The news may seem almost satirical at first glance. Because the US government has been unable to pay its employees for three weeks due to the shutdown, the German government is stepping in. 12,000 civilian US Army employees working in Germany are set to receive their October salaries from the German Ministry of Finance. The ministry has quickly authorized the additional spending of USD 50 million.

Reports indicate that German inquiries in Washington about when the salaries would be released went unanswered. Nevertheless, the state government of Rhineland-Palatinate has stated that the US is obliged to reimburse the funds.

Germany’s parallel universe

Within Germany’s Left, there has long been debate over the country’s relationship with the US.

Some argue that the Federal Republic has been a vassal of US imperialism since its founding. Even those who reject this view and emphasize the danger and power of German imperialism usually acknowledge that Berlin’s ruling class repeatedly demonstrates “Nibelung loyalty” toward Washington. This often seemingly irrational policy can be explained by Germany’s position after World War II: economically still a giant, militarily – fortunately – still a dwarf, and yet part of the collective West, which allows it to remain at the top of the imperialist world order. In response to challenges to the unipolar world order, particularly from China (economically), Russia (militarily), and Gaza (morally), Germany’s ruling class clings especially tightly to the transatlantic alliance.

This course at times takes on almost delusional characteristics that are rarely noticed abroad, or are met with bewildered incomprehension. A striking example is the sabotage of Nord Stream II in September 2022. Nearly all German bourgeois politicians and mainstream media insisted for years that Russia was responsible, despite clear contradictions. When several Ukrainian suspects were arrested this year, the same media quietly acknowledged it while immediately asserting that the perpetrators did not act on behalf of the Ukrainian government.

Ever since October 7, 2023, it feels as if Germany is living in a parallel universe: Israeli propaganda and myths continue to be largely repeated uncritically and unquestioned by mainstream media. To give just one example out of countless others: to this day, the term “genocide” in reference to Gaza is avoided by all bourgeois media, by nearly all politicians, and by the vast majority of academics in the country. In fact, over the past two years, police have initiated investigations against numerous people simply for using the term; in some cities, authorities still ban its use at demonstrations. Last week, when author Nora Haddad used the word at the Frankfurt Book Fair, it sparked a “scandal”.

Center-left in lockstep

This entire anti-Palestinian and anti-Russian hysteria is particularly supported by the educational bourgeoisie, both the conservative elements and wide parts of the liberal center-left. This makes the situation even more absurd: an intelligentsia that often prides itself on being “cosmopolitan”, “worldly”, and enlightened turns out to be German-centric, provincial, and incited. They cling to the mistaken belief that the entire world views the Ukraine war and Nord Stream II, Palestine, and the Gaza Genocide in the same way they do.

This alignment of the center-left extends even to the social-democratically dominated unions: in recent years, more and more union sections have passed incompatibility resolutions with the global BDS movement. Since February 2022, labor organizations have gradually abandoned their pacifism. Initially, they did not oppose rearmament against the “Russian threat” or weapons deliveries to Ukraine. By now, they openly declare that the arms industry is vital for Germany’s economy and jobs.

It is therefore no surprise that the service union “Verdi“ was the first to demand that the 12,000 US Army employees receive their salaries from German taxpayers. In this case, the German government offered no loud objections, an unusually quick “victory“. That the Ramstein Air Base or AFRICOM in Stuttgart oversee neocolonial wars in Africa and West Asia seems irrelevant. What are a few lives in Somalia, Yemen, or Pakistan compared to the “horror“ a family in Germany suffers if it must wait a few weeks for an average USD 4,000 monthly paycheck?

German international solidarity apparently only extends westward across the Atlantic.

Leon Wystrychowski is a former member of the Palästina Solidarität Duisburg (Palestine Solidarity Duisburg, PSDU). The Organization was banned by the German state in 2024.

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