pieter
My first thought would be that of yours first upon reading of this title of 15 years Weimar triangle anniversary. That as being of the loused years of the Weimar Republik {19 Aug 1919}. Moral unrest coupled with trends in the arts and social unrest,and the choice of paying the rent, or paying for food, but, not both.
But, not to be, for this was all about a new partnership to bring in with Poland into the fold of power. And as you have stated, a central power base. Much of these has been realized as of this date.
But ok, I will speak plainly of this: There are parts of the plan have not, and will not be realized. The primary reasons as being the changes in the political Polish arena. For one: there was to comprise a unity shared weapons system between the UK and Germany and Poland, to a great extent, France. This was side lined with the F-16 aircraft purchase from the Americans. With that purchase, went also a shared weapons system with a commonality of parts spares and field equipment.
Poland is a very important link between the East and The European West. It is of the greatest importance that Poland prospers with the European West, in industrial expansion upgrades. It is vital to not only of the EU, but all of the European West that Poland regains and maintains a strong economy.
The past years of the 30's and 40's are dead, tot, no more, they are a dead issue. It is the present that must be dealt with,and it must be dealt with in a positive and decisive mannour.
Time is not a luxury. For if for not, that politics and indecisiveness stays long enough, it becomes contagious as an agent of indecision, it is a cancer that erodes confidence.
For what all of this means is this: The Polish government must put away the bickering and become a part of the power of Europe and very quickly. If the economy weakens and falters, this is what it is all about, the west will shoulder the responsibility to insure that the fixes are implaced to continue on as a solid partner. For this is what it is, there are very little wiggle room as time continues on. For in time, if the fixes are not implaced, well, it is much better if Poland takes the lead.
We no longer have the luxuries of a grand war to be decisive with. Now it is the slow strangulation of energy sourcing with the high risk of international black mail of market pricing.
All industrial nations prosper only that have the energy sources to use. Caught off the energy sources, and the heart is gone. No longer will an agricultural economy survive. For there is the wolf behind all shadows that watches for the most decisive time to take over.
Charles
Dear Charles,
I do not totally agree with you that that years of the Weimar Republik were only lousy years,
because it was a period which followed upon a great period of Central-European German culture in Germany, Austria and the former Habsburg countries that became independant, Czechoslowakia, Hungary and Poland.
Think about the works of Prague German authors, namely Max Brod, Auguste Hauschner, Franz Kafka, Egon Erwin Kisch, Fritz Mauthner, Gustav Meyrink, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Franz Werfel. The roaring twenties with its blossoming culture, fröliches feierend Berlin, German Expressionism and The New Objectivity, or neue Sachlichkeit (new matter-of-factness), an art movement which arose in Germany in the early 1920s as an outgrowth of, and in opposition to, expressionism. The movement essentially ended in 1933 with the fall of the Weimar Republic and the rise of the Nazis to power. The term is applied to works of pictorial art, literature, music, and architecture.
Moral unrest coupled with trends in the arts and social unrest,and the choice of paying the rent, or paying for food, but, not both.
Dada or Dadaism was a cultural movement that began in neutral Zürich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1920. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature (poetry, art manifestoes, art theory), theatre, and graphic design, which concentrated its anti war politic through a rejection of the prevailing standards in art through anti-art cultural works.
Dada activities included public gatherings, demonstrations, and publication of art/literary journals. Passionate coverage of art, politics, and culture filled their publications. The movement was a protest against the barbarism of World War I, the bourgeois interests that Dada adherents believed inspired the war, and what they believed was an oppressive intellectual rigidity in both art and everyday society. The movement influenced later styles, movements, and groups including surrealism, Pop Art and Fluxus. Dada was an international movement, and it is difficult to classify artists as being from any one particular country, as they were constantly moving from one place to another.
In architecture you had the early twenty century Jugenstil and Art-deco that changed
the shape of cities and interiors of buildings, and the new movement of Bauhaus,
the Staatliches Bauhaus, an art and architecture school in Germany that operated from 1919 to 1933 and briefly in the United States from 1937-1938 and for the approach to design that it developed and taught. The most natural meaning for its name (related to the German verb for "build") is Architecture House. Bauhaus style became one of the most influential currents in Modernist architecture.
The Bauhaus art school existed in four different cities (Weimar from 1919 to 1925, Dessau from 1925 to 1932, Berlin from 1932 to 1933).
