Germans discuss personal defense
While I was looking for today’s feel good story, I found this one from Hamburg, Germany about an elderly man who fended off two folks who tried to force their way into his home. He shot one of them and that feller died nearby. It’s much less common in Germany than it is in the United States, apparently. Earlier this month, another occurred in Hannover and I guess Germans lost their collective shit over the death;
This user fears conditions like in the US: “Homeowner shoots burglar! Hannover is Germany’s new America.”
Yeah, no. The article continues;
Such cases of armed self-defense are extremely rare in Germany, says Thomas Bliesner, President of the Crime Research Institute Lower Saxony (KFN). “And they are not acceptable, it’s the responsibility of the state to provide safety and order, and not for citizens to take up arms,” he told DW.
But sometimes homeowners lose control, said Bliesner, a psychologist. “People feel highly threatened and alarmed if someone intrudes into their private home, onto their property.”
In extensive interviews with victims of burglaries, the KFN found that people are shocked and stressed out by the breach of their privacy, and feel “massively threatened.” Last year, the number of burglaries across Germany rose by 1.8 percent to more than 152,000 cases.
“And if strangers enter your territory uninvited, people can be extremely aggressive and prone to violence,” Bliesner says.
I’m actually surprised that has to be explained to readers of Deutsche Welle. The article explains that Germans must have a real good reason to own a gun in the first place, and then it must be locked in a safe. It also says that only 15% of burglaries are solved in Germany.
In the case of the elderly gentleman, in the first story, police have released him, but the fellow in Hannover is still being investigated.
Category: Guns
Yeah, that worked out real well for you and your countrymen between 70 and 80 years ago, Bliesner – didn’t it?
Methinks you need to read some Santayana, Bliesner. And then a bit of your own nation’s history, followed by a trip to a museum at a place called Dachau.
And they can’t imagine why their grandparents embraced nazi fascism…
Yeh, if that isn’t typical nazi bullshyt! when seconds count, the state will be there in minutes ….or ten…or twenty!!
I’m surprised that Bliesner does not understand the word ‘territorial’, which is part and parcel of the animal kingdom. He must be as dense as the Danube used to be.
The more I read about crap like this in Europe the more I am grateful my ancestors left almost 300 years ago.
Even most liberals here respect the right of a person to defend their homes against intruders.
Thomas Bliesner, President of the Crime Research Institute Lower Saxony (KFN). “And they are not acceptable, it’s the responsibility of the state to provide safety and order, and not for citizens to take up arms,”
If he tried to pull that shit in small town USA he would be ridden out of town on a rail, probally with the Sheriff and his deputy on either end.
I remember most of the houses in Germany hade heavy duty shutters they would roll down at night to keep the boogie man out. Its a safe assumption that the shutters were their for a good reason.
My Grandfather used to keep a PPsH under the kitchen sink “for chust such a boogiemann” until my Grandmother caught my brother and I playing cowboys and nazis. She took it outside, and handed it to the first GI she saw.
“The state” as another name for a nation’s government sounds odd, if not repulsive, to Americans. And well it should. It is a term that conjures strange images of totalitarianism and of government that is estranged from the governed, if not antagonistic toward them. “The state” exists to control, to destroy individualism and upraise the collective, to the extent that the lone citizen (subject) who faces a mortal threat is expected to suffer death before assuming what the state has dictated is the state’s role: that person’s protection.
Furthermore, to expect the state to place any limits on itself is absurd, the state is power and power never limits itself.
Only strong institutions outside of the state can serve as a check on the power of the state (the economy, religion, family, etc). If there are not such institutions to stand between the individual and the state then that individual finds himself at the questionable and highly variable mercy of the state.
His value becomes a political matter and he has no shelter from the totalitarian reach of the political master class and its minions.
How about Obama the other day, telling the cameras that he has a job to protect the American people. In actuality, his only Constitutionally mandated duty to protect anything, is to protect the Constitution itself. But hey, gay marriage!
obama is an arrogant, lying, narcissistic queer, communist, muslim ASS HOLE! that pussy couldn’t protect himself against michael…err michele!
That’s “Moochele”. There. Fixed it for ya.
Put the sandwich down. This should make you gag.
There is a plan underway to make a movie of bodaprez and moocow’s first kiss.
I kid you not. That piece of news took precedence over the latest weather report last night.
But wasn’t this the mentality that existed before Hitler and his honchos took over?
In an effort to have a say in the government, Hitler created the problem. After a certain point his influence increased enough and he had no need for the brown shirts.
The technique is standard guerilla warfare – identical to the Viet Cong activity in RVN in the late 50s and 60s. Set off a bomb in a city then shout from the rooftops that this illegitimate government cannot protect you (from us). If you give us control, we will stop the bombing. In the villages, people hear “stop helping the government, help us – or suffer the consequences”. All of you know this tune.
I would take issue with the “created the problem” statement, Richard.
German society – particularly the parts of Germany that were formerly Prussia – had a longstanding tradition of autocratic rule. As I recall, that was approximately 2/3 of what became Germany on unification. Even though the rest was more liberal than Prussia, those areas also were often run by strong central governments and imposed more restrictions on their citizenry than Americans would find comfortable.
