One of my readers sent me what looks like a partial article from Frankfurter Allgemeine, written by Ulrich Adolphs, dated yesterday.
The title is "Gone, and Still a Source of Controversy".
Methinks it forecasts things to come:
Frankfurter Allgemeine:
When the leader of the Jewish people in Germany died on Aug. 13, 1999, Frankfurt political leaders quickly agreed on the most appropriate way to honor the man -- they would name a place in the city after him.
Zundelsite:
In Germany this seems to be a tradition. There were so many Kaiser Wilhelm Platzes, and later Adolf Hitler Squares and Hermann Göring Streets that half the streets in Germany had to be renamed after the war. In formerly Communist, falsely called "East Germany", there were hundreds of Karl Marx, Lenin and Stalin Allees. All had to be renamed after the Fall of the Wall.
Frankfurter Allgemeine:
Nearly 13 months later, though, the same city leaders are still searching for a place they can all accept as the most appropriate place to bear the name of Ignatz Bubis, the late president of the Central Council of Jewish People in Germany and an honorary Free Democratic member of the City Council. In the wake of the delay, the city leaders are heading toward a controversial debate, which all say they did not want, but which is now unavoidable because the parties are unable to find the most appropriate highway, bridge or square to name after Mr. Bubis.
Zundelsite:
Why bother? The way the Holocaust is crumbling, they will have to rename the Bubis Platz as Leuchter Square in another few years, along with a Robert Faurisson Strasse.
Frankfurter Allgemeine:
A majority of Social Democrats, Alliance 90/The Greens and the Free Democrats now favor the Obermainbrücke, the bridge that connects Frankfurt's East End district with Sachsenhausen -- to honor Mr. Bubis' reputation as a bridge builder. But the Christian Democrats dislike this location and have proposed to rename Westendplatz, a local square, because Mr. Bubis lived in the area.
Zundelsite:
Wait till Finkelstein checks into the crooked dealings and criminal postwar activities of Bubis and his friends. The Bubis Promoters might be less embarrassed in the future if they just let Bubis rest in peace in Israel.
Frankfurter Allgemeine:
The upcoming debate was given a shove last month by the local chairman of the Free Democratic Party, Franz Zimmermann, who also heads the FDP group in the City Council. At an FDP memorial service held in the city's famous Paul Church to mark the first anniversary of Mr. Bubis' death, he simply announced that a decision would be forthcoming soon, after the multi-party working group missed its own self-imposed deadline to come up with a location by the anniversary date. The working group was set up in November after the Greens withdrew their proposal to rename a different city bridge, the Alte Brücke, in the face of opposition from the other parties.
Zundelsite:
It simply is another sign of the times - this shuffling from corner to corner. It's not easy for Germans these days to keep up the pretenses that a black marketeer and convicted smuggler deserves such an honor.
Frankfurter Allgemeine:
TËe working group met four times to search the city for a suitable location -- but the group lost its way each time. The Greens stuck to the idea of a bridge because of its symbolic value and, instead of the Alte Brücke, suggested the neighboring Obermainbrücke, a six-lane bridge. But the Social Democrats had reservations. The people of Frankfurt, they objected, were attached to the old names, and the Obermainbrücke would be unsuitable anyway, because it bore Adolf Hitler's name for 12 years. In this argument, though, the Social Democrats were mistaken. It was the Untermainbrücke farther downriver that had been named after the Nazi dictator.
Zundelsite:
What did I tell you? In Germany such honors have a very limited shelf life. Hitler's Bridge lasted exactly twelve years. Bubis Brücke might last twelve months, the way things are going.
Frankfurter Allgemeine:
Countering the Greens, the Social Democrats focused on an unbuilt roundabout in an unbuilt area of the planned Europaviertel, or Europe Quarter, which is being constructed on the site of the old main freight train depot.
Zundelsite:
That's a more likely place - the old freight train depot.
Frankfurter Allgemeine:
But they withdrew that suggestion once they realized that no one would actually live there, meaning no one would ever have the name as their address. As an alternative, the Social Democrats then suggested the planned expressway through the Europe Quarter.
