2006-06-09

The New German?

I wonder how Otto Von Bismarck would feel these days if he were alive and militarizing in contemporary Germany. The German personality has undergone some serious shock treatments and severe mood swings in the last two centuries.

One of my more entertaining and enthusiastic professors in University once put it this way when describing Germans. I loosely quote, "If you were to ask a European in the 14th century what they thought of Germans the answer would likely have been 'docile, friendly. Even musical.'

Von Bismarck changed all this. By 1870, the Germans had the reputation as one of the most militarized and efficient society in all of Europe. Indeed, the world.

This is what I was thinking about while I watched Germany - models of efficient soccer - play Costa Rica today in soccer. I was reflecting on how they were once quiet, then aggressive and since World War II, quiet again. They seem to have come full circle. This trait was made clear when Germany - once America's most trusted confidante - refused to support America during its invasion of Iraq.

In fact, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder (why do I keep thinking about a piano when I type his name?) shamelessly used an anti-American platform during his election campaign. They are not soft by any means of the imagination. Just choosing to project a soft approach in international politics.

If I was a cartoonist or illustrator I would depict a German person sitting meekly at a desk with round spectacles and a patchy beard. Two people are waiting for him to make a decision when one tells the other "It wasn't always this way." In the background it shows a photo of the person at the desk standing proud with a striking silver beard in military gear projecting an iron will.

Germany is the single most important European nation. The U.S. needs to maintain good relations with them. France can be overlooked. Not Germany. While we should welcome Germany's new commitment to peace, it is interesting to note the extreme swings they have undergone.

They went from handling just the flute to casting only iron. When are they going to merge the two and design an iron flute?

5 comments:

  1. I'm nervous to tread such ground, as I'm sure that you are more intimately connected to the details...

    Still, as I have spent some time with the Germans, particularly those of my own age, I've found that they carry a very heavy burden.

    They are not soft by any means of the imagination. Just choosing to project a soft approach in international politics.

    At the same time, they know far better than us the destruction that follows war. This could be held against all of Europe, as well. But who are we to judge? Though we send our forces into conflict after conflict, we have yet (or, since the Civil War) to experience wide-spread chaos in our home land.

    While I knew these Germans years ago, when they were much more likely to embrace social liberalism as a matter of course, it doesn't surprise me that the current generation is much more isolationist. They intuit, in every bone and every conscious thought, what hell war brings. Can we so easily throw the yoke of pre-WWII on Germany as well, and expect medling from a country that is still trying to define itself sans death?

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  2. Kom, I think you're right. Therein lies the angle here. They have gone from one extreme to the other. From what I perceive, the Germans have an identity crisis of sorts.

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  3. I, myself, have often pondered on the question of soccer (funny looking word, that, now that I have to actually type it) and the national characteristics it implies.

    And I have wondered about Germany, specifically. I have discussed German football with various 'new Canadians' (the only acquaintances I have who seem to care) over the years, and the consensus was that they are like a bunch of robots.

    I think we can agree on this point. What I disagree with in your posting is the historical background.

    The reason that Germany plays like it does is historically inevitable, as you say. However, the real truth of the matter (as I preceive it) is that Germany was the battlefield of Europe from the reformation (the declaration of Luther, IIRC) til the 19th century.

    When a people spends 5 centuries undergoing the trauma of Hohenzollerns, Hapsburgs, Bourbons, Romanoffs, Piasts and Premyslids (I had to look the last 2 up, Pole and Czech interventions in Silesia) not to mention *Hussites*, sending armies back and forth across your territories, 'living off the land', as they say, one learns, as a society, to place a premium on law and order. Under national socialism the german-Germans in Germany felt much more secure, compared to the Weimar Republic.

    I bet even the Bader-Meinhof(sp?) gang were still pretty hierarchical and rule-obeying within their own organisation.

    PALGOLAK

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  4. Good stuff. The picture you have painted is very similar to Italy. Everyone sought to invade Italy. It was a prize of sorts for the conquerors starting with the Holy Roman Emperor. Italy much like Germany was the center for battles throughout its history - not to mention the cultural heartbeat of Europe. Prior to that it was the successful penetration across the limes by Germanic tribes like the Lombards andd various sects of the Goths. Italy was a collection of kingdoms up until Mazzini, Garibladi and Cavour changed this in 1871 with unification - and we all know that unifiication created a confusing political state. Italians display a completely different mindset. In fact, I should cover this in a post. Back to Germany - the point however here was that it was Von Bismarck who sought - fragmented regionalism that marks German history - to militarize Germany and after two World Wars, Bismarck's legacy seems to be dead. It's nice to see that we in the West have become repulsed by the idea of war thanks to our experiences as KOM points out. However, while we march and pat ourselves in defense of peace, there remains some violent forces swirling around us - and we seem to not grasp it. Here, it is the Anglo-Saxon world that is willing to take up arms (save Canada of course). It's my contention that the West needs Germany strong and allied with America.

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  5. I must, for my own selfish purposes, quantify my Bismarck is dead comment. Part of Bismarck's goal was to make the German efficient and productive. In this light, he remains very much alive - like in their robotic soccer style as Palgolak submits. However, since unificiation with the East I do not know how much of this is accurate.

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