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[Ed. note: three messages follow.] From: Dani Kranz <moewe@gmx.li> Subject: Boettcher on the World Cup in Wolfenbüttel Date: Thursday, July 6, 2006 Dear List Members, I have been following the discussion about the world cup in Germany with great interest. I am social anthropologist who is UK based, who has been following the world cup in her native country and the usual side of fieldwork from abroad. Personally, I am still not sure of what to make of my fellow Germans flag waving, and still harbor some anxious feelings of seeing vast amounts of (any) national flags around. However, I have been observing my nearest and dearest in the UK and got a lot of photos and other information from my friends in Germany. What I find striking about the information I found is that the 'new flag waving' is embraced by ppl who are non-nationalists, or who have very troubled family histories with Germany. To give you an example, my German-Israeli boyfriend is happy to wear his Germany jacket and cheer for the German national team, and my German-French father is happy to do this along side him in our place in Edinburgh. On a trip to London, I went down to the pub to join what my friend, a German left-winged anti-nationalist, calls 'der deutsche Nord Londoner Stammtisch.' These Germans, all young professionals, cheered their national squad without the slightest whiff of nationalism. The same can be said about various of my friends in Germany and others in London. The majority of these people tends to be highly critical towards Germany, and at times alienated from what they call 'mainstream' society. Of course, these observations are patchy, and of course do not represent all opinions and observations I have come across; one of my friends was about send a letter to the FAZ mentioning that flag waving should not be equated with a coming of terms with the past. I surely do not mean to say that all is good and well back home. However, I found it surprising that the associations connected with football (and expressions of a national belonging or identification) have changed to the positive, and that Germany offers some ground of identifications for Germans with 'other' backgrounds than stereotypically assumed. Best, Dani Kranz Edinburgh From: Samuel Goldberger <mokus.home@excite.com> Subject: Boettcher on the World Cup in Wolfenbüttel Date: Thursday, July 6, 2006 Last week someone wondered about the significance of seeing Confederate flags being waved by some German fans at the WM matches. This is not necessarily a sign of political reaction. Back in 1969, while researching in Hungary, I met and married an Austrian also researching there. She had never been to the USA prior to our marriage, so you can imagine the cultural shock she experienced when she arrived in the US the following year (In 2006 Maria remains in cultural shock to some extent). She had not previously studied much US history, and during the first couple of years of her residence I was a bit puzzled at first to see her sympathizing with the Confederate cause, especially because she grew up in a strongly anti- Nazi family. Then I realized that what she was sympathizing with was the Southern experience of losing a terrible war and undergoing years of humiliating occupation afterwards (Born in 1939, she remembered the final terrible months of the War, followed by 10 years of life in the Soviet occupation zone of Eastern Austria). Once Maria became more knowledgeable about US history she was less ready to wave the Confederate flag. Even so, we remain temperamentally different with regard to the Lost Cause. She views it from the mellow cultural perspective of a "recovering Catholic", while I, having absorbed culturally from my Eastern Hungarian immigrant family both the zeal of Orthodox Judaism and the righteousness of Hungarian Calvinism still waxed indignant the other night when our local July 4th fireworks (in Manchester, CT !) were preceded by a medley of "patriotic" music including "Dixie". As Maria says: "There will always be two rivers between us (i.e., the Danube and the Theiss)". Samuel Goldberger, Capital Community College (emeritus) From: Howard Hotson <howard.hotson@st-annes.oxford.ac.uk> Subject: Boettcher on the World Cup in Wolfenbüttel Date: Thursday, July 6, 2006 Yesterday evening -- as the Germans threatened to score with about three minutes left in the match -- my Italian wife and our ten year-old son let out a joint shriek of terror which threatened to wake kids all up and down our street. This was followed, a minute later, by the most almighty roar when Italy scored. Scarcely had this jubilation subsided that it was followed by a third volcanic eruption of Latin emotion at the second goal. A quick phone call to Italy confirmed that whole neighbourhoods had reacted similarly. If such a reaction is regarded as perfectly innocent in one former axis country, why should it be so suspect in another? As a couple who research early modern Germany and love many things German, our only misgivings about this thrilling finale is that it puts a premature end to a long suppressed and well justified season of German patriotic fervour stimulated by a splendidly hosted tournament. I only hope that the Olympics in London go off as well in six years time. Howard Hotson (Oxford)
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