And I have to mention the German achievements in sciences (Einstein), philosophy,
and cinema the
UFA-studio's with movies like Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (1920),
Metropolis (1927), and
Marlene Dietrich's first talkie, Der blaue Engel (1930).
And ofcourse the music of Kurt Julian Weill's Die Dreigroschenoper from 1928, written in collaboration with Bertolt Brecht, and the cooperation to that magnificent Peoples Opera
of Weils wife Lotte Lenya, singer and actress and again Marlene Dietrich.
The Nazi and DDR times after that can not destroy the artistic achievements of that time
and the heritage it left behind (it influenced so much artists, musicians, writers and others after the Second world war. And think of how the German intelligentsia that escaped Nazi-Germany infleunced the Rest of Europe and the USA. The USA got the
Atomic bomb due to the help of Einstein, and although he regretted it himself, I thank
God that America got the bomb first and not the Sovjets or the Nazi's).
And the Weimar Republic had it's economical succes during the
Stresemann's Golden Era (1923–1929)
Gustav Stresemann was Reichskanzler for a brief period in 1923, and served as Foreign Minister from 1923-1929, a period of relative stability for the Weimar Republic when there were fewer uprisings and seemingly the beginnings of an economic recovery.
Stresemann's first move was to issue a new currency, the Rentenmark, to halt the extreme hyperinflation crippling German society and the economy. It was successful because Stresemann repeatedly refused to issue more currency, the cause of the inflationary spiral. To further stabilise the economy, he reduced spending and bureaucracy while increasing taxes. He signed the Locarno Treaties with the Allied countries in 1925 as a means of restoring Germany's diplomatic status in Europe.
During this period, the Dawes Plan was also created, tying reparations payments to Germany's ability to pay. Germany was admitted into the League of Nations, made agreements over its western border, signed a neutrality pact with Russia, and disarmament was brought to a halt. However, this progress was funded by overseas loans, increasing the nation's debts, while overall trade decreased and unemployment rose. Stresemann's reforms did not relieve the underlying weaknesses of Weimar but merely gave the appearance of a stable democracy.
Despite the progress made during these years, Stresemann was criticized by his opponents for his policy of "fulfillment", or compliance with the terms of the Versailles Treaty.
In 1929, Stresemann's death marked the end of the "Golden Era" of the Weimar Republic. Unfortunately the German Democratic forces were weak in the end of the
twenties and the early thirtees, and together with the economical disastrous depression
it meant the victory of the dark powers. Deutsch-National, Stahlhelm, Freikorps,
NSDAP, from SA street terror to the SS Terror state.
It was a d**n pitty that the German Social-democrats were so weak, just like the centre
of social-liberals (Deutsche Demokratische Partei/Deutschen Staatspartei (DStP)),
the Conservative Catholic Zentrum and the Prussian Conservatives.
The Social-democrats and Communists were to hostile to eachother form a Peoples front,
and not seldom the KPD/Rotfront collaborated with the Nazi's if they did not fight with them. Ernst Röhm said it like this, " a good SA man is red from the inside -ex-communist
Rotfront kämpfer- and brown from the outside", because he was of the Social-revolutionairy Left wing of the NSDAP together with Josef Goebbels and the Stasser brothers (Gregor and Otto Strasser). Whell that was the Weimar republik.
Back to the ''Weimar Triangle''
I really hope that this new partnership is all about to bring Poland into the fold of
a new central power base, where it will be allowed to be an active player.
And I don't know if much of this objective has been realized today.
I totally understand that parts of the plan can not be realized, because of the changes in that the new Polish Government has brought in it's foreign policy, combined with it's internal, economical, financial and social policies.
I read about the Defense cooperation between France, Germany, Great-Britain and Poland. I don't know much about the defense industry, but I know that Poland has
ammunition and aviation industries, and that it probably cooperates with other countries
in this. The Polish army uses German (Leopard tanks), American and Israeli defense equipment.
I agree with you that Poland is a very important link between the East and the European West. I have the idea that Poland already prospers with the European West, in industrial expansion upgrades. Because Poland has attracted much Western investments and so Industries, and the Country is modernising itself in a fast tempo.
I really think that Poland is very aware of the fact that it is vital to not only the EU, but all of Western-Europe that Poland regains and maintains a strong economy.
