Posted on 04/15/2006 7:42:44 AM PDT by Michael81Dus
Germany is out of the doldrums as economic reforms boost wealth and confidence. Now all it needs is to win the World Cup
NEVER write off the Germans. As every English football fan knows, they don’t know when they are beaten.
Only a few months ago, the country appeared to be staring into an abyss. The Government was paralysed after inconclusive elections and the economy, Europe’s largest, was in recession with more than five million out of work, and the most powerful companies were awash with corporate sleaze.
Relations with the United States were at their lowest ebb after the war in Iraq, and Germany had been placed firmly in “Old Europe” by critics despairing at the EU’s stubborn refusal to modernise. It was, to put it mildly, a bit of a mess.
Yet this week the dubious title of Sick Man of Europe was handed, without great ceremony, from Germany to Italy, and in Berlin at least there was palpable relief. With chaos in Rome, a nervous crisis in Paris and with the Blair era drawing to a close, Germany is emerging as Europe’s rising star.
You feel the change in your bones, says 38-year-old Beate Lindner.
“We’re not the bottom of the heap any more and it feels good,” she says.
Frau Lindner, a single mother with a 14-year-old son, Martin, has had some lean years as a travel consultant, but now business is looking up. The Chinese are coming, the Americans have discovered German modern art as a tax write-off and the British and Irish want second homes in Germany.
Germans are abandoning their traditional pessimism and are becoming upbeat about their country. Pop songs burst with national pride. A new marketing campaign sells Germany as a Land of Ideas. The Berlin cityscape brims with shiny, metallic sculptures boasting of Germany’s greatest inventions: from oversized aspirins to huge adidas football boots.
The football World Cup, which takes place in Germany this summer, is the focal point of the country’s rejuvenation, the moment when rising national self-esteem merges with a cash bonanza and a quiet optimism. A German Pope and a German World Cup win, muses the bestselling psychotherapist Stefan Grünewald, would signal the rebirth of national self-confidence.
Preparation for the World Cup has become a national metaphor. Jürgen Klinsmann, the former Spurs striker who now manages the national squad, has side-lined Oliver Kahn, the grumpy veteran and national icon, and handed the captain’s armband to Michael Ballack, a midfielder of extravagant skill and film-star good looks.
So Germany has moved from defence to offence, from stolid experience to youthful innovation. The word is out: Germans do not have to win the cup this time round but the spectators want a bit more flair.
Whether Angela Merkel, the Chancellor, sees the national mission quite in those terms is unclear. She has gone on holiday (to Italy) promising to accelerate reform on her return. This is a decisive juncture. Germany is ahead of both France and Italy in the reform cycle.
Gerhard Schröder, her predecessor, began overhauling the welfare state three years ago, and paid the political price. His downfall came not through dramatic Paris-style street protests but rather in the drip-drip of regional election losses. His authority eroded like limestone.
Frau Merkel is ready to exploit this legacy as surely as Tony Blair benefited from the groundwork laid by Margaret Thatcher. Businesses sense this is about to happen, which is why Frau Merkel’s popularity ratings among managers is still above 70 per cent.
Ping
Germany just bought most of the space in the new Comcast building in Philadelphia. Somebody is making money there.
This is a good thing.
With Muslims threatening to take over "Old Europe," it would be wise for these Europeans to get a little nationalistic.
Germany has done squat to improve. It's just that Italy and France su(k worse.
i will be leaving for germany on monday. I will let you know what I think when I return a week later.
Nice to hear good news from Germany and by the way Kaczynski will show up in Dortmund for Polish-German game.
Good ... and this time let them have France.
Sounds just like the 1936 Berlin Olympics. The 'coming out' party of das Volk.
My German ancestors settled in eastern Washington state in the 1880's. As immigrants, the Germans wanted to assimilate fast. No, "Old Country" stuff for them. All our family has left is the potato salad recipe. It's the best potato salad you'll ever have!
????
And this would be because... (lemme guess) it's so bad that Americans can take it as a LOSS?!
That is simply not true. The reforms have not been as much as they should have been, but there is positive movement.
The Germans don't like to strike and they certainly don't like revolutions. The corporations are extremely competitive and nearly everyone save the public servants recpognize the need to tighten belts and compete.
Your comment is merely a sign of your ignorance.
"A German Pope and a German World Cup win, muses the bestselling psychotherapist Stefan Grünewald, would signal the rebirth of national self-confidence."
What will Stefan say is the signal to the German people when the World Cup Final is Brazil vs USA.
rotflmao german art is not worth a loss
May the best team win!!
Germans didn´t "assimiliate" in the sense that they gave up their customs, they enriched the American culture. The Christmas tree is a German invention, for example, presented you by German immigrants. On Oct 6th is "German-American Day", what do you plan to celebrate your background? ;-)
Don´t worry, won´t happen. After all, it´s our cooks to present your meals while you stay here! ;-) Worked fine since 1945 with American guests.
So, happy Easter (though it´s not Easter Sunday and the grave isn´t empty yet) and then have a good time here. The weather is mixed, typically for April.
I think my Mom had that same recipe. Yum!
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