German Europe 1st Edition by Ulrich Beck (PDF)

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The euro crisis is tearing Europe apart. But the heart of the matter is that, as the crisis unfolds, the basic rules of European democracy are being subverted or turned into their opposite, bypassing parliaments, governments and EU institutions. Multilateralism is turning into unilateralism, equality into hegemony, sovereignty into the dependency and recognition into disrespect for the dignity of other nations. Even France, which long dominated European integration, must submit to Berlin’s strictures now that it must fear for its international credit rating. How did this happen? The anticipation of the European catastrophe has already fundamentally changed the European landscape of power. It is giving birth to a political monster: a German Europe. Germany did not seek this leadership position – rather, it is a perfect illustration of the law of unintended consequences. The invention and implementation of the euro was the price demanded by France in order to pin Germany down to a European Monetary Union in the context of German unification. It was a quid pro quo for binding a united Germany into a more integrated Europe in which France would continue to play the leading role. But the precise opposite has happened. Economically the euro turned out to be very good for Germany, and with the euro crisis Chancellor Angela Merkel became the informal Queen of Europe. The new grammar of power reflects the difference between creditor and debtor countries; it is not a military but an economic logic. Its ideological foundation is ‘German euro nationalism’ – that is, an extended European version of the Deutschmark nationalism that underpinned German identity after the Second World War. In this way the German model of stability is being surreptitiously elevated into the guiding idea for Europe. The Europe we have now will not be able to survive in the risk-laden storms of the globalized world. The EU has to be more than a grim marriage sustained by the fear of the chaos that would be caused by its breakdown. It has to be built on something more positive: a vision of rebuilding Europe bottom-up, creating a Europe of the citizen. There is no better way to reinvigorate Europe than through the coming together of ordinary Europeans acting on their own behalf.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Super insightful and relevant to today’s issues. Beck was one of the most important German scholars. It is helpful to read his work if you are studying German, European, or International studies.

⭐An essay over how Germany has took over the EU and how to counter it’s influence for the good of the Union. Basically Beck’s point is that if Europe centers itself among the original project there are chances for success, but if it centers around the financial crisis, it could be a recipe for disaster. Not just for the project, but also for the member states.

⭐This short 86-page essay is presented in three parts: (1) “How the Euro Crisis is both Tearing Europe Apart and Uniting It”, (2) “Europe’s New Power Coordinates: The Path to a German Europe”, and (3) “A Social Contract for Europe”. After briefly introducing the reader to the uncertainty surrounding the direction of Europe, the author states clearly the catalyst behind his presentation. “The fact is that Europe has become German. Nobody intended this to happen, but, in the light of the possible collapse of the euro, Germany has ‘slipped’ into the role of the decisive political power in Europe.” His description of this new reality is emphasized by contrasting an early-1950s quote by author Thomas Mann that students should strive for “not a German Europe but a European Germany”, for obvious reasons, with the eventual direction that few foresaw: “a European Germany in a German Europe.””There is a widespread view that what we need to overcome this crisis is more Europe. But we find less and less assent to the idea of ‘more Europe’ among the people of the member states. Given this situation, is it even possible to conceive of the completion of a European political union? Of a common taxation system and a common economic and social policy? Or is it not the reality that the preoccupation with a political union has obscured the crucial question, that of a European society, for so long that we have ended up leaving the most important factor out of the reckoning altogether? That factor is the sovereign people, the citizens of Europe. So let us put society back in. What needs to be done in the midst of this financial crisis is to shed light on the power shifts of Europe and to delineate the new landscape of power. That is the goal of this essay.”If this is the goal of this essay, the goal is largely met, and in my opinion some of the negative reviews here are rather wanting from this perspective. Beck presents more material and provides more contemplation in this short essay than many texts three or four times in length, and for such an important topic that the publishing houses have largely ignored, it is immensely readable as well. While it is true that the author does not prescribe a conclusive direction for Europe in the concluding section of his essay, he lays the groundwork for serious discussion and weaves together the current landscape rather well after checking with the reader on multiple occasions to make sure they understand the context, at least for Americans who have not kept up with the last few years of development, although admittedly some of this discussion is sometimes a bit too timely and may not age very well and sometimes seems better suited for “The New Yorker” magazine.While extensive commentary could easily be written as a response to this essay, the space here is limited. If the reader does not have time to read the entire essay, I recommend a reading of the section within the second part entitled “‘Merkiavelli’: Hesitation as a Means of Coercion,” comprising almost a quarter of the text, which discusses how Angela Merkel has seized the opportunity presented to restructure power relations in Europe. Although from a financial perspective, the author argues that her chief aim is to win votes in Germany: “If Europe can be rescued at the same time she will certainly not be opposed to that. But she too is pursuing a domestic European policy that serves primarily to strengthen a national power base.” Following a discussion of the four components of the political affinity that the author sees between Merkel and Machiavelli is a related sidebar entitled “From the Burden of History to the Burden of the Schoolmaster” that is one of the best succinctly written commentaries about the German struggle between burdens associated with the second world war and wishes to provide constructive input to the continent. Recommended reading.

