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You are here: Home Education Higher Education British anti-Germanism deepens

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01/10/2003British anti-Germanism deepens

For some German students, the experience of living and studying in Britain has turned into a nightmare with many reporting how they have found themselves victims of anti-German attacks.

 
Stefana Bosse is a German teenager living in London — 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. 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.
Germany's image in the UK has deteriorated over the years
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. 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. 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. 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 — 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. "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. 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 — a big issue for Britons — 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. "What you find here isn't so much hostility as a high degree of disinterest, ignorance and outdated clichés," says Matussek. 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. 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. In his office, Matussek keeps a stack of pink and blue postcards from a campaign encouraging Britons to learn German. 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. "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. 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. "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. 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. 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.) "The truth is that Britain, not Germany, is the nation that is the prisoner of its past," said the Guardian newspaper last fall. 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." 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. 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. " 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. 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. "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. 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. 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." October 2003 DPA


3 reactions to this article

Frederik posted: 2010-09-02 18:47:05

This is exactly the truth.
The Anti-German feelings in the whole of Britain have indeed deepened to extremely wide rifts and extreme hostile contrasts.
It is almost a national fashion to each British being completely Anti-German and to show their despiteful hatred against every German.
Visiting Britain is more than a nightmare to every German and the extremely wide rifts between British and Germans are growing as fast as never before in history.
The British system of education is based on an education of hatred and hostily which is completed by the public opinion and all British medias people see and hear daily.
So, we clearly can say that the last 60 years have not changed anything but even made worse as ever before.
Germans have to accept the British pov and to deal with it.
Both sides should accept their rifts and contrasts and both sides should act on this basic fact.
Germans know that they never can do with the British and so there is very little sympathy for the British while in Britain you have real hate and hostility.

Pieter Zelbst posted: 2011-11-19 00:42:41

I disagree. Educated Britons are hostile to Germany because of the EU - Britain won the war and recognises there is nothing to be gained from the glorification of Churchill and past successes. Germany, today, seeks 'Lebensraum' through the EU where more advanced powers achieved this through colonisation. Britain has no ambitions in Europe. The UK has propelled three former colonies to G20 status in the last 200 years, the world speaks its language and it has won all the world wars it can stomach. Europe is relevant to Britain only from a trade perspective - there is no 'Lebensraum' here, or colonies to be found. Britain wants to trade with Europe and the world but cannot understand why it should pay heed to directives such as (the latest nonsense) 'water does not hydrate therefore it is illegal to state as much on bottles of water sold in the EU'. An EU dominated by Germany is never going to be one in which Britain can prosper because it was always in Britain's interests to form free-trade alliances with the US, Canada, Australia, NZ, South Africa, Ireland, and just about any other Commonwealth/former Commonwealth nation you could mention. Germany is the enemy only insomuch as it seeks to dominate where it has failed before. The times for empire are over. Britain knows this but Germany, sadly, does not. It is time for Germany, rather than Britain, to accept its place in the world and accept that its language is spoken in three or four countries, it has no influence outside Europe, it is one of the most despised nations on the planet, and it really has nothing to offer anyone. It is surely time for Germany to recognise its place in the world as a minor player, not even amongst the most influential five European powers.

Frederik posted: 2012-01-02 20:02:37

I deeply disagree my dear friend from the British Empire.
Germany is looking for nothing at all.
While Britain is one of the biggest military super-powrs of the world and while Britain is spending most of the money of its tax-payers into wars all over the world and into a huge programm of military enforcement,Germany has been reducing its military capacities to a very low level and Germany is about to disarm while Britain is enforcing its own huge military capacities for the next wars.
Germany is doing nothing but looking for a close alliance to its only real ally since ever and this is Russia.
Britain is absolutely out of any interest for German politics and therefore Britain will stay at the utmost sideline of any German interest.
Britain is a nation of hateful hatemongers.
Germany does nothing but do its own trade and everybody who wants to leave the EU can go.

Germans and the rest of the continent would even pay the fare for the ferry for the British back to your island:)
So please do us the favour and leave ten EU because nobody can stand you any longer.
The rest of Europe can do very well without the British.
You are absolutely not wanted here on the continent and so please join as the 51st state to the USA if they will accept you:)

Good for you that for the British monolinguals that their language is used
as a language of commerce but that does not mean anything.
Perhaps like most British monolinguals you do not even now the sense of "Lebensraum" because a British usually is not able to lean a difficult language like German.
So have your fun with "Blitzkrieg" and so carry on fighting your eternal battle of England and do not forget : the war for you is not over because each of you is still at war against Germany:)

BTW: Your Empire you have lost as you have been hunted away like thieves in the dark night.
Your colonies you have lost by being hunted away the same way and your pound is sinking and sinking and in your own cities you have the war.
Not if you would give the Germans money (which you do not have as a broke nation) they would even waste a single thought overtaking your island only for a second as "Lebensraum"
Germans prefer to visit the free part of Ireland as a Eu-member and try to avoid your hateful and hostile island meanwhile:)

And the rules for the British are not made at all in London but since many years in Washington.
You have no chance but to follow the orders that come from Washington:)

Britain can be grateful if they are accepted as the lap-dog of the USA.

