Ecology and Crisis

In 1871, the term nature conservation was first used in Germany. That same year one of the pioneers of German nature conservation was born: Benno Wolf. While employed first of all as a judge in Berlin from 1912 onward, he also worked for the State Office for the Preservation of Natural Monuments in Prussia, initially as a volunteer, and from 1915 on a full-time basis. Wolf’s drafts for an act for the preservation of nature were groundbreaking, such as for the “Feld- und Forstordnungsgesetz” (Field and Forest Ordinance Law) of 1920, which created the possibility, for the very first time, of designating nature conservation areas. His second passion was the exploration of caves. The Nazis defined nature conservation as the protection of people and their homeland—to the exclusion of those who were not considered “Volksgenossen” (fellow Germans). Wolf had to resign from his official positions after the Nazis seized power in 1933 due to his Jewish roots. His preparatory work, used anonymously, found its way into the formulation of the Reich Nature Conservation Act of 1935. His archival material on caves that was of importance to the underground armaments industry, was confiscated by the SS “Ahnenerbe” (ancestral heritage division). Wolf himself was deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto in 1942, where he died as a result of the inhumane prison conditions. Decades passed before his achievements in the field of nature conservation and speleology were recognized.

^ Benno Wolf, about 1930, © Verband der deutschen Höhlen- und Karstforscher

< Benno Wolf, Das Recht der Naturdenkmalpflege in Deutschland, Berlin 1920

Map of the Green Belt and map of Europe with the Iron Curtain, Collage: Atelier Stecher, Götzis; © European Green Belt bzw. Michael Cramer

The Nazi “blood and soil” ideology in nature conservation was passed on after 1945. It is even to be found, thinly veiled, in some new environmental movements. Not only occultism that has become topical once again, but also renewed forms of nationalism and militarization pose a threat to environmental protection and nature conservation. In the 1970s, a growing biodiversity could be seen in the no-man’s-land along the Iron Curtain. The death strip between East and West had become an important ecological habitat. As a result, nature conservationists and environmentalists met on the Bavarian-Czechoslovakian border on December 9, 1989, and demanded the protection of the “Green Belt.” In 2002, all the countries bordering the former Iron Curtain joined forces. As a network of biotopes, now the world’s longest, the “Green Belt” extends over a length of 12,500 km along 24 European countries, 16 of which are EU members, from the Norwegian Arctic Sea to the Black Sea. However, since the outbreak of the war in the Ukraine, the long border between Finland and Russia is once again threatened with becoming a military deployment area. Europe has a responsibility to ensure that ecology and social justice for all, democracy, human rights and peace cannot be played off against each other.

Ariel Brunner, in conversation with Felicitas Heimann-Jelinek, on “The EU’s responsibility in view of the ecological crisis”, Hohenems, October 5, 2020

The Validity of the Social Question

Industrialization and capitalism brought profound changes to European society in the 19th century, not however to forms of government. Since the revolution of 1830, workers had been the vanguard on the barricades. Nevertheless, it was only the upper middle classes which benefited from their struggle. The proletariat began to see itself as a social class. Workers’ associations and parties were formed at the initiative of men like Ferdinand Lassalle and Karl Marx. Exploitation, illness-inducing working and living conditions, and high infant mortality motivated many Jews, such as Leon Trotsky, Eduard Bernstein, Rosa Luxemburg, Roosje Vos, Hilda Monte, and Mire Gola, to actively involve themselves in the social democratic and communist parties—as did the Bulgarian-Greek journalist and strike leader Avraam Benaroya (1886–1979). He played a leading role in the founding of the mainly Jewish Socialist Workers Federation or, in Ladino, “Federacion” in Thessaloniki, in which Jews, Bulgarians, Greeks, and Turks were represented. It was only during the constant changes in more recent Greek history that his achievements in the struggle for the welfare state were recognized, albeit belatedly.

^ Avraam Benaroya, no date given, © E. Benaroya, www.avraambenaroya.com

< Macedonia, May 12th, 1936. Photographs of the bloody suppression of the worker’s strikes in May 1936, © Digital Archive Parliament Athens

> Greek health care employees are protesting financial cuts, 2015, © Yannis Kolesidis /EPA/picturedesk.com

In 2010, Greece had to ask the EU for help to avert financial collapse. The Troika, a consortium comprising the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the European Commission, granted aid with stipulations which involved radical social cuts: The wage level in Greece is now lower than in 2010, pensions are less than half of what they were then, and hospital budgets were cut by more than 40 percent. In most EU countries, especially during the Corona crisis, the strengths of the welfare state could be seen; in Greece, however, the dismantling of the health care system resulted in an increase in police operations and the re-equipping of the police force. Cutbacks in the health care system have not yet come to an end as further economic-liberal reforms and privatization measures are supposed to be implemented. The community clinic at Helliniki, for example, where not only asylum seekers but above all destitute Greek citizens were cared for, fell victim to these measures. The greed of a real estate holding company carried more weight.

Daniel Cohn-Bendit, in conversation with Hanno Loewy, on

“A European Social Union? Learning from Greece”

https://youtu.be/GKZZ_K2zxiY

Marcus Samuel: Of shell collectors and oil

European diary, 4.4.2021: The history of many a multinational enterprise begins with pioneers on unknown terrain. And many a detour in a biography: Marcus Samuel was born 222 years ago today.

By Felicitas Heimann-Jelinek

Since ancient times, the sea has exerted a specific attraction on man. It is dangerous and tempting, it separates and connects, it has murderous power and it gives food. Special and peculiar treasures of the seas have always exerted their own fascination on man. Spectacular sea finds were objects of princely desires, who could live out their fantasies of power with their possessions in their cabinets of curiosities. In the modern age, exoticism as well as natural science are attracting ever broader interest. Inspired by literary fantasy travel, wanderlust and real vacation memories, shells in particular appeared as souvenirs in Central Europe during the “Adria Exhibition”, the most important maritime show in Vienna. The “Adria Exhibition” of 1913 was the last major exhibition in Austria before the outbreak of World War I and the last major exhibition of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. [1] Souvenir shells had already been big sellers at the legendary “Venice in Vienna” show in 1885, where “ornamental and gallantry objects made of lava, coral, shells and tortoiseshell” had been offered.[2] But some time earlier, a businessman had already cleverly exploited the magic of vastness, depth and distance that shells exude: Marcus Samuel (April 4, 1799 – November 24, 1872).

