I wrote those words in 1998 after a far-right party received 13 percent of the vote in a German state and the mainstream parties adopted their talking points (“Nazi Spirit Soars in Europe”).
Look where we are today! In the last German federal elections, on February 23, another far-right party, the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), came in second place nationwide with an astonishing 20 percent of the vote. This party has some troubling associations with Nazism! Leaders in this party have encouraged people “to be proud of the achievements of the German soldiers in two world wars” and have called German Holocaust remembrance a “stupid coping policy.”
The AfD is pushing for independence from the United States. This is a very popular, mainstream position among Germans that will have frightening consequences. The AfD also wants Germany to have closer relations with Russia. This is reminiscent of the years leading up to World War ii.
U.S. presidential adviser Elon Musk has been encouraging the AfD to keep growing. At one of their party rallies, he told them to be proud, not ashamed, of German history. He doesn’t understand history. He certainly doesn’t understand Bible prophecy, or he would never make such a statement.
The AfD came in a strong second place to the conservative Christian Democratic Union (cdu), which secured 28 percent of the vote. It was clear that voters wanted drastic change from the previous left-wing government—a coalition of Social Democrats, Greens and Free Democrats. All three parties were big losers in this election. The Social Democrats achieved its worst result ever, and the Free Democrats didn’t even gain enough votes to make it into parliament.
Germany has been plagued by weak leadership for many years now. But Germany and Europe really need strong leadership—especially given what Russia is doing, as well as China, North Korea and other nations, and the many economic and other problems they are facing. This leadership crisis has been heightened by the pressure the Trump administration has been exerting.
The U.S. Confronts Europe
Germany’s coalition collapsed on Nov. 6, 2024, almost immediately after Donald Trump was declared the winner of the presidential election. Germany’s leadership crisis is directly linked to Mr. Trump’s comeback.
Since then, in the lead-up to the election in Germany, this fact has become more pronounced. America is threatening to withdraw its troops from the Continent and demanding drastically increased military spending from Europe.
The weekend before its elections, Germany hosted the Munich Security Conference. At the conference, U.S. Vice President JD Vance told European leaders truths they didn’t want to hear. “[T]he threat that I worry the most about vis-à-vis Europe is not Russia, it’s not China, it’s not any other external actor,” he said. “What I worry about is the threat from within. The retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values: values shared with the United States of America.”
European leaders reacted emotionally—offended, frustrated and angry. “If I understood him correctly, he compares conditions in parts of Europe to those under authoritarian regimes,” said German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius. “That is not acceptable.” President Donald Trump “wants to destroy Europe,” an anonymous senior EU diplomat said. “The trans-Atlantic alliance is over.”
On the same trip, Mr. Vance and U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spent much of their trip prodding European countries to more than double their military spending.
Americans don’t realize what empire they are empowering!
In a televised roundtable on election night, cdu chancellor-candidate Friedrich Merz criticized U.S. “intervention” in the German election campaign: “The interventions from Washington were no less dramatic and drastic and ultimately outrageous than the interventions we have seen from Moscow. We are under such massive pressure from two sides that my top priority is to create unity in Europe.
“My absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really achieve independence from the U.S.A. I would never have believed that I would have to say something like that on television. But at the very least, after Donald Trump’s statements last week, it is clear that the Americans—at least this part of the Americans in this administration—are largely indifferent to the fate of Europe.
“I am very curious to see how we are heading towards the nato summit at the end of June, whether we will still be talking about nato in its current form or whether we will have to establish an independent European defense capability much more quickly. That is my absolute priority, and I have no illusions at all about what will come out of America.”
Mr. Merz not only wants a militarily strong Europe—he also announced that he wants nuclear independence from the U.S. and a share in Britain’s and France’s nuclear bombs.
These demands are bold and audacious. But French President Emmanuel Macron has, in principle, already agreed to nuclear sharing.
Years ago, the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said, “Germany’s national character is to dominate” (emphasis mine throughout). Once Germany has strong leadership, it will inevitably dominate. This has been its history! Our booklet Germany and the Holy Roman Empire proves this and takes you back long before the first coming of Christ. Germany’s name at that time was Assyria, and it appears in many end-time prophecies referring to modern-day Germany.
