The German Left, Reduced to Reductio ad Hitlerum

While Thilo Sarrazin in his best-selling book "Deutschland schafft sich ab" (Germany is abolishing itself) has a point in his criticism of Islam and the lack of integration of Muslims into German society, doing so in terms of procreation is inviting the impression of a racist mindset, to say the least.

The Red-Green opposition is now catching on to this aspect of the book and has responded with a giant 'Godwin', accusing Germany's elites of Hitler tolerance and Nazi apology.

In "Das Amt und die Vergangenheit" (The Foreign Ministry and the past), written by 'an independent committee' the finger is pointed at the politically-minded Bildungsburgers (or members of the German educated classes).

Juxtaposing these two entirely unrelated issues is as irrational as well as artlessly construed. Nevertheless former Foreign Ministers Joschka Fischer and Frank-Walter Steinmeier both recently alluded to the alleged connection.

• Sign and sight: "Hitler's diplomats debunked", by Alan Posener

At the presentation of the report on the Foreign Ministry during the Third Reich by an independent historian commission, they talked to a packed auditorium in Berlin about its involvement in the Nazi killing machine. Independently of one another Steinmeier and Fischer gave speeches in which they compared "The Ministry" with Thilo Sarrazin's bestseller. Fischer reminded his audience that it was in the Foreign Ministry that he been confronted with a "parallel society". On a similar note, Steinmeier said that anyone who wanted to learn how Germany is abolishing itself should read "The Ministry".

So get this! The Red-Green coalition that entered office in 1998 pushed multiculturalism to the hilt. Integration was considered racism and cultural barbarism. But they rebuff all critique by pointing the finger at career diplomats and the old elites and institutions, who created a "grand delusion!"

- Caption: another curious juxtaposition: young Hitler and young Wittgenstein -

Posener:

"The Ministry and the Past" is therefore – as Fischer and Steinmeier both made very clear in their speeches - the first shot fired in an ideological counter-offensive which will restore Red-Green to power.

Has anyone told them yet, that Red-Green is in implosion mode all over the civilized world? It is really scraping the barrel when justified criticism of the now bankrupt multicultural welfare policies, can only be rebutted by a giant fallacy, the reductio ad Hitlerum (or a Godwin). Or alternatively, a tu quoque!