A-Infos (en) Italy, FAS, Sicilia Libertaria #461 - German Rearmament and the Winds of War (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The war, which officially began on February 24, 2022, with the Russian 
Federation's aggression against Ukraine, but was triggered as far back 
as 2014 with the Maidan coup, triggered European rearmament, and 
especially German rearmament. Before 2022, the German economy was 
closely linked to the Russian one in terms of energy supplies. Through 
the Nord Stream gas pipelines, the German locomotive was supplied with 
low-cost energy, which acted as a driving force for the entire German 
economy, enabling the exponential development of the entire industrial 
sector, especially the automotive sector. The disruption of the Nord 
Stream pipeline caused by explosives planted by Ukrainian saboteurs in 
September 2022 halted the flow of gas from the Baltics, marking the 
beginning of a momentous change for a country that, for decades, built 
its industrial power on low-cost Russian energy. The German leadership's 
current goal is to diversify energy sources, focusing on American LNG 
and "allied" suppliers, at a price that can be up to three times higher 
than the Russian supplier.

But the disconcerting thing is that Germany is promising to permanently 
prevent the rebirth of the Nord Stream pipeline. This strategic choice 
reinforces dependence on America and weakens industrial Europe.

The United States thus becomes the main supplier of liquefied natural 
gas (LNG) to Europe, imposing contracts at prices much higher than those 
for Russian gas.

The definitive end of Nord Stream represents a severe blow to European 
energy sovereignty and a strategic gift to the United States, which has 
long been pushing the EU to abandon its energy dependence on Moscow. 
Obviously, behind these official decisions lies a broader geopolitical 
issue. By flaunting the paradigm of "energy freedom," Europe is paying a 
much higher price for energy, consuming less and weakening its industry. 
The German government's decisions affect all of Europe.

Germany is the industrial driving force of the European Union, and its 
decisions are reflected throughout the continent. With Nord Stream 
definitively closed, Italy, France, and other EU countries must 
completely rethink their energy strategy.

The risk? An increasingly weak Europe, dependent on external suppliers 
and in conflict with its own economic interests.

It is in the interests of North American imperialism to sabotage the 
flow of energy materials and block trade in order to push the countries 
of old Europe away from Russia. It is clear that the United States has 
every interest in reshaping international relations to establish itself 
as the dominant global power, even by triggering a new global conflict. 
The concrete conditions are being created for a direct armed conflict 
between the US-led imperialist bloc and Russian imperialism.

In this dramatic context, the strategic choice of German rearmament fits 
in, to boost a weakened economy. The new German Chancellor, Friedrich 
Merz, has launched Germany's rearmament in grand style, which has 
inevitably been followed by the rearmament of the entire EU.

Germany is rearming and preparing for future war, and is doing so by 
amending the Federal Constitution, overcoming the "debt brake" rule that 
since 2009 had obliged Germany to balance its budget, allowing unlimited 
military spending.

The German government has budgeted over EUR900 billion for weapons and 
infrastructure. The estimated sum is enormous, equivalent to double the 
annual federal budget even for Europe's largest economy. Lacking this 
liquidity, the German government will have to resort to extraordinary 
loans. The plan calls for a radical restructuring of the Bundeswehr, the 
German armed forces. A momentous change is underway: after the Second 
World War, in the wake of the war that broke out in 2022, Berlin has 
chosen to rearm for the first time.

Merz has promised to transform the German armed forces into "Europe's 
strongest conventional army," to return to military power, a decision 
that breaks a historical taboo and calls into question the European 
order as we knew it after the Second World War. Germany will become the 
world's third-largest military spending power, after the US and China.

First, by supporting Kiev with massive arms deliveries, now, with 
radical rearmament, war tensions are being kept high in the Old 
Continent, a deep rift is being forged with the Russian Federation, with 
the winds of war ever closer.

The new German rearmament has a dangerous precedent in the 1930s, after 
the Nazi Party seized power.  Even in the 1930s, history was marked by 
the political and economic games orchestrated by North American 
political and economic powers.

