German Identity, Long Dormant, Reasserts Itself - NYTimes.com

German Identity, Long Dormant, Reasserts Itself - NYTimes.com

Class, I normally do not make comments about certain posts; I want you to form your own conclusions and ideas when examining issues as these. However, a colleague of mine posted this on FB and made the following comments regarding this article and I felt compelled to respond:

FB 1: interesting. troubling???

And another colleague of mine made the following post:

FB 2: I would try to make the argument that there's nothing wrong with national pride, but I honestly don't really believe that anymore.

This is my response to their comments:

I wouldn't call it troubling. We have to make a distinction between governmental actions and societal. Governmental: Even by the late 50s and earl 60s, the Germans employed a policy called the "Third Way" in foreign policy that often contradicted US policy goals. For instance, Willi Brandt sought closer ties with he GDR and the USSR during the 70s. During the 80s the German navy was used in the Mediterranean Sea to patrol against terrorist hijackings.
During the 90s, Germany was very much active in Bosnia, Kosovo, and was the first EU member state to recognize Croatia and Slovenia as independent. In fact, under the Social Democrat-Green govt, Germany fired against enemy positions in Serbia and Afghanistan for the first time since WWII. The Schröder govt also sought a permanent UNSC seat for Germany while being he first major power to oppose the invasion of Iraq. What also needs to be highlighted is that in 1995, the German Constitutional Court ruled that the German military can participate in foreign military actions as long as it is in conjunction with NATO or the UN. So, I'm suggesting that the govt, left and right, have no problems aggressively asserting itself in foreign affairs.
However, on the societal level, the crimes committed by the Nazis and the legacy caused by them and the GDR split have been harder to overcome. Just ten years ago, major news magazines were debating if it was ok to be proud to be German because of the Nazi past, while ignoring Germany's cultural and political contributions to the world. Among a very vitriolic segment of German society is a strong leftist segment that called their own political leaders, in particular Joschka Fischer and Schröder, war criminals because they supported using the military to stop human rights abuses. Conversely, during 2002/2003 many Germans, according to polls taken, were very proud to be German because of the position the German govt took in opposition to the Iraq War.
On the other side, Germans had no problem in being very patriotic and flag waving when their national team won those world cups, starting back in the 50s through today. The last few world cups and European Championships illustrate this quite well. I'm suggesting here that, as Almond and Verba seem to suggest, is the fact that the German civic culture has been evolving since 1945 and is moving forward from their horrific past, while not forgetting what was done in their names. I would even argue that there has been no country outside the US that has debated it's historical legacy and responsibility to the extent as Germany has done.

Class, when we cover the German case study, please keep this article and debate in mind. We will in a sense be talking about these "historical legacies" for most of the semester.