So have a good time, stay over n your island ad please leave us soon.

Mr.Sarkozy was telling you what he thinks about you.

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3 reactions to this article

Frederik posted: 2010-09-02 18:47:05

This is exactly the truth.
The Anti-German feelings in the whole of Britain have indeed deepened to extremely wide rifts and extreme hostile contrasts.
It is almost a national fashion to each British being completely Anti-German and to show their despiteful hatred against every German.
Visiting Britain is more than a nightmare to every German and the extremely wide rifts between British and Germans are growing as fast as never before in history.
The British system of education is based on an education of hatred and hostily which is completed by the public opinion and all British medias people see and hear daily.
So, we clearly can say that the last 60 years have not changed anything but even made worse as ever before.
Germans have to accept the British pov and to deal with it.
Both sides should accept their rifts and contrasts and both sides should act on this basic fact.
Germans know that they never can do with the British and so there is very little sympathy for the British while in Britain you have real hate and hostility.

Pieter Zelbst posted: 2011-11-19 00:42:41

I disagree. Educated Britons are hostile to Germany because of the EU - Britain won the war and recognises there is nothing to be gained from the glorification of Churchill and past successes. Germany, today, seeks 'Lebensraum' through the EU where more advanced powers achieved this through colonisation. Britain has no ambitions in Europe. The UK has propelled three former colonies to G20 status in the last 200 years, the world speaks its language and it has won all the world wars it can stomach. Europe is relevant to Britain only from a trade perspective - there is no 'Lebensraum' here, or colonies to be found. Britain wants to trade with Europe and the world but cannot understand why it should pay heed to directives such as (the latest nonsense) 'water does not hydrate therefore it is illegal to state as much on bottles of water sold in the EU'. An EU dominated by Germany is never going to be one in which Britain can prosper because it was always in Britain's interests to form free-trade alliances with the US, Canada, Australia, NZ, South Africa, Ireland, and just about any other Commonwealth/former Commonwealth nation you could mention. Germany is the enemy only insomuch as it seeks to dominate where it has failed before. The times for empire are over. Britain knows this but Germany, sadly, does not. It is time for Germany, rather than Britain, to accept its place in the world and accept that its language is spoken in three or four countries, it has no influence outside Europe, it is one of the most despised nations on the planet, and it really has nothing to offer anyone. It is surely time for Germany to recognise its place in the world as a minor player, not even amongst the most influential five European powers.

Frederik posted: 2012-01-02 20:02:37

I deeply disagree my dear friend from the British Empire.
Germany is looking for nothing at all.
While Britain is one of the biggest military super-powrs of the world and while Britain is spending most of the money of its tax-payers into wars all over the world and into a huge programm of military enforcement,Germany has been reducing its military capacities to a very low level and Germany is about to disarm while Britain is enforcing its own huge military capacities for the next wars.
Germany is doing nothing but looking for a close alliance to its only real ally since ever and this is Russia.
Britain is absolutely out of any interest for German politics and therefore Britain will stay at the utmost sideline of any German interest.
Britain is a nation of hateful hatemongers.
Germany does nothing but do its own trade and everybody who wants to leave the EU can go.

Germans and the rest of the continent would even pay the fare for the ferry for the British back to your island:)
So please do us the favour and leave ten EU because nobody can stand you any longer.
The rest of Europe can do very well without the British.
You are absolutely not wanted here on the continent and so please join as the 51st state to the USA if they will accept you:)

Good for you that for the British monolinguals that their language is used
as a language of commerce but that does not mean anything.
Perhaps like most British monolinguals you do not even now the sense of "Lebensraum" because a British usually is not able to lean a difficult language like German.
So have your fun with "Blitzkrieg" and so carry on fighting your eternal battle of England and do not forget : the war for you is not over because each of you is still at war against Germany:)

BTW: Your Empire you have lost as you have been hunted away like thieves in the dark night.
Your colonies you have lost by being hunted away the same way and your pound is sinking and sinking and in your own cities you have the war.
Not if you would give the Germans money (which you do not have as a broke nation) they would even waste a single thought overtaking your island only for a second as "Lebensraum"
Germans prefer to visit the free part of Ireland as a Eu-member and try to avoid your hateful and hostile island meanwhile:)

And the rules for the British are not made at all in London but since many years in Washington.
You have no chance but to follow the orders that come from Washington:)

Britain can be grateful if they are accepted as the lap-dog of the USA.

So have a good time, stay over n your island ad please leave us soon.

Mr.Sarkozy was telling you what he thinks about you.

Add a comment
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