Disaster Germany with a gun to its head - All it takes is a US embargo - and Germany is over

Bespoke translation by yours truly. Original article [A] and followup [A] by Danisch

Germany with a gun to its head​

That's what it is:

I've been saying the same thing too, but very nicely summarized and to the point here [...]

As an IT businessman I want to briefly make the following point:​

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German-American relations​

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If the German-American relations would escalate in a way that the US really move into action, then a single presidential decree would suffice - and Germany plummets into the digital Middle Ages.​

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Microsoft turns off Windows and Office 365. Oracle pulls the plug of the databases. Within seconds, SAP, accounting systems, logistics controls, and entire lines of production are dead. There is no more communication!​

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The result? Total economic meltdown. Within few months, the avalanche of bankruptcies would roll over all of Germany. No big corporation, no bank, no industrial company could survive.​

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Among my customers are 200 businesses, I know the IT structures exactly. And I'm telling you: Nothing works without the Americans anymore. We are completely dependent in matters of IT- and completely defenseless in a case of emergency.​

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The notion that we could now make ourselves independent in all areas is an absolute utopia - and has nothing at all to do with the economic realities.​

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If you believe that Germany could, from its own power, divorce itself from the dependence of American IT technologies, you live in a fantasy world.​

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— Emanuel Boeminghaus (@E_Boeminghaus) February 19, 2025​

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There is no IT emergency plan that describes such a scenario. It would also merely be a short chapter. You would simply write:​

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"If this scenario comes, that would be the end of this company."​

One US embargo against us, and it's lights out.

And I've witnessed and described it myself in computer science. We systematically got drilled and sabotaged into being stupid and dependent.

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Fax machines​

Just as a reminder, because so many people are mocking that, if the USA turn off our software, we just use fax machines again: Doesn't work. We don't have an analog phone network anymore. Our entire digitized network relies on software from USA and Asia. Nothing will work anymore.

You can only hope to still find a mechanical typewriter in a Chinese online store.

 

[Irrational Exuberance]

And just like that one fateful day in 1945, it will be Germany's own hand that holds the gun to its head and pulls the trigger.

 

[libRT]

Just do like the Russians and pirate everything.

 

[XL xQgg?QcQCaTYDMjqoDnYpG]

Just do like the Russians and pirate everything.

In Russia, piracy is legalized and technical innovations are acceptable and rewarded. Enterprises like VKontakte and Telegram are allowed to exist, and talent is allowed to apply itself.
In Germany, meanwhile, it is the worst location for piracy and torrenting and shit. The lawyers are on your ass and the ISP companies hand out IP addresses nilly willy, even on the mere suspicion that your network looks like torrenting, regardless of whether there has been an actual incident. Germany is 100% compliance and 0% rewarding any actual ability, innovation, talent, or enterprise.

 

[Apteryx Retardi]

That scenario is on par with typical ACW vol 2 fantasies, whether from left or right. It would completely fuck US foreign relations, and, more importantly, literally kill off US tech industry. Microsoft. Oracle, etc, are used by corpos b/c they're convenient and have built their customer base for decades. It would be a year or so of chaos, then actual free market split between chinks, ruskies, euros, and open source autists. And the existing software industry would be done for.

I actually wish Trump was that retarded, but I'm not that optimistic.

 

[libRT]

In Russia, piracy is legalized and technical innovations are acceptable and rewarded. Enterprises like VKontakte and Telegram are allowed to exist, and talent is allowed to apply itself.
In Germany, meanwhile, it is the worst location for piracy and torrenting and shit. The lawyers are on your ass and the ISP companies hand out IP addresses nilly willy, even on the mere suspicion that your network looks like torrenting, regardless of whether there has been an actual incident. Germany is 100% compliance and 0% rewarding any actual ability, innovation, talent, or enterprise.

Is it a criminal offense there? If not, I can't see the point in any civil case because there would be no damages as the imposed sanctions make it unpurchasable.

 

[he who has thus come/gone]

Can you really not fax things in Germany? Even though they’re probably never used, the federal government and judiciary still maintain fax machines. I think a lot of states and state-affiliated institutions also have fax machines. And most universities still maintain fax numbers for various departments.

It’s crazy that Germany is putting all of its eggs in the digital basket without any analogue backups at all.

 

[Marvin]

In Russia, piracy is legalized and technical innovations are acceptable and rewarded. Enterprises like VKontakte and Telegram are allowed to exist, and talent is allowed to apply itself.

Sorta. VKontakte is useful to the Russian government as they have an open door policy to spy on their citizens through it.

The Russian government isn't super keen on Telegram's encryption, but perhaps they think it harms the west more than it's weaponized against Russia.

Moscow has always been uneasy about St Petersburg.

 

[Kuritan Deplorable]

Can you really not fax things in Germany? Even though they’re probably never used, the federal government and judiciary still maintain fax machines. I think a lot of states and state-affiliated institutions also have fax machines. And most universities still maintain fax numbers for various departments.

It’s crazy that Germany is putting all of its eggs in the digital basket without any analogue backups at all.

Doesn't really matter if the government has a fax line for tax filings, when the company that'd be paying the taxes can't do business because of loss of digital services. Can't really fax a CAD file over to the prototyping shop for the manufacturer.

