As promised in the new article about german flag relation which I wrote during the World Cup
2006 in Germany, here is the much needed update on German patriotism.
Like I predicted, just a few months after Germany took third place in the most popular soccer
event in the world, the dust really has settled and - oh wonder - patriotism did not stay!
The flags have been taken down and the cars look plain again without spangling flags and
banners on them.
In my opinion it really is sad to see this happen as there were many Germans I spoke to during
the national pride craze during the World Cup that thought the flag flying was a good change
and that the country finally woke up and was able to show some much needed and deserved pride.
So what can we conclude from this?
First of all, the majority of Germans seems to be allright with not showing any national
pride.
From what I experienced myself through quite a few conversations, many Germans,
especially of the younger generations, do feel that Germans should be proud of their
country and should be patriotic.
Although these two statements seem to contradict with each other, I feel that there is a
link and an explanation for the German behaviour.
Germans are proud of their country, but just do not like to show their pride and rather
keep it for themselves. They can not deal with patriotism nearly as open as Americans can.
This might have two different reasons. One is, that the senior citizens, having experienced
the World War, feel that the public showing of patriotism was a bad thing once, so that they
do not want to be patriotic in public again.
The people in the middle (e.g. the 40-to-50-year-olds) were born shortly after the war and
therefore raised by their parents in a way that had patriotism banned from the children's minds.
However, these generations then experienced many things happening in the country which
they could be proud of, but due to the lack of patriotism in the behaviour of their parents,
just did not show their pride openly.
Then there is the youngest generation of teens and twens. They do not really feel any
personal connection to the second World War anymore, although it still strongly exists in
their minds.
However, in Germany, media tends to be pessimistic, so that some of the younger ones
might feel that there is nothing anymore that they could be proud of, whereas the other ones,
who understand the need of a healthy dose of patriotism for a society, have not been used
to patriotism during their life so far.
Let us just hope, that maybe someday healthy German patriotism will rise again.
Next chance: the Olympic Games in China ;-)
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