Still flying

When we arrived in Germany on July 1st, I saw something that amazed me to the point of disbelief: the whole country was awash in German flags.

For someone who is not German this might not be easy to understand.  Germans on the whole have a little hangup with patriotism and any symbols that go along with it.  Traditionally (i.e. ever after WWII), we associate an ostentatious showing of the flag or a display of pride in Germany with the radical right.  It was just not done by your average German person.  Flags would fly on high holidays but mostly on official buildings, and sometimes a few would hang from houses when a German sports team do something wonderful on an international platform.

But now, see this!  Flags everywhere, hanging from houses, and more than anything else, flags on German cars.  Lots of them.  And smiling people.  The whole country vibrated with something that I can only call friendly pride in oneself.  Not arrogant, not condescending, just happy.

So I thought this was because the German team got further than anyone ever thought it could go.  And I watched the game on Tuesday evening, and I was excited, and I was sad when the team lost.  And I thought to myself, knowing my countrymen and women, that the flags would be pulled in now that the German team was out, and that people would go about their business as usual.

I still didn't understand just how much of a transformation for Germany this world cup had been.

The next morning, I still saw cars with German flags on them. And I thought, that's nice, and sporting, not to condemn the team just because they lost one game, and it's nice that we are trying to be good losers.  Being a sport about losing is an important German value.  And I still had it wrong.

It was not about being good losers, and it was not about reaching the semi-finals. It was about something else - it was about Germany rediscovering its heart.  A day or so before the so-called "small final" I saw an interview of a German fan in Berlin.  The reporter asked the young man, decked out in the German colors, what had been the greatest moment of the world cup for him.  He answered, his voice choking with tears, "The best is that we have our flag back."  We being your average German, not left, not right, not nutty.

It's been one of the most peaceful and friendly world cups ever.  The official motto has been translated to the catchy "A time to make friends".  Literally, the German "Die Welt zu Gast bei Freunden" means "The world as guests at friends".  It's clunky in English, that's why it was changed.  But all of Germany seemed to feel that they were hosts and that we welcomed the world to our home.  A home that we can be proud of, finally, without being ashamed and without being labelled as radicals.  We're happy to be Germans.  We're proud of our team, how far it has come.  We're proud of our country as a great host for the games.  We're proud that we had guests who go home as fans of Germany.  We're proud we could show that we are more than precision, reliability, and history. We're happy.  Oh, so happy.

And of course, we're going to go for the cup in 2010. What did you think?

Comments

[Carlos]

I actually saw the third place game (Noel was in town). And it didn't suck.

I'm glad Germany is happy.