As early as 1833, Marcus Samuel opened an antique store in London – some called it a colonial goods store, others say it was more of a curio store. In favor of the latter assessment is the fact that Samuel did not belong to the Sephardic elite of London, but rather came from modest Bavarian-Dutch migrant backgrounds. Another curiosity-shop variant is that one of his early best-sellers was a souvenir object, namely “knickknack boxes” with glued-on shells, which he sold on the beach in Brighton. However, in his store Marcus Samuel also offered the public interested in natural history and marine biology sea shells that sailors brought him from their voyages. The business flourished to such an extent that Marcus Samuel was able to persuade his sons to travel ever further distances by ship themselves in order to find – from an English perspective – ever more unusual shells. As the supply and demand grew, so did Samuel’s small fleet. Each of the ships was given a logo of sorts, each of which was a different shell.

Marcus Samuel Jr. eventually discovered that there was something else in the sea besides shells that could be exploited: Mineral resources. His brother Samuel Samuel also realized the importance of the oil trade during a trip to the Black Sea. And so the brothers switched from shellfish to kerosene and oil. Business skyrocketed and the Samuels formed a company, which was registered in 1897 under the obvious name of “Shell”. Of the various shells, they chose the crested shell or pecten as the final company logo in 1904. In 1907, the company merged with the Royal Dutch Company of the Netherlands and the Shell Group in its present form was born.[3]

Marcus Samuel, 1st Viscount Bearsted. London Stereoscopic & Photographic Company, 1902

In 1902, Marcus Samuel Jr. was raised to the peerage of Baronet and became the second Jewish Lord Mayor of London. In recognition of his services in supplying fuel to the British Empire during World War I, he was finally honored with the newly created title of Viscount Bearsted in 1925.

His son Colonel Walter Horace Samuel, 2nd Viscount Bearsted MC (March 13, 1882 – November 8, 1948) was chairman of the Shell Transport and Trading Company. In addition, he was a dedicated art connoisseur and collector. His works of art included works by Rembrandt, Canaletto, George Stubbs, Hans Holbein the Younger and Hogarth. He was also a trustee of the National Gallery as well as the Tate Gallery and chairman of the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London.

His house and collection were donated to the National Trust in 1948, making them public. He served in World War I, but made his mark especially in World War II, working with the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS aka MI6) and then Special Operations Executive (SOE). As an officer in Section D of the SIS, he was initially involved in early attempts to establish resistance networks in Scandinavia from 1939 and was then a key figure in plans to establish a British resistance organization – the Home Defence Scheme. In the summer of 1940, he oversaw the transfer of some of the SIS intelligence to the new auxiliary units. Walter Samuel was a member of the anti-Zionist Jewish Fellowship, founded in 1942. Nevertheless, in the 1930s he advocated the emigration of Jews from Nazi Germany to Palestine while maintaining a peace there.[4]

[1] Unter dem höchsten Protektorat Seiner k.u.k. Hoheit des durchlauchtigsten Herrn Erzherzogs Franz Ferdinand von Österreich-Este. Österr. Adria-Ausstellung Wien 1913. Hrsg. von der Ausstellungskommission. – Wien, 1913. (Under the highest protectorate of His Imperial and Royal Highness the Most Serene Lord. Highness of the Most Serene Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Este. Austrian Adriatic Exhibition Vienna 1913. ed. by the Exhibition Commission. – Vienna, 1913.)

[2] Norbert Rubey/Peter Schoenwald, Venedig in Wien. Theater- und Vergnügungsstadt der Jahrhundertwende , Vienna 1996.

[3] http://www.gilthserano.de/businesswissen/011202.html; http://www.shell.com/home/Framework?siteId=ch-de&FC2=/ch-de/html/iwgen/zzz_lhn.html&FC3=/ch-de/html/iwgen/sitemap.html

[4] https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-62461;jsessionid=A80F57D8CA3484776EB356F441160DE9

Supply Chaines

European Diary, 3.3.2021: Austria’s Chancellor Kurz says he no longer wants to be dependent on the EU and wants to look into producing his own vaccines together with Denmark and Israel. The science editor of the ORF (Austrian Broadcast), Günter Mayer, comments dryly on this move, saying that this is “not a matter of squeezing an apple”. Such complex production could not be ramped up in a short time by decree, and here Austria would have to deal with pharmaceutical companies whose sales are higher than the Austrian national budget. Not to go into further painful detail: the Chancellor’s grandiose announcements are obviously hot air intended to distract from other problems. E.g. from the following: On the same day it became known that in an Austrian showpiece enterprise, the company “Hygiene Austria”, which manufactures mouth nose protective masks, a house search took place. This is actually the company about which Sebastian Kurz proudly tweeted in May 2020: “The Corona crisis has shown that we must not rely entirely on international supply chains for the production of important protective equipment.”

The raid was carried out on suspicion that masks supplied from China had been relabeled in Austria by workers employed illegally without social security contributions and sold at a higher price than Chinese masks. Hygiene Austria’ has firmly denied this and of course the presumption of innocence applies. Piquantly, there is a close relationship of the company to a close associate of the chancellor, as already reported on August 4, 2020, the research platform Addendum: the husband of Sebastian Kurz’ head of office has a 25% stake in one of the two companies to which “Hygiene Austria” belongs, and which is now to ensure Austria’s mask self-sufficiency with large government contracts. And managing director Tino Wieser of “Hygiene Austria” is their brother-in-law. (https://www.addendum.org/coronavirus/vertragsdetails-geheim/)

The vaunted autarky seems to be faltering. But as a slogan for national awakening – and for distraction from the slowly accumulating investigations and house searches in the closer political circle of confidants of the chancellor – relabeled Chinese masks are probably also suitable. Or perhaps in the future also relabeled vaccines?