⭐The European Community and European Union were created to lock Germany in a bear hug with the rest of Europe to tame its warlike tendencies. Ironically, this created a situation where Germany just conquered Europe economically instead. In this fine read, Ulrich Beck gives a fine analysis of how this happened. At the core of his argument is the worry that while a Europe was created for political leaders, it is very much divorced from the Europe of the people. There is a “horizontal Europe” where ordinary citizens move to a new country to find a new job, buy imported goods more easily and build connections with friends and businesses across a continent. Then there is a “vertical Europe” which attempts to run the continent from Brussels. However, while the “horizonal Europe” serves the people, the “vertical Europe” does its best to rule them with the barest of democratic consent, if any at all. Because the European Union draws its power from political institutions connecting the member countries, and not from the European people, it creates a situation where the EU serves the interests of the most powerful member countries, rather than the European people as a whole.Today, the most powerful member country in the EU is, without question, Germany. Its industrial base and carefully managed finances have made it the rich man of Europe and, as Beck says, this has created a situation where Merkiavelli – his nickname for the cunning Angela Merkel – not only wields power over all of Europe, but must continue to do so to maintain her power at home. This means imposing a German template on countries whose economies are not like Germany’s. You can argue whether the Greeks are lazy or whether their history and environment precludes them from being the kind of people who design, build and sell BMWs. Either way, the odds that they can be rescued from bankruptcy in the short term by becoming an industrial powerhouse are slim. Indeed, the odds that they can function at all under an economic regime where the euro is more like the old Deutschmark than the Drachma in terms of the monetary policy governing its issuance is uncertain. But for Merkel to make the concessions necessary to give Greece room to wiggle out of the mess it has gotten itself into is to threaten her own power and to assure her replacement with someone else who will just follow the same course she has been following. This the author details well. The problem: What to do about it?While Beck does a great job of unwinding how things have come to where they are, his cure contains the same problems as his diagnosis: He contemplates a top down effort to convince the people of individual nations that they should be more European and less nationalistic in a context where the institutions ruling Europe really aren’t much more democratic than they are now and where, whether you’re a Greek trying to earn a living or a German trying to save for retirement, the nation state is the place where you are represented. This is no solution; it’s just a restatement of the problem: for reasons of power and politics, elites are managing the EU in the interests of nation states and as their power draws from nation states, not Europe as a whole, Europeans recognize that the conveniences of the European Union aren’t enough for them to simply acquiesce to rule by a largely unelected elite. Beck wants a way to make them acquiesce until the institutions can be reworked, but this problem created by the wise and the powerful won’t be solved by them. The only real answer is to democratize the European Union first, turning over more power to the people as a whole and hoping for the best. It may crash and burn, or it may work, but the one thing Beck makes clear is that things can’t continue as they are, even as he tries to find a way to make them do so all but superficially.

⭐If you are wondering why it is that Germany is thriving financially while other countries in Europe like Greece, Spain and Italy are not, this book will explain the reason to you. A small, quick to read book. Gets to the point.

⭐Excellent overview of the power and policies of Germany within Europe.

⭐This is a translation from German. it is a very interesting analysis but I found some of the language a bit difficult to follow.

