Off-Topic / Eurovision - Today I will be ashamed to be Polish [586]

Now it's official:


spiegel.de/kultur/musik/eurovision-song-contest-findet-2023-in-glasgow-oder-liverpool-statt-a-064b1cb7-805b-43d9-845e-1ddf4fb7dab5

Because of the war in Ukraine, the Eurovision Song Contest will be held in Great Britain. In the meantime, only two cities can be considered as venues: "We know how to party here." ...

It's okay, I guess.....still sad for Ukraine.....

History / The British Royal Family and Poland: Any connection? [70]

I guess Scotland, then Wales, then the Commonwealth first....Charles will want to keep them together.....

History / The British Royal Family and Poland: Any connection? [70]

Oh that......Germans with historical royal connections are still known for it (and still brag about it), abolishment or not! :)

dw.com/en/are-there-any-princes-or-princesses-left-in-germany/a-50006889

History / The British Royal Family and Poland: Any connection? [70]


Wow! 😮

...what happened to the Jagiellons? Is that Polands royal family?

History / The British Royal Family and Poland: Any connection? [70]


Do you have a link to that? I've heard his mother was Alice von Battenberg...and her mother was Victoria von Hessen....that maternal line goes (Wiki) back to Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.....

History / Anniversary of Soviet Invasion [116]

Okay.....let's see:

grateful
/ˈɡreɪtfʊl,ˈɡreɪtf(ə)l/

adjective: grateful

feeling or showing an appreciation for something done or received.

Yes, I would.....probably....maybe.....

*runs*

History / Anniversary of Soviet Invasion [116]


I thought I did?

East-Germans can pose the same question....Germany could have faced a much worse fate than we already did, maybe even deserved, so yes....in hindsight I can chose to hold grudges for the loss of live and home, for all the violations and humiliations, or I can chose to be grateful for what we still kept. I doubt there is one absolute answer for everybody....


Agreed....bowing out here!

History / Anniversary of Soviet Invasion [116]


Well.....in this case you would have been long dead without the second bandit coming and rescuing you, ensuring you are still alive 50 years later to discuss this question.

You and your family WOULD BE LONG DEAD! Easy....

That reminds me abit about the discussion about Gorbatschow recently....people arguing Gorbatschow was somehow still a bad man because he didn't liberate everybody and everything immediately but did some doubtful things before he did go on destroying the Soviet Empire, taking down the Iron Curtain, ending the Cold War, setting millions free in the end....

History / Anniversary of Soviet Invasion [116]

You don't know how Poland would had fared without the Soviet Union, that's the thing.

IMHO there is no reasoned decision possible...we all know only the turn history took not what could have been.

Many (most?) say a rule by victorious Nazis would had been MUCH worse than everything the Soviets did or didn't do....so....

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]


Do you have proof for that?

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]


Well....he is shaping up to become the most unpopular Chancellor Germany ever had in the shortest amount of time...he needs any bolstering he gets.


What neutral ground? Half of the Wehrmacht and SS had been austrian....not to speak from that failed painter himself!

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]

Ach ja....about the reparation treaties...

Poland was to be excluded from the proceedings of the IARA by demand from the Soviet Union. The Allies agreed as part of the Potsdam Agreement, that the Soviet Union collects and distributes the Polish share of reparations. Furthermore, the Soviet Union would extract its share of reparations mostly from the territory in its own occupation zone...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_reparations#:~:text=Recipients-,Poland,distributed%20by%20the%20Soviet%20Union.

I really wonder why K. isn't as hot on demanding reparations from Moscow as he is with Berlin.....

And why the heck was Austria exempt from all that? As if Austria hadn't been an important part in all this???

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]

Na sowas.....

In its $1.3t demand from Germany, Poland seeks reparations for Jews killed by Poles

Leading Polish researcher decries government report as 'political, not historical,' says its authors willfully ignored Polish involvement in atrocities

timesofisrael.com/in-its-1-3t-demand-from-germany-poland-seeks-reparations-for-jews-killed-by-poles/

A report released by the Polish government last week to justify its demands for reparations from Germany for World War II cited the deaths of Jews who were killed by Polish citizens, not Nazis, in an apparent effort to whitewash Polish crimes during the Holocaust.....

