Patriotism is an emotionally charged concept, so we start with a definition from Wikipedia because we will need this later:
1. Love of country; devotion to the welfare of one's compatriots; the virtues and actions of a patriot; the passion which inspires one to serve one's country
2. The desire to compete with other nations; nationalism.
Let's start with the basic visual symbol of patriotism, the flag.
In an earlier post, we described how Germans have come to enjoy flying their flag. This newly discovered habit can pretty much be traced to the fall of the Iron Curtain and its most urban part, the Berlin Wall.
We pointed out the soccer World Cup of 2006 held in Germany was accompanied by a surprising sea of flags and car rear view mirror "cozies".
Our observation has since been confirmed word for word by an American with longstanding ties to Germany, who visited the country in 2006 after a couple of decades of absence.
As an American, you won't be surprised by a flag themed baby onesie like this one:
The picture below shows use of the flag in a wider social and cultural context, namely the dedication of a mosque in Germany:
The article also talks about the long psychological shadow of the Second World War with regard to Germany's "patriotism problem".
The country's colors, aka. the flag, are black, red, and gold, but the "gold" is really "yellow" in most instances - if you know your Pantone colors you understand. The current flag was adopted after WWII in both West Germany and East Germany, with the latter adding the socialist hammer, compass, and (rye) grains.
The Black-Red-Gold flag was first flown by republican students in the mid 1800s. These student organizations were very influential at German universities, and many lost their early liberal and republican ideas to become nationalist and, today, quite right wing.
The second major official symbol of patriotism, the national anthem, had a long and complicated history, encapsulating in itself some of the key aspects of Germany's patriotism debate since World War II. Unlike the flag, which was a clean break with the pre-1945 state, the anthem as such remained intact in West Germany. East Germany picked a new one. Only after re-unification, in 1991, was the post 1918 (West German) version officially cut to the third stanza adopted for the whole country. The first two stanzas with their "greater Germany" and "nationalist" content were abandoned.
If you feel like re-phrasing the text of the German anthem or messing with the music, be warned, doing so is punishable as a felony unless you can claim artistic license which you better make court proof. A Jimmy Hendrix at Woodstock style rendition will likely be fine.
Germans are just not a relaxed as Americans.
This being said, the text of the republican anthem was written by an aristocrat, poet Hoffmann von Fallersleben, before Germany as country existed, and the first line of the third stanza clearly is more suited to reading than slurred or mumbled singing: Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit (unity and justice and freedom). The "d" in "und" tends to become the victim of slurred or mumbled vocalization, with somewhat problematic or highly satirical consequences. Ask a German friend for an explanation.
Writing about the symbols was easy, it is the meaning of patriotism where the fault lines are.
The vast majority of post war Germans were pretty relaxed with regard to both of the meanings given in the dictionary definition, liberals and leftists were worried and about the aspect of nationalism, sometimes disparaging the national symbols, while middle of the road conservatives tried to salvage the love of one's country parts and more staunchly conservative citizens wanted "more patriotism".
To the first, "soccer patriotism" is as far as they want to go, to the latter, it is not enough, and that's where much of the real "patriotism problem" lies. An article in The European, Pride and Advantage (in German) addresses this. The article claims it is no wonder that Germany is dissolving if we leave the subject of national identity to hooligans.
It then goes on to contrast American Fourth of July celebrations with the German Day of Unity (the re-unification) holiday, bemoaning that the German national holiday is a somber affair without the over the top joy and "coming together" of the American holiday.
Next, it asks how can we expect migrants to develop respect for our way of life if we are not proud of our country? If green party chair Trittin, whom nobody suspects of harboring nationalist sentiments, sings the national anthem, why don't we?
The article culminates in the claim that sympathy from the middle class for right wing demonstrators in recent times is caused by German leaders and political parties leaving the discussion of national identity to unsavory characters.
In terms of arguments, this article is a near perfect example of co-mingled and warped reasoning based on dubious assumptions. How can anybody claim Germany is dissolving when the present version of the country is a poster child of "coming together"?
Nationalist extremists have always claimed their actions deserved to be called patriotism. National identity is not the same as patriotism, and pride in your country or devotion to the welfare of its citizens can exist without the label.
The act of displaying the flag does not always mean patriotism: many of my Indian and Pakistani coworkers put American flag stickers on their cars after 9/11 because being mistaken for Arabs could get you killed - as it did in the case of a Sikh friend of a friend.
Even burning a flag does mean you are not a patriot - at least not when you ask Vietnam war protesters or some veterans.
A single family home with barred windows, with an American flag decal and "Proud to be American" behind the bars can be seen as defiance or desperation, take a pick.
It is unfortunate that Germany does not have term limits for elected officials because I would love to try out my term limits joke on the Germans to see what they mean by patriotism.
Q: Why does the US have term limits for politicians?
A: Because their flag pins get bigger with each year in office, making them too unwieldy and heavy after eight or so years in office.
As for us, we brought an American flag to Germany, but don't fly it - an antique "made in the USA" heavy cotton flag, not a made in China plastic sheet. We don't own a German flag but have a tie-dye T-shirt in black-red-yellow, and we do wear that on occasion.
We'll see if the Germans can do patriotism in the sense of Pride without Prejudice or not. The way things have been going, a heavy dose of pessimism seems in order.
[Update 6/12/2016] The Euro 2016 soccer cup started and some German media are waking up to the fact that "flying that flag" is not quite as simple as they made it out to be.
[Update 2/12/2017] At a tennis match in Hawaii, the singer performed the "banned" first verse of the German national anthem, the verse that has "Deutschland über alles". The US officials dutifully apologized, said "This mistake will not occur again", and the German tennis federation came back with a condescending "we hope so..."
The reporting on the flub was not exceedingly over the top, but this quote in Frankfurter Allgemeine gave the blogster pause: Later, the Nazis abused the first verse for their purposes.
This is insidious and plain stupid.
Insidious because is pretends that is was impossible to foresee that "Deutschland über alles" was not an invitation for nationalists.
Stupid because there was an intense debate after WW II about a new anthem, just like the country picked a new flag.
But no, "they" decided to simply ban singing of the first verse at official events. East Germany chose a new, peaceful anthem, which was quickly discarded after re-unification.
Many national anthems are rather blood thirsty musical contraptions, for example the French one, and, oh, the U.S. anthem.
* Später missbrauchten die Nationalsozialisten die erste Strophe für ihre Zwecke.
No comments:
Post a Comment