⭐First sight can deceive, especially if promoters have a hand in the product. From the front cover the centre of the universe is Berlin, and the further away from the capital lie hoards of barbarians: to the south the lazy, sunny, fun-loving Spaniards, Italians, and Greeks; to the north the sceptical, irritant British, the Danes, and the romantic Irish, and to the east the new screaming nursery arrivals. As if by fate, at the moment of doom, the “uncrowned Queen of Europe”, Angela Merkel, has courageously seen it as her regal duty to pick up the gauntlet, to send battalions of Eurocrats to slay wicked domestic and colonial dragons; but no one understands, says her friendly voice, Professor Ulrich Beck, that she is doing all for their own future good. They have behaved like irresponsible village idiots out on a permanent binge in the city, overspent, overindulged, made fools of themselves, and now cannot accept that they must foot the hefty bill in the austerity (sorry wrong word – currently re-named “balancing the budget”) package bailout. As a practical Haus Frau, her workable answer is as we are all in this project together there needs the setting up of more institutionalised brakes, the washing away of worthless archaic national sovereignties with no popular discussion, with all the naughty boys and girls (untermensch?) being dressed up as little smiling kinder in a perfect heaven – a German Europe.Did someone dare mutter a Fourth Reich? Oh no that would be beastly; so unEuropean, but typical of ignorant nationalists – read sceptics (Cameron gets a fleeting name dropping comment, other beyond the pale, such as UKIP’s obviously Nigel Farage doesn’t!) trying to keep Germany, sorry Europe, in the front line, marching shoulder to shoulder towards world domination and glory.If at the outset the author introduced an idea first advanced in 1953 by the novelist Thomas Mann to strive for a European Germany, and not a German Europe (hinting of the evil of the Third Reich and the Holocaust), now a variant appears to have crystallized over the horizon, a European Germany in a German Europe, with Deutschland assuming the mantle of schoolmaster, an affectionate term, taking on the official powerful ideological leadership or Führung of Greater Europe. Beck claims the present state during the recession has been incorrectly analysed by “politically socially blind” economists, and brings his own sociological “risk- catastrophe” thesis as the solution to prevent the collapse of the monetary union (or of the old Deutsch Mark in all but its name), meaning stability; the break up of the EU into individual hostile entities, and war; and then dragging the global economy into the abyss. For him, as for any true European, like our Queen Angela, no member should dream of leaving the Euro even temporarily to resolve its internal weaknesses, so the idea is not even cited. The fear and anger of unemployed Greeks, Spaniards, or Portuguese should be totally ignored, as they know not the whole picture, and their anger ought to be directed to their national politicians holding them and Europe back. Our angel Gabriel in the shape of Queen Angela operates a Merkiavelli scheme – a hybrid derivative of a Merkel and a calculating Machiavelli, appeasing Germans and then seeming to bully the rest of Europe with carrot and stick, but leaves the real bullying to be carried out by others. The pain and the blame will be heaped on non Germans. To the Queen’s credit this economic muscle is much more cost effective than its past military powering the 20th century. However, the mention of a German Europe seems to become forgotten in this analysis as part of the establishment, only reappearing briefly in page 52, and then in the conclusion in page 86. Wasn’t the book called German Europe, or it is a revision of the state of the European economy as seen by one German sociologist? It is in fact bit of both.In his final chapter Beck seems to go one step further and strangely walks into deep water. He recalls that people make up society, that Europe is still not a one-nation society, nor admits it can still become one even in one entitled a “German Europe”. Is he hopeful, he doesn’t say? He re-echoes something which regularly is repeated in official EU publications of attempting to establish a young mobile generation crossing the continent with multiple Erasmus exchange experiences to harness a “twofold sovereignty”: subjects of the member state under the umbrella Europe, and of older working people moving on from Rome to Amsterdam to Krakow and then La Valetta, each learning from the moves and acquiring a cosmopolitan “transnational” culture, with Europe which the author transforms at whim from a geographical -ideological free area to one encloses the EU with its institutions, top political positions, anthem. He believes this strategy helps break down useless national loyalties which prolong hostilities and endangers progress and new nation/ federation building. Really? Who says?That explanation is as one-dimensional and arrogant as the one suggesting that today’s unemployed can not possibly be in the know, or as Beck remarks the Occupy Wall St activists camped across New York, London, Rome, Frankfurt and Brussels were only those thought worthy by the high priests of Europe that capitalism was not necessarily the best of systems. It resembles the view of the political commissars in the Soviet Army claiming to know how to fight a people’s war more than the officers, and the people themselves. Why favour the activists? Because it’s cool, trendy, or because they can be hoodwinked and the rest into be used as shock troops at the grass roots for their own project when the faceless ones of the banks are no longer the ones with the answers? Sounds