Free Republic

Every nation has its enduring myths. Britain has King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. America has Paul Bunyan and Pecos Bill. And Germany has Dr. Faust, the professor who sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for wealth, power, youth and Helen of Troy. It is indeed fitting that Germany's most enduring myth is the Faust legend, because no nation in modern history has sold its soul to the Devil as many times as Germany. First there was the German allegiance to an aristocracy composed of lunatics and the feeble-minded like the Wittelbachs1 and to the...

BERLIN, Sep 23, 2002 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, moving to shore up relations with the United States strained by his rejection of war with Iraq, said Monday that his justice minister would be replaced in his new Cabinet after she reportedly compared President George W. Bush to Adolf Hitler. Herta Daeubler-Gmelin, who has denied making the comparison, announced in a letter that she was not available for the post after receiving clear signals that the government would not have her. Her decision was "very respectable and appropriate under the circumstances," Schroeder told a news conference...

BERLIN, Sep 22, 2002 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- Germany's justice minister, under fire for reportedly comparing U.S. President George W. Bush to Adolf Hitler, won't keep her Cabinet post if Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder heads the next administration, a government official said Sunday. The reported comparison has drawn ire from Washington, and Schroeder tried to ease tensions with a conciliatory letter to Bush on Friday saying Justice Minister Herta Daeubler-Gmelin had assured him she never made the reported statement comparing Bush to Hitler for threatening war to distract from domestic problems. Although Schroeder resisted calls to force her resignation,...

German Justice Minister Daeubler-Gmelin won't be in New Cabinet Justice Ministry: Five affadavits confirm Daubler-Gmelin's version in the controversy over the Bush Hitler comparison. If the SPD wins the election, - she'll not be appointed into the new cabinet. Berlin - Federal Justice Minister Herta Daeubler-Gmelin (SPD) according to the Justice Ministry has five affadavits, which confirm their version in the controversy over the alleged Bush Hitler comparison. Regardless of its it - independently of the election results - will have to give up their past office. As was reported from government and SPD circles in Berlin, Federal Chancellor Gerhard...

BERLIN (AFP) - Germany's main parties wrapped up their campaigns for Sunday's federal elections confident of victory, but in a mood soured for Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder by an embarrassing Hitler jibe at the United States. Before addressing 16,000 jubilant supporters in Dortmund, Schroeder wrote an apology to US President George W. Bush after a senior minister reportedly compared the latter's tactics over Iraq to those used by Hitler. "I would like to say how sorry I am that remarks attributed to the German justice minister may have hurt you," he wrote in the letter. "The minister has assured me...

Rice and German-American relations: "poisoned atmosphere" Friday September 20, 2002 - 23h32 GMT BERLIN, 21 seven (AFP) - the German-American relations cross "an atmosphere poisoned" after the remarks lent to a minister German comparing the methods of Hitler with those of the president George W Bush and the critics of the chancellor Gerhard Schroeder against the Iraqi policy to the United States, estimates the adviser for the safety of Mr. Bush, Condoleezza Rice. In an interview published Saturday by the economic daily newspaper Financial Times Deutschland (FTD), Condoleezza Rice declares: "I will say that lately we do not cross...

WASHINGTON, Sept 20 (Reuters) - The White House on Friday reacted coolly to German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's apology for the offense caused by a report that his justice minister had compared President George W. Bush's methods to Hitler's. "We received a letter," said a spokesman, declining further comment. The election-eve report in a regional daily angered a U.S. administration already upset about the center-left chancellor's outspoken -- and highly popular -- opposition to a possible U.S.-led war in Iraq. Justice Minister Herta Daeubler-Gmelin tried to calm the transatlantic dispute on Friday by denying the report she had told a...

WASHINGTON, Sept 20 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Colin Powell called his German counterpart Joschka Fischer on Friday to express Washington's "outrage" over reported comments, now denied, by a senior German minister that compared President George W. Bush's methods to those of Adolf Hitler. "The secretary called Foreign Minister Fischer this morning to express outrage with the statements that were reported," deputy State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said. He did not elaborate on the conversation and declined to comment on German Justice Minister Herta Daeubler-Gmelin's denial that she had said Bush's tactics on Iraq were similar to Hitler's....

"Swabian Tagblatt" editor-in-chief accuses Daeubler Gmelin lies Hamburg (dpa) - which editor-in-chief of the "Swabian day sheet", Christoph Mueller, has Federal Secretary of Justice Herta Daeubler Gmelin of the lie accused. After its appearance before the federal press conference he said to the "world on Sunday", it never humans lying thus saw like Herta Daeubler Gmelin. Die minister had before denied the Iraq politics of US president George W. Bush with methods of the Nazis to have compared. The "Swabian day sheet" had brought the affair around Daeubler Gmelin with a report over its alleged comparison in rolling. Schroeder turns...

THE White House has slammed an "outrageous and inexplicable" comment by the German Justice Minister likening US President George W. Bush's political methods to those used by Adolf Hitler. Herta Daeubler-Gmelin has since repudiated her remarks. Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer said: "This statement by the justice minister is outrageous and is inexplicable." Another senior US official said: "The president was very angered by these comments and (national security adviser Condoleezza) Rice took this very personally as well. "We have made our views known to the German government both here and in Berlin." The official, who asked not to be...

Daeubler Gmelin, Bush and Hitler Herta Daeubler Gmelin (SPD) is to have brought the hard attitude of US president to George W. Bush against Saddam Hussein during a trade union meeting with Adolf Hitler in connection. The Federal Secretary of Justice regarded the discussion alleged as an internal discussion. Hamburg - with a war against the Iraq Bush wants to divert particularly from problems relating to domestic affairs, Daeubler Gmelin with a discussion with approximately 30 metal trade unionists in whose things (quarter from Tübingen) said, reports the "Swabian day sheet". Such diverting manoeuvres are a "popular method since...