Actung Actung!!! DAS IST VERBOTEN

Oh hey. I have been thinking about Germany lately. There are two reasons for this: The first is that I recently read an article about rampant anti German sentiments in Britain, and the second is that I am currently watching Allo Allo, which is a British sitcom set in occupied France during WWII. I find this very interesting indeed, as I once lived in Britain, and like all my friends, I grew up with a strong dislike of the Bosch.

Just like every other school boy in England, I learned several anti German songs, but one in particular stood out. It was awesome; a song that was sung whenever Germany, Germans, War or Hitler came up in a conversation. It is a catchy little ditty; the words of which imply that certain leaders of the Third Reich were missing body parts essential to human procreation. Whenever the English met their German counterparts in the beautiful game, another song was sung by every red blooded Englishman and woman, the words of which go as follows: "Two world wars and one world cup, doo dah, doo dah, two world wars and one world cup, oh dah doo dah dae."

When I went to school, the whole politically correct nonsense had not yet invaded history classrooms, which were without fail decorated with several Churchill posters, displaying the man himself standing in front of a squadron of spitfires with words like "This was our finest hour" scrawled across his Chestertonian midsection. The teachers would run audio of Churchill speeches, and the take special care to insure that we would never forget what had happened 50 or so years ago. Still even with all that, forgetting would be impossible. If you walk down a street in my dad's home town, you will still see bombed out houses, bombed out office buildings and bombed out churches that have been left as a reminder of past wrongs. Every Christmas, it has long been a tradition in many British households to get the family together and watch the Great Escape on BBC2.. Also, if any young Britain was uncertain of what had happened, it would simply take a comment to that effect to trigger hours upon hours of stories from grandparents. You see, in a country in which the events of WW2 quite literally struck close to home/ struck homes and those events are still in the living memory of so many, it would really be impossible for someone with more than a 10 second memory to ever forget.

So how do I feel about all this now that I am an American who thinks Europe sux? Well, I have to say that in my house, Germany and Germans are still the butt of at least 2 jokes a day. In fact, whenever I don't like someone, I make them German in my head, and if I must imitate their voice, it will be my best attempt at a German accent. But is this bad? Yes and no in my opinion. For the no, it is quite stupid to stereotype the inhabitants of a whole country as being Nazis, loving rules and regulations and being hyper efficient. Also, it makes it dangerous and scary for Germans in Britain who just want to go to school or spend money. For the yes, it is best to learn from the mistakes of the past, because a Fourth Reich is more than 1 too many. Also, dislike of the Germans is one of the few things that still holds England together as a country. Still, constantly living in the past and letting old rivalries fester is a bad thing. However, if you want to dislike Germany/ the Germans for newer fresher reasons, there are plenty of resources available to meet your needs.