never on help from outside our own nation, our own people,' Hitler said. 'The future of the German people is to be found in our own selves.' Hitler did not refer specifically to the trade war he had launched that afternoon, just as he did not mention the rearmament plans he had discussed with his cabinet the previous day. 'Billions of reichsmarks are needed for rearmament,' Hitler had told his ministers in that meeting. 'The future of Germany depends solely and exclusively on the rebuilding of the army.' Hitler's trade war with his neighbors would prove to be but a prelude to his shooting war with the world.
Yahoo
20-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Readers sound off on Easter inspiration, composting and celebrity space flight
Manhattan: Alongside many other honorable beings, Jesus Christ has always been a foremost revered hero, even deemed God by many or, as he is to me, a paramount role model; a wonderful mystic whose goodness would be exactly reflected by any Supreme Being one may hope exists. I might not cut Christ's mustard perfectly — flawed enough, as I freely acknowledge being. Yet, I am also confident in the great gifts freely entrusted to me and you, including the universe's highest calling for us to rise and shine for each other to see, and so equally be, at our own bests. In popular wisdom, 'playing small' means letting ourselves be significantly less than our potential bests; to be so overly humble or limited as to not fruitfully challenge others to fully rise and shine either. That's not what I'd imagine the maker of a great universe would want. Silence, invisibility, suppression, oppression, petty vengeful cruelties and killing joy are not divine aspirations or inspirations. At this blessed season springing with the promise of all kinds of uplifting spiritualities, philosophies and identities, we urgently need noble visions to be resurrected as our reigning realities. Individually and collectively, may we fervently and publicly rise up and shine out only the best lights brightly, and most powerfully and resistantly against the phenomenally perverse, diabolical, anti-democracy darknesses of the Antichrists in chief of these times. Amen to kindred spirits seriously exhorting that 'we need Jesus' — or any role models of boldly good character — right now more than ever! Phil Vanaria Hoffman Estates, Ill.: Donald Trump is following Hitler to a tee. He wants Canada and Greenland like Hitler wanted Czechoslovakia and Austria. He's chasing all the intellectuals out of the country by defunding our universities. He's overriding laws, Congress and the courts. Soon he'll dissolve Congress like Hitler dissolved the Reichstag. Trump has demonized immigrants instead of Jews. He's sending immigrants to prisons in El Salvador instead of Jews to Poland. DOGE and ICE are Trump's Gestapo, and Republicans are his Brownshirts. He's stepping all over individual rights, especially the First Amendment. On top of that, he's destroying the economy. How did people vote for this clown? Or support him? Why don't they see this? They, like him, must be woefully uninformed, deliriously stupid or just plain traitorous. Jim Arneberg Providence, R.I.: Re 'Trump's contempt of court' (editorial, April 14): Trump's contempt of court / Makes our future grim / Here's a last resort / Show contempt of him. Felicia Nimue Ackerman Floral Park: As much as the woke, progressive, liberal Democrats love to bash President Trump and condemn every effort he makes to improve our country, even they have to admit there is no bigger fool than Sen. Chris Van Hollen. The man just used taxpayer dollars to fly to El Salvador to console Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an illegal migrant with alleged MS-13 affiliations who was deported. While in the U.S.A., Garcia's wife had to take out a restraining order against him because of his violent behavior. This is the guy the senator has sympathy for? How about using those taxpayer dollars to help the legal citizens of this country who've been victimized by illegal migrants and gangbangers? We read about them every day in the newspaper and on TV. Come election time, this act of buffoonery should hang heavy over the senator's head. Angelo Vetrano Sebastian, Fla.: How is MAGA going to blame the shooting at Florida State University on an illegal immigrant when the alleged shooter, Phoenix Ikner, is an American citizen? Harold Lichtman Hyde Park, N.Y.: I certainly agree with Voicer Peter Giunta on the point of having fair trade. He's right about unfair practices China has been utilizing for decades. We need balance in trade with any foreign country. Where I veer off is when he says we should trust Trump's plan. I can't do that because I don't trust Trump. Let's not forget that this guy bankrupted a casino! Giunta goes on to say that tariffs would 'encourage companies to invest in America' and 'create jobs at home.' In a perfect world, it could happen. But we live in a non-perfect, greedy world. Corporate greed is why so many American companies have moved their operations out of the U.S. Cheap labor has been the drug greedy corporations have been chasing for centuries (slavery!). Until the orange guy can change that (and he can't), Giunta's dream will never come true. Jack Cregan Wantirna, Australia: Trump has so often said, 'I have good relations' with so and so, 'so I can