LaRouches in Berlin:
Learn the Lessons of
Germany's History

In the last weeks of 2002, American economist and pre-candidate for the 2004 U.S. Presidential elections Lyndon H. LaRouche conducted a tour of European centers, addressing seminars and press conferences, and holding private meetings with influentials from politics and the economic sector. After visits to Milan, Paris, and Budapest, he spoke on Dec. 18 at a seminar sponsored by EIR in the German capital of Berlin. Joining LaRouche was his wife, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, president of the German Civil Rights Movement Solidarity party (Bürgerrechtsbewegung Solidarität, or BüSo) and president of the international Schiller Institute.

Mr. LaRouche's keynote address, published below, emphasized the importance of defining a policy orientation for the United States and the world, in the first weeks of the new year. He announced that he would give a State of the Union address on Jan. 28, and that until that speech, and President Bush's own State of the Union address, have been made, "it will be extremely difficult to estimate what U.S. policy is going to be, and consequently, very difficult to estimate what the world situation will be."

LaRouche declared that we are currently at the fag end of a global systemic crisis, without any real comparison in the 20th Century. "The nearest comparison," he said, "is Europe, and the Americas, between 1928 and the inauguration of Hitler in January of 1933. We have entered into a period of financial and other crisis, in which none of the existing parties, in Europe or the Americas, have the slightest competent conception about what to do about the worst systemic crisis in modern history, at least since the French Revolution." As in the Weimar Republic in Germany, parliamentary governments in Europe are unable to provide effective leadership. The United States has an important constitutional advantage, he said, with its Presidential system, which gives us points of leverage to change U.S. policy for the better. "We're not talking about something the next President might do. We're talking about something that has to be done very soon, as I mentioned the date January 28, this coming year, which is going to be a crucial point."

In the audience were diplomatic representatives of Arab, African, and Central European countries; journalists from German, East European, and Arabic media; representatives of various political, cultural, and economic associations. There were also many supporters and friends of the LaRouche movement. What was particularly refreshing, was the presence of a group of students from several Berlin universities, joined by youth from Denmark and France, who were visiting Berlin at the time. These young people contributed to a very lively debate after the presentations.

The large attendance and concentrated discussion reflected the seriousness with which LaRouche's analyses are being considered worldwide. In Berlin, many political figures and journalists remember LaRouche's appearance there back in October 1988, when he forecast the imminent collapse of the Soviet system and the fall of the Berlin Wall. At that time, LaRouche presented his perspective for Europeanwide East-West economic cooperation in infrastructure development. This proposal was initially defined as a Paris-Berlin-Vienna "Productive Triangle" of high-technology infrastructure development, with "spiral arms" radiating out to the rest of Europe, Asia, the Mideast, and Africa. During the 1990s, as a result of the LaRouches' diplomatic efforts in Russia, China, and India, that forecast has become reality, and the many programmatic proposals for continental cooperation associated with LaRouche's name—such as the Eurasian Land-Bridge—have also taken on reality.

In addition, the fact that the keynote speaker at the event was a registered pre-candidate for the Presidential nomination in the Democratic Party, drew new people to the event. At a moment when Europeans, as well as people from the Arab-Islamic world, are looking with trepidation at Washington and fearing the outbreak of a war against Iraq, it is crucial to be able to hear the voice of a leading representative of the anti-war party. Thus, LaRouche's account of his personal role in the debate around Iraq policy, in Washington, generated great interest and optimism.

The same can be said for the reception accorded Helga Zepp-LaRouche, who, fresh from her experience as the leading candidate of the BüSo in Germany's September elections, was able to provide insight into the internal dynamics of current policymaking in Germany, from the perspective of the country's history in the early 20th Century. Recently, Zepp-LaRouche had issued an Open Letter to German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (see EIR, Nov. 22), calling for a radical shift in the government's economic policy, toward support of proposals for global monetary reform and infrastructure development. Her call to the Chancellor utilized the historical precedents of the 1931 "Lautenbach Plan" and the successful post-war reconstruction of Germany with the help of the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau. In her speech to the Berlin seminar, she detailed the story of how Germany could have avoided the disaster of Nazism, if it had followed Dr. Wilhelm Lautenbach's approach to state-sponsored credit-creation for infrastructure projects. Instead, the Weimar Republic collapsed and Hitler came to power, under the financial sponsorship of Hjalmar Schacht and his backers from the Bank of England and Wall Street. Zepp-LaRouche urged today's political leaders to draw the lessons of that tragic history.