At a point where the important decision concerning what language would become the nation's tongue, English only beat out German by a mere few votes.

Hitler was a bad man but he didn't create the wounded pride of the German people or their anger regarding the Treaty of Versailles. We'll never know what the manifestation of that would have been w/o Hitler but I suspect something would have gone down.

Regarding war occasionally being the answer, we all have war in our DNA as we are the descendants of those victorious in wars known and unknown. My dad survived WW2. If US forces in the Pacific had been wiped out by a victorious Japan, not likely I'd be sitting here.

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Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

I find it sad that some cannot put aside partisan politics for even a day, especially this day, and post something honoring those who gave so much.

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1982 300SD " Wotan" ..On the road as of Jan 8, 2007 with Historic Tags

So whats your excuse?

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CENSORED due to not family friendly words

Precisely. The OP's first sentence doomed his honorable intention. The anti-war movement of the Sixties, from hence we got those "bumper stickers" was in part a reaction, not to war - but to senseless, imperialistic war and with both the Korean Conflict and the Vietnam War, it was warfare that television brought home.

Unemployment was around 30% before the nazi's took power, that's far from booming in my humble opinion.

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1979 Black on Black, 300CD (sold), 1990 Black 300SE, Silver 1989 Volvo 780, 1988 300CE (vanished by the hands of a girlfriend), 1992 300CE (Rescue).

You are absolutely right about the 'gave so much' part, and I do honor and respect those men and women. The specter of getting off of perfectly good boats to storm the beaches at Normandy with the machine gun nests well in place is striking. Amazing stuff. Hat's off and Rest In Peace.

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Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

It was once pointed out to me by someone who studies these things that the reason Germany had so many engineering brains running around was because they had top notch engineering schools. Germany looked at its' strengths and weaknesses and figured out if it was to survive it had to export, and to export it had to learn what the rest of the world wanted to buy.

And that all started around 1850 or just before then.

From a business standpoint the Nazis took it to an extreme. If you really study the Nazi party you will find it had a great focus on business and how it should be run in order to build a better Germany. Some authors of the day claimed that Fascism was really better called corporatatrism where the government let the companies run their individual businesses while the government laid down rules the companies worked under, such as allocating raw materials from one company to the next. Safety and health issues were not the governments job since companies had to determine this for themselves as well as wages. So.... Slave labor became very popular since it had neither wages, or safety and health issues, to worry about.

Note that Capitalism is just the opposite. Companies allocate their own resources and the government makes rules that companies must follow regarding safety and health and a min wage.

Capitalism has proved to be the best all around because it is the most profitable to both businesses and government.

But back to the question: Germany built a great education system first and knew that innovation, and exports, would follow. So when the Nazis started pouring money into innovation there were a lot of folks around that knew how to take that cash and do something with it.

That was one of the reason Hitler was so popular. He promised to solve that problem and a host of others that he seemed to think Germany was suffering from.

The Nazis paid for all of this with money they swiped from people. Even the German worker, who were paying for their Volkswagens in advance, got taken for all their savings to build Kublewagens.

I disagree, war is never the answer.

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Onus probandi incumbit ei qui dicit, non ei qui negat

I recondition w123/w126/w124/w140/r107/r129/ steering boxes!


1984 300D "Elsa" odo reset 6/2011 147k
1983 300TD "Mitzi" ~268k OM603 powered
1995 E300 "Adelheid" 262k [Sold]

When economies are booming people don't elect extremist to be their leaders. Fascism takes root when capitalism fails and the population lives in fear.

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1979 Black on Black, 300CD (sold), 1990 Black 300SE, Silver 1989 Volvo 780, 1988 300CE (vanished by the hands of a girlfriend), 1992 300CE (Rescue).

I don't think saying it as being 'the answer' is too appealing but I do think it is unavoidable sometimes, and has been many times in history. The history of mankind is filled with instances of one tribe or state attacking another tribe or state and trying to take their goods, land, and women. And often succeeding.

The gun was invented in China some centuries after they invented gunpowder and was used to finally expel the hated Mongols. When you look at the indignities the Mongols forced on the Chinese, you can imagine that war might be attractive at times.

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Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

You would have preferred to allow Hitler to continue to enslave Europe, and exterminate millions more?
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" attributed to Edmund Burke. (Although the thought is similar to his writings, the quote is probably apocryphal.) Regardless, there is truth expressed in that quote.
Is the defense of the defenseless not something that we should do? I find Biblical precedent for defending the defenseless. Don't you?

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1982 300SD " Wotan" ..On the road as of Jan 8, 2007 with Historic Tags

I'm not sure about that. The Ruhr valley is, to this day, still producing iron, steel and coal.

All that good German steel came from there.

Granted, no country has all resources-- we are buying 80% of our lithium from elsewhere.

I don't think an embargo would have done it.


Regarding assassinations: when you start interfering in the internal affairs of another country, you give them permission to do the same thing here.
Once they cross your border, however, it's a different story.

Want the Iranians to start causing trouble here?

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Strelnik
Invest in America: Buy a Congressman!

1950 170SD
1951 Citroen 11BN
1953 Citroen 11BNF limo
1953 220a project
1959 180D
1960 190D
1960 Borgward Isabella TS 2dr
1983 240D daily driver
1983 380SL
1990 350SDL daily driver alt
3 x Citroen DS21M, down from 5
3 x Citroen 2CV, down from 6

My only unlearnt conclusion is the second world war changed many things. Who is to say what was for the good and what was for the bad? They just remained changed in my opinion.

Wars in one way or another always exists. Physical wars are replaced by ideological or economic ones. In otherwords the wars persist in one form or another.

War possibly brings out the worse in mankind. Maybe even the best in some ways. The bad portion trumps the best though I suspect in my opinion by a large margin.

For those that fall of fell while young there is no compensation. Especially for their families. They have lost whatever time in life nature would have allowed them.

Perhaps the only good thing is they personally have no awareness of that.