do a deal with them' that this bloke was beginning to believe Trump (who does have some very good policies/ideas) could sweet-talk the most delightful cherries off a lemon tree and con the pants off a scarecrow! However, with Trump's failure to — as promised! — end the Ukraine-Russia war (now involving nuclear-armed rogue-nation North Korean troops) within a day, this bloke now thinks Trump must be realizing what William Shakespeare did 400 years ago: 'The Devil can cite Scripture to suit his purpose,' and to 'Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it.' Trump looks as helpless as the most hapless, plumpest Thanksgiving turkey! Howard Hutchins Bronx: Re 'Mom of slain Brooklyn teen slams judge' (April 18): She is understandably angry that her son's murderer is allowed to finish a college course before going to prison. But more upsetting is that the murderer of her son is sentenced to only 15 years to life. Many murderers get 'life' sentences that release them well before their life has expired. If the corruption charges against Mayor Adams had not been dropped, he would have faced a possible 45-year sentence. While I'm disappointed in Adams' mayoral performance and I support state Sen. Jessica Ramos' bid to succeed him, I see nothing in the charges against him that merit prison time. A hefty fine and a ban from holding public office would have been sufficient. I think most people fear murderers walking our streets, not Adams. Richard Warren Carle Place, L.I.: I am sorry for the family of the woman who died at the hands of an unlicensed person removing her butt implants. Two questions: Is it worth the risk, licensed or not, to have these procedures done? And who goes for surgery to a guy working out of his house? Rudy Rosenberg Brooklyn: Voicers, quit your kvetching about composting. You're an embarrassment to resilient and flexible New Yorkers, whining about how it's such an inconvenience to do your part to minimize the massive amounts of garbage we produce. Full disclosure: I was reluctant to adopt composting due to limited kitchen space and the threat of pests being attracted by food waste. But now that I've gotten into the habit, I'm amazed at just how much of the garbage I produce is compostable, and kind of ashamed I didn't start following the guidelines sooner. I purchased a countertop-sized covered compost bin online for under $20; pests can't get in, and it's not a big deal to drop food scraps there while preparing meals. I'm sure the inspectors don't want to comb through your garbage and fine you. Just do your best to follow composting rules in good faith and you should be good. Katherine Raymond Brooklyn: Where are the Voicers' outcry over the so-called female astronauts' 11-minute trip? Talk about egos. A bunch of elite, richer-than-richie-rich phonies. How embarrassing. What about giving all the real astronauts and space engineers this much publicity? I would like to give big props to Sunita Williams, who was stuck in space for nine months. FYI, to train as an astronaut, it takes six years of schooling and two years of mandatory basic training — a decade of preparation. Astronauts may have to wait years before they embark on a space mission. I have had enough of Gayle King, her ego, her bestie and her fake eyelashes for a lifetime, along with her Gayle 'gang.' Mariann Tepedino
Yahoo
05-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
When big business rolled over for fascism — and cashed in: A lesson, or a warning?
At the beginning of 1933, the National Socialist German Workers Party, better known as the Nazis, found themselves on the brink of financial ruin. The party had spent down its reserves on a now-historic election campaign earlier that year in which it won a plurality, though not a majority, of seats in the Reichstag, Germany's parliament. Adolf Hitler, who now held executive power as chancellor — with the backing of mainstream conservatives who hoped to control him — parlayed his gains to call for new elections that spring, in hopes of riding his momentum, along with a heavy dose of political thuggery, to an absolute majority. This was a major gamble. To feed its propaganda apparatus and pay for the "brownshirts," Nazi militias who stalked Germany's streets "discouraging" opposition, the party needed money it didn't have. "We are all very discouraged, particularly in the face of the present danger that the entire party may collapse," complained Joseph Goebbels, a party leader who later led the Reich's propaganda ministry and "total war" economy. "The financial situation of the Berlin organization is hopeless. Nothing but debts and obligations.' The aid that Goebbels and other Nazi leaders needed soon arrived, along with 20 or so bankers and industrialists who arrived in chauffeured cars at the official residence of Reichstag president Hermann Göring on the night of Feb. 20. The agenda for the meeting was set: Hitler would assure this group of Germany's richest men that their fortunes would be preserved, or more likely multiplied, under Nazi rule. In return, they would offer Hitler the money he needed to destroy the political opposition — forever. After more than a decade of Nazi ascendance, the party and the barons who would bail them out still distrusted one another. One can debate how seriously the Nazis took themselves as a "socialist" party, but it was right there in