The truth is, it is not just the AfD that is causing the Nazi spirit to soar. Almost everywhere in Germany, we are seeing a dramatic revival of the old empire! We see this in its desire for a strong independent military. We see it in the anti-America rhetoric from the mainstream and the far right. We see it in the increased attacks on Jews, minorities and politicians. And we see it in the longing for a strong authoritarian leader.
It is urgent that we understand what is happening in Europe—especially Germany!
While Germany lay in ruins and ashes after World War ii, Herbert W. Armstrong had the crystal-clear, prophetic vision to see that Germany would rise again, when nobody else thought it would. In fact, the victors asserted they would ensure the Germans didn’t rise again militarily, but they failed to do that.
Mr. Armstrong knew that another great power would come on the scene—the greatest resurrection ever of the Holy Roman Empire, prophesied in Revelation 17. As everybody was saying Germany would never rise again, Mr. Armstrong was proclaiming around the world that it would rise again, stronger than ever!
Bible prophecy says the Holy Roman Empire is going to emerge out of the current European Union, but it will be pared down to 10 kings (Daniel 2; Revelation 17). The Bible’s prophecies are always fulfilled!
History rings clarion alarm bells about the Holy Roman Empire. Its past is full of intolerance, conspiracy, betrayal, bloodshed, executions and other nightmares. But what happened historically is only a foretaste of the carnage this final resurrection is prophesied to inflict! And it will not be friends of America, Britain or the Jewish state.
Another holocaust is coming! The Jewish people, Americans, Britons and the whole world need to be warned!
On the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Elisha Wiesel, the son of Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, wrote an article in USA Today. In the midst of rising anti-Semitism, when the butchers of Hamas are considered partners in negotiation, he asked a penetrating question: “Will we continue giving moral credibility to voices who say that the tiny nation of Israel is the villain for refusing to die?”
He quoted what his father told Ronald Reagan on national tv: “The issue here is not politics, but good and evil. And we must never confuse them, for I have seen the SS at work, and I have seen their victims.” That is history we ought never to forget. The Bible warns that it is about to be repeated—and much worse. We must have God’s protection to ensure that it does not happen to us!
For decades, we have been warning about the rise of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire. Soon, they are going to catapult the world suddenly into another world war! That is a very negative prophecy, but there is great hope directly linked to it.
Longing for Charlemagne
There is one big problem with all of Friedrich Merz’s goals: He will have to achieve them in a weak coalition, probably with the Social Democrats—the very party he opposed in the election campaign and that suffered a historic loss.
This is why democratically elected leaders have repeatedly failed to meet new challenges. This is why Germans long for radically different leadership. They are desperate for a strong leader—a modern Charlemagne.
In fact, all of Europe is longing for a Charlemagne!
Every year the international Charlemagne Prize is awarded to an individual who has worked to unite Europe. The trouble is, among all those leaders of Europe today, none has the prestige of Charlemagne!
The Bible, however, reveals that Europe will get a new Charlemagne who is going to hijack what will become the Holy Roman Empire. The German people will come to realize that there is a great danger in that. An evil spirit will get control of Europe’s next emperor.
History shows us what that means.
“In the year 782, Charlemagne, the king of the Franks, became the military champion of the papacy, stepping into the vacuum created by the separation of Constantinople and Rome, and defending the papacy from the Lombards who kept threatening it,” David N. Samuel wrote. “Pope Leo iii crowned Charlemagne emperor in Notre Dame Cathedral in 800. The future of Europe was bound up in that event, and the alliance between the papacy and Germany has been of great significance ever since” (European Union and the Roman Catholic Influence in Britain).
Throughout the centuries that followed, Germany was Europe’s greatest perpetrator in instigating bloodshed.
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung noted: “This ruler, who is still present in many places in Frankfurt today … is by no means undisputed. Charlemagne, who was crowned emperor in Rome in 800, has gone down in history as power-obsessed and cruel, indeed as a butcher of the Saxons, whom he subjugated and converted to Christianity” (Jan. 22, 2021).
