The Multikulti Team
I. German players
(Yes, I'm going to talk about soccer yet again, but in a different way this time...)
I've commented to various people, while watching World Cup games in the US, how much I love the diversity of this year's German national soccer team. So far as I've understood, you have to be a citizen of a country to play for their team; it's not enough to just live there. So the fact that there are guys on the team who look Turkish or African, or have names that are clearly Polish, proves that foreigners not only live in Germany, but foreigners become German. This is an important lesson and one that Germany - historically a country made up of people who look German and only German - is still grappling with.
Predictably, the country's neo-Nazis "reject" this new, multicultural soccer team. But while the existence of neo-Nazis in Germany never stops being disturbing, their views on anything that doesn't fit their imaginary ideals is so predictable, it's hardly even really worth talking about. More important are the average Germans who don't think they're overtly racist or xenophobic, but still talk about third generation Turkish-Germans as if they actually belong somewhere else. It is my sincere and deeply held wish that each little thing like a highly visible and highly diverse German soccer team gives the country another little push in the right direction.
II. German flags
The other hot topic each time World Cup/European Cup season rolls around is... the flag.
Germans, for reasons you might be able to divine, generally have a guilt complex. Nationalism, flag-waving is bad. When you get down to it, really, being German is bad. (This rule does not extend to Germans abroad, who tend to extol how everything is better, cleaner, more efficient, etc. back home. But Germans in Germany ask you things like, "Why would anyone ever come here?")
I moved to Germany just after the last World Cup, which Germany hosted. Friends my age, thoughtful, compassionate people who are just as horrified at the crimes of their grandparents as their parents' generation was before them, and who have grappled with guilt since they began history lessons in school or earlier, told me what a joy and a relief it was during the last World Cup to have a reason to actually feel good about being German and to come together over something collective that wasn't guilt - even if it was something as silly and pointless as waving little flags and cheering for a soccer team.
Another friend of mine, meanwhile, a woman in her 70's who has been an eyewitness through a good portion of Germany's recent history, told me all this flag-waving and nationalism makes her highly nervous, because its only a short step from patriotism to nationalism, and on from there.
And I can't really say either side is wrong.
My dad sent me this article about a Lebanese-German and his German flag, which sort of nicely ties together both issues, the immigrant-background Germans and the flags.
(Yes, I'm going to talk about soccer yet again, but in a different way this time...)
I've commented to various people, while watching World Cup games in the US, how much I love the diversity of this year's German national soccer team. So far as I've understood, you have to be a citizen of a country to play for their team; it's not enough to just live there. So the fact that there are guys on the team who look Turkish or African, or have names that are clearly Polish, proves that foreigners not only live in Germany, but foreigners become German. This is an important lesson and one that Germany - historically a country made up of people who look German and only German - is still grappling with.
Predictably, the country's neo-Nazis "reject" this new, multicultural soccer team. But while the existence of neo-Nazis in Germany never stops being disturbing, their views on anything that doesn't fit their imaginary ideals is so predictable, it's hardly even really worth talking about. More important are the average Germans who don't think they're overtly racist or xenophobic, but still talk about third generation Turkish-Germans as if they actually belong somewhere else. It is my sincere and deeply held wish that each little thing like a highly visible and highly diverse German soccer team gives the country another little push in the right direction.
II. German flags
The other hot topic each time World Cup/European Cup season rolls around is... the flag.
Germans, for reasons you might be able to divine, generally have a guilt complex. Nationalism, flag-waving is bad. When you get down to it, really, being German is bad. (This rule does not extend to Germans abroad, who tend to extol how everything is better, cleaner, more efficient, etc. back home. But Germans in Germany ask you things like, "Why would anyone ever come here?")
I moved to Germany just after the last World Cup, which Germany hosted. Friends my age, thoughtful, compassionate people who are just as horrified at the crimes of their grandparents as their parents' generation was before them, and who have grappled with guilt since they began history lessons in school or earlier, told me what a joy and a relief it was during the last World Cup to have a reason to actually feel good about being German and to come together over something collective that wasn't guilt - even if it was something as silly and pointless as waving little flags and cheering for a soccer team.
Another friend of mine, meanwhile, a woman in her 70's who has been an eyewitness through a good portion of Germany's recent history, told me all this flag-waving and nationalism makes her highly nervous, because its only a short step from patriotism to nationalism, and on from there.
And I can't really say either side is wrong.
My dad sent me this article about a Lebanese-German and his German flag, which sort of nicely ties together both issues, the immigrant-background Germans and the flags.