Content area
Full Text
Deutschland Schafft Sich Ab (Germany Abolishes Itself) Thilo Sarrazin Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft, 2010
Thilo Sarrazin is a well-known politician and financial expert of the German Republic. A respected member of the Executive Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank before the publication of this book, Sarrazin has a long history of service to the German Republic, having previously served as senator of finance for the State of Berlin, and having played a major role in the financial unification of East and West Germany following the collapse of communism.
Deutschland Schafft Sich Ab, published in Germany in August of 2010, was decidedly politically incorrect, and caused a major stir in German political circles, so much so that the Socialist Party found it necessary to terminate his membership despite the many protests it received for doing so. The other members of the Executive Board of the German Central Bank unanimously asked for a termination of his chairmanship (he could only be dismissed by the German President), and so great was the pressure that he voluntarily resigned his position on 30 September 2010.
How could a book on the legitimate topic of population change have such a dramatic effect? There is no doubt that his book is troublesome to many of today's German politicians, anxious to disassociate themselves from Germanys' race-conscious past. If Sarrazin had titled his book Quo Vadis Europe? instead, the critical response would have been more moderate, for, in reality, his thesis is applicable to not only Germany, but to other European states (e.g., England and France) as well. Sarrazin gives no indication of raceconsciousness: his thesis is based on cultural and economic arguments against large-scale, poorly educated, fast-reproducing, Muslim immigration.
Sarrazin has long been a member of his country's socialist party, and his book is not racist, although he is concerned about the massive immigration into Germany, particularly of Muslims. His basic premise - that uneducated immigrants with inferior abilities are a financial drain on Germany and will spell its economic and cultural ruin if immigration policies aren't changed - is also applicable to the problem of most African immigrants in France and Italy, as well as to unassimilated immigrants into Britain.
Sarrazin begins his book with a short description of the efforts to rebuild Germany after...