the times september NUMBER NUMBER hitler style applicant welcomed by parties by roger boyes managers of germany s political parties are having difficulty explaining their enthusiastic reaction to a man who applied for membership with letters cribbed largely from mein kampf hitler s personal manifesto the incident illustrates how indiscriminate parties have become in taking on new members during an election campaign even when their sentiments bear a suspicious resemblance to those of the führer edmund stoiber is a thousand times more suited to leading germany than the present chancellor said one letter sent to the christian social union headquarters in ingolstadt chancellor schröder is doing nothing to stop the flood of foreigners who are spreading around our fatherland said the letter signed by a certain rudolph lewald the csu immediately spotted a potential member many thanks for your nice thoughts replied the local party manager who enclosed an application for membership the letter used chunks of hitler s book which is still banned in germany history students have to apply for access to the book in university libraries the strongest the brave and the hardworking will receive the birthright of existence only those who are born weaklings could regard this as offensive the letter writer said so called humanity is melting like snow in the march sun such phrases were lifted from mein kampf which was written while hitler was in jail after the failed munich putsch of NUMBER similar letters also using the nazi leader s words were sent to the other political parties and drew sympathetic responses i read your letter with great interest and pleasure the manager of the christian democratic union in cologne said great that you want to join us enthused the green party headquarters the free democrats invited the aspiring party member to a fundraising charity ball at which hans dietrich genscher the former foreign minister would be the star guest the social democrats sent a list of rallies to be attended by gerhard schröder the chancellor i wanted to test how serious parties are about combating right wing extremism said the letter writer who was in fact the cologne novelist rainer popp i had no idea that they would be so enthusiastic for the first few days i expected two men in leather coats from the special branch to knock on my door instead only the postman called with packets of election material from zealous political headquarters herr popp said i was stunned that political parties could react in this way i reckon i would have had the same response if i had signed the letter adolf hitler yahoo groups sponsor NUMBER dvds free s p join now URL to unsubscribe from this group send an email to forteana unsubscribe URL your use of yahoo groups is subject to URL 