The number of corona deaths continues to grow. In the U.S., more than 500,000 people have long since died from the pandemic. New reports of irregularities in the disclosure of deaths in shelters, such as those just shaking the hitherto heroic reputation of New York State’s Democratic governor, Mario Cuomo, suggest an unknown dark figure of dead. Which are likely to exist in other states as well. These dark figures appear to be particularly high in Russia and Mexico when excess mortality is considered as a factor. Even the Russian government does not trust their own official figures. it is said that only 57,000 people in Russia had died from covid-19 by the end of 2020 and about 81,000 by mid-February, whereas excess mortality in Russia in 2020 claimed 323,000 lives. Shortly before the turn of the year, even Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova declared that 81 percent of excess mortality was due to Covid-19. This would correspond to almost 261,000 deaths from Covid-19 by the end of 2020, while other calculations put the number of deaths at well over 300,000.
Russia, which is proud of having introduced the first vaccine, “Sputnik V,” is using the apparently highly effective vaccine primarily as an export hit, for example to Mexico and Serbia, Paraguay and Egypt, while vaccinating its own population is taking a back seat. This leads to the paradoxical result that Sputnik V will possibly help to combat Covid-19 in poorer countries. At least, if it succeeds in ramping up planned production in Brazil and India. In Russia itself, especially beyond the metropolis of Moscow, it appears that herd immunity by infection continues to be the most common prescription for acquiring antibodies.

Addendum on March 9, 2021: In the meantime, the allegations against “Hygiene Austria” and the two parent companies Lenzing and Palmers have been substantiated. While “Hygiene Austria” CEO Tino Wieser still talks about how “proud” he is to have created 200 jobs in Austria, it has become known that these are mainly in dummy companies. Bogus companies that either employ workers officially on a “marginal” basis, but actually have them work full time on the black market, or that get rid of social security contributions by going bankrupt in time. Also subsidies for not effected short-time work had been raked in. Also the suspicion that the “domestic” production partly took place in China, but that the masks were then repacked by illegal workers in “Hygiene Austria” cartons, now seems to be confirmed.

Flashback, early March, 2020: the EU is co-financing the delivery of 25 tons of protective equipment to China. The European Commission reminds national governments in Europe to report their needs for protective masks, test kits and respirators. But it will be weeks before the first requirements come through.
The first cases of Covid-19 are being reported in the United Kingdom. Dominic Cummings, advisor to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, summarizes the British government’s strategy as “herd immunity, protect the economy and if that means some pensioners die, too bad.” No. 10 Downing Street denies.

Donald Trump has also spoken out again on Covid-19: “It’s a flu, like a flu.”

Pigeons, Telegraphy and World News: Paul Julius Reuters

European Diary, 25.2.2021: 122 years ago today, Paul Julius Reuter, the founder of the “Reuters Telegraphic Company” news agency, died in Nice. Paul Julius Reuter was born under the name Israel Beer Josaphat on July 21, 1816 in Kassel, where he grew up as the son of Samuel Levi Josaphat, a merchant and rabbi from Witzenhausen. However, he was drawn to science and journalism. In Göttingen, he met the mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss, who was involved in the experiments that led to the invention of the electric telegraph.
In 1845 he converted to Lutheran Protestantism in London, took the name Paul Julius Reuter and married the banker’s daughter Ida Maria Magnus in Berlin. A short time later, he became a partner in a new publishing house with a bookshop, which published not least democratic writings under the name “Reuters und Stargardt” in 1848. After the failure of the revolution, Reuters had to flee to Paris. “Reuters and Stargardt” became “Stargardt,” still a leading antiquarian bookstore in Germany today.
But Reuters remained true to his convictions and now became involved in the field of press freedom and transnational communication. In 1850, he founded a news agency in Aachen, which initially closed the gap between Brussels and Aachen in the connection Paris – Berlin with carrier pigeons that traveled much faster than the stagecoach. In 1851, telegraphy replaced this link as well, eventually connecting Great Britain to the continent.
Messages arriving by ship from the U.S. were soon expedited from Cork in Ireland to London faster than the ship itself could get there. Reuters news transmission secured the decisive time advantage. Not least, the stock market reports were worth their weight in gold in the truest sense of the word. Soon he was able to deploy correspondents in all the world’s major cities, and his joint-stock company Reuters Telegraphic Comp. Incorporated had a news monopoly.
In 1872, Reuters, who had by then been ennobled a baron, also received a concession from Persian Shah Naser al-Din to develop Persia economically. This included exclusive rights to build railroads and dams, to regulate rivers and to exploit mineral resources, with the exception of gold and silver mines. But his ambitious plans soon failed for lack of capital, and just a year later the Shah revoked the concession after Russia protested. Reuters was compensated with the concession for establishing the Imperial Bank of Persia, which also served as Persia’s central bank until the establishment of the Central Bank of Iran. Reuters adventurous life was filmed in 1940 by William Dieterle starring Edward G. Robinson, “A Dispatch from Reuters.” The German version, which was broadcast on television in 1963, was given the title “Ein Mann mit Phantasie” (“A Man of Imagination”).

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

The Limits of Tirol

European diary, 11.2.2021: The mind shift came as a surprise. And one does not quite believe in it yet. Even on the weekend, one heard from Innsbruck mainly strong language and threats against Vienna. More precisely, against the (Green) Ministry of Health. And manifold attempts to somehow resist with embellished figures the recognition of the fact that in the Tyrolean district of Schwaz and especially in the Zillertal a South African and apparently particularly vicious mutation of the Corona virus is rampant, with the highest numbers in Europe.

Once again, the Austrian chancellor seemed to be ripping off his coalition “partner” and kept nobly silent about the Tyrolean rides. There was talk of an unsuccessful call in Innsbruck. That was it for now.

“Then you will get to know us” was what Tyrol’s Chamber of Commerce President Walser told those evil Viennese who demanded quarantine measures – and on the Austrian TV news ZIB 2 on Monday, as a bonus, so to speak, to the rantings of the weekend, he also presented his epidemiological “expertise” on the events of Ischgl.

It will soon be a year since the small town in Paznaun became the super-spreader of the new virus. How this happened has now been clarified to some extent. It was covered up and lied about as long as it somehow worked out. Until thousands of Corona-infected people from Bavaria to Iceland were detected as a result of careless après-ski. And then it was silent.
But that is, so Walser nevertheless not at all the crucial question. It was not yet known “from where” the virus had been brought to Ischgl. Had anyone claimed that the Tyroleans had bred the virus in a snow cannon?

Walser’s complaint about Tyrol bashing somehow sounded disturbingly familiar. As if politicians and business officials had learned nothing from the disaster, even a year later, other than that someone else always has to be to blame.

