#Lobenstein

[shipwreckguy]

Lobenstein

Barge Lobenstein adrift on Elbe, recovered #Geesthacht #inland #vandalism

Photo: abendblatt.de On the early morning of November 9, the 70 meter long self-propelled barge Lobenstein (MMSI: 211497070) went adrift on the Elbe River off Geesthacht, Germany. Authorities at the Geesthacht lock spotted the Lobenstein adrift and unmanned. An investigation found the Lobenstein had been intentionally been untied from its berth by unknown persons. The same persons concealed their…

[house-o-muses]

[benkaden]

Ansichtskarte

HO "Central-Hotel" 99 Plauen Bahnhofstraße 54, Ruf 2 21 18 Erstes Haus am Platze Gepflegte Speisegaststätte

Lobenstein: Verlag B. König 685 Lobenstein. (M 2 79 V 5 33 5183).

1979

[schunckinfo]

[xtruss]

Germany’s Conspiracists Borrow American Ideas to Plot Against the State! The Reichsbürger Movement is a Motley Array of Nostalgic Failures.

— By Lucian Staiano-Daniels | Argument: An expert's point of view on a current event | Foreign Policy | December 12, 2022

A general view of the Waidmannsheil hunting lodge near Bad Lobenstein, Germany, on Dec. 8, where a group is accused of plotting a coup against the German state. Jens Schlueter/Getty Images

On Dec. 7, authorities across Germany arrested at least 25 people in connection to a conspiracy to storm the Bundestag, attack the German power grid, and overthrow the German government. At least 25 others have been accused of involvement in the plot.

The conspirators modeled this attack, which they had been planning since November 2021, on the aborted attack by far-right supporters of former President Donald Trump on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 of that year. But this isn’t a local imitation of an American original, although it combines German ideas with U.S. influence. It’s an intensely German group, rooted in a bizarre interpretation of German history.

This confluence of the local and the global is characteristic of German right-wing extremism, and it can produce unexpected results, as I’ve written before for Foreign Policy. Within these global linkages, many conspiracy theories—on the far left as well as the far right—have been incorporated into the QAnon intellectual space, and German conspiracy theories are no exception.

In this case, the conspirators are members of a disparate movement known as Reichsbürger, or “citizens of the Reich.” (This word can be plural or singular.) The Reich in this case is the Second Reich, the German empire that stood from 1871 to 1918.The ideology behind this movement has been promoted since the 1970s, when the jurist—and Holocaust denier—Manfred Roeder spread it in an attempt to revive both National Socialism and pre-Nazi imperial Germany.

The group’s basic idea is that the Federal Republic of Germany, the modern German government, does not exist. It maintains that the Third Reich, the Wilhelmine government’s successor—this complex of ideas seems to elide the Weimar Republic–was never formally dissolved in 1945, and that the modern German government is a tool of the Allied occupation, which is still ongoing. This belief system thereby combines hidden nostalgia for the Third Reich with overt nostalgia for the Second; for instance, many Reichsbürger followers want Germany to return to its 1937 borders. There is a powerful strain of antisemitism in it. These people have been compared to American and Canadian sovereign citizens; like sovereign citizens, many do not pay taxes. And like sovereign citizens, they can be violent: Reichsbürger were responsible for one murder in 2016 and nine in 2020.

In a dark reflection of German society in general, this conspiracy theory is profoundly legalistic. Reichsbürger believe that the republic is not a state but a private company founded in 1949 by the Allies, while the German Reich exists legally but without institutions—so the movement’s followers have taken it upon themselves to form “provisional” institutions. This pathological legalism appeals to people involved with Germany’s ordinary legalism: many members are former police officers, military officers, and civil servants. The people arrested on Dec. 7 include a former member of the Bundestag from the far-right AfD party, former East German state security, and former members of the German special forces.

They also included several German nobles, including one of the ringleaders, Heinrich XIII Prinz Reuss zu Köstritz. He is a minor noble—a very minor one. He is a prince, but the German states were once almost as thick with princes as Saudi Arabia—although for very different reasons. His princely status does not mean that he is related to the monarchy of the former empire, the family of the former Kaiser; it means that his family used to head principalities. (The Kaiser’s family is the Hohenzollerns. This Heinrich is a Reuss-Köstritz, although U.S. papers have mistaken him for a Reuss-Greiz, a branch of this multipartite family that ended legally in 1918 when its last head abdicated.) As with the vast majority of German nobles, even the word “aristocratic” is pushing it.