German rearmament in the 1930s was possible thanks to the substantial 
assistance provided by North American industry and capital to the Nazi 
government in Berlin. In the 1930s, approximately 150 American 
capitalist groups participated in German rearmament, providing German 
companies with everything from raw materials to technology and patent 
knowledge. The resources provided to German companies (and American 
companies based in Germany) included synthetic rubber production 
technology (DuPont and Standard Oil), communications equipment (ITT), 
calculating and tabulating machines (IBM), aircraft technology (used to 
develop the Junkers Ju 87 bomber), fuel (Standard Oil), military 
vehicles (Ford and General Motors), financing (through investments, 
brokerage services, and loans from banks such as Union Banking 
Corporation), cooperation agreements, production facilities, and raw 
materials.

By the late 1930s, the four largest automakers in Germany, essential to 
a modern wartime economy, were Daimler, Auto Union, Ford, and Opel. Ford 
and Opel (owned by the American General Motors) accounted for 52% of 
sales in Germany. In 1935, Opel of Brandenburg had developed a heavy 
truck designed to be "less vulnerable to attack by enemy aircraft." From 
1937, the Opel Blitz began producing military vehicles for the German 
army at an accelerated rate. In 1939, Ford also opened an assembly plant 
in Berlin for vehicles destined for the Wehrmacht.

In 1939, General Motors converted the Opel plants in Rüsselsheim to the 
production of military aircraft. From 1939 to 1945, those plants alone 
produced 50% of all propulsion systems for the Junkers 88, considered 
the Luftwaffe's best bomber.

Ford and GM built 90% of the light trucks and 70% of the heavy trucks 
for the Nazi army, which were the backbone of the German military.

In 1943, while the multinational's US plants were supplying the US Air 
Force, in Germany it was building the engines for the Messerschmitt 262, 
one of the world's first jet fighters.

In the 1930s, the US-based IBM also had a presence in Germany, owning 
many factories. IBM's factories were considered a strategic element of 
the Nazi war effort. IBM held a 94% stake in the Munitions Manufacturing 
Corporation, which manufactured bombers, cannons, and aircraft engine parts.

IBM also supplied the Nazi regime with Hollerith technology, machines 
capable of cataloging an impressive amount of data, operations used in 
the deportation and massacre of the Jews.

For oil supplies, crucial for a modern country at war, the Nazis 
depended on industries owned by the "Western democracies." The American 
industrial groups Standard Oil (USA) and IG Farben (as well as the 
British Shell) were present in Nazi Germany. A significant portion of IG 
Farben's shares were held by DuPont and various American banks, 
including Rockefeller's Chase National Bank and J.P. Morgan Bank. In 
1932, IG Farben was the world's largest chemical company. IG Farben 
owned Degesch, the chemical company that manufactured Zyklon B, the 
lethal gas used by the Nazis in the gas chambers.

At the height of the war, the Nazi war machine needed greater quantities 
of oil, so they switched to the hydrogenation of coal. For the 
production of this type of oil, a collaboration was established between 
Standard Oil, Shell, and IG Farben, with each holding a one-third stake 
in the deal.

Thanks to Krupp, the American company U.S. Steel supplied the Nazi army 
with steel to manufacture cannons.

The American company International Telephone & Telegraph (ITT), with 
Sosthenes Behn as president, participated in the Nazi war effort, owning 
major factories in Germany. In 1938, Lorenz-ITT entered the German 
aircraft industry to produce the deadly Focke-Wulf fighter-bomber.

Today, witnessing Germany's massive rearmament plan, we cannot help but 
see once again the dark scenarios already tragically witnessed twice in 
the last century. A heavily armed Germany, driven by North American 
interests, poses a real danger to all of Europe.

What happened before and during the Second World War makes it clear that 
a war, and even more so a modern war, cannot be waged without adequate 
technical and economic means, and these means are provided by industrial 
and financial capital, regardless of its nationality. The Nazi army was 
largely equipped with equipment supplied by "democratic" capital, and 
many German military vehicles and tanks were powered by gasoline 
supplied by "democratic" oil companies.

In the era of modern capitalism, wars, such as the Second World War or 
those currently underway in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, are not 
waged because of a clash between the "barbarity of totalitarianism" and 
"democracy." Instead, military conflict is generated by the clash 
between the various factions of global capital, regardless of that 
capital's ownership structure.

Renato Franzitta

https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/
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