So kam ich unter die Deutschen…A Bad Day for European Democracy

It is Hölderlin time, again. The German novelist published in 1797 and 1799 the two parts of his Hyperion novel that comes with a harsh view on Germany:

So kam ich unter die Deutschen. Ich foderte nicht viel und war gefaßt, noch weniger zu finden. Demütig kam ich, wie der heimatlose blinde Oedipus zum Tore von Athen, wo ihn der Götterhain empfing; und schöne Seelen ihm begegneten –
Wie anders ging es mir!
Barbaren von alters her, durch Fleiß und Wissenschaft und selbst durch Religion barbarischer geworden, tiefunfähig jedes göttlichen Gefühls, verdorben bis ins Mark zum Glück der heiligen Grazien, in jedem Grad der Übertreibung und der Ärmlichkeit beleidigend für jede gutgeartete Seele, dumpf und harmonielos, wie die Scherben eines weggeworfenen Gefäßes – das, mein Bellarmin! waren meine Tröster.
Es ist ein hartes Wort und dennoch sag ichs, weil es Wahrheit ist: ich kann kein Volk mir denken, das zerrißner wäre, wie die Deutschen. Handwerker siehst du, aber keine Menschen, Denker, aber keine Menschen, Priester, aber keine Menschen, Herrn und Knechte, Jungen und gesetzte Leute, aber keine Menschen – ist das nicht, wie ein Schlachtfeld, wo Hände und Arme und alle Glieder zerstückelt untereinander liegen, indessen das vergoßne Lebensblut im Sande zerrinnt?

Germans are everything, from craftsmen to big thinkers, but they are not human. Now, this verdict may indeed be given from a pretty romanticist view of the others, the Greek in this case, but then again the Germans proved time and time again that this verdict contains more then a kernel of truth.

We will probably not know for a while how exactly the meetings marathons of the Eurozone Finance Ministers and then of the Eurozone head of states transpired. We hear from various leakages, though, that at the end of the day the German approach towards debtors succeeded. German orthodoxy may have been necessary to secure a majority in the German Parliament, and yet it seems to be no exaggeration at all that the German negotiating team under the leadership of Neo-Con Finance Minister Schäuble deeply believes in the medicine Greece would have to swallow. The agreement kills a few birds with one stone. First, it is a heavy punishment for all Greek citizens who had the courage to vote at the referendum. How could they dare to question the austerity logic of the European camp? Second, it will turn around the economic and political course in Greece in a fundamental way, from a balanced austerity program to a fierce and brutal program. Third, it provokes a regime change in Greece as it seems to be rather clear that Syria will split, and its position will falter. Fourth, it is a regime change for the Eurozone as it introduces officially a economic-political receivership as political institution of the Eurozone.

This weekend the project of European Integration fundamentally changed its character. This is frightening, to say the least.