What has been keeping former East German state security, members of the far-right AfD party, monarchists without a monarch, fascists inside the German special forces, anti-vaccine activists, and believers in the QAnon conspiracy theory together?

One element is the unique politics of East Germany. The house of Reuss, in all eight of its parts, is Thuringian, and East German aristocrats felt betrayed after the reunification of Germany in 1990. They had hoped that reunification would mean a restoration of their status and their property, much of which was seized by East Germany’s communist government. That this did not happen radicalized many of them, just as East Germans more generally felt betrayed by the reunification.

But the East German radical fringe has also been shifting as it incorporates concepts from the global far right. In a rapid move away from 70 years of East German history, AfD adopted an anti-vaccine stance in late 2021 under the influence of the Querdenker movement and far-right groups in the United States. The worldwide far right may claim that it is for those left behind by globalism, that it is anti-United States, that it is anti-European Union, but right-wing extremists also “imagine themselves as participants in a global struggle against a global enemy.”

And yet the Reichsbürger movement remains intensely German. Linda Schlegel, writing for European Eye on Radicalization, describes the movement’s fixation on the fin de siècle German Empire as a form of displacement: “It is based on the wish to display patriotism overtly,” which many Germans still feel is taboo. Patriotism for the 19th century is safe, since National Socialism remains harmlessly in the future, as long as you ignore what Manfred Roeder believed. In this interpretation, Reichsbürger are yet another expression of the German attempt to come to grips with the historical trauma not only of having suffered evil, which can be expressed, but of having done it—which cannot.

In this context, the Dec. 7 conspirators’ beliefs as expressed in the official government statement made on their arrest are fascinating.

Like their QAnon cousins, this group believes that Germany is currently governed by members of a so-called deep state, which is their responsibility to fight against as part of a network of American-inflected domestic defense cells—in German, they were described with the same word that is used to translate “Homeland Security.”

But in another tortuous circle in Germany’s agonizing attempt to put its past finally behind it, this group also believes that the deep state is opposed by the “Alliance,” “a technically superior secret society of governments, intelligence services and militaries of different states, including the Russian Federation and the United States of America.” The intervention of this Alliance is imminent, since it is already in Germany.

This conspiratorial group therefore has awaited liberation by the United States and Russia, which it believes is their responsibility to aid. The group was supposed to form “a (military) transitional government” that “should negotiate the new state order in Germany with the victorious Allied powers of World War II.” In addition to having a Russian lover, Heinrich XIII had already made contact with a Russian individual for this purpose. That is to say, this little group has been roleplaying the formation of a nondemocratic German social order, to capitulate at its head.

Is this not Freud’s return of the repressed? These people sought to destroy the German constitutional democratic order in the name of an ideology developed originally by former Nazis, but also to negotiate a surrender agreement once again with the United States and Russia—and this time get it right. Even German visions of victory turn into compulsive repetitions of defeat.

— Lucian Staiano-Daniels is a scholar of 17th century military history, who was most recently a Dan David Prize Fellow at Tel Aviv University. He is finishing a book on the historical social anthropology of early seventeenth century common soldiers. His most recent academic article was "Masters in the Things of War: Rethinking Military Justice during the Thirty Years War."