the name — they were aggressively nationalistic and racist but also, at least rhetorically, a working man's party. In addition to demanding land and territory to "settle our surplus population," barring Jews from German citizenship and deporting any non-Germans who had entered the country after 1914, the 25-point NSDAP program published in 1920, before Hitler took control of the party, also called for "the nationalization of all businesses which have been formed into corporations." The key word in that clause is "all," because it was entirely deceptive. In his own words, and as manifested later in actual Reich policy, Hitler believed in nationalizing only some businesses, or some parts of businesses — those owned by people he deemed undesirable and/or subhuman — and dividing their assets between the Nazi state and loyal businessmen. Empowering the workers? Not so much. "We have to bring a process of selection into the matter in some way, if we want to come to a natural, healthy and also satisfying solution of the problem, a process of selection for those who should be entitled — and be at all permitted — to have a claim and the right to property and the ownership of companies," he told Otto Wagener, his economic policy advisor, in 1930. At his core, Hitler despised Marxism, viewing it as an insidious Jewish conspiracy. The international class struggle predicted by Karl Marx directly contradicted the Nazis' racial-nationalist and decidedly anti-egalitarian weltanschauung, which championed welfare only for healthy, virtuous and "useful" members of the master race. The feeling was mutual; in 1932, Leon Trotsky rebuked the NSDAP as a socialist party in name only that "conducts terrorism against all socialist organizations ... in its ranks one finds all classes except the proletariat." Hitler's avowed opposition to left-wing politics would later endear him to Germany's capitalists, though that moment had to wait for many years after he explained his beliefs in "Mein Kampf." Throughout the 1920s, most of Germany's wealthy industrialists preferred to support explicitly business-friendly conservative parties, who offered a less overtly destabilizing vision for the nation's future. At first, most wealthy Nazi supporters were a mixed bag of aimless socialites, heirs and heiresses who wanted to feel special (in this case, racially and culturally special; see Nordic Circle) and those who held antisemitic beliefs or were attracted to Hitler's call for national revanchism and perhaps to Hitler himself. But as the Weimar Republic's economy collapsed, so did the ruling coalition led by the center-left Social Democratic Party. Popular discontent emboldened both the Nazis and the Communists, and increasingly, industrial and banking leaders came to see Hitler as the weapon they could wield to crush the radical left. "Not all capitalists were particularly enthusiastic about the Nazis, but their skepticism was relative and ended as soon as it became clear that Hitler was the only person capable of destroying the labor movement," recalled Albert Krebs, a Nazi Party official. That, of course, was not universally true; Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, a heavy industry magnate whose famous firm produced the bulk of German war materiél during World War I, was an enthusiastic Hitler backer well before the 1933 breakthrough, making large financial contributions to the party and distributing copies of "Mein Kampf" among his workers. After the Nazis won a plurality of Reichstag seats in July 1932, a group of conservative elder statesmen from the Weimar government, largely representing business and aristocratic interests, collaborated to have Hitler appointed as chancellor the following January. In elevating Hitler as nominal government leader, while retaining 85-year-old military hero Paul von Hindenburg as president and Franz von Papen as vice chancellor (and presumed puppetmaster), the group hoped that Hitler would crush their opponents on the left and cede effective authority to them. He did the first, but not the second. A month later, Göring convened another group of leaders from Germany's capitalist class for an election fundraiser of sorts in his official residence. Among those who accepted the invitation were banker Hjalmar Schacht, who would later become the Third Reich's chief finance minister; Georg von Schnitzler, head of the chemical and pharmaceutical giant I.G. Farben; and industrialist Günther Quandt, who was also, oddly enough, the former husband of Goebbels' wife Magda. Krupp, the arms king, was also present. Despite holding political power, the Nazis badly needed those men. The party's financial situation remained perilous, and they needed to assure the invited audience that their alliance would remain useful even after the Communists had been defeated or destroyed. Clad in a civilian suit and tie rather than his Nazi stormtrooper's uniform, Hitler outlined plans to purge the government of leftists and eliminate trade unions, arguing that the moneyed assemblage's economic interests were best served by assertive militarism and the outright destruction of Germany's parliamentary system. "Private enterprise cannot be maintained in the age of democracy," he declared. After Hitler departed, Schacht asked the other attendees to deposit as much money as they could into his private trust, which the Nazis