Meanwhile, borders are now being controlled again. Bavaria is planning to close the borders to Tyrol. Austria did not want to stand back there and controlled already on Monday with demonstrative stringency incoming and above all commuters at the border between Lindau and Bregenz, even if the so-called “incidence” in Lindau is only half as high as in the neighboring Vorarlberg. But even so, one can give the impression that everything dangerous basically comes from the outside.

It is clear that the Tyrolean hospitality industry and even more so the cable car industry are facing an existential crisis in the wake of the pandemic. In this situation, taking a golf vacation in South Africa, as one Zillertal hotelier did, is not really confidence-building. News about illegal lodgings and parties, ski instructor courses with clusters of mutations and tricky registrations of second residences are equally untrustworthy. And then the powerful chairman of the Economic Association and ÖVP National Councilor Franz Hörl, the head of the legendary “Adlerrunde” that calls the shots in Tyrol – himself infected by the British mutation – goes into quarantine without having a clue where he got it. Shouldn’t one worry about whether dangerous recklessness is still at work in Tyrol? Above all, self-pity. According to Governor Platter, one should finally stop pointing the finger at Tyrol.
As it says on Franz Hörl’s website? “Tyrol goes first.” Classic populism sounds like that. You always go first yourself.
But today it sounds somehow misleading. It goes on to say: “When Franz Hörl steps onto the scene, speed is the order of the day. At times he seems to double up, appearing in parallel” … “Franz is on the spot. Especially when there’s a fire. (…) That’s the only way to do politics that helps.” And: “Hörl talks Tyrol”. That sounds like this: The travel warning issued on Monday against Tyrol, was – so Hörl on Monday – a “burp from Vienna”.

A megalomaniac is speaking, a “macher” who wants to embody the balancing act between “host” and cable car industrialist, between a “mensch” and a functionary, and who can do this as long as he is successful. And he can’t do one thing that is particularly needed at the moment. To question himself and his actions once in a while.
Someone has now finally stepped on the emergency brake. Anyone leaving Tyrol as of Friday will now need an up-to-date Corona test.

Perhaps the chancellor has called his party colleague Platter once again. The instinct to know when a story is about to fall on his feet has apparently not yet completely left Mr. Kurz. But at that point the “speed” may already have been a bit lacking.

The “Paneuropean University” of Dr. Hocus Pocus

European Diary, Jan. 17, 2021: The resignation of Austrian Labor Minister Christine Aschbacher came after less than a week. In early January, it was revealed that her diploma thesis at the University of Applied Sciences in Wiener Neustadt in 2006 consisted largely of plagiarism – and where she had written something herself, not infrequently of nonsense. Also her dissertation “Draft of a Leadership Style for Innovative Companies”, submitted to the Technical University of Bratislava in the subject “Mechanical Engineering” – already being part of the Austrian government in 2020 – contains, as the “plagiarism hunter” Stefan Weber ascertains with the usual software of the University of Vienna, more than 20 % copied material. And lots of real satire, which comes by itself when English quotations were translated years ago with the then rather clumsy “Google Translate” and have not been corrected since.

The university in Bratislava and its reviewers, who have so far not been conspicuous for their knowledge of German, feel quite unjustly exposed. After all, the official plagiarism software of the Slovak universities was only able to detect 1.15% plagiarism. This software hardly knows any German-language sources. Thus the Dr. Bratislava is meanwhile a winged word.

Ms. Aschbacher was of course not aware of any culpability, complained about the “prejudices” and declared that she had acted to the “best of her knowledge and belief”. And then nevertheless her resignation followed quite quickly. “Her family should not suffer…”, she said. But it is probably more likely that Chancellor Kurz had to take her out of the line of fire before even more unpleasant questions would be asked. For example, who actually brokered the deal with the Slovak faculty of “mechanical engineering” for the Austrian labor minister. And in general: questions about how Austrians from politics and business get their academic titles, and their promoters get honors from politics and business. Nobody knows who advised Ms. Aschbacher.

A few days ago, the voice of an expert well known in such circles was heard on ORF: “Univ.-Prof. Dr.h.c.. Dr.” Peter Linnert, who at the end of 2015 was awarded the Cross of Honor for Science and Art 1st Class by ÖVP State Secretary Harald Mahrer (now President of the Economic Chamber). And this in his capacity as rector of the “Goethe University Bratislava”.
The private university founded by Linnert has long been history. Just one day before the award ceremony in Vienna on December 16, 2015, it was closed by the Slovakian government – after long public discussions about glaring abuses – due to considerable “deficiencies in the study program”.

Harald Mahrer, Peter Linnert and the Cross of Honor, Photo: Willibald Haslinger

But this did not diminish the successful activities of the now honorary cross recipient in Vienna. Linnert still heads the “Hohe Warte Study Center” in Vienna, founded in 2003, and the associated “Sales Manager Academy”. The program consists of awarding academic degrees at currently four Eastern European private universities in Bratislava, Warsaw and Belgrade, which solicit customers with illustrious names and adorn themselves with “Europe”.
For €30,000, you can choose whether you want to do your doctorate at the “Pan-European University Bratislava” or at the “European University Belgrade”, in “International Management”, “Economics” or “Mass Media”, for example.
The doctorates bought in this way may not count in the academic world. But they are helpful in business and politics. The required “scientific achievements”, such as participation in a total of ten days of seminars, lectures in “scientific conferences” and publications (in the in-house “journal”), are to be completed in the “study center” Hohe Warte itself – as social occasions. And also the graduation ceremonies in the Viennese city hall are impressive. Emeritus professors in Austria act as “second reviewers” who are basically fluent in German and, according to Linnert, earn extra money with it.

Belgrade’s “European University” is privately owned by its rector, Milija Zečević, who (apart from boasting with numerous venal honorary titles) is also president of the “European Academy of Science,” which resides at the same address as Linnert’s “study center,” Geweygasse 4 in Vienna’s elegant 19th district. But for “academic celebrations” with partner organizations such as the “Albert Schweitzer International University” from Geneva (and such beautiful topics as “Global Business and Management in the Function of Peace”) or the appointment of new members, they prefer to meet at the Hotel Imperial.