And IMO the German like of (some would say, “obsession with”) order and neatness is not merely a stereotype. From my limited experience, German society does seem to value order and discipline more than ours.
My view is that Hitler realized this, and consciously elected to take advantage of these traits, and enhance them as his political power increased, vice create them out of nothing. But I could be wrong.
I guess its just a different mindset that most Americans have compared to the surfs of the Europeon Eurinal. The thought of being a subject of the state is repulsive at its core to me.
Our courts have ruled that the state, or individual peace officers, have no duty to protect. I suppose the mentality that some have that the state is there to protect you can be summed up by the scariest words in the English language; I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help.
I think, Azygos, that it may be due to the fact that we’ve never had a king in this country. They still seem to have the feudal mindset over there and those who left, looking for a better life, didn’t have to ‘report’ to a king.
Down the road from me is a town called New Braunfels. It was founded by Prince “Texas Carl” Solms. He bought up a bunch of land, and brought his fiefdom hereto start a new life. A couple years ago someone found some documents that revealed he had a plan to turn this place into his own little kingdom. When he told his subjects to execute the plan, they told him to go piss up a rope. he got pissed, and went back to Germany. I am also a first generation son of immigrant from Germany,. My Dad came here, got drafted and sent back to Germany within one year. He met my Mother in Idar-Oberstein.
Just outside of New Braunfels is Gruehne Hall, the oldest dance hall in Texas, which is where they filmed the barroom fight (to “Chain of Fools”) in the old John Travolta movie “Michael.”
What are these documents you speak of? I’m very interested. I am from New Braunfels and have never heard of them.
The U.S did have a King/Queen in Hawaii until Bob Dolls ancestors sponsored a coup.
Except it wasn’t the U.S. then!
That Hawaiian queen’s grandpa had actually requested US annexation and statehood in the 1830s because he feared a British takeover. 50 years later, the Brits were paying off his granddaughter so they could exploit the shit out of the islands, and she was fine with it so long as she got paid. Funny how the Hawaiians always leave that part out.
It seems strange to think that more Americans today (myself included) have German blood than any other ethnicity. Apparently, just about every German capable of thinking for themselves came here already.
and along that line, migration sorts people.
The ones motivated enough to pull up their roots, travel a long way, at great cost, toward a promise but with uncertain result, are a certain kind of mentality. And those who don’t pull up roots are a different kind of mentality.
Like it, or not, America is different.
Good call, TOW. I’ve more than a drop of German blood in my mongrel background.
“And if strangers enter your territory uninvited, people can be extremely aggressive and prone to violence,” Bliesner says.
Really! Who knew??? The Germans “thinkers” are just realizing this little dilemma of the “sudden appearance of a stranger in your bedroom looking to improve his gross annual income”. I guess considering the low rate of burglary crimes solved, burglary is simply a cottage industry there and other European nations. I am also to assume most German home owners simple say to the burglar of the night, “Go ahead, get what you want but I gotta get up a 5AM so don’t make any noise you don’t have to”.
Herr Doktor Professor Pointy-Head would probably say a homeowner who warns a burglar about making too much noise is acting out aggressively and showing early signs of vigilante behavior.
Well, except when the strangers are the agents of German State, all decked out in brown shirts and leather, you are Jewish, and it’s the late 1930s. People are people. Evil is evil. These facts transcend time and generations. Another way to put it, “What’s past is prologue.”
Thanks for doing the work Jonn.
With all the weapons that were in France and Germany during and after WW2, I wonder how many are still usable?
What do you think? Will the SCOTUS decisions get the conservatives out to vote or will 16 months pass and they will all forget?
The first guy went home, but I’ll bet the Germans confiscated all his guns already.
So according to Blownose, I mean Bliesner, anyone being burgled is supposed to shut up and let it happen if they decide not to assist the thief. Hell, ain’t that what the snotnosed candyassed taint-lusting Sparkle Pony liberals here in CONUS feed us? Blownose, I mean Bliesner sounds like the type of shit-for-brained milquetoast that would refer to criminals as “Victims of Society”.
It just occurred to me that Ze Germans are used to being the ones doing the invading. They don’t have any frame of reference when it comes to responding to somebody else invading you.
Sounds like one could make a nice tidy little living off of burgling in Der Deutchland.
Just be polite, tidy, and quiet, and don’t do it in your own backyard.
Well, unless and/or until the Polezi caught you. Then it might not turn out to be “all good”. (smile)
With 85% of burglaries unsolved, you can see why few would worry too much about that.
Don’t know that it’s 85% unsolved in Germany, TOW. Might be, but I don’t know.
Even then, the odds aren’t in your favor. If solving the cases are random, an 85% success per burglary means that your chances (statistically) of successfully pulling off 5 without getting nailed are <45%; for 10, <20%.
I'm guessing a career criminal can do better than an 85% success rate. But I'm also guessing that they "work" more than 1 day a month, too.
Just like with animals, humans can be bred to be passive, docile, and look to a master to take care of them. With predictable results, and articles like this one.