Lena Gamper is a 19-year-old college student from Stuttgart, Germany, who is spending part of her summer in Eugene visiting family. This is the fourth of a five-part series examining the cultural differences between Germany and Eugene (and America as a whole).
In America, flags are everywhere. In households, businesses, government buildings and even in front of grocery stores. Everywhere I turn, I see flags. I was told the “Old Glory” represents the freedom that Americans celebrate and that Americans are proud to show their flag, as it is a way for them to express their patriotism and their support of the troops. In effect, I concluded: “If I’d only be counting the all these flags in front of all these homes — Americans must truly be proud!”
I have never ever seen a flag in front of a home in Germany in my entire life. Pretty much the only place where you would see a waving “Bundesflagge,” which is what we call our flag, is Berlin. That’s for the simple reason that Berlin is where most of our official government buildings are located at, and not because people are more patriotic there.
In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Patriotism is a tough topic for Germans. Thinking of Americans, who would put stickers on their cars saying “We support our troops”or “Proud to be American,” I keep noticing how anti-military and anti-patriotic my country actually is.
Naturally, it’s unnecessary to expose one’s nationality in front of one’s house to show national pride, but it serves as a good example to reveal how hard it is to be German and patriotic at the same time. It is almost impossible, unless you are willing to be labeled “Nazi!” in return.
I always refer to it as a tragic hangover from war. But unlike the hangover from too much good German beer, which you can easily get rid of by drinking more good German beer in the morning, this type of hangover is different. It’s tricky. On the one hand, we are trying to come to terms with the past, but on the other hand, we are conscious about not trying to overcome it by pushing it into the back of our minds. Unquestionably, what happened during the time of Nazi Germany needs to be most carefully kept safe in our memory and the memory of all further generations to ensure it will never happen again. And being raised in Germany myself, I can affirm that this body of thought is cautiously being put into practice and into effect in schools, families and society in general.
Nevertheless, I am of the opinion that it requires both honoring of the past and moving forward to allow a country to blossom in the present. Almost nostalgically, I remember back in 2006:
It was the World Cup. Germany was the hosting country. It was summer. It was hot. Everybody was excited about the tournament. Our team was unexpectedly doing really great. Germans gathered on public places like “Biergarten” to watch the games together. It became a peaceful celebration of nations. Our team made it into the semifinals. It was getting more and more euphoric. Every angle of Germany seemed to be completely captivated by ongoing celebration.
This is when it happened:
People started putting up flags everywhere. German flags, Italian flags, Croatian flags. All of a sudden, Germany was covered in flags. Cars, houses, clothes — we started showing which nationality we belonged to. We were proud to be the host. We were proud of our team. We were proud to be German. The country was in a state of exception.
Then we lost the semifinal match. There was disappointment; there was sadness; there were even tears. But still, there were waving flags. The German team ended up taking third place. It was amazing. It was a first time experience for my generation of a feeling of national pride. It was a summer’s tale, which is what Germans now call it.
By the time summer had passed, the flags were gone again. I guess Germany is on its way — it’s sure taking its time though.