Cup fills many Germans with a newfound pride

BERLIN -- The flag-waving started as normal sports hoopla, a show of support for the German soccer team.

But in the bright sunlight of this World Cup season, the flags, cheers, and robust singing of the national anthem by the buoyant crowds have become something else -- a resurgence of unbridled patriotism on a scale unseen in Germany since World War II, according to historians, political scientists, and other analysts.

``It's really without precedent in our democratic [postwar] history," said Manfred Hettling, professor of modern history at Germany's University of Halle. ``We've had soccer championships before. We've had proud moments, like the fall of the Berlin Wall. But never have we had so many Germans so publicly celebrating their country.

``Partly it's just soccer and cheering the sport. But people are also showing pride and German patriotism," he said. ``It's not loaded with politics. It's not the bad old days of `Germans over everyone.' I think it's a good and healthy change."

Indeed, given the German penchant for endless complaint about their prosperous, pleasant republic, the high spirits are a great break. No one is more surprised by the new friskiness than the Germans themselves. The national mood has surpassed soccer scores and other World Cup miscellanea as the number one topic of conversation at corner taverns and on talk shows.

``The country is vibrating, literally humming," the magazine Der Spiegel said in a cover story that highlighted the extraordinary national mood. ``It's a spellbound, happy land united under a black, red, and gold banner."

The million-euro question is: ``Why?"

Some commentators suggest that it's nothing more than a rare run of great weather, a smooth-ticking international tournament, and the fact that the national team has won all three of its starter matches.

But other analysts note that Germany is undergoing a political-demographic shift, as the leaders of the so-called `` '68 Generation" -- politicians who came of age in the stridently antinationalist 1960s and 1970s and came to power in the 1980s -- are yielding center stage to a younger breed. Chancellor Angela Merkel, 52, is an unabashed patriot who believes that Germany's postwar record of liberty, tolerance, and international leadership give her fellow citizens every right to wave their flag.

Said Hettling: ``The World Cup has simply provided an opportunity for the real patriotism of younger Germans to burst out."

Given Germany's dark 20th- century past -- the Nazi era, the destruction of Europe, the Holocaust -- the roar of national pride is provoking some anxiety as well.

The National Teachers Union has warned that even singing the national anthem is dangerous. It's just a short step, the organization implied, from boisterous renditions of ``Das Lied der Deutschen" (The Song of the Germans) to the sort of goose-marching ultranationalism that gave rise to Adolf Hitler.

Nonsense, say ordinary Germans, who generally seem bemused, a bit dazed, but basically delighted to see their country glow.

``It's happened so suddenly it does feel quite strange -- so many flags, so much happiness about Germany," Gisela Du Vignau, a 60-year-old native of Berlin, said yesterday as she enjoyed a warm afternoon by the burbling fountain outside Ludwig Church in the upscale Charlottenburg district. ``Perhaps we Germans are finally starting to relax, starting to feel we can behave like normal people."

``For so many years we've carried this bad image of ourselves," she said. ``I think it's nice to show some pride and spirit. We should stay mindful of the past, of course. We should take care that appreciation for our own country does not become contempt for others. But it's good that we can celebrate ourselves a little."

The world seems to be joining in the celebration. Hundreds of thousands of international visitors have joined the Germans thronging to stadiums, open-air screenings of the games, and mammoth beer fests that have remained remarkably free of rowdyism and political protests.

``Everyone is feeling this spirit," said Torsten Kaiser, 40, a bratwurst seller near Berlin's landmark Zoo train station. ``No one expected it to be so good or strong. It doesn't seem entirely normal. But it seems nice."

Flag sales in Germany have been 10 times higher over the past two weeks than during the last big burst of sales -- the reunification of West Germany with the communist East after the 1989 collapse of the Berlin Wall -- according to media reports. From near invisibility, the German tricolor has become ubiquitous -- draped from apartment balconies, hanging in shop windows, painted on foreheads, replicated in unlikely apparel (leis and sarongs are especially popular), and even mimicked in arrangements of sushi.

Since 1945, the flying of German flags by individuals and businesses has been almost taboo -- partly a hangover from the Hitler era when merchants and private homes were forced to display the black, red, and white swastika banner.

``For Germans, flags, and patriotic displays were contaminated reminders of the past," said Heinrich August Winkler, professor of modern history at Berlin's Humboldt University and author of ``Germany: The Long Road West."

``But now Germans are starting to see our black, red, and gold colors almost as Americans see their flag -- as the symbol of a healthy democracy, not just a symbol of state," he said. ``That's a big change, and I think it's a good one."

Oliver Skeller, 18, swathed in a German flag as he and his girlfriend hung out yesterday near Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, said that the World Cup represents a fine moment for young Germans.

``We're happy, we're cheering, we're proud to have so many visitors from around the world come see us," he said. ``We are behaving like ordinary people in an ordinary country. Which is different and tremendous."

Petra Krischok of the Globe's Berlin bureau contributed to this report.