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  Debating Patriotism: Germany's New Normality

Debating Patriotism Germany's New Normality

By Steve Crawshaw

Part 2: Part Two: Why Germans should be proud.

There are, of course, many reasons for gloom. Despite all the talk, it sometimes seems that confrontation with the problems of the economy has barely begun. Many western Germans especially are still in denial about how luxurious, by the standards of other Europeans, are the standards to which Germans are accustomed. Things look set to get worse before they can get better. The divisions within Germany, too, run deeper than seemed imaginable. Fifteen years on from the fall of the Wall, it is still a matter of "one passport, two countries".

There are, however, reasons for hope. These include the undiminished remembrance of Germany's dark history. They also include the fragile memory of a German miracle. The fall of the Wall on Nov. 9, 1989, was an astonishing day for all Europe. In some respects, however, even more astonishing were events in Leipzig a month earlier.

On Oct. 9, for the first time in history, German courage defeated a dictatorship. The authorities had publicly announced their readiness to stage a repeat of the Tiananmen Square massacre, just four months earlier. They were ready to defend socialism, "If we have to, we will with weapons in our hand!" That afternoon, before the service in the Nikolaikirche, I counted 15 trucks with armed militias in one sidestreet alone. Everybody was waiting for the bloodbath; the casualty wards were cleared. At the last moment, however, the unelected rulers were more afraid of the people than the people were afraid of their rulers. Witnessing that historic retreat before the crowds marked some of the most extraordinary moments of my life. My expulsion by the Stasi later that night did nothing to diminish the sense of privilege at being present in Leipzig. No hindsight was needed to understand that the fall of the Wall became inevitable that day. One only needed to understand that society itself is sometimes more powerful than even the most powerful politicians.

In western Germany, the significance of that day is often too little understood. But Oct. 9 is an important fragment of the new German normality. It is a day of which Germans -- above all, eastern Germans -- can be proud. And Germany, too, needs reasons for pride.

Britons have missed Germany's transformation

My compatriots are sometimes unwilling to understand the generational changes which have made all the other changes possible. Some appear to believe that Basil Fawlty, John Cleese's crazed hotel manager in "Fawlty Towers," was right, after all. "Don't mention the war," was Basil's famous mantra, as he goosestepped his way around the dining room. Thirty years later, it sometimes seems that Basil is alive and well in the UK.

But the problems are not just to do with foreign prejudice - that is too easy a target for blame. The word "patriotism" is constantly floated, but still causes a frisson. That is partly because of the long shadow of history. In addition, there are problems of Germany's own making, with the simple question: who is a German? Life would be easier if there was a better understanding that, in 21st century Europe, soil can be as important as blood in determining identity. Those who proudly call themselves British -- including government ministers, leading businessmen, and (earlier this month) the country's "national mastermind" in a popular BBC television program -- have different colored skins, and parents or grandparents who were born in different parts of the world. In Germany, meanwhile, the phrase "ausländische Mitbürger" (foreign fellow-citizens) continues to underline the "otherness" of those with names like Mehmet, even if Mehmet's native language is German. A looser definition of patriotism could at the same time be a more secure kind of patriotism, not least because Mehmet has no connection, even at several removes, with the Third Reich. Nor is the new danger of terrorism a reason for a society to turn further inward on itself. On the contrary. A society which closes in on itself also becomes less safe.

Germany will find it hard to achieve normality, if that normality is demanded right now! or if there is an insistence on seeing German historical crimes "in context". But, when the relativisers remain silent, a new relaxedness may come of its own accord. The philosopher John Stuart Mill wrote: "Those only are happy who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness.... Aiming thus at something else, they find happiness by the way." If one replaces the words "happy" and "happiness" with "normal" and "normality", one has a reasonable description of the paradox facing Germany and the Germans today. German politicians who become obsessed with achieving normality achieve the opposite. But, when Germans have their minds fixed on some other object than their own normality, they may find normality by the way.

The process of normalization continues

Year by year and month by month, the taboos continue to crumble. The Producers -- the magnificently bad-taste musical whose best known number is "Springtime for Hitler" -- has been a giant box-office success in New York and London. When the production opened on Broadway three years ago, a German staging seemed unimaginable. The taboo was too strong, the virus too lively. Now, discussions are under way: it may only to be a matter of time before German audiences, too, roar with laughter and applaud "Springtime for Hitler," as delighted Londoners and New Yorkers already do.

If or when that day comes, some British commentators will no doubt mutter and growl, as is their wont. ("If Germans feel relaxed about watching the antics of Hitler, is this the fertile soil in which...?") German commentators will, with luck, be more relaxed. The danger of the far right remains real; but the threat is not made greater by staging The Producers, any more than it would be made greater by publishing the turgid Mein Kampf.

Perhaps the greatest challenge of all -- the west-east divide -- can gradually be bridged. Like so much else in modern Germany, it is a question of generational change. (Jana Hensel in her novel After the Wall writes: "For us it's normal to marry West Germans, even if older East Germans stick together."

In the 1980s, dictionaries could define Germany in the past tense. Germany was "a former country in central Europe". Partial normality means that now there is at least the possibility of creating a united German Fatherland -- even if, in practical terms, the divisions remain. The progress towards a more relaxed normality looks set to continue -- eventually, perhaps, in one German country, not two. One day, even the Britons may come to accept it.

Steve Crawshaw, London director of Human Rights Watch, is author of Easier Fatherland: Germany and the Twenty-First Century (Continuum, 2004). From 1985 to 1995, he was Eastern Europe and Germany correspondent for The Independent.