The reason why it takes such complicated detours for graduates of the Hohe Warte Study Center is that, despite his efforts to attract the younger generation of politicians and entrepreneurs, Linnert has not yet succeeded in transforming his institution into a private “university for business and ethics”. This requires formal accreditation, which the relevant commission in Austria has already refused for the fifth time. To Linnert’s chagrin, it’s not just politicians and entrepreneurs who have a say in this matter.

In 2013, for example, his daughter Julia also had to submit her “communication science” dissertation to the Pan-European University in Bratislava. Second examiner: Peter Linnert. In 2018, this “dissertation” was also chased through the plagiarism program of the University of Vienna. And put all records in the shade. The text contained exactly 18 sentences that were not copied. A plagiarism score of more than 98%. Linnert’s son Michael, meanwhile employed in the Linnerts’ empire of various “Sales Management Academies,” also got his doctorate this way – which is not revoked in Bratislava even if plagiarism is proven.

Linnert is by no means the only provider on the market. One can also employ ghostwriters, or try it with a windy thesis at a “proper” Austrian university, like the Styrian ÖVP state representative (Landesrat) Christian Buchmann, whose dissertation in Graz was positively reviewed by two party colleagues in 2000, despite 30% plagiarism. At that time, of course, there was no effective software. In 2017, Buchmann had to give up his title of PhD again, but this did not harm his political career. He is currently president of the Austrian Federal Council.

Linnert’s “pan-European” title business continues to flourish. And only rarely is there any public talk about it. In 2014, for example, the Steyr ÖVP city councilor Markus Spöck acquired his doctorate in “International Management” via the “Hohe Warte” at the “European University Belgrade”. And at the same time, Christa Kranzl also acquired her doctorate in this way, having already obtained her master’s degree in “Executive Sales Management” at Hohe Warte. The former Lower Austrian state representative (responsible for education, among other things) and brief SPÖ federal state secretary (for “innovation”) under Chancellor Gusenbauer had been expelled from the SPÖ in 2011 because she had run against the SPÖ in her hometown with her own list.
As a management consultant (specializing in “subsidy consulting”), she was now active in further education for entrepreneurs.

In 2016, for example, “Dr. Christa Kranzl” taught “Government Policy and Parliamentarianism” at the “Middlesex University/KMU Akademie & Management AG” in Linz, which apparently employed other illustrious figures from the gray area of charlatanry and business. Thus, “Dr.” Hubert Dollack, mastermind of another European and non-European network selling successfully shady academic titles, also taught there.

From 2011 Dollack called himself president of the “University of Northwest-Europe” in a former abbey in Kerkrade, the Netherlands, even though this “university” was not formally recognized at all. After all, it bore the “seal of approval” of the “Universidad Azteca International Network System,” which is the distribution system for Mexican doctoral degrees. The “Universidad Azteca European Programme” operates its virtual campus in Innsbruck, where the busy title sellers even managed to enter into a brief cooperation with MedUni Innsbruck ten years ago, before the latter smelled a rat. The dean of the Aztecs, a certain “Prof. Dr. Dr.” Gerhard Berchtold, former club director of the FPÖ in the Innsbruck state parliament and chamber of commerce official (waste disposal, waste management), also represents the “Universidad Central de Nicaragua”.

Hubert Dollack, who holds a doctorate from the Technical University of Ostrava, on the other hand also headed the now defunct “Steinbeis Institute of Operations Management” in Stuttgart, the “IMC Institute for Management & Consulting” and the “UNIDI Career College”, a branch of the non-existent “University” in Kerkrade. In 2015, an obscure “Martin Buber University” (which also waited in vain for recognition) and an even more obscure “European New University,” the branch of the “International Teaching University” in Tbilisi, Georgia, also resided in the corridors of the former abbey. Their diplomas, in turn, are issued primarily by the “European University” in Belgrade.

This closes many circles. “Consul Univ.-Prof. Dr. rer. pol. Dr. habil. Dr. h.c. mult.” Peter Linnert will probably retire soon. At the age of 84, he can now look back on a long successful and sometimes less successful life.

He actually received his doctorate from the University of Hamburg in 1964, and began his career as an assistant at the Chair of Business Administration. In 1969, he moved to Vienna to the University of Economics. And then his “academic” biography is lost in obscurity for a while. It was not until the 1990s that the picture cleared up again, and soon Linnert was once more to be seen at the University of Economics in Vienna, now as a freshly minted honorary doctor of the University of Vilnius, and as the person responsible for the Service Management seminar, an advanced training program for managers – with which he set up his own business in 1996. The “Sales Manager Academy” is born. And an expensive but convenient access to the diploma of “Master of Business Administration”, delivered by the University of Staffordshire in England, the whole for 20.440,- €.

Linnert also regularly draws with his name as the author of books on management and business. As early as 1971 he published his “Clausewitz for Managers. Strategy and Tactics of Corporate Management.” A dozen other titles followed, including “Alles Event? Success through Experience Marketing,” “Greater Market Success through Total Quality Management,” or “The Financing of Ventures in the Lecture and Performance Business.” His latest book, just published in 2019, is “highly recommended” on his study center’s website: it is succinctly titled “White-Collar Crime.”

Why Linnert’s curriculum vitae contains twenty years that are so little documented can be seen from a report in the weekly magazine Der Spiegel from 1976: “Papiere von St. Pauli”. At that time, the last of Linnert’s windy deals for the time being had burst when Deutsche Bank found rather sloppily forged shares allegedly worth DM 2 million in Linnert’s depot in Frankfurt. He had tried to borrow the fake shares in his depot in order to use the money to save his company empire, which consisted mainly of air numbers. His “Vereinigte Zünder- und Kabelwerke AG” had not produced anything for a long time, but was engaged in asset transactions. In Guatemala, he planned the purchase of a large forest area for the establishment of a “free trade zone”.

There was talk of setting up a marble factory and a shipping company for the purpose of transporting the marble to Japan. His “Marketing Institute Peter Linnert and Co” established networks and distributed a “practical, up-to-date consulting letter”. With his partner Ekkehard Zahn (who was still involved in Linnert’s “Sales Management Academies” 50 years later), he organized exclusive seminars for managers or those who wanted to become managers. But then he also bought Germany’s second-largest furniture mail-order company, Steinheimer Möbel-Becker GmbH, which had to file for bankruptcy in May 1976. In search of capital, Linnert had his windy Zünder- und Kabelwerke issue new shares, which were soon no longer worth the paper they were printed on. When the fake shares in the Frankfurt depot were also exposed, Linnert was arrested in his Hamburg villa at Elbchaussee 359.

