Maybe you didn’t know about the fiery resistance to anti-smoking in Germany. Let yourself in on the secret.
The situation in Germany must be considered in context. Personal liberty was long held sacred there while the memory of fascism remained close. Indeed the specific right to enjoy tobacco was held with demonstrated fervor in reaction to the fanatical anti-smoking policies of the Third Reich. Nazi anti-smoking was a true prototype for what we see today though it did not quite reach the extremes we are now seeing. The trouble was the Reich fell, to the dismay of eugenicists and anti-smokers, those Siamese twins whose philosophical progeny merrily advance the Health Reich today.
That resistance to anti-smoking has recently shone brightly in Germany is therefore less than surprising. If you haven’t heard about it that also is no surprise. You’ve heard little for the same reason that you hear little about the virtual tobacco prohibition in tiny theocratic Bhutan these days. Anti-smoking is despised and rampantly defied in Bhutan. The English language media generally, being four-square behind a smoker pogrom, prefer to ignore heresies. Our multi-lingual European correspondents are well aware of the German situation. Smokers and their friends are rebelling in Germany though they are up against a lot. The Health Reich has many friends today even there.
Given the paucity of coverage in English we are appreciative and delighted to receive a close translation of a New Rhineland Newspaper article from our good friend and German colleague Silviu Druma. English-speaking readers have noted regarding past articles from Germany that, given the divergence in German phrasing and structure from those of English, such very close translations are difficult to comprehend.
We therefore present two English versions here. The first is an adaptation into standard English, designed for easy and essential understanding of the article, rather than exact translation point on point or word by word. Such a close translation follows immediately on the adapted text within the same document. The second version borders on transliteration, a precise reflection of the sort we have run before, paralleling the German original nearly word by word. For the two English versions click here. The original article in German may also be accessed via the link at the bottom of this page.
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