I have to admit I hate car parades enough already, but what really pisses me off is that it isn't about football, nor about partying. Granted, football is the founding myth of the Federal Republic of Germany, as much as the Boston Tea Party for the USA or the revoltion for the French.
But this mindless horn-blowing, the ocean of black-red-gold flags (without knowing what the colours mean), this chanting of the two first lines of the German anthem (without knowing the rest of lines, barring the historical background, heck without knowing what actual words like "Unterpfand" mean), isn't about the FRG. It is about a romantic imagination what Germany could be -- but never was, never will be. A romanticism which was one cause (among others) for all the trouble Germany caused in the past.
There is no such thing as a German identity. And there won't be, as the unreflected hooray-patriotism of these flag-swaying roisterers indicates. They do not have any knowledge about our history, no idea what being German could be about. In their opinion the war ended 60 years ago, ending something which was just an accident (and quite often you hear that it wasn't that bad after all...), but we have served our sentence, and now we are re-united and a totally normal country. And that we can be patriots without being ashamed.
The problem isn't patriotism per se. The problems are exaggeration (and that's where we have plenty of experience), arrogance and stupidity. And I really, really do not want to hear any of those black-red-gold-swaying people complain about US citizens and their relationship to Stars and Stripes. Every kid in the US knows the history of their flag and of the national anthem. Guess how much most Germans know about the German flag and anthem...
Thus, I'd like to ask everyone who wants to be proud of being German: have you done your homework?
Comments
masterp0.livejournal.com 17 years, 10 months ago
Whats your problem bout the flag? The colours stand for a free and democrative country. So why do you complain bout this?
Link | ReplyI can't really the point thets so disgusting to you. If the result of the Football-WM is that some people say it's my country too and I could try to do something to make life here better and if it's only paying the taxes, I can't find anything disgusting bout that.
I don't think that Germans who identify themselves with their country (I specially don't say they are proud of it) can be wrong.
The today Generation doesnt wave a red-white-black flag. So what can be wrong bout that?
woelfisch.livejournal.com 17 years, 10 months ago
I don't have a problem with the flag. It stands, by modern interpretation, for unity and freedom. Ironically, that flag -- especially due to its quite confusing history of who was using it for whatever reason -- also stands for what's probably the paradox of Germany as a nation: this inability to reach unity. We are still mainly connected to our regions, not to the nation. The hooray-patriotism is a cover for that. It provides, for a short while, the illusion that there is unity. If it was just that, it would be acceptable to me. However, my impression is that many of those taking part in it mainly want to bury the past.
I'm sorry if I wasn't specific enough that I my target weren't those who simply express their identification with Germany through symbols like the flag. There is nothing wrong with that. There is nothing wrong about a certain degree of patriotism, either. But there is certainly something wrong about hooray-patriotism and bigotry.
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