He had bought the shares in Hamburg-St. Pauli, he claimed. But by then, nobody in Germany believed anything he said anymore. In the community, Peter Linnert had long since acquired his nickname: Dr. Hocus Pocus. That’s even better than Dr. Bratislava.

https://plagiatsgutachten.com/blog/warum-erhaelt-ein-promotionsberater-das-oesterreichische-ehrenkreuz-fuer-wissenschaft-und-kunst-i-klasse/

https://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-41119562.html

https://causaschavan.wordpress.com/2016/03/11/huetchenspiele-teil-2-allgemeines-guatemala/

https://causaschavan.wordpress.com/2016/04/04/huetchenspiele-teil-3-sturm-und-drang-in-bratislava/

„full of fish, by the way“

European diary, 31.12.2020: So now Brexit is done. 1200 pages of “deal”, a few hundred pages of which Boris Johnson already held up to the camera at Christmas during his three-and-a-half-minute Christmas speech on Twitter, promising his countrymen that there was plenty of fish in it. His whimsical speech about hope, turkey, pudding, Brussels sprouts and brandy butter will go down in history. As what, this very history will still prove. Literarily, at any rate, as a parody.
It has spread good cheer on the island. The European friends on the continent, who declared the negotiations concluded on Christmas Eve, were somewhat less credible in their good mood. There is no triumph involved, at most the relief that a superfluous torment has finally reached its at least halfway bearable end. This morning, the British ambassador in Vienna was also allowed to make an attempt to create a good mood on the radio. This was much more difficult for him than for his prime minister.

The Erasmus program, which has brought hundreds of thousands of young people from the mainland and the islands closer together, has come to an end. Even Leigh Turner couldn’t turn that into brandy butter. But when asked whether the Brexit agreement and Britain’s exit from the EU would bring any advantages, he could only proudly emphasize that the trade agreement that has now been concluded would be better … than a no-deal Brexit. We would have thought of that, too.

What remains is fish. The fishing quotas of European fishermen in British waters are now to be reduced by 25% over the next few years. That won’t ruin the EU. Nor will it help British fishermen much. If they ever wake up from their stupor. For the money that the Brexit has cost – and will still cost, e.g. to carry out customs controls, for duties that should not be levied – the British fishermen could probably have been better helped. But the dream of restoring Britain to its former stature as a global leader was stronger. A dream that is admittedly torn between two claims, the idea of itself as the center of the Commonwealth representing a supranational empire, and the old colonial feeling of representing a superior culture.
But “the proof of the pudding comes with the eating”. Whether much will remain of these dreams, other than more fish from British fishermen, only time will tell. For it is the Europeans on the continent who are supposed to buy this fish.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Ischgl 2.0 ?

European Diary, 29.11.2020: Austria has managed to get to the top again, this time not as a poster boy for anti-corona measures, but as a corona hotspot together with France and Italy. The number of corona victims in all three countries now exceeds the record number of deaths in the USA in relative terms.

What is being discussed in Italy and France, in Belgium and in Germany? How to prevent Christmas and ski tourism from undoing the hesitant success of the second lockdown. After all, Austria was already at the top, in the production of contagions and in the impudence with which one first wanted to cover them up, then play them down and then forget them. To this day, Austria, Ischgl and Tyrol, those responsible for the disaster have never apologized to anyone, even though the small town in the Paznaun valley was the most infectious place in Europe during the first corona wave of the year. And this for reasons that have not changed at all to this day: the budding of a few “real men” in the cable car business and in politics, who have not yet understood that economic success also goes hand in hand with growing responsibility. And probably with a few other things as well.

So now the Bavarians and the Italians and the French are thinking about how to slow down and postpone skiing and everything that goes with it this winter. And they still remember very well that Austria was one of the first states to make some borders tighter again with travel warnings and quarantine threats. As Chancellor Kurz said so beautifully on August 16: “The virus comes to Austria by car.

What is being discussed in Austria? Whether the ski resorts should be allowed to open again as early as next week. And Finance Minister Blümel already knows who should pay if the tourists from Germany and Italy, from France and Switzerland simply don’t come. The EU, of course. He has not yet revealed why “the EU” should do this. Neither can the EU close ski resorts in Austria, nor force the Germans to ski in Ischgl. But it should pay.

The rascals from the first bench

European Diary, 16.9.2020: My first cinema experiences were “Hurray, hurray the school is burning” and “The rascals from the first bench”. To funny box office hits of German 1960s cinema that told the adventures of spoiled brats from well done families that you somehow liked anyway. No rebels in fact. When it came to real problems, the rich father of the young “hero” bribed the director of the school. That was funny.

Not funny, however, is what the schoolboys in the Austrian government do today. They can’t even send a halfway plausible application to the EU Commission, in order to help the Austrian economy, hit by the pandemic, with extra subsidies that are conflicting somehow with fair competion rules in the EU. Actually, this is important enough to make a bit of an effort.

Already a few days ago, Minister of Finance Gernot Blümel once again scolded the EU for blocking the extension and expansion of the generous economic aid to ailing companies (fixed cost subsidies). Now they yesterday met in Vienna, interestingly enough in front of invited press representatives, to discuss the disagreements with the EU representative in Vienna, Martin Selmayr. Did Mr. Blümel in erneast thought he could publicly embarrass the EU representative.

Thanks to the Austria Press Agency and the Standard, we were able to get a closer look at an utterly failed exercise in Message Control. Martin Selmayr was obviously not amused, partly because he was the last to speak instead of being allowed to explain the EU’s objections. The rascals from the first bench first had to present to the press their own interpretation of the sinister EU machinations. Martin Selmayr, himself a rather conservative politician, visibly had to stick to himself. And then calmly pointed out to the schoolboys that they simply had to submit a legally compliant application.