But since there is still not anything official....

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]

...of course....how could I forget! :)

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]


I didn't know that....

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]

Poland has a maybe-possible-royal family?

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]


Here I would disagree....IMHO it was definitely her personality which made the monarchy bearable and even likeable for many people who otherwise wouldn't care less!

King Charles will have big shoes to fill...and I wouldn't call him "Europes leading head"...he doesn't lead Europe! ;)

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]

....it seems to me the immense popularity of the Queen did hold it all together during all these years....I wonder if it will all fizzle out now slowly with her gone.

That makes her funeral so doubly sad and important....it could be truly the end of an era!

(My....how did it go so quickly so far OT???)

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]


Really? The EU members meet there for new laws? To elect new top positions? To greet new member, to have parties at founding day etc. etc. etc.?


...or in Canada...it is in the same continent after all!

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]


Since the Brexit London can't be the european capital....a true capital is not only about finances and economy but also for meetings and events and such bonding things.

It would be like the United States having it's capital in...say....Middle America....or even more southern.

London ist definitely a financial global hub, but you have to differentiate between continental, EU Europe and non-members....and when most european countrier already are/will be in the future EU-members that leaves London, the UK out.

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]

I wonder, where exactly do you see us so powerful? We couldn't even save the Oder....

But we make a an easy "bogeyman", don't we? Easy to blame all own failures own, to project all fears on, to shut down all people with different opinions with, calling them "traitor of the people", etc.

Thing is, that proceeding is not new, actually very old....and it led never to anything good!

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]


Would there be a majority for that move?

UK, Ireland / Boris Johnson - is the new British PM a popular figure in Poland? [150]

No white man in a top position....that made even the news here in Germany!

History / Gorbachev and Poland [63]

*sigh* Agree to disagree?

History / Gorbachev and Poland [63]


Is the morality of the one who set you free really the most important thing???


Shouldn't they then be doubly thankful that he dissolved this empire?

If not then I can truly declare them as shortsighted....without him they would still be part of a Soviet Union!

History / Gorbachev and Poland [63]


What's "lol" about it? Rarely made ONE MAN alone such a difference in history...because "he didn't"!


Probably not, that would had made him a "white" guy....and then nothing of this would had happened at all.


Buth thought worthy....


Nobody demands that, but seeing the big picture is necessary to make a good judgement!

Without Gorbatschov the Sovietunion would still exist, many Russians hate him for this. Uprisings and independence fights would had beaten down bloodily....we all here wouldn't had met and know each other....PF wouldn't exist....our all lives changed for the better because of him! Yes also the lives of the baltic republics!

How he did that, how it came to that, if he was saintly or devilish doesn't matter at all in hindsight...just try to imagine some hardcore nutter in his place.

Anything else is denial!

Cut down on your quotes please

History / Gorbachev and Poland [63]


Later....as he rose through the ranks! Imagine the nomenklatura would had known he would dissolve the Sovietunion....no way!


Without him even they would have it much worse today! The Sovietunion would (probably) still exist and they would be still part of it. They shouldn't forget that!

...am NOT infatuated!!!! 😲

History / Gorbachev and Poland [63]


Just imagine for a minute someone else in his position, at this time, someone "black"...Europe would today look much different, much worse!

Alone for that, "grayish" or not, he deserves eternal respect! And maybe it needed to be a grayish character to get into this place at this time....someone "white" would never had made it up so high in the party and in the Kremlin!

History / Gorbachev and Poland [63]

Well....and because of that we should forget what he did for Germany?

There is no way one judgement would be right for everything....but calling him a bad guy would be totally wrong!

History / Gorbachev and Poland [63]


He could have supported the East-Berlin regime as they asked for help, but he didn't! He could had send the soviet panzer rolling as in 1953 or Hungary 1956, but he didn't! And he must have known what that would mean for the soviet colony GDR...the End!

That makes him for Germans a good guy forever....