Germany is hastening towards the implementation of a cashless society by means of two basic strategies: closing bank branches, and refusing cash transactions at the branches that remain.

Many thanks to Hellequin GB for translating this article from DerStatus.at. The translator’s comments are in square brackets:

Faced with a fait accompli…

Fight against cash: Branch closures and refusal to accept cash

Although cash is still one of the most popular means of payment, it is apparently increasingly disappearing. And because citizens aren’t fully on board with the big transformation and aren’t making enough cashless payments or aren’t as enthusiastic about digital money as they would like, they’re simply creating a fait accompli. This includes not only the closure of bank branches, but even banks refusing to accept cash.

Cash caps as an alleged means in the fight against crime or even the representation that initiatives to preserve cash are “right-wing extremist” — no means are spared to advance the transformation to a cashless society. Always under the assurance that cash will be retained for as long as desired and that no one has any intention of abolishing it, the ECB is diligently working on a digital euro. But the quiet abolition of cash is progressing.

Bank closes all branches

The Volksbank in the Hochtaunus district of Hesse announced last year that it wanted to close all bank branches. It was stated that “Deposits and withdrawals in the branch (counter and ATM) will no longer be possible in the future.” The reason given was a lack of customer frequency in the branches and also a declining number of cash withdrawals. By closing the branches, costs can be saved and customers can be offered “different added value”. It was also pointed out that customers would continue to receive cash, which could be withdrawn from various supermarkets and drugstores when making a purchase, for example. [They have done that here in South Africa for years already, and funnily enough, NO BANK CHARGES for getting cash at the super market till. Although you have to buy something first before you get a “cash back”. Obviously you need a bank account and bank card for this to be possible. A 38 special might also work, but would be a bit more hazardous for all involved in that particular type of transaction.]

Bank refuses to accept cash [As long as cash is legal tender they CANNOT refuse to take it. I’d lay fraud charges against them.]

In a savings bank in Frankfurt, customers now have to accept other restrictions. Although the branch will not be closed, cash deposits will no longer be possible. The mundane reason: lack of staff at the branch. Customers can only hope that this may be resolved soon, but branch closures have been observed for years. Last year, 1,266 bank branches closed in Germany alone, around 6%. In 2021, one in ten bank branches closed their doors.

There are currently 20,446 branches in Germany, but the trend is likely to continue. For neighboring Austria, Achim Kaucic, a banking expert and partner at the consulting firm Bosten, predicted last year that around 60% of bank branches may close by 2030.

Cash is freedom [And that’s the reason they don’t want people to have it.]

Robert Halver, head of capital market analysis at Baader Bank, recently explained in the Bild about the case of the Volksbank in Hochtaunuskreis: “It was only a matter of time for a bank to take this step, and it underlines a trend that has been apparent for years: Cash is increasingly disappearing from everyday life and will be completely replaced by digital money in a few years.” Halver also warned urgently against abolishing cash: “The abolition of cash opens the door to strong control of people’s spending habits.” [At first they give them cards so that people can dig themselves into debt deeper than the lowest bilges of Hell, and then they want to control what people can buy. If you only accept and pay with cash, you know exactly what you have and what you can buy. But that would mean freedom from these “carrot and stick” institutions. And that’s something they will not allow.]

He also speculates how a gradual abolition might proceed, regardless of bank branches closing, and thus make access to cash more difficult. In order to further push cash out of everyday life, a “fee could be levied on cash payments” so that people pay digitally more often, he suspects. And the consequence is also clear: if the need disappears, the ECB could actually abolish cash. All that would be left is the “digital euro” that it controls — a system that a representative of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and has already raved about allowing the control of their citizens’ consumption.

Afterword from the translator:

“It is seldom, that liberty of any kind is lost all at once. Slavery has so frightful an aspect to men accustomed to freedom, that it must steal upon them by degrees, and must disguise itself in a thousand shapes, in order to be received.” — David Hume

Unfortunately, the vast majority of the human population does not read any longer, and if anyone does, it’s mostly only trivia. But that is exactly what those at the top of the gravy train wanted: ignorant people who are specially “bred” at schools, colleges and universities. That’s why reading the classics and philosophy has been more or less abolished, if you discount Marx and the like. That way you breed a class of people who are keen to embrace slavery, because it takes all responsibility away from them as individuals. They have all become livestock that waits patiently for their daily labour time, their feeding time, milking time and the butcher, without complaint.

And for the few, like us, who will not submit to their “glorious” Animal Farm scenario, they create laws and regulations for the “greater good” — of their POWER — to stifle dissent and destroy the individual, the family and the mind.

“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.” — William Pitt the Younger, speech in the House of Commons (18 November, 1783).