And that actually “today”, that is now yesterday, was the last day to do that. Time enough to do the homework had been indeed since the beginning of August, when the concerns of the EU Commission were communicated politely to the Austrian Minister of Finance. “If today the notification takes place as suggested by Mrs. Vestager (the Commissioner for Economic Affairs) last Friday, then it will be done tomorrow,” Selmayr said. A correct application could be done, “if three intelligent people get together, within half an hour”. He hopes that the Ministry of Finance and the Commission will “get it done this afternoon”. And he offered effective tutoring: There are three possible solutions, he said, even “if it is quite tight on the last day”. Then Selmayer insisted on tearing up Blümel’s original application in detail and demonstrating in public what an unprofessional sloppiness had been delivered. Which in turn did not amuse Gernot Blümel and Minister of Tourism Elisabeth Köstinger.

Selmayr explained to them coram publico how to write a proposal. What was possible in times of lockdown, namely to blame everything on a natural catastrophe and to pretend that there were no sales at all, that no longer corresponds to the circumstances. The basis for the application must now be a reference to the severe economic crisis that triggered the pandemic: “Then the Commission can approve immediately.”

The caught Blümel became impudent. “I ask you, stop with these paragraphs; I already know that one must pay attention to legal things”, so Blümel. “It is about Austrian, not European tax money that is to be used.”

Martin Selmayr continued to show his patience and advised once again to simply work together instead of stubbornly sticking to an application that could not be approved. And he also agreed with the company representatives present, who complained about their suffering, and repeated time and again that they were entitled to be helped, even in the amount they ask for. The schoolboys in Vienna would just have to do their homework “properly”, just like everyone else.

Gernot Blümel showed himself obviously disinterested in the fact that common and legally effective rules in the EU also apply to Austria, even when it comes to “Austrian tax money”. This is exactly what these common rules, from which Austria has so far benefited particularly in the Eastern and Central European markets, are made for.

Or is this loutishness calculation, the desire to play with fire in order to continue to stir up anti-EU sentiment. And as the already running program of financial aids for businesses is not really working smoothly – isn’t it better to blame Brussels for the mismanagement of the Austrian government and its authorities anyway? After all, their is an election campaign running in Vienna. Mr. Blümel is number one on the right wing-conservative party list.
And if nothing helps, daddy can bribe the director after all.

Cofag yourself

European Diary, 24.9.2020: Minister of Finance Gernot Blümel takes the chance. The Viennese election campaign is more important anyway than the emergency aid for the suffering economy. And since the distribution of this aid is not very smooth anyway, it is good to have a scapegoat for it: Brussels.

And the EU Commission would have every reason to put the stick in Austria’s craw more clearly than it does. At the moment, constructions are flourishing that promote corruption – or at least “friendly services” – in an almost systematic manner.

Instead of regulating the disbursement of 15 billion in aid money for companies through the tax office, and thus under public control by parliament and the Court of Auditors, the federal government has set up a “Covid-19 Financing Agency” as a limited liability company. Cofag is intended to support the ailing economy with fixed cost subsidies and bridging guarantees and is financially positioned accordingly by the federal government. “In accordance with § 6a para. 2 ABBAG Act, the Federal Government will equip COFAG in such a way that it is in a position to provide capital and liquidity support measures assigned to it under § 2 para. 2 no. 7 ABBAG Act up to a maximum amount of 15 billion Euro and to meet its financial obligations”. The advantage of this construction is obvious: a GesmbH is after all not obliged to provide information to parliament.

Florian Scheuba has a biting comment on this in the newspaper Standard: “Not only members of the opposition can thus no longer annoy with annoying questions such as ‘Who gets how much tax money and why?’ Applicants can also save themselves the request for justification as to why their auxiliary request is rejected, because Cofag advisory board members are bound to secrecy. Is the Court of Auditors the last hope? No, because even its requests for accompanying control can be rejected by the agency with a hearty ‘Cofag yourself’. Here, then, an opaque darkroom is being created for future wrangling. The latest events surrounding an 800,000 Euro contract between Cofag and a PR agency, which was initially kept secret, provide an idea of how dark it will be. “The money does not flow into our own PR, but rather into the support of our homepage or the answering of media questions,” says Cofag Managing Director Bernhard Perner.

Let’s see how many media inquiries there will be – in view of the well-known critical press landscape in Austria.

The Parliament Rehearses the Uprising

European Diary, 7.9.2020: The EU is facing a serious “power struggle”. The European Parliament, the only European institution with European democratic legitimacy, does not want to bow to the dictates of the heads of government. The 750 billion euro economic stimulus package to curb the consequences of the Corona pandemic, which the EU Commission negotiated in July, was under bad luck right from the start: the agreement of the Commission majority with the stingy four, then five EU states around Austria and the Netherlands was bought at the expense of massive cuts in the EU budget elsewhere.
The EU parliamentarians of many factions do not want to resign themselves to this. For example, the “EU4Health” program of all things, which is intended to protect against cross-border health risks and make affordable medicines more readily available, is to be cut from 9.4 billion to 1.7 billion euros. Joint programs for research, education, climate protection and digitization are also to be cut. And so the scope for cross-border cooperation will be restricted rather than expanded. MEPs from the Greens, the Social Democrats, the Liberals and also the conservative People’s Party from various countries are quite prepared to make use of Parliament’s right of veto. The Green MEP Rasmus Andresen brings into play the possibility of passing only the aid package, but not the budget in this form, in order to increase the pressure now in the other direction. This includes including in the budget execution more serious sanctions against those member states that violate constitutional standards. The EU parliamentarians also demand that the EU’s own revenues should finally be increased seriously, through an effective plastic tax, through digital taxes or the taxation of cross-border profits of the technology giants.
The EU Parliament and Commission still have difficult negotiations ahead of them. The need of the EU Parliament to be pushed around by the “thrifty” heads of government is ending. Even the “turquoise” MPs from Austria have not shown much enthusiasm in the past about the anti-European line of their own Austrian government. But it remains to be seen whether the words of Othmar Karas, for example, will be followed by actions.

“Peace treaty”?

European Diary, 15.9.2020: Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Foreign Minister of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan and the Foreign Minister of Bahrain Dr. Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayan signed a so-called “peace treaty” this afternoon in Washington in the presence of Donald Trump. Masks are not worn. The White House still does not want to bother with such things like Corona.

The signing was preceded until the last hours by cabbals between the Israeli governing parties on the question of who may sign the treaty at all. Prime Minister Netanyahu, who is under indictment, needed permission from the foreign minister of the rival party Kahol Lavan.

