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>>I would like to know how Germany has changed since >>WWII. How do the politics lean? What long term effect >>did WWII have on German culture and politics? How do >>Germans view European Union and the rest of Europe? > >Some thoughts from a very tired German who should be >in bed already. Hope they make sense. > >WWII was a strong incision in German history. Before >WWII Germany was leading in science and culture. The >significant scientific publications were written in >German, not in English as today. The leading >scientists came from Germany, like Einstein, >Heisenberg, Planck. Many of them were Jews and were >all dispelled or killed at the time of WWII. Germany >had a long history of scientists like Gauss, Leibnitz, >Mendel, Koch, musicians like Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, >Schumann, philosophers like Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, >Schopenhauer, poets like Goethe, Schiller, Lessing, >Möricke. Germany was known as the "Land der Dichter >und Denker," the country of poets and thinkers, the >land of humanism. In shorts, we Germans believed we >were the most civilized, cultured and intellectual >nation in the world. Therefore, we were very proud and >nationalistic. Our national anthem started with >"Deutschland, Deutschland über alles" (Germany, >Germany above all). This was probably meant in the >sense that the poet loved Germany above all, but the >Nazis interpreted it the way that Germany should rule >over all. > >Then came WWII. The problem was not the war. The >problem was Hitler. The Germans had to realize that >the whole nation had followed this small, ugly and >devilish man like he had been the Messiah, that they >had participated in and caused a completely senseless >world war and most of all torturing and killing >millions of innocent Jews, systematic mass murder as >the world had not seen before. > >Of course, this was a shock. It humbled us a lot. >Nationalistic feeligns and ideas are now suspect in >Germany. Aside from the phenomenon of Neonazis >particularly in East Germany, the majority of Germans >have no patriotic or nationalistic feelings as >Americans have. Singing the first verse of the >national anthem is frowned upon and maybe even >forbidden. We have many foreigners in our country, we >call it a "multi-culti" (multi cultural) society. > >We view us as a core part of the European Union. We >love and know our European neighbours. Germans like to >make holidays in Spain, Italy, France, but also >Holland, Scandinavia or Turkey. Germans like to eat in >Italian or Greek restaurants more than in German >restaurants; and Turkish fast food (doener kebap) has >already got ahead of German (curry sausages) and >American (hamburgers). > >I have the feeling that my answer is a bit strange and >I have to go to bed. But actually, your questions are >difficult to answer, and I could write many pages.

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