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Of course, the dream that Putin is dreaming--happened before. And was enacted before. Just as Putin insists that Ukraine must return to (be re-united with) the Russian motherland, so Hitler declared that Austria must "return to the great German Motherland."
The separation of Austria and Germany, he said, did "not seem conceivable." The desire for political re-unification represented the “elemental cry of the German-Austrian people for union with the German mother country."
History repeats because just a few primal phantasies structure the course of politics. These phantasies are externalized and projected into reality, giving rise to the political world in which we are immersed.
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RETURN TO THE MOTHERLAND (HITLER)
In the first pages of Mein Kampf, Hitler set forth his project: It was providential, he said, that “Fate should have chosen Braunau on the Inn as his birthplace," for this town lay on the border between two German states which "we of the younger generation have made it our life work to reunite.”
Austria, Hitler declared must “return to the great German mother country.” The union had to take place because “one blood demands one Reich.” Austria’s destiny was so bound up with the life and development of all Germans," Hitler wrote, that a separation of history into Germany and Austria “does not seem conceivable.”
The desire for political reunification was the “elemental cry of the German-Austrian people for union with the German mother country," This desire for re-union was the result of a longing that slumbered in the heart of the people to “return to the never-forgotten ancestral home.”
Richard Koenigsberg
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