fishy! Any idea to remove national sovereignty ought to demand a mandate from the people, a referendum; but the Danes, the Irish, the Dutch, and the French know more than others that referenda is only acceptable if the pre-determined result actually occurs and if not it is re-run until the people have learnt what Brussels, the Eurocrats, and now Queen Angela really wanted of them. In this modern democracy, every one is equal, but some are more equal than others.Many students take a year away from their normal courses in a different continental campus. In theory, it opens their eyes to differences, and the most open-minded start to see a difference is not necessarily a mistake. It should therefore make them realise in later life that if member states face hardships they should be treated differently for the sake of the Union. However, if the policy of the Union moves to greater uniformity, such differences will be wiped away, and will make those who have seen that differences work feel there lies a great gap between theory and reality, between the high priests in Brussels with the ideas and the people who have to live with and carry out the policies; for some a seed sprouting scepticism against the Union itself. The question that such instances may never arise is because once students return to their studies their months away will be treated little more than time off, and of no significant use in later life unless their work involves constant movement in their employment. They will have to make the best in life wherever they live, and see that if workers elsewhere take to the streets the hot heads are not to blame History, and European history, together with modern day technology may come to their rescue if they remember Solidarnosc in Poland in the 1980s, for people everywhere to combine to form groups / unions in this case against the hegemony of the Union.Beck, however, never wanted that which has come to pass, as it appears too much like the past, something which one of Margaret Thatcher’s ministers, Nicholas Ridley, once warned, and was removed for speaking his mind. With the passing of Maggie, Ridley’s ghost seems to walk the corridors of Westminster and of Brussels with a smirk in his eye, as if to say, “told you so”, and despite what one thinks of this book: good, bad or indifferent, it will be much used by the most active sceptics.If the author criticizes economists for getting their economics wrong he is a sociologist who has ignored his history. For a German it is strange he has quickly forgotten a country in 1989, called the German Democratic Republic, where Frau Merkel lived, which its people were willing to leave and be integrated with another to form a third, though today several east Germans still recall the first with more than a touch nostalgia for its social welfare, and the neighbourly kindred community spirit. Time can make people view events differently; but culture takes longer to change people if, that is, they wish it. Beck and the EU believe that people can be led to water, but that does not mean they will accept, drink, much less the taste of it. They might still prefer Becherovka, rather than Retsina to stout, goulasch to callamaris, but always dressed immaculately by Armani, and smelling divinely of Chanel. Soviet shops had many excellent classical music records left unsold because people longed for something different. Ultimately, there is as much as people will tolerate, and if they say no it means NO.The idea of a German Europe sounds like that of European hell, though it could be a state of European heaven. European heaven was said to have the French as the skilful cooks, the meticulous Germans as the mechanics, the English as the friendly local policemen or Bobby, the charming Italians as the lovers, and the Swiss run it all like clockwork. In contrast, European hell sounds hellish as Dante once described, because the impolite French will become the mechanics, the English in the pre Jamie Oliver-Gordon Ramsay days would have taken over the kitchen as the cooks, the Swiss assisted by the Austrians tried their pillow talk talents as Latin lovers, the Germans became the police and reverted to Gestapo practices, and the Italians creatively transformed the impossible into most disorganized chaos. These are stereotypes one may add, but there is elements of truth which all recognise, especially the ingenious Italians who despite admiring Germany, would love to deviate from the norm and mess anything up that was too well organized, appeared too Germanic and left little to the imagination.If Brussels really left people to run their lives and not sent in the thought police, then certain past national animosities would be forgotten and fade away. The Greeks don’t wish to leave the Union; they certainly don’t like to waste their time going on the streets and burning cars; they would prefer to live more as Greeks than as what certain Germans wish. Mr Farage is happy to live with a German wife, because he has chosen to. Both examples could work in a German Europe, united in spirit by its varied uniquely cultural divisions. Can Brussels or Angela accept compromises, that is question? If they can’t a German Europe will be divided in disunity, and the very essence which all Europhiles truly fear. What do they want a European heaven or a European hell that is what the people really ask?The book has tried to do too much, and fails. For 86 pages the price is not right. Pretentious, over confident of the European dream, disappointing, but most of all too expensive.

⭐Ulrich Beck non ha paura di dire cose che i politici non preferiscono di discutere. Abbiamo bisogno di pensare al di là dei nostri nazionalismi e pratiche protetti.

⭐

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