Poland is in European Inter-market perspective a large market with 40 million Modern
consumers, who really buy computers, modern cars, televisions, DVD players, washing mashines, dish washers, new design products and other contemporary consumer products. I saw it with my own eyes Charles, in Krakow (2004) and Warsaw (august
2006), Shopping malls and business districts as Modern as Berlin and Amsterdam
(or even more afvanced and bigger). I see it when I buy products in the Netherlands,
in most manuals you see the Polish language nowadays, and also the DVD's of Hollywood
movies have Polish subtitles. Poland is really taken serious as a consumer market and
a prodiction country. I read it in my newspapers and in magazines too.
Yes, the past years of the cold war and the so called roaring ninetees are over, they are a dead issue, but in political and social-economical perspective they stil play a role in the eyes of Polish voters and consumers. They remember exactly what the rightwing and Leftwing governments did wrong and remember the Shock therapy of Leszek Balcerowicz, the present Chairman of the National Bank of Poland.
That's why they voted for the present government which has a social-conservative
moral-conservative agenda, with fairly leftwing social policies.
I really think that the Poles realise and are pragmatic enough to know that it is the present that must be dealt with, and that it as you put it "
must be dealt with in a positive and decisive mannour". Poles are besides moralist Catholics (and please
don't read this as a negative label) also Modern pragmatists, who are able to make
rational calculations for and about what is in the best interest for them.
They have exellent schools of economics, Economists who studied at the best universaties of the USA and Europe, and very good economical departments of
the Universaties in the many cities they have. I have total confidence in the Poles.
Actually I think that Poles of today match German grundlichkeit, with French
rationalism, Italian sophistication and stile (the fashion and design I saw),
with Anglo-American pragmatism and Polish charm, tradition and determination.
Although Poles are great patriots they are great Internationalists to (even if that
is hard for them to admid sometimes). Look at the Polish Diaspora of 20 million.
That's half of the amount of the 40 million Poles that live inside Poland.
Charles I totally agree with you that time is not a luxury, and therefor I think we will see changes in the Polish government policies in the forseable future. And if that is not the case for sure there will be political changes (for instance a PO - Civic Platform in the new government; maybe a PiS-PO government, who knows?).
yes, indecisiveness is a threat for a countries economical position on the continents market it is part of. That's why I don't believe that the Polish government can maintain
an Isolationalist position for to long, because it needs to have a good investment climate
for the progress of it's economy, and wants to keep it's employers and businessmen interested in it's own internal market. Don't forget that Polish entrepreneurs can also
go to the Baltic states, Ukraine, Bulgaria or Rumania if the investment climate is better
for them there. Polish entrepreneurs are Western Capitalists today.
As a Dutchmen with Polish roots, I honestly believe that the Polish government should not follow an Isolationalist course in the aspect of an hostile foreign policy towards Germany and Russia, but should become a part of the Economical and Political powerbase of Europe. With this I mean that Poland can have an internal policy based on the maintainance of Polish tradition, morality and values, but that it has to take care of as a stakeholder of it's economical, financial and foreign interests in Germany and Russia.
The large Russian market for instance and energy resources will remain an important
subject and target for Polish financial-economical policy (strategic measures, economical negociations with the Russians), Polish diplomacy and the Polish businessworld.
I really think that Poland is also interested in the increasing Tourism of the Russian middle class to for instance Krakow and Warsaw.
The Polish-German relations are maybe even more important today and in the future,
because Germany is one of the biggest investers, and there are a lot of Polish-Germans.
It is not in the interest of Poland to weaken it's economy and falter. I honestly don't know if the west will shoulder the responsibility to insure that the fixes are implaced to continue on as a solid partner, because Westerners are not always
that generous. Don't forget the Flash Capital. Comming in, buying, repairing (losses of employment, closures of branches) and selling (to often another Flash Capital investment group who devides a company, often eliminating it). This is the darkest scenario ofcourse,
but this happens in the Netherlands, Germany and the USA. Why would the same not happen in Poland? Poland itself should be a solid partner for European partners, expanding economical cooperation and competing with neighbours on a propper investment climate. I think that the fixes are implaced, but that the communication and marketing could be improved, and when that is the case Poland will take the lead.
An agricultural economy as Poland will not survive if it not secures it's energy resources and supplies (see the negociations with Sweden or Norway for Scandinavian gas).
This wolf behind all shadows that watches for the most decisive time to take over,
is a threat to all our countries, but maybe a bigger threat to vulnerable starting economies in Central- and Eastern Europe, who just have learned the competing game.
Pieter
