Yes I too would be interested in the German man in the street view. One aspect I would be interested in is areas like repaying war debts and how the two economies were helped by "aid" after the war? Britain for example only just finished paying back their 50 year loan to the Americans.
For what it is worth the average man in the Spanish street has zero understanding of the huge financial, social and economic impacts that WW2 had on the participating countries. I find that truly staggering but then if you ask the "ordinary man in the street" in Britain about the impact of the Spanish Civil War most wouldn't have a clue.
Following on from the points raised in this thread
http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/index.php?topic=104537.75I can only speak from my own experiences and from what I hear from Germans here. These are not my opinions but just what has or is being said / felt and I cannot necessarily answer any specific points raised, but will try. Bigyin may or may not agree.
It has also to be borne in mind that just like any country, opinions may vary from region to region, throughout classes etc. Here, which is approx
http://www.viamichelin.com/web/Cartes-plans?layers=0001&strLocid=31M21qczEwY05Ea3VOelV6TnpRPWNOaTQyTkRZeU5RPT0= will be different from somewhere in the old East Germany. Personally I am 1km from the Luxembourg border, around 50km from the Belgian border and around 40km from the French border, and less than 2 hours from NL. As a result the German mentality around here will not be shared all over the country, especially the more rural areas.
But... I do live with a German, who has spent most her life in Germany.
The old English/German thing, we have talked about. She says that the Germans, even the younger generation, still feel the repurcusions in daily life. The fact that so much horror went on in the war, with Germany being blamed, that any action today can always be compared with that. They feel embarrassed, ashamed of it. Even though it was 70 years ago, nothing to do with them, there is that built in feeling that any action of German people, Govt will be compared to times in the past.
For example. Many Germans today get peeved by the amount of money Germany gives away, in order to help other countries - Greece for e.g. And it is still going on. Germany is saying they'll give more and more to crisis countries. The people, of course, say why? Most seem to think that Merkel (or whoever is in power) cannot say no for danger of being seen to be cruel, nasty, selfish, or worst of all, compared with those Germans in the past who we'd all rather forget.
And of course the old cliches don't die. People are still quoting John Cleese from the Faulty Towers sketch before the PC brigade arrived.
It was the same when I made my own feeling known about immigration, which I believe are shared amongst quite a number. Come to our country, fine.(UK, for e.g.) Work, pay and adopt to our culture tends to be my stance. If you cannot, go home.
The Germans would like to do the same, but if they start shipping the Turks back home, even when some Turk guy might have murdered his daughter for going out with the wrong guy, they feel they cannot. Again, it would be likened to historic events.
On a lighter note. Football. Germany will not forget the 1966 World Cup final when a German goal was disallowed, even though it was over the line. Ironically the same thing happened to England when the teams met in 2010 World Cup. Germany saw it as pay-back. Why not, I suppose.
On a final note, referring to my location. I spend most of my time working in Luxembourg, which is probably has the most nationalities of people in one location (by day anyway) of anywhere. I have never experienced trouble between nationalities. I used to work in Finance in a place that had 400 employees - 27 nationalities were represented. Not an issue.
In summary, and this is my own opinion, most of the issues arise from lack of knowledge, lack of experience, just repeating what Dad used to say etc, ignorance, basically. These judgements being made by people who have not travelled to many places, not spent lots of time in the company of other cultures etc. If a person has not actually experienced something, it is impossible to make a clear judgement on a situation.
And, let's face it, who today can actually make a clear judgement on what happened in 1942?
This is obviously not an exhaustive summary by any means, but I think it covers the most significant issue.... and possible the 2nd too.
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Topic: Living in Germany (Read 1325 times)