Zundelsite:
What self-respecting business, corporation or even private person in their right mind in the Germany of the future would want to live on Bubis Highway?
Frankfurter Allgemeine:
This idea ran into immediate objections from the Greens. But there was another problem with the idea as well: The district council responsible for street names in the new quarter had already decided long ago to call the road "Europaallee."
Zundelsite:
Now that one's safe! Everybody can live with this one. Europe has no "dirty little secrets" soon to come out . . .
Frankfurter Allgemeine:
The Free Democrats had other ideas. They have had their eye on Westendplatz, which is near the city's Jewish Community Center. But this suggestion was far from acceptable to the Social Democrats and the Greens, who maintained that the memory of a past conflict about property in the area, in which Mr. Bubis had been involved, was still too fresh.
Zundelsite:
Bubis the Slumlord was not very popular. He was the target of leftist demonstrations and even a play which portrayed him in a very truthful and, hence, negative light. I heard the story just tonight that in order to prevent people from seeing the play, Bubis bought up every ticket.
Frankfurter Allgemeine:
Mr. Zimmermann backed down and agreed to the Greens' idea of renaming the Obermainbrücke, saying the search would otherwise carry on even longer. He pointed out that choosing a bridge also avoided having to seek the consent of a district council, which would be needed for a street or square. While all this was going on, the Christian Democrat Union stayed in the background. Yet once the joint proposal by the SPD, Greens and FDP was on the table and promptly rejected by the head of the Sachsenhausen CDU, the Christian Democrats decided to throw their endorsement behind the Westendplatz. The CDU argues that bridges in Frankfurt have never been named after people.
Zundelsite:
Untrue - as per usual. Those "Christian" Democrats have short memories. How about the 12-year-long Adolf Hitler Bridge? They cannot get their facts straight, because they know only the Jewish-Allied version of their history. Their world began in 1945.
Frankfurter Allgemeine:
"That tradition was broken only once in unfortunate times," said Frankfurt CDU leader Karlheinz Bührmann, "and we want to leave it like that." Yet this argument is incorrect. For instance, the Friedensbrücke, or Bridge of Peace, was called the Wilhelmsbrücke from 1891 to 1951 in honor of Kaiser Wilhelm I.
Zundelsite:
Amazing that that name survived the war!
Frankfurter Allgemeine:
Frankfurt's Christian Democratic mayor, Petra Roth, now says she prefers Westendplatz, but is prepared to accept the Obermainbrücke. The City Council is due to vote on the competing proposals at the end of the month. Ms. Roth says she is convinced that there will be no new debate. She believes that, after the CDU motion is rejected, her party will vote in favor of renaming the bridge. Indeed, she has already sent a written invitation to the renaming ceremony to Paul Spiegel, Mr. Bubis' successor as president of the Council of Jews in Germany. And she says she expects the ceremony to take place this year.
Zundelsite:
That's the way things were done in Germany in the last 50 years. Let's see if this horse-trading will continue. Remember that a camel is a horse designed by a committee?
Frankfurter Allgemeine:
Mr. Spiegel says he intends to attend the ceremony, just as he intends to be present at the award of the city's first Ignatz Bubis Prize in January. The prize of DM100,000 (44.700) will honor persons or organizations who have made an exceptional contribution to understanding between cultures, religions, generations, or minorities and majorities. Setting up the prize was obviously easier than finding a place of remembrance for Mr. Bubis in Frankfurt.
Zundelsite
I have a better idea. With an eye on the future, the Zundelsite nominates Norman Finkelstein, along with Robert Faurisson, to share the prize equally and for the same reason. Both of these men's work will have fostered better understanding between cultures, religions, generations and minorities/majorities: The majorities, naturally, being the victorious Revisionists, and the mortified minorities being the defeated Holocaust Hucksters. Put that in your pipe and smoke it!
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Thought for the Day:
"Oh sleep! It is a gentle thing / Beloved from pole to pole."
(Serendipity - the first jingle that caught my eye as I opened my beloved Peter's Quotations...)
Back to Table of Contents of the Sept. 2000 ZGrams