IP: Some more comments from people who have lived in Germany

[Dave Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

Date: 31 Dec 95 17:39:30 EST
From: Allan Davidson <74777.1172 () compuserve com>
To: Dave Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>


Dave,


I lived in Germany for several years in the 70's and have spoken German 
fluently since I was a small child. As everywhere, it's important to know 
the language, customs and  mentality of a country to appreciate the 
context of events like the German CServe saga. While the idea that 
Germany's bureaucrats would undertake something of this magnitude is 
worrying, I'd be vastly more concerned if some more or less broadly based 
political witchhunt had motivated it. Please don't get me wrong, I 
consider this a very serious issue, but a bureaucracy's stupidities don't 
necessarily represent a nation's will or values, as almost any American 
can attest to.


The German bureaucracy/civil service is both powerful and dogmatic; much 
more so than in most of the rest of Europe. Once laws or regulations come 
into force, they take on a quasi-holy quality for the bureaucracy, and 
are treated almost as articles of faith. Common sense does not enter the 
equation; bureaucrats apparently consider that they're paid to *not* use 
common sense or make value judgements. The military's obligation to 
unquestioningly execute orders issued by the civilian authority is 
probably the closest parallel in the American experience - soldiers 
aren't paid to decide whether the orders make sense. 


Almost anybody who's dealt with German ministries has been told that 
"Ordnung muss sein" which can be loosely translated as "This 
regulation/law is part of the greater scheme of things and it isn't for 
me to necessarily understand its role. But I do have to carry it out and 
I intend to."


The German electorate, on the other hand, has a strong sense of freedom 
and understands the need for freedom of speech (or at least they did when 
I lived there). By nature the Germans are great pessimists; they 
generally see the direst of potential outcomes when analysing an event or 
events. They are also an eminently sensible and practical people, having 
lived through very harsh times which they still remember well. And while 
the political rules  changed after the merger of East and West Germany, I 
doubt they've has changed that much.


That's why I think that the better German papers likely offer the most 
useful barometer of future developments and the eventual outcome of the 
CServe saga. If the media frame this as a freedom of speech issue (ie not 
threatening policitical or social stability), the German body politic are 
likely to reject these bureaucratic excesses.


The time to start really worrying is if the above does not happen, 
because it will show that the general rightwards trend in Europe has 
reached a dangerous level.


That said, an equally important and fundamental question is why CServe 
backed down so readily:
o Why didn't CServe fight the issue of free speech in the German courts 
(Germany has a first-class legal system). Wouldn't they have been able to 
mobilize support from civil libertarians and perhaps from other major 
on-line providers (who are just as exposed as CServe)?
o Isn't CServe's behavior a prime example of Munich-style appeasement? 
Can CServe afford to give the impression that it's easy prey for 
marrauding bureaucrats and politicians? Especially when major providers 
face so many threats to their long-term survival?


Best


Allan Davidson
Executive Producer
Sound*Bytes