Added to ADMC library February 6th, 2008

The “Rose Monday” parades in Cologne, Mainz and Duesseldorf are the highlight of the German street carnival season. And clearly the Germans enjoy poking fun at the United States. Large papier-mache figures carried on floats during the February 4, 2008 festivities were three-dimensional politcal cartoons.

In this float, George Bush is expelling Angela Merkel.

From the parade in Duesseldorf: Barack Obama biting Hillary Clinton on the rear bumper.

The Germans poke fun at other political figures also. This one, from Dusseldorf, takes the name “Osama bin Laden” and changes it to “Osama bin Baden,” Osama is bathing. Here bin Laden is bathing in his victims’ blood.

This float recalls the closing of a Nokia factory in Bochum, Germany. The cell phone maker’s decision to relocate to Romania eliminated about 2,300 German jobs (from der Spiegel).

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From last year, via Yahoo News: A float depicting U.S. President George W. Bush being spanked by the Statue Of Liberty passes by during the parade in Cologne, on Monday, Feb. 19, 2007 (From Deutsche Welle).

The Germans began criticizing the Muslims last year, with this float depicting two Mullah’s. Muslims were reportedly outraged. From Deutsche Welle:

The carnival floats in parades through the region’s cities traditionally take an irreverent look at world events, but the Central Council of Muslims in Germany condemned one float in Düsseldorf which featured fiberglass models of two bearded men wearing turbans and explosives belts and brandishing guns.

The word “Cliche” was printed on one of the men, while the other bore the word “Reality.”

The depiction of Islam was “barefaced lies” and the float was “using negative images to seek attention,” the Central Council’s secretary general Aiman Mazyek told Tuesday’s edition of the Westdeutsche Zeitung daily.

Mazyek said he asked himself what the float was meant to signal. “This is how I read the message: ‘We love our prejudices and we strengthen them with blatant lies if necessary,’” Mazyek told the paper. “It has nothing to do with humor,” he added.

Also from last year comes this float showing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad givning George Bush a whiff of his armpit.