[skillstopallmedia]

Germany | The nostalgic prince who allegedly plotted for a new Reich

Germany | The nostalgic prince who allegedly plotted for a new Reich

The castellated hunting lodge of Heinrich XIII, Prince of Reuss sits atop a steep hill, overlooking the snow-covered houses and Christmas lights of Bad Lobenstein. Appreciated by the mayor and many local villagers, the prince spent his weekends in the spa town, giving an aristocratic touch to this sleepy corner of eastern Germany. But this idyll had a darker side. According to prosecutors and…

[heyscroller]

Prince Henry XIII and the plot to overthrow the German government

Prince Henry XIII and the plot to overthrow the German government

The crenellated hunting lodge of Prince Heinrich XIII. von Reuss is perched on a steep hill overlooking the snow-covered houses and the Christmas lights of Bad Lobenstein. Popular with the local mayor and many surrounding villagers, the prince spent his weekends in the spa town, bringing an aristocratic flair to this sleepy corner of rural East Germany. But his idyll also had a darker…

[reportwire]

The Prince, the Plot and a Long-Lost Reich

The Prince, the Plot and a Long-Lost Reich

By the time he started spending regular weekends in Bad Lobenstein last year, he was already deep inside the Reichsbürger movement. But his antisemitic tendencies and interest in conspiracy theories are well documented. In January 2019, he gave a lecture at the WorldWebForum in Zurich, Switzerland, entitled, “Experience the rise and fall of the blue-blooded elite.” In the 15-minute speech, he…

[thegodofhellfire]

fishnet friday

[benkaden]

Motivvorlage für Ansichtskarte

Lobenstein Neubaugebiet Tiergarten

AUSLESE-BILD- VERLAG 62 BAD SALZUNGEN

[stollnfex]

😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃

[erfurt-nord]

Lobensteiner Strasse Erfurt Nord- früher Morgen

[mellowyknox]

Audi "Wind”

Agency: Aimaq von Lobenstein / Saint Elmo’s Berlin Managing Partner: Hubertus von Lobenstein Chief Creative Officer: André Aimaq

Production: Czar Berlin Director: Joe Vanhoutteghem Cinematographer: Sebastian Blenkov Executive Producer: Jan Fincke, Brox Brochot Production Design: Bader el Hindi Editor: Piet Schmelz, Manu van Hove Colorist: Julien Alary

Post: Nozon Brussels

Year: 2017

[notafraidofredyellowandblue]

Flake von Rammstein, früher Feeling B im interview - 2019

Author Lars Schmidt, from

English translation

The other bands of the GDR: Feeling B

"We showed that you could have a lot of fun in the GDR"

From the mid-80s onwards, a whole bunch of young, non-conformist bands embodied the lifestyle of the GDR youth with their music and thus shaped the sound of the change. Also there: Feeling B. Keyboard player Flake, now with Rammstein, tells how diligent his music used to be, what went on at village concerts and how he experienced the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Today, Feeling B is often portrayed as the GDR punk band - also due to the connection to Rammstein. Is that justified?

Feeling B wasn't actually a punk band. We didn't really fit in anywhere. The punks didn't accept us because we basically didn't make punk music. Because we weren't edgy enough from our whole life and appearance. And the right rock bands didn't take us seriously either because we were so amateurish, couldn't play properly and deliberately cultivated and maintained our amateurism. At that time we weren't a serious band for anyone. It was very difficult to place us anywhere. Because we were all just too bad. We were an amateur band. But if you say punk is, if you don't give a shit, if you don't care about the rules and only do what you want, then we were a punk band. But less about the music. The fact that we are perceived as a GDR punk band today is only due to the fact that we were the only one of these bands who managed to bring out an LP with Amiga in GDR times.

How did you experience the GDR underground scene?

As a teenager at 16 or 17, I mainly noticed blues bands in the GDR. There was Freygang. And their singer André Greiner-Pol was punk at heart. Basically he played punk in a blues band, had a punky demeanor and some of the lyrics were already punk. Later we played our first concert as Feeling B with Freygang. They just took us with them and let us play in the break between their blocks. Even though we didn't have a permit back then. And nobody noticed. I noticed the first punk band in the east in 1983. It was called Rosa Extra. This was also the name of sanitary towels in the GDR. Shortly afterwards, there was an anti-riot and revolt to love. None of them had a state classification, so they weren't allowed to play. They were real punk bands and therefore they had nothing to do with the so-called "other bands". The so-called other bands were groups that had received a classification and thereby a state recognition. And besides punk, they were also influenced by other genres, for example ska or new wave.

(photo from Flake's private collection)

Did the scene only take place in the big cities or was punk going on in the provinces too?

