A Wall Street Journal article last week (not available online) presented a somewhat alarming story It chronicled an immigrant to Germany who began flying the German flag in recognition of his World Cup pride. This article claims that liberal youths took the German flags that he had hung. This liberal movement appears anti-nationalistic and my guess, shows that there is shame or embarrassment about Germany's past. My research is not extensive however, I have opinions and questions on the subject.
I have had an extensive conversation with a German friend about German nationality. Though this is only one account, I find it convincing. She claims that Germany cannot show nationalism because people, the world, still hold them accountable for their history. This is nothing that Germany should be proud of. The Germans have conducted treacherous acts and they should not be proud of that. They need to distance themselves as much as they can from German history.
One of my responses is, 'how can young generations be held accountable for something they had no influence over'? A young German person today cannot be happy to be German because their great-grandparents were in the wrong place at the wrong time? German citizens were asked--told--to defend--improve--their country. The citizens had little liberty on the matter.
Though I am not trying to praise the Germans for their World War actions, but I wonder what committee judged them and who established the standard? Ethics in international affairs is a tricky business but where is the line drawn for what is 'good war' and what is 'bad war'. War is unfortunate and ugly but all sides in every conflict cannot conduct themselves virtuously. The victor writes the history and the history says that Germany is 'bad'. Russia is scarcely seen as a peaceful country yet they are allowed to show their pride. The ethics scale is hypocritical and subjective.
However there are signs of returning German assertiveness. An article comparing and contrasting the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the French President Nicolas Sarkozy detailed the growing rift between the two countries. For the last fifty years Germany has largely accommodated European (French) interests in an attempt to 'play nice' and support peaceful, unified directions (even in conflict with Germany's individual interests). The Greek credit situation has pushed the buttons of German generosity. The point is that Germany has so much to be proud of and it is starting to see that. Merkel is standing up to France in defense of its personal stability, profitable exports, and more higher ranking football team.
I argued with my friend for an entire evening over how much stronger Germany would be outside the EU. She however never agreed with me. Now, I think we were both right. She knew Germany, and many German citizens, could not yet face its past. However, I had an outside perspective of how strong the nation really is and how much it could accomplish. Should Germany be nationalistic, yes. Can Germany be nationalistic, slowly.
~PB
That is an interesting topic and you raise a lot of pertinent questions but I think that you mix up a lot of things.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about how a generation should account for the deeds of a previous.
What is the link between nationalism expressed during a football world cup and being part of the EU. That kind of nationalism is tolerated in every country. It might be a bit more recent in Germany but it is not unusual at all.
Besides if your story is related to this one (http://www.thelocal.de/society/20100628-28147.html) then, these "liberals" are anarchists...hardly a numerous group in any country.
In addition every EU members see in the EU a way to benefit themselves. France might see the EU as empowering its ability to be present on the international scene, Germany; as away to develop its economy thanks to the Schengen treaty and other economic trade. After all without any buyers, Germany would not export so well, would it?
I am surprised that you equated EU interests as being French and fail to understand how Merkel is standing up to France thanks to its football team and the link with German nationalism and your article.
I have never heard in France any complain about that, there is even a French-German military division. On the other hand the British might not be that happy, as for the USA I do not know.
Besides every EU members is nationalistic, that s normal given their history, you cant expect the EU to behave like the USA where their states members barely have any history, thus making it easier to unite them because of the lack of differences.
I don't think I mix up a lot so I am interested to clarify anything that you founding confusing or potentially arguable.
ReplyDeleteI am not arguing that the EU will not allow Germany to be nationalistic. I think every nation is granted that right. However, Germans remain concerned regarding how to be nationalistic. The World Cup has exposed this. They want to be and attempt to be but there are underlying concerns about what others think. I was exposed to this is discussions with a German family. They feel like they are not allowed to be. This story is linked to the story you posted. As I said previously, my research was limited as I was composing this story based on one article in the Wall Street Journal. In this article they were listed as leftist youths, not anarchists. This can be a media bias in either direction. The article you posted refers to them as leftists and anarchists. So there is confusion about how they should really be classified. I never claimed that this group was numerous and regardless of whether they are leftist or anarchists, they are obviously on the fringe of the spectrum. However, I wanted to make light of some of the potential underlying issues of Germany's history and their possible struggle with nationalism.
Of course Germany benefits economically from the EU, however what makes you believe that they still would not have strong exports? They do get benefits but one sentence in my article does not make my piece about why Germany should be in the EU or not. This piece does not want to even touch on this topic. The comment only attempted to put into context Germany's growing individual strength and therefore its resulting nationalism.
As for Merkel, I scarcely believe the only reason she is standing up for German interests is football. Of course not. I do believe that it increases confidence and therefore nationalism and a feeling of strength. The EU has largely been led my Germany and France. However, I believe that Germany has aimed to accommodate France and therefore have given more than they might have really wanted (Greece funding can even be seen as an example here). However, Germany is starting to see that it may have to adjust its methods of working within the EU.
I got the fact that it was not the EU that did not allowed Germany to be nationalistic.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is a problem that concern the German themselves, they have been guilt ridden too much to me and it s time for them to move on. Whatever they do, people will always be on their back; so it does not really matter and it s the same for everybody nearly. Look at the USA or France for that matter, clichés die hard.
by the way, rather than their economic assertiveness, I believe that it is the passing of the old generation that lived during the war and right after that is affecting this guilt.
I guess I jumped a bit too quickly on the guns concerning my previous comment.
here are some statistic about its exportations (couldnt find more recent), most of them are in the EU:
France 9.7%, US 7.1%, UK 6.7%, Netherlands 6.6%, Italy 6.4%, Austria 5.4%, Belgium 5.2%, Spain 4.4%, Poland 4% (2008)
http://www.theodora.com/wfbcurrent/germany/germany_economy.html
and an article from the Spiegel about Germany economic policy and its impact abroad from June 2010:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,703617,00.html
to be perfectly honest with you, i did not understood everything in it.
and I do agree with your last sentence.