The Höcke case: When “Everything for Germany” or “To each his own” are punishable | EUROtoday

UAs the saying goes, ignorance doesn’t defend in opposition to punishment. And no feigned ignorance in any respect. The incontrovertible fact that the AfD right-winger Björn Höcke, who truly accomplished a state examination as a historical past instructor (albeit in Hesse), allegedly doesn’t wish to know that the slogan he used, “Everything for Germany,” was the motto of the National Socialist SA for round twenty years. is already unbelievable in itself. This is extra prone to be acutely aware ignorance than real ignorance.

This will not be attainable with clearly National Socialist formulation – not even right-wing extremists can declare to not know what the “German greeting” (the official identify for “Heil Hitler”) is. Or the place the perfidious assertion “Work makes you free” got here from, which was written on the gates of assorted focus camps, for instance in Dachau, Sachsenhausen and the Auschwitz principal camp. It will be assumed as widespread information that “My honor means loyalty” was the motto of the SS, and likewise that the slogan “Blood and Honor” had been embossed on the daggers of the Hitler Youth since 1933. “Germany awake” was not solely one thing Hitler known as for in lots of speeches, it was additionally the rallying cry at numerous NSDAP occasions.

All of those expressions will be punished underneath prison legislation, often for utilizing the symbols of anti-constitutional organizations, which is prohibited by Section 86a of the Criminal Code, or for incitement to hatred (Section 130). But what about different formulations that have been utilized by the Nazis? Like “to each his own”? With “common good comes before self-interest”? Or “Everything for Germany”?

Of course, it was supposed as a mockery of the inmates that the sentence “To each his own” is written within the gate to the prisoner space of ​​the Buchenwald focus camp close to Weimar. The letters are aligned in order that they may very well be learn from inside, the roll name space; In addition, the aspect going through the prisoners was painted pink roughly yearly, however the exterior was solely painted as soon as.

But the thought behind the three phrases has nothing National Socialist about it. The Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle used very related formulations, as did the Roman Cicero. In the late vintage authorized assortment Corpus Iuris Civilis, the precise phrase “Suum cuique” will be discovered for the primary time, which has since been quoted many instances, together with, for instance, by Immanuel Kant in 1785.

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Despite its cynical use in Buchenwald, this components was extensively used after 1945. The weekly newspaper “Die Zeit” argued in 1948: “Every law should serve to enforce the principle of ‘to each his own’.” WELT present in 1954: “The precept of justice is: ‘to each his own’ and never ‘to all the same thing'.” Similar to “Spiegel” in 1971 and many other media.

Nevertheless, in 1998 a certain Trutz Hardo was convicted because he had written in his novel entitled “To Each His Own” that in Buchenwald everyone had “been assigned in a concentrated manner the fate to which they were entitled based on karmic law, editor.” in order to pay off one's debts and thereby become free.” This led to a final conviction for sedition and the banning of the book, which had been published by an esoteric publisher.

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What was reprehensible in this case was not the use of the three words themselves, but the context in which they were placed. Contrary to the feigned naivety of those caught, this is always crucial. Of course, any National Socialist formulation can be quoted in the context of coming to terms with the Nazi past – without using the language of the perpetrators, research would even be impossible. On the other hand, it is inflammatory to revive the thinking of the Buchenwald SS.

It is even more difficult than with “To each his own” with the formulation “common interest before self-interest”. It's hard to spontaneously disagree with these three words – because who wants to advocate “self-interest” in good conscience? But this formula was one of only two typographically highlighted demands in the only NSDAP party program of 1920, alongside the meaningless dogma “breaking interest bondage”.

The self-image of the Hitler movement, which, contrary to most common claims, was socialist, culminated in “common interest before self-interest”. Numerous sources prove that it was precisely this idea that was crucial for numerous supporters of the Hitler movement – like only the will to revise the “ignominy Peace of Versailles”. Even before the NSDAP came to power, the young political scientist Ulrich von Hasselbach, himself a convinced Nazi, concluded in his doctoral thesis in 1931: “The essence, the special nature of the new world of thought is expressed most clearly in the simple slogan that has become the core of the National Socialist program is: 'common interest before self-interest'.”

This formula was also used widely after 1945, completely detached from its origin (before 1920 it was only very weakly established), and this continued into the 21st century. It can be found in the left-wing Berlin “Tageszeitung” in 2019 as well as in WELT AM SONNTAG in 2015. But right-wing extremists also used the idea behind it – as the temporary AfD member of the Bundestag Martin Hohmann said in 2003, when he was still sitting in parliament for the CDU: “Like many people in Germany, their plans and actions are based on whether they are not just selfish but are also beneficial to the community?”

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Even students at a normal high school know how to demystify the formula “community benefit over self-interest”: “Who decides what 'community benefit' is?” is the question asked at many events in the same way or in a very similar way. In fact, if “common good” is to be derived from “self-good,” someone must necessarily determine what the ominous “common good” is supposed to be. And sanctions must be in place for those who do not comply.

Finally, “Everything for Germany”. The wording was engraved on hundreds of thousands of SA daggers and was found on countless Brown Shirt leaflets, in Nazi newspapers and in many other places. After 1945, it was, among other things, the motto of right-wing extremist partisans and part of the greeting of the neo-Nazi “Freedom German Workers’ Party,” which learn: “With excellent respect, everything for Germany.”

But alternatively, athletes additionally repeatedly used this formulation, as did the top of the promoting company that orchestrated the SPD election marketing campaign in 2002. Even Holocaust survivor and long-time chairwoman of the Jewish Community Charlotte Knobloch, who’s above suspicion, sometimes used the three phrases.

As at all times, it is dependent upon the context: Anyone who says and even proclaims “Everything for Germany” within the context of a political assembly is inserting themselves within the context of the SA, particularly utilizing the motto of the Brown Shirts as a political assertion. This is punishable underneath paragraph 86a. On the opposite hand, anybody who solely makes use of the identical three phrases in a non-political context will not be doing something unlawful.