could use however they liked heading into the March 5 election. Göring added that the election "will surely be the last one for the next 10 years, probably even for the next 100 years," a situation that would ease the "financial sacrifices" asked of them. In the end, the fundraiser generated 3 million reichsmarks, about $30 million in today's money. Even if Göring was technically incorrect — the Nazis continued to stage elections, for a while — effective political opposition ceased to exist, and by July of 1933, all non-Nazi parties were banned. Two years later, the Nuremberg Race Laws, which designated Jews, Roma and Black people as "enemies of the race-based state," allowed the government to officially expropriate Jewish property and businesses and distribute the spoils to non-Jewish Germans. Adolf Rosenberger, the Jewish co-founder of Porsche, was convicted of "racial crimes" because of his relationship with a Gentile and stripped of his stake in the company. (Rosenberger was luckier than most other German Jews; he fled to the U.S. and spent the rest of his life in California under the name Alan Robert.)Hitler, honoring the promises made at this "Secret Meeting," disbanded and outlawed all independent trade unions, then imposed a centralized, party-governed "union" called the German Labour Front, which was effectively an instrument for the Nazis to exert control over workers' lives. Strikes and collective bargaining were not permitted, and the union's primary purpose was to fuel the Nazi war economy, which was largely contracted out to private industry. Indeed, it was these major capitalists who reaped the greatest rewards from Germany's early wartime victories. The conquest of Poland and several other territories in Eastern Europe brought to Germany an influx of slave laborers — drafted civilians, prisoners of war and concentration camp inmates — who were forced to work dangerous machinery without protective clothing, denied medical attention and adequate food, and summarily executed for minor infractions. The life expectancy of slave laborers at the I.G. Farben facility at Auschwitz was less than four months; more than 25,000 died at the construction site alone. That, of course, was the point — if someone was useful enough to work but not worthy of normal life, they were worked to death. Replacements were almost endlessly available; an estimated 12 to 20 million people were deported to Germany as laborers during the war, and at least 2.5 million died. Under Nazi patronage, German corporations offered generous, bloody tribute, and were well compensated. Krupp supplied heavy armaments, including tanks, artillery and U-boats; Allianz provided insurance for the concentration camps; Hugo Boss furnished (but did not always design) the uniforms of the SS, SA, Wehrmacht and Hitler Youth; and Degussa, a subsidiary of I.G. Farben, produced and delivered more than 56 tons of the pesticide known as Zyklon B to Nazi extermination facilities from 1942 to 1944. Its only use was to fulfill the "Final Solution" as far as possible — that being the extermination of Europe's Jewish population — as well as to murder millions of other camp inmates. After the war, 24 I.G. Farben executives were put on trial for their role in the Holocaust. In his opening statement, prosecutor Telford Taylor declared that "they were the magicians who made the fantasies of 'Mein Kampf' come true ... They were the guardians of the military and state secrets.' In this case, the stereotypical German penchant for record-keeping doomed the defendants; 6,384 documents submitted as evidence — purchase orders, meeting notes, inventories, internal letters and memos — indicated beyond doubt that they knew exactly how many Zyklon B canisters were sent to Auschwitz and what they were being used for. The defense argument that they were just bureaucrats punching the clock didn't fly, and 13 of them were convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Some of them got off lightly. Schnitzler, one of the convicted I.G. Farben executives, was released after four years and returned to the business world. Quandt, the ex-husband of Goebbels' wife, was judged to be a Mitläufer, meaning someone who accepted Nazi ideology but did not directly partake in its crimes. Schacht, tried with other leading Nazis like Göring, Albert Speer and Joachim von Ribbentrop, was acquitted on charges of conspiracy and crimes against peace, largely because he'd been imprisoned by the Nazis after the July 1944 assassination attempt against Hitler (although Schacht was not involved). The 75-year old Krupp was supposed to be tried alongside Schacht, but had become senile and was deemed medically unfit. His son Alfried and 11 other corporate directors faced charges in a later trial for participating in 'the murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, imprisonment, torture, and use for slave labor of civilians.' The younger Krupp was sentenced to 12 years in prison, but reportedly never expressed remorse during or after his detainment. When a Daily Mail journalist asked him in 1959 if he felt any guilt for his role, he responded: "What guilt? For what happened under Hitler? No. But it is regrettable that the German people themselves allowed themselves to be so deceived by him." It was unclear from that phrasing whether Krupp considered himself to be among the deceived.
