I know it’s not true that all Germans are efficient about everything, but that’s what comes to mind. I have a friend who is German who I routinely mock for his very inefficient way of existing. For example, he’s late to everything. What kind of German is that? I (half-seriously) joked to him once that he needs to get his shit together, and is a bad German due to his punctuality issues. No worries – I’m late to everything too, but I expect more out of my white friends, particularly the Germans!
Yeah, me too. The first thing that pops into my mind is, well, Germany. The whole thing: the country, its language, its culture, its music, its customs, its geography, etc. etc.
But, Gott help me, the second thing that pops into my mind is:
First thing? My old t-shirts with “Germany” or “Deutschland” under the German eagle, or “Pleitegeier” (bankrupt vulture) as I learned actual Germans had nicknamed it.
I went through a Germanophile phase.
Hitler was a Bavarian born in Austria, and an eccentric who took expansionist Geopolitik way too seriously; not representative of Deutschland overall (though he was a strong German nationalist, and his party was very big on a national German identity).
Another Army brat here whose mind goes to some wonderfully happy years in that country - really probably the best years of my childhood. I tell you, it’s frustrating to know how great the place is then move back to the States and have everyone only associate it with WWII. Because I can tell you, this poll strikes me as not reflective of general sentiment - unless things have really changed in recent years. IIRC, in 2005 Spiegel or some magazine had a special issue on the 60th anniversary of the war’s end, and included a piece on foreigner’s views of Germany. Overwhelmingly people still highly associated the country with the war, and a surprising number of Americans and Brits told pollsters they would not even be willing to visit the country.
Very conflicting thoughts. At first some mild anger and dislike, which will probably swell to pure hate and bloodlust over the next 5 months; accompanied by a wry smile, while thinking of the good times I’ve been having there the last year…and whether I should take the 8.08 or 10.08 train next time I go.
WWII is of no consequence, the real bloodshed was in 1974, 1988, 1990, 1992 and (to a lesser extent) 2004. I still mourn the losses and treasure the victories.
My immediate thought was Black Forest cake. Immediately after that I thought, “Wait a minute, I should have thought of German chocolate cake, because that makes more sense.” Then just for fun I looked up Black Forest cake, remembering that I ate at a German restaurant called Black Forest, and it turns out that Black Forest cake is also German. Neat!
Quick explanation. I love to vacation. My gf does also. We do a week or so in New Orleans each year (Jazzfest) and two weeks in St Martin. Visiting Europe would, out of necessity, mean missing time in NOLA/Caribbean. Compared to my love of NOLA/Beaches, I have no desire to see Europe other than in my brother’s pictures.
I think of a little green country with two knobs from my elementary school class. The knobs went where the capitals are, and the Germany piece was made by gluing East and West Germany together, rather than buying a whole new map.
I suspect another poll with an age-bracket-of-respondent grouping of those same two choices might show a marked difference between the over-50 crowd and the 50-and-under crowd.
As WWII fades more in memory, even some of the older group may have found substitute images and hard-wired reactions. The younger crowd may never have formed such things. But as a 70-year-old, I probabaly won’t outlive my Germany=Hitler bias.
