Fight Story

Cops got called last night in Witten (NW Germany)....to a refugee compound/center.

So what they lay out...there was a knife attack occurring at the center.

Around 1:20 AM (yeah....things tend to get messy after midnight).....there was a argument....between two residents. 

A 19-year-old man from Syria allegedly attacked a 39-year-old man from Iraq with a knife, inflicting life-threatening injuries. 

Iraqi guy still alive...cops looking for the Syrian.

What the argument was about? Unknown.  Maybe it was soccer-related....maybe it was a woman.....maybe it was a insult that one had uttered to the other.

The one thing you notice after a while....there's a short-temper-fuse over arguments....where some phrase or comment....draws a knife-reaction real quick.

Honesty

 Germans are known for being brutally honest.....they feel in some way....it's being helpful and resolves the problem/mess laying in plain sight.  It took me several years to grasp this 'strength'.

Somewhere along this path...for a brief time....I had a related phobia (alethophobia,  fear or dislike of the truth).  

Then one day....I turned to brutal honesty, and repackaged it...dishing it back in equal portions.

It's just odd....week by week....month by month....I started to receive less and less brutal honesty. I'm always prepared to be helpful, and resolve problems laying in the landscape. I guess in some ways....I've triggered alethophobia in people.

Explaining The Mohrenstraße Scandal in Berlin

For a long time....Mohrenstraße just existed, and no one (even local residents) said much of anything. If someone  asked for a meaning.....it meant 'Moors Street'....and they related it to African people. 

Derogatory? Well....yeah, in some way.  

This street dates back to the 1700s....running near landmarks like the Gendarmenmarkt and the former site of the Berlin Conference (1884–1885, which formalized European colonial partitions of Africa).

Oddly, at least around intellectuals....this street started debates on racism, colonialism, history, and decolonization (over the past 20-odd years).  If you ask me.....they needed something to argue about. 

Things reached a point about four years ago....where some folks wanted to remove the perceived racist name.  Yeah, this led to legal battles and court situations.

Where this really started?  If you go back to the 1700s....there was a Berlin community of African residents (who probably were merchants....not slaves) in the Friedrichstadt area (mixed possibly including enslaved or freed people). 

Somewhere around 2020....the city council for this district (led by the Green Party)....did a vote and agreed to rename it Anton-Wilhelm-Amo-Straße, honoring Anton Wilhelm Amo (1703–1759).  

Who was Amo?  Well...a West African philosopher born in what is now Ghana. The original story told was that he was kidnapped as a child and brought to Germany.  Amo then became the first Black university professor in Europe, studying and teaching philosophy. I should add....there's a new argument here brewing that his dad arranged a movement to Berlin...to educate the kid...having nothing to do with slavery.

Folks felt good about the Amo story....showing the evils against colonialism.

Any folks against the Amo renaming?   This came up....that everyone who lived on Mohrenstraße...would have to deal with address changes, and  this was not necessary (at least in their mind).

Back in August of 2025.....they had a ceremony.  The street was renamed.  Yep....complete with a street festival, poetry readings, music and new signs installed. 

So 4 Oct 2025 came....a twist occurred.  This Amo guy (dead for 200 years plus)...well....his family in some way....was tied to the slave-industry/sales.

Adding to this...the family had connections to the transatlantic slave trade. They owned plantations in the Caribbean and profited from enslaved labor. 

Some folks suggest renaming again.    

This to consume more argument efforts?  Yeah. But look....if you weren't arguing over colonization....you'd probably argue over the off-sides rule in soccer.

17 July 2026: Germany

 1.  Curious update on the Trier stabbing-death of the university student by the Afghan refugee guy.

Prosecutor is using paragraph 126A....holding the guy in a mental clinic. Once established as 'mentally-lack-of-culpability', or unable to handle right from wrong....zero charges and he'll be set for life  in a German mental hospital.

Not saying right or wrong, but the public will ask from day one, that he entered Germany.....shouldn't someone have tested/noted the guy was this way and sent him 'home'?

From social media commentary....folks from around Trier (I lived there for 13 months) are fairly hyped-up (critical/negative).  

2. Jens Spahn (CDU political figure, gay) and his husband....went through a US-gal for surrogacy.....producing a kid....for a sum of money.

Yeah, it's illegal if you'd done it in Germany.  But since it was in the US....totally legal.

Oddly, ARD (Channel 1 of public  TV) made this top-top-top news at 8 PM last night.

Personally, I didn't see a big deal, and  I suspect there are probably 300 German gay couples a year who go the US surrogacy route.

3.  German union folks are pushing for heat-related compensation payment.  Probably won't pass in 2026....but in 2027....possible.  They suggest one in three Germans deserve heat compensation.

