Du bist Dupid!
A new German “social marketing” campaign which aims to boost national pride (oh joy!) has alarmed some Germans after a blogger discovered its slogan, Du bist Deutschland, was used for a Nazi demonstration in 1935.
See also: German Wikipedia entry. Flickr gallery.
suprise suprise
I find it offensive that you are so sarcastic (oh joy!) that people are celebrating German pride. It isn’t against jewish people, Germans have no problems with Jewish people. I think that it’s pretty weird to hold a grudge when you, and probably the people that are starting this German pride group, were not part of the holocaust or the war. It’s understandable that you still acknowlede that terrible things happened, but to attack an entire race is absurd.
I spent 6 months in Berlin. I think I have a sloppy grasp on the way Germans, and Jews for that matter, grapple with the memory of the shoah. I think I’m at a stage where i can step back, look at what happened, and realize pretty plainly that anyone involved in such a horrific act will have a complex and human relationship to it for the rest of their lives. And therefore, the relationship they have with their own streets, their own cultural identity will also be complex and human. So I think I understand why the German woman above me is giving a fairly typical, and typically fair, response.
i would like to see a serious discussion of what it means to be “proud” of one’s ethnic group or nationality. all you did as an individual, unless you wrote some “typically black/German/Jewish” work of literature or made some other major cultural contribution that caused other people to think well of your group, was get born. does that justify “pride”? what’s going on?
Sam – I think you’ve hit the nail on the head
I really hope that nobody is celebrating some kind of “german pride”. The “Du bist Deutschland” (You are germany) campaign started to advertise social engagement, not to celebrate “pride” – but I am sure some people misunderstood the whole story. Now they discovered, the slogan was a Nazi propaganda. What is quite clear is, that the gap between “advertisement” and “propaganda” is very very small.
Interesting to notice, that Sarah thinks the germans are a distinct “race”…
Seriously. This idea of ethnic pride? It is crazy! I have never heard of such a thing!
Well, you have to note what’s happened in Germany after WW2. Today many, kindly most, of the german youths dislike their german idendity. Most youths are politically left orientated – americans would compare it with their communists maybe.
but the fact remains that germans have a giant problem with their history, it’s hard for and outstanding person to understand.
i support this campaign because it must be possible to say it loud: ‘i love this country and i’m very proud of this great culture (this excludes the time of the nazi-years), the things which were created in techniques, in literacy and art, music and many more’
But it isn’t possible right now because people will call you an nazi-admirring nationalist.
But i would like to say it – even because i’m a german jew.
so you see it’s a very strange situation.
Hope you understand what i want to say… Laila Tov from Berlin/Germany.