🇩🇪 Germany does not have a revenue or indebtedness problem!

Germany has a debt-cancellation problem. Let us recall the doctrine of the cancellation of odious debts by Alexander Nahum Sack.

12/2/20252 min read

The Effective Libertarian
Always on your side.
🇩🇪
Dec. 2, 2025
Germany does not have a revenue or indebtedness problem!
Germany has a debt-cancellation problem. Let us recall the doctrine of the cancellation of odious debts by Alexander Nahum Sack.

For example, Mexico annulled those debts in the 19th century that had been incurred by Emperor Maximilian, since he had governed as a despot against—and not for—the people. More generally, the issue concerns how to treat debts incurred under repressive, colonial rule.
This is not about private debts but about government debts over which the tax-paying citizen in fact had no say, and from which he benefited little or not at all.
If the organs of the state do not comply with the rules of democratic decision-making, they can incur only personal liability, not liability affecting the people of the state.
Germany does not live under colonial rule. However, the legitimacy of governmental decision-making is indeed in a poor state.
“The Network Enforcement Act and its successor regulations have institutionalized censorship.”
—Andrew Lowenthal, CEO of Liber-Net:
The Censorship Network: Regulation and Repression in Today’s Germany (retrieved on 1 Dec 2025 from https://liber-net.org/)
When a state has been taken over by special interests and state-directed NGOs, and when general opinion formation is excluded or significantly hindered by censorship, it is no less plausible to assume actions no longer supported by the general will of the people than it was in 19th-century Mexico.
The key instrument of censorship, the Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG), has been in force since 2017.
According to data from the German Bundesbank, Germany has taken on roughly 600 billion euros in additional debt from 2017 to 2025—bringing the current total level of debt to 2.554 trillion euros.
Since a certain offsetting of benefits—also according to Alexander Nahum Sack—must take place, a 100% cancellation of debt would not be appropriate. If German incomes had grown to the same extent as debt from 2017 to 2025, a reduction of the debt would likely be impermissible. In reality, incomes have stagnated.
From an economic and constitutional-theoretical perspective, it is solely a matter of political will to carry out a debt cut of around 25% in favor of the German treasury.
Moreover, not only the issuing of new debts but also the continuation of holding debts of a state that no longer adheres to democratic decision-making rules gives rise to a moral obligation on the part of creditors to accept a reduction of those debts.