Tea at Trianon: Germany Needs to Bury Hitler

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, February 22, 2025

Germany Needs to Bury Hitler

From First Things:

Unfortunately, the supposedly “moderate” political establishment in Germany has become the engine of extremism. Those who believe that the AfD represents the danger of fascist resurrection—which is to say the entire state leadership, the big media, large sections of the middle and upper classes—must do everything in their power to destroy the political influence of the AfD. This mentality will justify extra-democratic means to “save democracy.”

Present-day Germany is a large ship whose engines are stuttering. To get them to run again, Germany’s deep internal division must be overcome. Here’s one place to start: Recognize that the present struggle need not be Manichean. There are two forms of national consciousness or nationalism in Germany. The rising popularity of the AfD indicates a growing resistance against negative national feeling and a desire to move beyond the nation’s fixation on 1933. The negative vision, which insists on continued German self-criticism, is also a type of nationalism. It is nationalism from the left that promotes German leadership in the quest for a post-national, globalist future. These are quite different visions of Germany. Why can’t voters choose between them without stigma?

To allow for this possibility, it would be necessary first to bury Hitler. But even to propose this first step triggers national hysteria. The negative fixation on Hitler and National Socialism paralyzes German elites and makes them incapable of overseeing a democratic debate about the future of Germany. (Read more.)