When Germans hate Germans, that was a headline in Spiegel online on 4 January.
We had been following an outpouring of intra-German animosity triggered by a politician in Berlin when requested to use a certain term to order rolls in a bakery.
Rolls, blobs of baked dough, are a German staple, and there are serious regional naming differences. There is a standard "Brötchen" (very small bread), and then are are a dozen or so regional names.
Given that the conflict involved folks from the north (Berlin) and folks from the south (Stuttgart) it turned into an all-out slugfest between the tribes.
Some funny episodes, like the northern offender getting a free subscription to a southern daily paper, almost got lost in the nasty back and forth.
To us at the K-landnews the real surprise was the use of the word "hassen" (hate) in the headline quoted above.
Americans get to hate pretty much everything, it generally means not much more than mild dislike or dislike, and includes 'true' hate too.
Use of the word "hate" by Germans was much more limited, or should we say (historical note) focussed.
We may be overeaching again, but lots of dubiously dubbed American TV shows may have contributed to loosening of German hate.
While the article dutifully lists the usual supects, like townfolk against country people, those with children against the childless, cars against bicycles, young against old, it also quotes sociologic research as saying the depth of intra-German hate has actually diminished over the decades.
Or might this be the reason for using "hate" more readily? Since there is less of it, and it is less frightening?
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