"To the old generation, the flag symbolized aggressive nationalism, or even some continuity with the Third Reich, even if the Third Reich didn't use that flag," said Paul Nolte, a professor of contemporary history at Berlin's Free University...
The new display of pride is almost strenuously nonnationalistic. There are even German cars that show the German flag on one side and some other flag — the Brazilian one seems popular, perhaps because Brazil is a likely opponent if the German team makes it to the [World Cup] finals — on the other side.
June 18, 2006
"Now perhaps there's been a chance to reattach the original democratic, liberal values to the flag that come from the 19th century..."
How hard -- and rightly so -- it's been for Germans to wave their flag.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
1 comment:
How bizarre. The postwar German flag is unrelated to the entirely different flags used in the imperial, Weimar or Nazi eras, so what they're really uncomfortable with, it seems to me, is not waving the flag, but asserting nationalism and national pride.
Post a Comment