{"id":93702,"date":"2025-03-13T06:10:31","date_gmt":"2025-03-13T14:10:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/?p=93702"},"modified":"2025-03-13T06:54:56","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T14:54:56","slug":"germans-want-europe-to-replace-america-as-global-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/religious-news\/germans-want-europe-to-replace-america-as-global-leader\/","title":{"rendered":"Germans want Europe to replace America as global leader"},"content":{"rendered":"

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COGwriter<\/a><\/p>\n

US President Donald Trump has threatened tariffs on many things, including specifically on automobiles from Europe. He has also pressured the Europeans, and specifically the Germans, to spend more on military weaponry.<\/p>\n

A reader sent me a link to an article in Italian (https:\/\/www.renovatio21.com\/la-volkswagen-produrra-armi-la-ue-riporta-lindustria-ai-tempi-dei-nazisti\/<\/a>) which I machine-translated into English. Here are excerpts:<\/p>\n

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Volkswagen to Make Weapons. EU Takes Industry Back to Nazi Times<\/span><\/h2>\n
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13 March 2025<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Struggling German carmaker Volkswagen is open to producing weapons and military equipment, CEO Oliver Blume has said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Blume made the comments in response to a recent EU announcement of a plan to spend up to \u20ac840 billion on its defense sector. …<\/p>\n

Speaking to German state broadcaster NDR on Tuesday, Blume said the automaker was carefully examining the needs of the defense industry.<\/span><\/p>\n

All options are on the table, he said, including repurposing some factories from civilian to military production. \u201cWe are fundamentally open to such arguments,\u201d Blume said.<\/p>\n

The idea has been backed by Germany’s largest arms manufacturer Rheinmetall. Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger said Wednesday that VW’s Osnabr\u00fcck facility would be suitable for a conversion.<\/p>\n

For VW, for Germany, for Europe, this is actually a return to the past. During the Second World War, VW had already produced military vehicles for the Wehrmacht, the armed forces of Nazi Germany, including the K\u00fcbelwagen light transporter and the Schwimmwagen four-wheel drive amphibious vehicle.<\/p>\n

A VW plant was involved in the production of components for the V-1 flying bomb, a type of cruise missile used to devastating effect by the Nazis.<\/p>\n

The EU has stepped up its efforts to militarize the Union after US President Donald Trump repeatedly criticized European NATO members for failing to meet their defense spending commitments.<\/p>\n

In response, Brussels announced a major militarization initiative proposed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Called ReArm Europe, the plan could channel more than \u20ac800 billion into the defense sector over the next four years.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Another reader sent me a link to the following from German-Foreign-Policy.com:<\/p>\n

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\u2018We\u2019re a global power\u2019<\/h2>\n

Calls for the EU to become a major global force independent of the US are gaining traction. An unprecedented military build-up is planned \u2013 where possible without buying American weapons. …<\/h3>\n
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10\u00a0Mar\u00a02025<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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BERLIN<\/span> (own report) – In view of the Trump administration\u2019s power play, calls are getting louder in Germany for the European Union to become an independent force on the global stage. As a statement from the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) put it, \u201cEurope must mobilise its ample resources to replace America as a global leader.\u201d Berlin and Brussels are setting out unprecedented spending plans, in the high three-digit billion range, for arming Germany and the EU. Proponents of rapid militarisation want to procure European weaponry rather than American. This view is now being adopted even by traditionally transatlantic-aligned media. As the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung puts it, \u201cA country that, overnight, stops military aid for a partner at war can no longer be trusted.\u201d A concerted arms build-up will be accompanied by moves to give all of Berlin\u2019s activities abroad a sharper focus on national interests. To this end, there are calls for Germany\u2019s international development ministry to be incorporated into the Federal Foreign Office \u2013 creating a kind of \u201cMinistry for German Interests\u201d.\u00a0 …<\/p>\n

\u2018Replacing America\u2019<\/h3>\n

Just a few hours after the polls closed on 23 February, the presumed future German Chancellor Friedrich Merz declared that it was now his \u201cabsolute priority … to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible\u201d so that it would achieve \u201cindependence\u201d from the United States in every respect.[1] Since then, calls for far-reaching independence from the American superpower have quickly become louder. … EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas declared that \u201cthe free world now needs a new leader; it is up to us Europeans to take up this challenge.\u201d[2] …The advice has become: \u201cEurope must mobilise its ample resources to replace America as a global leader.\u201d Poland\u2019s Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, was already calling in January for Europe to position itself independently of the US, saying, \u201cWe are a global power.\u201d[4] His only caveat: \u201cBut we must believe in it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Record arms drive<\/h3>\n

Demands to become independent of the United States are now echoed in an unprecedented wave of militarisation in the EU and the UK. \u201cEurope,\u201d a DGAP experts writes, \u201cholds all the cards that it needs.\u201d Militarily, its armed forces are \u201camong the world\u2019s strongest, most experienced, and most innovative.\u201d[5]\u00a0 …<\/p>\n

Buy European<\/h3>\n

There are now voices increasingly calling for EU members to \u201cavoid arms purchases in the US … wherever possible\u201d, as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, a paper traditionally transatlantic-aligned, put it at the weekend. Referring to the Trump administration\u2019s position on Ukraine, it argues, \u201cA country that, overnight, stops military aid for a partner at war can no longer be trusted.\u201d[7]<\/p>\n

\u2018Ministry for German Interests\u2019<\/h3>\n

The plans for an unprecedented militarisation of Europe along with far-reaching independence from the United States go hand in hand with calls to focus all of the German government\u2019s activities abroad even more strongly on pursuing and enforcing German interests. …<\/p>\n

\u2018More courage to assume global power\u2019<\/h3>\n

By embarking on a policy of compulsory militarisation in Europe and moving towards an exclusive focus on national\u00a0 interests for all German activities abroad, Berlin is reviving a longstanding goal of the German elites: … . Back in 1966, the then CSU leader and former Defence Minister (1956 to 1962) Franz Josef Strau\u00df spoke out in favour of \u201ca united Europe\u201d rising to \u201cthe position of an independent power between the United States and the [then] Soviet Union\u201d.[11] In 2003, Werner Weidenfeld, then an advisor to German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, wrote in an article in the Springer-owned newspaper Die Welt that the EU already had potential strengths that can \u201cdefine the status of a global power\u201d. Indeed, he saw the EU as superior to the US in some key areas. \u201cThe integrated Europe,\u201d he wrote, \u201cis a world power in the making.\u201d[12] Ideas for giving Germany a much stronger role on the world stage have been discussed many times. In 2020, for example, a piece entitled \u201cMore courage to assume global power\u201d in the weekly Die Zeit reflected this trend by urging EU leadership in world affairs.[13] The title of an article in the Welt am Sonntag in 2020, co-authored by former International Development Minister Gerd M\u00fcller ran \u201cEurope has the makings of a world power.\u201d[14] https:\/\/www.german-foreign-policy.com\/en\/news\/detail\/9903<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes, Europe wants to buy European weapons and be the global power. Furthermore, Germany wants to be the force of that power.<\/p>\n

This is not a new idea, of course. Adolf Hitler\u2019s book, Mein Kampf,<\/em> is filled with ideas about nationalism, expansion, and the role of Germany in Europe and the world. Here are a few quotes:<\/p>\n

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