[kreuzberger]

That's another year of recession booked, albeit with a marginal contraction.

I am no fan of voxpops, but I recently saw an interview with young, affluent Chinese consumers who referred to German automobiles as "boomer cars" which are driven by their grandparents. That should put a shiver down the industry's spine and the 800,000 employees directly involved in the sector.

A friend of our works at the Arbeitsamt (Job Centre with extras) in Bavaria, and he is seeing new clients wandering in in a steady stream, following redundancy. There are very few 100k jobs to offer them.

[Philip Marlow]

From the party that brought you ‘Hitler was a communist’…

[Killer Whale]

To be fair, they've put them through every mailbox, though they'll probably have a slightly more chilling effect on some demographics, and maybe this was the intention.

[Tubby Isaacs]

From the party that brought you ‘Hitler was a communist’…

Elmo thinks that as well.

I've seen "Hitler was a socialist" before, never until recently that he was a communist. Quite the thing for Germans to come out with it.

[Bones McCoy]

From the party that brought you ‘Hitler was a communist’…

Pop a ticket for a thousand bomber raid through theirs.

Title it "How it ends".

[Andy McDandy]

Hitler was a member of many political groups, before settling on the Nazis (or whatever they were called beforehand). So yes, he was a Communist in the sense that Lee Anderson* was once a Labour member.

*Even better, Toby Young when he joined up to get Corbyn elected leader.

[kreuzberger]

Every household in Germany is required to have a post letter with the name of the family clearly displayed upon it. Curiously, the party activists distributing their filth managed to deliver predominantly to those with non-German names.

Oliver Khan is yet to comment.

[Youngian]

Last I heard is that Germany still had a labour shortage problem despite free movement and increased immigration. In some skilled fields the world is running out of immigrants.
So we may have to embrace depopulation anyway but none of these hard right gobshites give any thought as to how to mitigate the transition. They prefer potty pronouncement about how white women need to have more babies.

[kreuzberger]

Every household in Germany is required to have a post letter with the name of the family clearly displayed upon it. Curiously, the party activists distributing their filth managed to deliver predominantly to those with non-German names.

Oliver Khan is yet to comment.

EDIT. Post box / Letterbox, obvs.

[kreuzberger]

A fine turn-out today in protest of Merz' cavalier attitude to the firewall. We live about ten minutes' walk from the heart of all the action. So, yes, it's been a busy afternoon around here.

[kreuzberger]

By way of explanation; the "firewall" is not a pseudo-computer term, rather it has been translated straight out of the German Brandwall or Brandmauer.

This concept has a huge significance in post-war German society, as it was just this architectural device which preserved multiple occupancy buildings being destroyed by contagious fire during the away-leg of the Blitz, which was calamitous for urban communities. Neighbouring houses were left largely unscathed.

In Berlin, Hamburg, and Dresden, in particular, many of these sites are yet to be redeveloped and the Brandmauer are commonplace.

They are very real and this is what they look like;



I am sitting barely two meters from a Brandmauer because the house next door was destroyed during the gloriously successful assault on the Bendler Block.

[kreuzberger]

The Kreuzette came through Munich Hauptbahnhof this morning, barely an hour before the latest murderous attack. Had she seen the Ver.di demo, it's 1/100-on that she would have paused to applaud.

My blood runs cold.

[kreuzberger]

The Berlin transit system is on strike today, so I got a Miles car home from work, just after five. It was all well and good until about 500m from home, when the traffic just seemed to come out of nowhere and seize up like sand in the machine. I took the back roads and thought nothing more of it.

It transpires that, at the Holocaust Memorial, about 1km from here, there has been yet another knife attack, with a Spanish tourist being injured to the point of at least needing surgery. It is far too early to know what the motives of the violent criminal were, although, personal trauma and ruined holidays to one side, this really is the last thing we need before Sunday's election and an already difficult day tomorrow with the fash planning to be on our streets.

Fuxake, here we go again...

[Oboogie]

Stay safe Kreuzie, please try to remember that you're not a teenage loon anymore, you're a delicate old gadgie and keep the fuck out the way of stabby Nazis.

[The Weeping Angel]

What oboogie said. Kreuz who do you think will win the elections?

[kreuzberger]

This has been the day when a seriously cold snap broke, and suddenly we have spring-like temperatures with unbroken sunshine. So, a lot of people were on the streets today and my old neighbourhood, Kreuzberg 36, is still on the brink of boiling over.

This old gadgie has thought better of it, and we went out to the lake to check things over and disconnect the boat's heating, which kicks in at +3° in order to protect the engine and the khazi. Other than the surrounding marina still being frozen solid and the deck needing a once-over with a Kärcher, all is well.

Screenshot 2025-02-22.jpg (168.02 KiB) Viewed 7262 times

The polls here are usually pretty indicative, although around a quarter of the electorate are still undecided. With the general mood being one of dissatisfaction, which, these days, leads to Brexity bloody-nose votes, I can see the fash coming in with 23% but Die Linke also enjoying a late surge with some 9%.

Merz probably wants a GroKo coalition with just the SPD, even though it is optimistic to think that they will muster the magic 50% between them. The last thing we need is a minority, unstable government, and the very real possibility that we could find ourselves here again in a year's time. Therefore, my guess is that the Greens will also be brought to the table once the present dust settles, and we'll have a Kenya.

[kreuzberger]

The turn-out, at least, was extremely satisfying. 85% is not to be sniffed at by a healthy democracy.

The AfD's late run didn't happen, although Die Linke's surge did happen. Neither is of any real consequence.

If either the FDP or the BSW results do in fact usher them in to the Bundestag, we get CDU, SPD and the Greens. That would put the kybosh on the CDU's more wilfully negligent climate / net-zero proposals.

[Youngian]

In most Western countries the main centre right party has been cannibalised from different directions. In Germany it's the social democrats. Awful result for the SPD.

[The Weeping Angel]

In most Western countries the main centre right party has been cannibalised from different directions. In Germany it's the social democrats. Awful result for the SPD.

Expect to see how this is bad news for Labour pieces tomorrow.

[kreuzberger]

In-coming chancellor, Merz, just now and live on TV, has categorically repeated to Weidel's face - she's the Nazi-Schatz of the AfD - that any coalition ideas of hers are dead in the water. Söder - the Jeremy Beadle wannabe Bavarian CSU partner of his has stated that Germany does not wish to become "a vassal state of Moscow."

That's a relief, for the time being.

The problem is that Söder has said that he will not go into office with the Greens who are diametrically opposed to his "burn-baby-burn" politik. It's either that or trying to usher in the fash, after all that has been said.

It is now in not in his hands, so Söder will have sacrificed himself on the altar of Benz and BMW, who make fewer and fewer cars which people actually want. Seeing the back of that smarmy cunt will be something we can all celebrate.