The wording of the “peace agreement” – between three states that are not even at war with each other – remains a mystery. So far only rumors about its content have been spread. What is clear, however, is that the treaty apparently clears the way for a number of major weapons deals, including the delivery of American F-35 fighter jets to the UAE, which significantly enhance its strategic role on the Gulf.

Allegedly the treaty would also open the way to a “two-state solution”. But what the Trump administration understands by such a “two-state solution”, Israelis and Palestinians, as well as the astonished global public, already experienced last year: a patchwork of Bantustans under Israeli control. So a first class funeral. The fact that the Arab monarchs in the Gulf region do not even rhetorically care about any “peace solutions” or the interests of the Palestinians is basically not a new insight.

The annexation of large parts of the occupied West Bank, especially along the Jordan River, and with it the final and definitive rejection of any “Palestinian state”, has, of course, been postponed for the time being, and not only for the sake of better optics. This postponement is entirely in line with current Israeli interests in not shifting the so-called “status quo” too quickly in the direction of a violent “one-state solution” – without reconciliation with the Arab population and without their having equal rights. For, as is well known, there are a great many problems lurking along this path.

Even if Netanyahu has to promise this step again and again to his radical right-wing partners in order to secure their decisive election support.

Behind the new pact are not least of all common security interests, by which is meant not least the retention of power by absolutist rule in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Behind the scenes, this cooperation between Israelis, Americans, some Gulf states and also some Palestinians, such as the former “security chief” of Fatah Mohammed Dahlan, has been going on for years, and has long since become no secret.

Benjamin Netanyahu, on the other hand, sees in the absolute monarchy of the Emirates a “progressive democracy”. What conclusions this allows for his own understanding of Israel as a democracy is also no longer a secret.

One of the few real surprises is rather how much some people are blinded by this coup, with which both Netanyahu and Trump want to distract from the catastrophic consequences of their policies for their own people. Israel is now in lockdown again starting Friday. The paragon of pandemic control has become the leader into crisis. The US should also be back in lockdown by now, up to 1000 people still die every day in the richest “greatest” country in the world.

But European newspapers such as the NZZ are undauntedly celebrating the agreement between Israel and the UAE as a historic step towards “peace”. Nevertheless, the Israeli soccer club Beitar, traditionally associated with the right-wing populist parties and proud to be the only Israeli professional club that has never fielded an Arab player, is now negotiating with new investors: a group of sheikhs from the Arab Emirates. Even Jewish right-wing radicals know (as an old German pop song details): “because only the sheikh is really rich”.

Brexit 2.0

European Diary, 14.9.2020: The British House of Commons decides on the unilateral termination of the Brexit Treaty requested by Prime Minister Boris Johnson as part of the so-called “Single Market Act”. The fact that both British laws and international law are thereby broken seems to be of no concern not only to the Brexit Government but also to the majority of the House of Commons. The main argument is the indeed precarious status that Northern Ireland will receive in the new set of rules that Johnson whipped through parliament as a big deal not even a year ago. In a customs union with Ireland and the EU – and a customs border with the rest of the British Kingdom. At least when the negotiations for a comprehensive free trade agreement between the UK and the EU are in trouble. His predecessors John Major and Tony Blair are now “horrified”, but the exit-drunk majority doesn’t care anyway.
Once again, it is clear what price the Brexiteers are apparently willing to pay for their nationalist revolt against European unification. The laboriously achieved, yet precarious state of peace in Northern Ireland is now in danger of being deliberately sacrificed. The fact that Johnson likes to play with fire is well known. But most of his tories now follow him like lemmings. All it takes is a few absurd conspiracy theories that are becoming increasingly popular among right-wing populist leaders: the EU is planning a “food blockade” between Northern Ireland and the rest of the Kingdom.
The Brexiteers grotesquely overestimate Britain’s possibilities to play itself up as an international economic and trading power outside the EU under the protectorate of the USA. This will take its revenge when it is already too late. As it stands, in the next few years Britain will be less concerned with its great, in reality rather ailing economy than with the centrifugal forces that Brexit releases, from Northern Ireland to Scotland, and eventually in London. To which the answer is likely to be nothing more than nationalistic furor.

The Idea of Europe

Installation “The Idea of Europe”

The concept of the “United States of Europe” has been around already since the 18^th century, based on the model of the United States of America. So far, it has not materialized. Walther Rathenau (1867–1922) was among those who pursued this idea.

The son of the well-known founder of AEG—himself a prominent entrepreneur—was responsible for the supply of raw material for the German Reich during World War I. He also demanded the use of Belgian forced laborers to offset the lack of manpower in Germany caused by the war.

Already before the war, Rathenau had made the case for the establishment of a Central European customs union with a German-Austrian economic community at its center; he envisaged that in the long run its appeal would be irresistible to Western European countries. After 1918, he pursued in various political functions the normalization of the relationship between Germany and the allied victorious powers as well as a settlement with Soviet Russia. In 1922, the Pan-European Movement was founded based on the “return to Christian, Western values.” Its first major donor was German-Jewish banker Max Warburg. To the present day, however, it has remained largely ineffective. By contrast, Rathenau’s idea of a European Economic Community became reality in 1957, which eventually evolved into the European Union in 1992.

Rathenau did not live to witness Europe’s unification or World War II. He was labeled as “compliance politician” by the ethno-centric right of the Weimar Republic, his actions as foreign minister were construed as evidence of the “power of international Jewry,” his negotiations with Russia vilified as “Jewish Bolshevism.” The extreme right’s hatred of anything Rathenau represented was vented not only by chanting the slogan “Gun down this Walter Rathenau, the godforsaken Jewish sow!” In fact, on June 24, 1922, he was assassinated by members of the right-wing extremist terrorist “Organization Consul.”

The perpetrators Erwin Kern and Hermann Fischer perished in the course of their arrest in Saaleck in Saxony-Anhalt and were hastily buried at the local cemetery. Hitler had a monument erected for these “heroes” with an inscription that was removed in GDR times. Following German reunification, the tomb became a pilgrimage site for neo-Nazis. As a result, the army removed the stone and the local parish abolished the burial plot. In 2012, on the 90^th anniversary of the assassins’ death, a boulder was placed here by unknown individuals featuring—in runelike script— the name of these two men.

Michael Miller (Vienna) about Antisemitic accusations after WW 1 and the Paneuropean-Movement: