- (DPA) -- For some German students, the experience of
living and studying in Britain has turned into a nightmare with many finding
themselves victims of anti-German attacks. Thomas Matussek, Germany's ambassador
to Britain, has embarked on a campaign to improve his country's image on
the most anti-German turf in Europe.
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- Stefana Bosse is a German teenager living in London ó
and in fear. She never sits on the upper level of the city's red double-decker
buses, and carefully scans the other passengers before she gets on. And
she never speaks German in public.
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- Two years ago on the bus, a group of British kids threw
hamburgers and lettuce at her and pulled her hair. One girl spat in her
face, she says, calling her a Nazi. "I've learned to hide the fact
that I'm German," says Stefana, aged 14.
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- Such stories are common among young Germans in the UK.
Asked their nationalities, many claim they are Swiss or Scandinavian. Last
fall, two teenagers from Guetersloh were beaten up in a London suburb because
they were German.
-
- That was enough to send Thomas Matussek, Germany's ambassador
to Britain, on a campaign to improve his country's image on the most anti-German
turf in Europe.
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- His task is a tough one: words such as Nazis, Krauts,
Fritz and Blitz are common in newspaper stories. Television is awash with
programs about the Nazi era. In history classes, an estimated 80 percent
of high school students study the Nazis, yet learn next to nothing about
contemporary Germany.
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- The German ambassador, a boyish-looking anglophile who
peppers his German with English phrases, wants to change that. "It
is in Britain's own interest to know what is happening on the continent,"
he says.
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- Matussek served in London once before, during Britain's
economically troubled 1970s. "When I came back this time, 95 percent
had changed for the better ó but the image of Germany had become
worse."
-
- Matussek's mission sheds light on a big stumbling block
to an ever-closer European Union. Half a century after World War II, national
resentments still abound.
-
-
- Statesmen in Brussels are debating the adoption of a
constitution for Europe, but many Europeans don't want such close ties
to old enemies. Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi recently likened a German
lawmaker in the European Parliament to a Nazi concentration-camp guard.
Another Italian official, who has since been sacked, lambasted the Germans
as "stereotyped blonds with a hyper-nationalist pride."
-
- The English have loathed the French for centuries. The
French ridicule the Belgians for their alleged provincialism. The Germans
say Poles are sloppy and steal their cars. But one of the few sentiments
that unites all Europeans is a suspicion of Germany, the continent's leading
power. And nowhere is that dislike as strong as in Britain.
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- "Of course, we don't like the Germans. Why should
we? They're awful people. Why shouldn't Silvio make jokes about their Nazi
past?" said an article in the London tabloid Daily Mail this month,
after the Italian jibes against Germany.
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- Titled "Sour Krauts", the piece showed a picture
of two men in Nazi uniforms and said Germans had no style, their women
were fat and ó a big issue for Britons ó they beat them to
the best spots on Mediterranean beaches.
-
- The Evening Standard sent a reporter to a beach in Majorca
to investigate European stereotypes. The result: a large picture of a robust
German blonde on a beach chair. "Just 7am and Helga claims the beach,"
said the headline.
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- "What you find here isn't so much hostility as a
high degree of disinterest, ignorance and outdated cliches," says
Matussek.
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- The ambassador launched his mission when the German students
were beat up in October. At that time, he unleashed his anger in British
newspapers and talk shows, protesting what he considers an obsession with
Hitler in British classrooms.
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- Since then, he has brought German conductors to London.
He helped organise exhibits of German art and got Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder
to open one of the shows with British Prime Minister Tony Blair days before
the Iraq war.
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- In his office, Matussek keeps a stack of pink and blue
postcards from a campaign encouraging Britons to learn German.
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- They carry catchwords designed to evoke a positive image
of Germany - including "Autobahn," "Einstein" and "5:1,"
a self-deprecating reference to Germany's sensational soccer loss to England
in a 2001 World Cup qualifier. "Learn German - there's nothing to
lose," says the punch line.
