In German (Newspapers)

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The past few days in Tübingen have been relatively quiet, for one reason in particular: No Football. Its been so strange I feel like I have lost a shoe. The world cup started with 3 games every single day, what bliss, and then went down to 2 per day, still very tidy. But in between the round of 16 of the Quarter Finals there are two whole days where neither a football is kicked nor a shin is grabbed in mock horror and pain at a foul that did not occur. Tomorrow though will make up for that because Germany plays, and that always means goodtimes. Unless they lose. Hopefully that doesn't happen.

One interesting thing that has occured is I recieved this message from a fellow called Tim in response to the entry "Stuttgart":

Hi John. I read a part of your posting which was published in an important German newspaper (FAZ) on sunday. I have to say that I was moved when I discovered how precise some of our 'World Cup guests' evaluate the situation here. Especially the part about patriotism in Germany hit the nail right on the head. Thanks for that statement. Greetings from Aachen.

I was a bit shocked to hear that our little blog had made it to the pages of one of the most read newspapers in Germany, in country of 82 million thats quite a few readers! In an article that looked at various accounts of the World Cup by visitors on their Blogs, they included a short bit that I had written on German Patriotism, this is the bit they included:

So many Germans have commented that they have never before seen so many fellow countrymen carrying German flags or having the German colours painted on their face. In Australia we call this Patriotism, here they call it Nationalism. In Germany 'Nationalism' is a dirty word because under the leader ship of a guy about 60 years ago it got the whole nation is to a whole lot of trouble, and the legacy of this remains ingrained into the country's culture. Even today only one day after a crushing 3-0 soccer victory over Ecuador, most flags will be put away, most people won't be wearing Deutchland T-shirts and certainly only a few will have face paint on. Perhaps this tournament could provide the turning point which allows Germans to separate National Pride from the sins of the past.

Perhaps the coolest thing is that rather than printing it in its original english, the journalist translated it into German, this is how it appeared in the Newspaper, called the Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung:

Stuttgart, 21. Juni 2006

So viele Deutsche haben angemerkt, daß sie nie zuvor so viele Landsleute gesehen haben, die Flaggen tragen oder die deutschen Farben in ihr Gesicht gemalt haben. In Australien nennen wir das Patriotismus, hier nennen sie es Nationalismus. In Deutschland ist "Nationalismus" ein Schimpfwort, weil es unter der Führung eines Typen vor 60 Jahren der ganzen Nation viel Ärger eingebracht hat, und dieses Erbe bleibt tief verwurzelt in der Kultur des Landes. Sogar heute, nur einen Tag nach einem vernichtenden 3:0-Sieg über Ecuador, werden die meisten Flaggen wieder abgenommen, die wenigsten werden Deutschland-T-Shirts tragen und mit Sicherheit kaum jemand Farbe im Gesicht. Vielleicht stellt dieses Turnier die Wende dar, die es den Deutschen erlaubt, Nationalstolz von den Sünden der Vergangenheit zu trennen.

John Sweeney und Kristian Payne, Australien,

http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/T%!F(MISSING)Cbingen/blog-68107.html

So there you go! A little bit of publicity for our humble little blog.

Hope everyone is well at home (and in Canada 😊


John

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Comments

[Chelsea]

Oh Canada?
Hey John, I just had to say congratulations on becoming a published writer! Back when I first read that entry I found it interesting because I had the same discussion with my friend who lives in Ingolstatd. He lived in Canada for a year and upon his return home to Germany he made the same observation about "patriotism" there as compared to Canada, etc. So nicely done! We're taking good care of Kristian here - he has not been eaten by any wildlife as of yet and seems to be enjoying himself! Some golfing and camping (and ice skating!) are in the works. Take care and keep us updated with news from Germany.