I think the articles a bit exaggerated in how fast and how bad the crash would be, since corporations are roaches at heart and will lie, cheat and steal to survive, but it'd be incredibly fucking messy. Odds are the government would actually final blow the economy, by opening the money spigot to try and save the companies that are struggling.

 

[XL xQgg?QcQCaTYDMjqoDnYpG]

I think the articles a bit exaggerated in how fast and how bad the crash would be, since corporations are roaches at heart and will lie, cheat and steal to survive, but it'd be incredibly fucking messy. Odds are the government would actually final blow the economy, by opening the money spigot to try and save the companies that are struggling.

Can you name a single German corporation that was founded within the past 50 years?
Before you say SAP, SAP was founded 53 years ago.

Every single German corporation that you can think of has either existed at the time of the Kaiser, or is SAP.
There is no innovation, no entrepreneurship, no will to risk, no ability to risk. Everything is drowned in red tape or workers' councils enforcing the many workers' rights.
Even the teeniest and tiniest lie or cheat is so big of an issue that it destroys entire industries and is known worldwide - just look at Volkswagen and emissions.

 

[Agitated Gerbil]

Microsoft turns off Windows and Office 365. Oracle pulls the plug of the databases. Within seconds, SAP, accounting systems, logistics controls, and entire lines of production are dead. There is no more communication!

Linux is the future, yes. Total exclusion of US tech companies from Europe is of paramount importance. This is an opportunity for Germany.

The global situation is such that it is preferable to endure a full economic apocalypse if it means what it must mean - the end of US involvement in Europe and its total exclusion from our affairs and tech, the liberation and integration of the whole of Ukraine into the EU, and of course Russia's military defeat in the field. These temporary pressures are necessary for Germany since it has grown too complacent with itself. If it fails to adapt the European center will simply shift to another location, be it Scandinavia, France or Poland. It doesn't matter. Europe is Civilization itself and is greater than the sum of its parts.

 

[Marvin]

Also, another big problem with a lot of that software is that it's not actual software, but cloud services. Piracy doesn't even work.

 

[XL xQgg?QcQCaTYDMjqoDnYpG]

This is an opportunity for Germany.

Every opportunity that German entrepreneurs have is being systematically quashed with taxes, fees, levies, red tape, compliance, audits, reporting...
There is pretty much no way to do anything without dedicating at least 80% on your time on documentation and making sure your work is audit-proof.

 

[Agitated Gerbil]

Every opportunity that German entrepreneurs have is being systematically quashed with taxes, fees, levies, red tape, compliance, audits, reporting...
There is pretty much no way to do anything without dedicating at least 80% on your time on documentation and making sure your work is audit-proof.

This will change soon. You are just unaccustomed to the rapidity with which things can and will change because you never experienced a proper crisis. The end result will be a much stronger Germany and a much stronger, assertive Europe.

 

[Gender: Xenomorph]

Can you name a single German corporation that was founded within the past 50 years?
Before you say SAP, SAP was founded 53 years ago.

Every single German corporation that you can think of has either existed at the time of the Kaiser, or is SAP.
There is no innovation, no entrepreneurship, no will to risk, no ability to risk. Everything is drowned in red tape or workers' councils enforcing the many workers' rights.
Even the teeniest and tiniest lie or cheat is so big of an issue that it destroys entire industries and is known worldwide - just look at Volkswagen and emissions.

Nigger are you really complaining that workers have rights?

No wonder americans get replaced with pajeets if the average american thinks human rights are what gets in the way of innovation.

 

[XL xQgg?QcQCaTYDMjqoDnYpG]

Nigger are you really complaining that workers have rights?

No wonder americans get replaced with pajeets if the average american thinks human rights are what gets in the way of innovation.

Do you know what you're talking about?
I am prevented from working at times of the day that would be more comfortable for me because of legal issues and agreements. I am prevented from working from abroad because of legal issues. There are so many things I would love to negotiate for, but my employer can't offer me any of them. Instead, half of what my employer pays me goes to the parasitic state, for the privilege of being unflexible.

 

[JosephStalin]

In other words, the OP is admitting we have our hands around Germany's nuts and is praying we don't give them the big squeeze.

 

[SirCliveSinclairdabbing]

Can't really fax a CAD file over to the prototyping shop for the manufacturer.

You can't fax a drawing?

Make the dimension text a bit bigger and write "print out not to scale" in the corner.

 

[Retarded Gangstalker]

Daily reminder that the Germans were so desperate to destroy American shipping that they would routinely sink US Commerce ships carrying German POWs

These screaming moon worshippers were willing to butcher hundreds of their own countrymen just to slightly inconvenience the United States, who would simply build more ships.

They say that Germans are Christians but the way they blew themselves up in suicide attacks is more Muslim than anything else. Perhaps that is why Germany has decided to become a Sultanate?

 

[General Emílio Médici]

It is far more likely that instead of Trump embargoing Germany, Germany will manage to embargo themselves by autistically screeching and then shitting itself when they demand that American companies violate US Law, Human Rights AND their own ToS'es to hand over all the data and complete access to their servers and infrastructure so the German Ministry of Constitution Jannies can arrest Hans Sauerkraut, 74, for calling some irrelevant minister from Swabia a poo poo head on a private whatsapp group.

They are already doing it with Twitter, demanding Musk give them full access and comply with Orwellian censorship. They WILL do it with other companies too.