How you'd assess heat zones?  Unknown.

Seems like you'd have to require sensors on people.

4.  Noted in  news yesterday.....300,000 individuals (with a guest situation)....are unemployed, and lacking job-skills. Selling point to open-door policy....was that they'd fit in, and be skilled-employees.

What is odd....the German economy is struggling. Companies are shutting down. People are dealing with salary cuts or losing their jobs.  AT SAME TIME....Germany needs around 400,000 new workers every year to fill the gaps in its workforce. It doesn't make sense.

5. Odd travel news....Turk flying from Turkey to Dusseldorf....gets on plane and finds he has to sit next to a woman....complains.....says he can't do it.....stewardess intervenes....Turk slaps the stewardess to knock sense into her.  

Probably going to be charges on the guy.

Will probably have to be a male-only area to sit....in the future.  If airlines were smart....they'd charge extra for this benefit.

6. Malaria reported in Frankfurt area.....all four with it...employees at the  airport.  Some belief that mosquitos got into the country.

Hate to imagine that I'm only 22 miles from the Flughafen.

7.  Under-16 'kids' in UK...banned from energy drinks....new law.

Personally.....the over-60 crowd probably needs a banning as well.

8. Munich says they will build up a structure at the airport....allowing up to 100 folks to  be delivered daily....from the  banned group, and deported.  State money flowing in....to make the building possible.

9.  General average of 4,000 Euro....now required to pay for driver's license/training in Germany.  Huge sum of money.

Alternate path?  You could go to Romania or Bulgaria....do  the same  training....half the cost.

Amazing that the Air Force (while stationed at Bitburg) did it free of charge for me.

10.  EU Commission examining a technology that would locate new cars via GPS, 5G, and cameras from space, reduce engine power if in a lower zone area, and automatically brake as soon as a lower speed limit is detected.

Probably three years away from development.

If you poll Germans....I would guess 90-percent would be against the idea.

Food Chatter

I sat this AM....looking over the Brit Telegraph....saying that the British public will be told shortly....to stock up on food and water....in case of a Russian cyber attack.... under new plans to prepare the country for conflict.

For about one-third of the population....they really don't have the cash-flow to stock up on 2 weeks of extra food.

Added to this chaos....probably ten-percent of Brits count on 'eating-out', and they aren't prepared to live/cook....off stock in the pantry.

Where did this  'warning' come from?  Unknown.

Russians in the same mess?  Well....for the past couple of months....Moscow grocery shelves have been 'hit-and-miss'.

Ale in the same worry-category?   They didn't really say that.....but I assume it's to be a problem as well.

What Will Become Of The 700,000 Russian Soldiers On The Front....At The End?

Well....over the past couple of months....I've pondered more about the end.

Most of these men are like the Germans left at the conclusion of WW I....permanently scarred by PTSD....alcohol, and drugs.  I see them as having no further value for Russia's commerce or industry. 

Burden would be the best word to use.

If you've survived two years of conflict....you probably have little respect left in your soul.

Future prison population?  I doubt if Putin really put much thought into this or how they can be controlled.

The value of the WW I German soldiers?  They made a path toward WW II.   

Knife Waving

 Up in Hagan (NW Germany)....cops got called yesterday.

Basically....guy (in his 30s) walking around on the street with a butcher knife in each hand.

Cops arrive....persuading the guy to calm down.

Having watched the video of the guy....I'd say it's a 90-percent chance he was high on some type of drug.

Detained....he'll have to appear in court. 

16 July 2026: Germany

1. It's been an odd week.

Back on Monday in Hamburg....Albanian guy in his 20s...turns himself in to the police after killing a 79-year-old German.

Tuesday evening, over in Kelkheim: A Croat guy (60s) kills his wife (58) in the middle of town....with a machete.

Wednesday morning, Ruhpolding area: An Afghan young guy (20s) pulls a knife during a driver's license check.  Then he chases around school kids at a train station. No one harmed.

Wednesday morning, Dresden.  A Turk  is noted walking around a grocery parking lot with a 'musket' (I checked on translation....'antique gun' was the term used, but witnesses describe it as a 1800s type musket.  Cops called....arrive.  They order the Turk to settle down.  He refuses....fires one round from the musket....cops return fire, and wound him in the supermarket parking lot.  My question...where would you buy a musket?

Wednesday morning, Iserlohn: A Syrian (mid-20s) assaults a woman (59) in a supermarket, leaving her with severe facial injuries

Wednesday around noon...Trier....Afghan guy (mid-20s) stabs dead a 22-year-old German university student "in an argument".

2.   Berlin City election results expected.....SPD-Green-Linke Party led.

3.  N-TV report....for European car industry....could go as high as  three-quarters of a million car industry workers to be 'let-go'.