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- "We wanted to attack a favorite stereotype: that
Germans have no sense of humour," says Nina Lemmens, who heads the
German Academic Exchange Service in London and helped create the postcards.
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- Matussek is taking his campaign to British schools. This
month in Birmingham, he patiently explained to students why they should
learn German, why Germany stayed out of the Iraq war, and that German unemployment
isn't caused by the euro.
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- "I realised that I knew a lot about World War II
but nothing about modern Germany," says Romony Snape, a 15-year-old
student there.
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- Germany's image problem in England began soon after Germany's
birth as a unified country and rival power in the 19th century, and peaked
during World War II, when German bombs rained down on London.
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- Years after the war came the BBC comedy classic "Fawlty
Towers," where hotel owner Basil Fawlty, preparing for the arrival
of German tourists, keeps telling his staff "Don't mention the war,"
only to goose-step around and repeatedly mention the war. ("Don't
mention the beach towels," echoed a recent headline in The Times,
which devoted an entire page to Italy's German-bashing.)
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- "The truth is that Britain, not Germany, is the
nation that is the prisoner of its past," said the Guardian newspaper
last fall.
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- When the two countries meet on the soccer field, British
tabloids happily evoke military images. Before a game in the Euro '96 tournament,
they ran headlines such as "Let's Blitz Fritz."
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- The Daily Mirror said "ACHTUNG! SURRENDER ... For
you, Fritz, ze Euro 96 Championship is over." The broadside caused
such an uproar that the paper issued an apology, and sent the German team
a hamper full of goodies from Harrods.
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- There is another reason for Germany's unpopularity: Europe.
Britain has long been reluctant to get entangled with the continent, and
observers say its dislike of Germany often masks a dislike of European
integration as a whole. "
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- Anti-Germanism is strengthened by Germany's leadership
role in a Europe that Britain does not want," says Thomas Kielinger,
London correspondent for the German newspaper Die Welt.
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- With such obstacles, Matussek's mission is daunting.
A first defeat came in December, when he failed to rally German businessmen
to change the image of the country's best-known companies.
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- "We can't change our image but we can try to use
it to our advantage," says Dieter Grotepass, general manager for Lufthansa
AG in Britain, which declined to join the makeover.
-
- Like car companies that stress German engineering prowess,
the airline is playing up qualities deemed typically German, such as punctuality
and reliability. "We can't try to make Lufthansa French or sexy,"
he says.
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- This month, Matussek hosted a conference discussing how
Germany could turn itself into an alluring brand name, a la the UK's "Cool
Britannia" makeover. Unlike other governments, Berlin has never made
such marketing efforts, for fear of evoking Hitler and the Holocaust.
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- Like others at the conference, London Times Berlin correspondent
Roger Boyes is skeptical. "The last time Germany was good at branding
itself," he said, "was under the Nazis."
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- © copyright 2003 Expatica Communications BV
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- http://213.159.10.102/germany.asp?pad=199,223,&item_id=34637
-
-
- Comment
- From Scott Gooseman
- 10-8-3
-
-
- As an englishman who spent over 15 years living in Berlin,
and around Germany I strongly reject most of the issues raised in this
article.
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- I have lived in London since 1987 and have never witnessed
any ill will or feeling towards the german people other than from the pre-war
generations (which in many instances can be expected, though not condoned).
I am certain that many of the issues raised in this expose can be true
of almost any country in the world as unfortunately this kind of racism
is endemic in all cultures, though hopefully not the norm.
-
- It's easy to focus on a few disturbing cases and blow
an opinion of what may be occuring out of all proportion and I believe
wholeheartedly that is exactly what this piece of journalism has achieved.
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- Of course I cannot speak for eveyone, I have only my
own experiences to draw upon. Though the jounalist involved has done nothing
more than collate a few random incidents and create a nightmare(ish) vision
of England as some asylum for xenophobic `kraut' haters gorging themselves
upon old Nazi propganda reels.
-
- This simpley isn't the reality of what the vast majority
of british people think of our german friends.
-
- Yours,
- Scott Gooseman
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