Triumph of the flag

So let's say you have Country N, which has a past of being extremely nationalistic, warlike, and as part of its indelible history murdered millions in a remarkably short amount of time.

Not surprisingly, as part of its rehabilitation Country N has tried to temper any displays of nationalism, out of shame, guilt, fear, to show that it's changed and to assuage its neighbors.

Nevertheless, a significant and growing fascist movement and a continuing undercurrent of xenophobia and poor treatment of immigrants has many wondering how deep the changes run.

Now let's say Country N is currently hosting what may be the premier event in the world, and as part of that suddenly finds thousands of foreign tourists showing up, almost all of whom ardently display their country's flags along with other trappings of national pride.

It'd be natural to think that the people of Country N, seeing a bunch of foreigners running around its not-quite-spacious-enough lebensraum, would grumble a bit... why are we prevented from showing national pride when everyone's literally waving foreign flags in their faces, so many of them so ugly too.

So the next thing you know, everyone in Country N starts showing their colors, pulling out and diplaying their own flag.

Makes sense, right? Monkey see, monkey do (or outdo). You wave your strip of color in front of my nose--in my home, no less!--don't be surprised if I do the same.

It's not such a benign reaction, either... I'm not doing it out of pure love or pride, but more as a form of pushing back. Hey, don't forget whose country you're in... maybe there's almost an edge of retaliation.

Not, of course, that the Times sees fit to explore any of it. In line with American society's desire to see benign or even superior complexity in the affairs of European nations, while melding Third World nations together into an easily-analyzed and tagged mass of prejudice, stupidity and above all childlike emotion, the Times seeks to leach the Germanic flag display of any problematic wiffs of nationalism.

In World Cup Surprise, Flags Fly With German Pride

Richard Bernstein: It is everywhere, hanging from windows, sticking out from cars, forming moving seas of black, red and gold in the stadiums whenever the German team, a top contender in World Cup 2006, plays.

The German flag, long weighted by the country's postwar reluctance about open displays of national pride, is flying again, an expression of exuberance as Germany plays host to the World Cup.

"When you see so many German flags flying from windows, that's a development that was long overdue, while not forgetting what happened in this country before," said Christoph Metzelder, a defender on the German team.

Indeed, the chief indicator of the national mood is that almost overnight, once the World Cup began and all those people from other countries arrived with flags and T-shirts in their national colors, it became almost mandatory, certainly desirable, to respond in kind. ...

So why, just now, has public sentiment moved toward flag-waving?

Many factors could be involved. Germany has a new chancellor, Angela Merkel, who has emerged as possibly the most effective leader among the big countries of Europe. The economy is on a modest upswing, and consumer confidence is higher than it has been in years. Pope Benedict XVI is a German, which has instilled a certain pride even in this most nonreligious of nations.

And then there is the simple passage of time, the change of the generations.

"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. "Now perhaps there's been a chance to reattach the original democratic, liberal values to the flag that come from the 19th century when it was invented." ...

Some commentators on the flag phenomenon deny that it has anything to do with patriotism, saying that flying it is not some expression of national feelings: it is simply fun. Or, as one commentator in Die Welt put it, it is just being in a good mood.

Mr. Smith, with the American Academy in Berlin, said the Germans, who are a homogeneous people, are finding it enjoyable suddenly to be host to so many people from so many countries, many of them wearing national colors of their own.

Yeah, right; suddenly cheery Germans, all reaching for their multi-colored ribbons.

A flag can never be just a flag in Germany. Anyone who's ever seen the movie version of Cabaret has etched in their brain the scene in the beer garden where the fresh-faced, smiling German youths stand up and sing 'Tomorrow Belongs to Me'.

Ah, how wonderful, the Times reporter may as well have said, humming along.

Funniest part of the article to me was this tortured attempt to strip Germany's historic tendencies from the flag blitzkrieg:

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 finals — on the other side.

Ah, yes; as a fan of the Washington Redskins, I will of course put their flag on my car, and then, looking down the road to their probable opponent in the Super Bowl--the Indianapolis Colts I think--I will then go out and purchase a horseshoe flag to fly on the other side of my car. I root for that matchup, you see; not for my team to beat the brains out of everyone.

More logical: A lot of Brazilians live in Germany, could be their cars. Or, Brazil is universally known as everyone's second-favorite team, and is a near-lock to make the finals, unlike Germany, which even the Germans concede is unlikely to get past England in the quarters--so maybe people are just hedging their bets. Maybe Nike, whose image in soccer is tied to the fortunes of Brazil as much as in basketball it was merged with Michael Jordan, has been passing out Brazilian flags everywhere.

Whatever the reason, it's certainly not that the Germans are displaying their flags out of some festive motive (they're not Brazilian, after all). It's probably more Germans are tired of kowtowing to countries with neither their economic or potential military might. They're flexing their muscles, irritated by so many (dark) foreigners running around flapping their flags and gums.

I mean, any nation that in 2.5 years killed 6 million Jews out of a total European population of 11 million Jews should be watched warily whenever it starts screaming 'We, we'.

Especially when that shout comes as 'dark-skinned foreigners'--many of whom are actually German immigrants--are being beaten in the streets.

Maybe the Times should've read a recent piece by Mariam Lau, the chief correspondent of the German newspaper Die Welt, in the Wall Street Journal Europe:

The history of global sporting events hosted by Germany brings up some dark memories. There were the Munich Olympic Games of 1972, at which a Palestinian terror squad killed 11 Israeli athletes. And of course there were the notorious Berlin Games of 1936, when the Nazis hosted the world. As organizer of this summer’s football World Cup, Germany seems set on improving its record with the motto “a time to make friends.”

Many Germans, however, are worried that the slogan may promise too much. A remark by former government spokesman Uwe-Karsten Heye has set off a debate about an ugly resurgence of racism in the former East Germany, in the form of prowling violent gangs.

“There are areas in Brandenburg and other parts of the East,” Mr. Heye said, “where dark-skinned foreigners might not make it out alive.” Just a couple of weeks ago, an Ethiopian-born engineer in Potsdam had his skull smashed at a bus stop when he got into a shouting match with two youngsters. The refugee organization Afrikarat, meanwhile, has promised to provide football fans from abroad with a map of “no-go areas.”

While Mr. Heye was at first shouted down by local politicians from all major parties for gross exaggeration, the annual criminal statistics published the very next day confirmed the basic trend: Violent hate crimes were up 24% in 2005 — to 1,034 from 832 — and continued to be most prevalent in the East. If you adjust for the lower number of immigrants in, say, rural Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, a foreign-looking person is about 25 times as likely to be assaulted in the East as in the West, says University of Hannover criminologist Christian Pfeifer.

DPA photo of World Cup fan fest from Der Spiegel