Entre deux cauchemards - Angela Merkel tire les mauvaises leçons du chaos de l’histoire allemande

Infographie : François Descheemaekere

Between two nightmares - Angela Merkel is drawing the wrong lessons from the chaos of German history

[The Economist]

A STAMP collection in Berlin’s German Historical Museum sums up what, to many Germans, is the price of economic recklessness. A Weimar-era postage stamp worth five pfennigs in 1920 doubled in price the following year, then jumped to ten marks in 1922. It cost 30 marks in January 1923, 1,000 marks in May and 800,000 marks in October. By the end of 1923, sending a letter took ten billion marks. Next to this “document of an insane era”, the museum shows how worthless banknotes were defaced by Nazis with caricatures of Jewish speculators. It was at the height of hyperinflation, explains the display, that Hitler staged his failed Munich beer-hall putsch. The moral is clear: profligacy leads to economic chaos, political extremism and ultimately to catastrophe for all of Europe. For today’s Germans, prosperity and democratic order must be based on sound money. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, is in tune with this domestic mood when she insists that the euro zone must embrace a culture of financial stability if it is to overcome its debt crisis.

Ignorer l’histoire est dangereux – L’Europe est vraiment sur le fil du rasoir

Infographie : François Descheemaekere

The Perils of Ignoring History - This Time, Europe Really Is on the Brink

[Der Spiegel]

The European Union was created to avoid repeating the disasters of the 1930s, but Germany, of all countries, has failed to learn from history. As the euro crisis escalates, Berlin should remember how the banking crisis of 1931 contributed to the breakdown of democracy across Europe. Action is urgently needed to stop history from repeating itself.

Is it one minute to midnight in Europe? The failure of German public opinion to grasp the dire state of affairs in Europe today is inviting a repeat of precisely the crisis of the mid 20th century that European integration was designed to avoid. With every increase in the probability of a disorderly Greek exit from the monetary union, the pressure on the Spanish banks increases and with it the danger of a Mediterranean-wide bank run so big that it would overwhelm the European Central Bank. Already there has been a substantial re-nationalization of the European financial system. This centrifugal process could easily continue to the point of complete disintegration. We find it extraordinary that it should be Germany, of all countries, that is failing to learn from history. Fixated on the non-threat of inflation, today's Germans appear to attach more importance to the year 1923 (the year of hyperinflation) than to the year 1933 (the year democracy died).

Mémorial de l’abolition de l’esclavage de Nantes : une ville française confrontée à son passé brutal

Infographie : François Descheemaekere

Memorial to Slave Trade : French City Confronts Its Brutal Past

[Spiegel Online]

The slave trade once made the people of Nantes rich, but the French city covered up its dark history for decades. It recently erected a memorial to the victims in a project believed to be the first of its kind in Europe. But the effort to shed light on the Continent's role in the 18th century slave trade with Africa and the New World has not been popular with some residents.

In the 18th century, cruelty had poetic names, like Le Prudent ("The Prudent"), La Légère ("The Light") or Les Trois Maries ("The Three Marys"). The ships, named in the hope of a good voyage or baptized with Christian first names, were part of a brutal business between Europe, Africa and America: the slave trade. During a period of approximately 400 years, at least 13 million people were transported under horrendous conditions from Africa to the colonies of the New World. The northwestern French city of Nantes played a central role in what has been described as the largest forced migration in global history.

Il y a 70 ans, la Conférence de Wannsee

Infographie : François Descheemaekere

[Deutsche Welle]

C'est le 20 janvier 1942, dans une villa sur les bords du lac de Wannsee, à Berlin, qu'a lieu la conférence qui planifie l'extermination des Juifs d'Europe, ce que les nazis appellent alors la "solution finale".

La Conférence de Wannsee est ancrée dans les mémoires comme une étape décisive dans la mise en œuvre de l'holocauste. C'est au cours de cette conférence qu'a été décidée l'extermination des Juifs d'Europe, la "solution finale", a-t-on dit pendant longtemps. Mais la signification véritable de cette réunion organisée par Reinhard Heydrich, directeur de l'Office central de sécurité du Reich, reste encore aujourd'hui débattue par les historiens. […]

Peur de l'inflation: les Allemands ne sont pas hantés par la République de Weimar

[Slate.fr]

S'ils rejettent massivement la hausse des prix, ce n'est pas seulement à cause de l'hyperinflation des années 1920, associée à la montée du nazisme.

Dans les débats autour de la crise de la dette européenne, il y a un trait de caractère que l’on attribue souvent aux Allemands: la peur de l’inflation. Selon une étude menée par l’institut Ifop pour la fondation Jean-Jaurès et la fondation allemande Friedrich-Ebert, respectivement proches du PS et du SPD, 77% des Allemands veulent effectivement que la BCE «continue d'avoir pour principale mission de lutter contre l'inflation et la hausse des prix». 48 % des Français, en revanche, pensent qu’elle devrait avoir pour principale mission de favoriser la croissance économique.