Our main area of ​​activity was in the village. In Ebersbrunn, Lugau, Saalfeld, Lobenstein. In places that you only really know because there is a village hall. Where the promoter just bought the bands that people wanted to hear. And not the bands that were prescribed for him by the state. Things happened there that nobody knew anything about and nobody suspected anything. Forbidden bands played there by only changing their names. Bands played programs that were absolutely forbidden and people came and nobody noticed. The small villages could not be monitored so well and the Stasi could not see them. Berlin, on the other hand, was the capital of the GDR. If there are 20 punks banding together or 40 goths or 60 heavy metal fans, of course, the police will come and see what is going on and be suspicious. The youth clubs in Berlin were of course much more closely monitored. It was different in the village. Who goes to Lugau and looks at which band is playing? That was too strenuous for the state authorities.

Can one say that Feeling B were privileged because your singer Aljoscha Rompa was allowed to travel to the West?

Yes, because it enabled Aljoscha to get me a Casio keyboard. Such a small Casio toy instrument. That was my main musical instrument. Nowadays every musician would laugh to himself about it. That was really a 200 Mark West item from the toy store. But otherwise nobody in the East was interested in the fact that Aljoscha was allowed over. On the contrary. Rather, a hostile defensive stance built up.

What significance did the program "Parocktikum" have for the scene?

Lutz Schramm, the moderator, was the John Peel of the East. He was the first to play cassettes from Eastern bands on the radio. You can't credit him enough for that!

(photo from Flake's private collection)

How did you experience the fall of the wall?

We were in the crazy position that we were allowed to drive with Feeling B to West Berlin and West Germany shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall. We suspected that the state wanted to show the West how cool we still are in the East and that we are opening up. It had already brought Western stars like Bruce Springsteen to the East. And we had been sent to the west. But we had a Stasi employee who pretended to be our manager. And he told us you can stay here too. That was a very clear offer that we should stay in the West. And we assume that was why we were allowed over there, to get us to disappear from the East. But that's how it came to be that we played in West Berlin on the evening the Berlin Wall came down. And suddenly a lot of friends come in while we're playing. A few had already fled via Hungary and the green border. And many of our acquaintances have already gone to the West. But that evening there was more. So I asked: "What's going on here. What are you doing here? Have you all left now?" They said: "No, the wall is open." I say: "Can't be true." Then we took our whole fee and got beer for everyone we knew. For us it was an incredible honor. When the wall goes up and everyone can leave the GDR for the first time - what do they do first? They go to the Feeling B concert. There is no better way to express sympathy. That touched me very much. That made it a great evening for us, of course.

How was the time after the fall of the Berlin Wall for Feeling B? Did your counterpart disappear with the end of the GDR?

We didn't sing directly against the GDR. We sang against certain things that were mostly due to the narrow-mindedness and madness of the people. And we had already seen on our first visits that in the West of course nothing is even a bit better. Rather everything is much worse. Aljoscha had already warned us in Eastern times: "If you think all the philistines are here, go west." In the GDR, we felt very comfortable as punks. After that it got worse bit by bit. But when I say that things got wrong during the reunification, that's no complaint. This law-free space after the fall of the Wall was very funny for a while. You could do anything and nobody knew it was allowed. Is it allowed or not? That was a very eventful time and I always got to bed late, to put it that way.

How much GDR is there in Rammstein?

Very very much. Since we were all socialized in the GDR, we think much less selfishly. Nobody tries to stand out. We don't quarrel. What counts for us is what the collective creates.

How do you rate the importance of Feeling B today?

We showed that you could very well have an unlikely lot of fun in the GDR. We made very light and relaxed music. And with that we brought in a little freshness. We also saw the funny side of every situation, were happy about it and made fun of it. We wanted to shape our whole life in such a way that we never scold but always laugh. So far we have largely succeeded. And we showed people that you don't have to play an instrument to make music. But that was more in the spirit of punk than time.

What do you particularly like to remember?

At some concerts I just had a feeling of joy. And the people were also happy, it was like a fair. An event outside of space and time. At a Feeling B concert, everything was allowed and everything was fun. The party went on into the night and there was no difference between the band and the fans. It was all a mass of young people who had a lot of fun in life and could also enjoy it.