An article by Jeff Thomas, feature writer for Strategic Wealth Preservation, Doug Casey’s International Man and 321gold.com
Shortly after World War II in 1945, The USSR occupation began limiting the freedom of East Germans to travel into West Germany.
At first, the restrictions were mild, much as we’re seeing in countries like the US today – more red tape, longer waits, etc. Not so much a ban on travel as a nuisance. Today, as in Germany in 1945, the would-be traveler is getting used to the idea of gaining approval to travel. Just a formality, folks, sorry for the inconvenience.
But then, with little fanfare, East Germany was officially declared the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the prospect of international travel began to change.
Emigration laws were tightened. A propaganda booklet published at that time read,
Both from the moral standpoint as well as in terms of the interests of the whole German nation, leaving the GDR is an act of political and moral backwardness. Those who let themselves be recruited objectively serve West German Reaction and militarism, whether they know it or not. Is it not despicable when for the sake of a few alluring job offers or other false promises about a “guaranteed future” one leaves a country in which the seed for a new and more beautiful life is sprouting, and is already showing the first fruits, for the place that favors a new war and destruction?
Is it not an act of political depravity when citizens, whether young people, workers, or members of the intelligentsia, leave and betray what our people have created through common labor in our republic, to offer themselves to the American or British secret services or work for the West German factory owners, Junkers, or militarists? Does not leaving the land of progress for the morass of an historically outdated social order demonstrate political backwardness and blindness?” Workers throughout Germany will demand punishment for those who today leave the German Democratic Republic, the strong bastion of the fight for peace, to serve the deadly enemy of the German people, the imperialists and militarists.”
Republikflucht was the term given to those who sought to leave the GDR. It’s significant that the translation into English is “desertion from the republic.”
An unapproved exit from East Germany soon became punishable by imprisonment. It was only then that East Germans understood that they were prisoners in their own country. They had not seen the warning signs and had failed to leave when it was still possible.
After that time, the number of those who were able to escape dropped to several hundred per year. (Some 75,000 failed and were caught and imprisoned.)
But surely, all that’s old news. Of what interest is it to us today?
Well, as mentioned above, a soft-closing of the US borders (and indeed all of the countries that comprise the First World) has begun. After 9/11, security tightened considerably. Then, with the onset of the COVID hysteria, actual permission to travel fell under the whim of the government. It ceased to be a right and is now a privilege that could be approved or removed as the government sees fit.
Many people welcomed this step, feeling that it assured them greater safety, whilst others regarded it as a bit of a nuisance, but understandable under the circumstances. Very few treated it as a warning.
But the hysteria over COVID-19 is dying down. Masks are beginning to disappear; children are beginning to go back to school, churches are beginning to re-open, so, surely, it was all for the best.
But there are now rumors that a new, more worrisome variant of COVID-19 may be on the way. Should this occur, it would be understandable if the government were to declare that “We warned people that everyone needed to take the vaccine, but many didn’t listen. Now the whole country will be paying for the error of a selfish few.”
So, will the jab become mandatory, as some people hope, but others fear?
Well, it might be more likely that a back-handed mandate would be imposed:
“We are not going to mandate that all residents receive the vaccine, but, based upon past failures of those who refused vaccination, we would be irresponsible if we were to allow those who are unvaccinated to leave their houses to shop, go to work, or travel.”
And a new danger has been announced by the White House: the danger of a “Climate Change crisis,” to be addressed with “a unified national response to Climate Change.”
And, already, this is being taken up by other countries in the First World cabal. The UK and Australia, in particular, have called for a World Health Organization climate lockdown. Under it, travel by air would only be approved “when it is morally justifiable.”
That phrase is an interesting one. It suggests first that travel by air, especially to leave the country, will only be by permission. But there’s a secondary implication: If you seek to travel, you’d better have a damn good reason, because you’re a threat to the Greater Good.
And, at this juncture, it might be prudent to reread the East German pamphlet above. The implications in the pamphlet are the same as the language now in use in select countries.
The period of pre-conditioning the populace is now complete. Americans and citizens of the other First World countries have now successfully been indoctrinated in the concept that their desire to live freely is not their right. They now live by permission. It has been accomplished almost without notice. We now move into Phase II: the imposition of rules governing escape from the country.
In essence, we have reached East Germany, circa 1961. At that time, the pamphlet referenced above was published and barriers of cinderblock and barbed wire began to appear between the GDR and “free” West Germany.
The image above gained international fame at that time. It pictures GDR border guard Hans Konrad Schumann. He was one of the rare few who saw the writing on the wall and understood that his window of opportunity would be brief. He tossed off his rifle and jumped over the new barbed wire barrier to the West.
It’s important to note that, in 1961, this was still quite easy to do, yet the vast majority of East Germans were too afraid to make the move. “Surely,” they thought, “things are not as bad as they seem.”
The photo was entitled, “Leap into Freedom,” and became an iconic symbol worldwide.
Schumann committed his republikflucht – his “desertion from the republic.”
If the reader lives in one of the countries that are leading the way to the new collectivism, this may be the time to consider whether Hans Schumann was right and whether this might be the time to follow him before the barrier becomes insurmountable.
Jeff Thomas
International Man and Strategic Wealth Preservation
jeff.thomas1066@gmail.com
This article was originally posted in the Strategic Wealth Preservation Blog and copied here with the permission of the author.