On May 8, 1997, former German President Roman Herzog received the Charlemagne Prize for his efforts to unite Europe. In his acceptance speech, Dr. Herzog said, “For 1,000 years, the destiny of our continent has revolved around the choice between a cohesive or a fragmented Europe. Charlemagne, after whom our prize is named, made his own particular choice: the first unification of Europe. At such an hour, the truth must be told: Only by wading through a sea of blood, sweat and tears did he reach his goal.”
There was a lot of truth in that statement about how Charlemagne took over Europe. He did it violently and killed many thousands of people!
Charlemagne was one of Adolf Hitler’s heroes. He too argued that Charlemagne’s violence was necessary to unite the German people. Professor and renowned German medieval researcher Johannes Fried told Die Welt in 2014 that Hitler praised Charlemagne in “preparation for his own violent actions, praising Charlemagne was a legitimization strategy.”
Charlemagne was the man the Third Reich really looked to. He is also the man that Europe looks to today.
German leaders are seeking a new Charlemagne. They want a strong leader over Europe. The fact that Europe’s elite today and Hitler of old revere the same man is a dangerous sign!
Hitler Was Satan-Possessed
Adolf Hitler was a weak little man, but when he got up to speak, he had tremendous power! In his book The Psychopathic God—Adolf Hitler, Robert G. L. Waite wrote: “This thundering demon was not there before …. A limp, little man changed into a force of overwhelming power ….”
Where did Hitler get this power? He got it from Satan the devil who possessed him! That’s what your Bible says, and you will see it happen again.
When he gave those powerful speeches, it was a sight to behold. Hitler said, “Neither a military nor a civilian personality could replace me. … I am convinced of the strength of my brain and my resolution. … The fate of the Reich is dependent entirely upon me.” Hitler had more power than a normal man.
Hitler became Satan-possessed by worshiping the bloody history of the Holy Roman Empire. “He insisted … that his early years in Vienna were absolutely crucial to his career because ‘at that time I formed an image of the world and a view of life which became the foundation for my actions …. I have had to change nothing’” (ibid). In Vienna he saw the crown jewels of the Holy Roman Empire. He wanted the power they symbolized. He wanted to be like Charlemagne—only stronger.
“Albert Speer, who knew Hitler best during World War ii, was convinced that the führer’s intellectual development stopped with the world as he had known it in Vienna in 1910” (ibid). That is amazing. Even as a teenager he was fascinated and mesmerized by those crown jewels. Something was happening to him, and he didn’t even know what it was. He was very deceived.
In Vienna, Hitler came to believe that the Germans, not the Jews, were the chosen people of God. This thought isn’t biblical; it comes from Satan the devil. The Germans are also a great people, and God will use them mightily in the future. But we must expose Satan’s deceit.
The imperial crown, the orb of empire, the scepter and the imperial sword were in Vienna for 140 years; Hitler returned them to Nuremberg. After taking the insignia of the First Reich, he called his empire the Third Reich. “At the presentation of these symbols of imperialism, he solemnly vowed that they would remain in Nuremburg forever” (John Toland, Adolf Hitler).
He was fascinated by what happened in Vienna. Winston Churchill thought Hitler developed his worldview later in Munich, but that’s not true. He got everything he wanted in Vienna with those crown jewels.
Among all the relics of this empire, Hitler coveted the crown of Charlemagne most of all.
The same crown jewels fascinate European leaders to this day. In 2018, these crown jewels were featured in a special exhibit correlating with Austria’s presidency of the European Council that year.
European parliamentarian Otto von Habsburg once said, “We do possess a European symbol which belongs to all nations equally. This is the crown of the Holy Roman Empire, which embodies the tradition of Charlemagne.” How true! That European crown is that of the Holy Roman Empire, a crown that sits in a museum in Vienna. And oh, Hitler loved that! Charlemagne was his hero!
Habsburg added: “The [European] Community is living largely by the heritage of the Holy Roman Empire, though the great majority of the people who live by it don’t know by what heritage they live.” That is amazing!
Revelation 17 reveals that, after World War ii, this empire went underground. To this day, they don’t talk about it much publicly. Surely they know Herbert W. Armstrong prophesied about it; his powerful message reached millions around the world. He warned many people what would happen to Germany and how they would again lead that Holy Roman Empire.
Mr. Armstrong is no longer alive, but he left a lot of literature about the rise of the last resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire, the one that Jesus Christ would destroy at His Second Coming! That is why the leaders of the Holy Roman Empire hide what they are doing.
The descent underground was itself prophesied. It is a shame that the world won’t pay attention to what Bible prophecy says!
All seven heads of the Holy Roman Empire have been diabolical and destructive. Millions died in the Middle Ages, as you can prove from history books. We have to be careful because it’s going to rise again suddenly. We should not be caught unawares.
Possessed Leader Prophesied
Germany is about to be transformed by the emergence of a strong leader who will have the same spirit that possessed Charlemagne and Hitler.
Habakkuk 1:6-8 prophesy, “For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwellingplaces that are not theirs. They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves. Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat.” This refers to the Holy Roman Empire. (Prove that with our free booklet Habakkuk.)
Verse 11 tells what happens in the mind of the leader of this last Holy Roman Empire: “Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his god.” This man thought he worshiped the great God, but it was actually the god of this world! (2 Corinthians 4:4). That satanic spirit that empowers him causes this nightmarish mind change.
Daniel 8:23 also speaks about this new Charlemagne: “And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.” This is the new Charlemagne, a powerful leader who will shock the world just as that Holy Roman Empire did many times in the past!
“And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power …” (verse 24). What other power did he have? The power of Satan the devil! This is a man possessed by the devil! “[A]nd he shall destroy wonderfully [mightily], and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people” (verse 24). This refers to God’s own lukewarm people in this end time who must be plunged into the Great Tribulation, a time of suffering caused by the Holy Roman Empire empowered by the devil.
The question then is, who will be Germany’s next Charlemagne?
We have been watching Baron Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, a former German defense minister, for quite some time. He is a brilliant man in many ways. He followed Edmund Stoiber, a protégé of Franz Josef Strauss of the Christian Social Union. Baron Guttenberg could be the one to rise to power and fulfill these prophecies.
Where will this lead? “And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many …” (verse 25). This strongman is a deceitful liar with much power and a great military! Germany today is one of the top armaments exporters, and they do a lot of it secretly through factories in other countries. They are becoming very powerful. But they will soon be far more powerful—once the prophesied 10 kings unite under them. Revelation 17:12-13 say, “And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.” Revelation 17:12 reads: “And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings which have received no kingdom as yet but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.” Commenting on this scripture, Mr. Armstrong wrote in the October 1962 Plain Truth: “The beast, then, is the leader, or ruler, over all—and 10 other dictator-kings, or lesser rulers over 10 European nations or nation-groups.”
We believe there will be one supreme king over 10 kings. (There is a slight possibility that there could be just 10 kings total and that the leadership would come out of Germany.) Given that Revelation 17 is a prophecy of a church-state combine known as the Holy Roman Empire, Mr. Armstrong strongly believed that those leaders would be Catholic.
We may be seeing some indications who the dictator-king, or lesser ruler, over Germany could be. Friedrich Merz is a Roman Catholic who has repeatedly called for a guiding culture in Germany based on Christian, or rather Catholic, values. He is also an outspoken advocate for a European army. Since his party won the election, he has been acting with unusual urgency and zeal to create a militarized Germany—even defying democratic norms doing so. Furthermore, he enjoys the support of Guttenberg, who we believe may be the “one supreme king.”
Verse 14 prophesies that the Holy Roman Empire of Mussolini and Hitler will rise once more before Jesus Christ returns.
The political party of Giorgia Meloni, who now rules Italy, is directly tied to Mussolini, Hitler’s ally in World War ii.
These forces are building again just as God prophesies, and just as Mr. Armstrong said they would and as we have been saying for 35 years. These forces are going to unleash a terrible time and cause incalculable suffering!
But notice: This coming leader “shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand” (Daniel 8:25). He is going to confront Jesus Christ Himself and be smashed and crushed! Christ is going to destroy the 10 kings! Then He will establish His own righteous Kingdom with the peace, happiness and joy to Earth that we all should have had a long time ago but have been denied because of our rebellion against God!
Revelation 12:12 states that Satan knows his time is short! Do you know that? This wonderful future, where Christ supplants the evil kingdoms of this world, is coming soon!
