'Luftwaffe' legend to be erased from Schroeder's plane -

The Sunday Telegraph - UK ^ | July 6, 2003 | Michael Leidig in Munich

[UnklGene]

Luftwaffe legend to be erased from Schröder's plane By Michael Leidig in Munich (Filed: 06/07/2003)

The word "Luftwaffe" is to be removed from aircraft used by the German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and other top government officials in a belated attempt to exorcise the wartime ghosts of the Nazi past.

Nearly 60 years after the Second World War ended, the move to stop identifying politicians' aircraft with a name redolent of wartime bombardment was initiated by Johannes Rau, Germany's president. The plan was unveiled in the same week that Germany held a brainstorming session in London to develop a new "brand" for the country as part of the campaign to leave the past behind.

German sensitivities came to the surface last week when Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, was forced to express regret for remarks in which he compared a German MEP with a Nazi concentration camp guard (Sgt. Schultz), Mr Rau's office said he wanted to avoid stirring up painful memories of the Blitzkrieg and bombing in many countries that he and Mr Schroder visited by air.

"Obviously, when the president flew to countries where there are certain historic resentments against the Luftwaffe, he didn't exactly get off to a good start when the plane landed with that word dominating the plane," said one government official, who asked not to be identified. "It wasn't the best advertisement for a modern-day republic to have this staring out at hosts as President Rau walked down the aircraft steps." Mr Rau has travelled to 66 countries during his four years in office. Officials said the Luftwaffe logo particularly raised eyebrows in Eastern Europe. During the war, Warsaw fell victim to the first mass bombing raids as Luftwaffe Stukas helped reduce the city to rubble.

The word "Luftwaffe", which means air force, will be replaced by "Bundesrepublik Deutschland" - Federal Republic of Germany. Mr Rau was inspired by the plane used by the American president, Air Force One, which is emblazoned with the words United States of America, rather than US Air Force or any other branch of the military.

On the day after the decision was announced, Germany launched a campaign to undo decades of "mistrust and stereotyping" and encourage Britons to think beyond Fawlty Towers sketches about Hitler salutes when they contemplate Germany.

Catherine Mayer, the UK correspondent for the German news magazine Focus, said: "The people behind this campaign feel that modern-day Germany has a lot more to offer and want to get that message across."

An attempt to rebrand of Germany last year, aimed at British schoolchildren and spearheaded by celebrities such as Claudia Schiffer, failed to make any impression, according to a poll released by the Goethe Institute last week. Hitler regularly emerges in surveys as the most famous German, despite the fact that he was Austrian.

A spokesman for the Luftwaffe, Lt Col Gunther Katz, said the German air force had not opposed the change as it was a matter for politicians. However, he heaped scorn on the notion that its name reminded people of the Nazis. "It is ridiculous to suggest that the modern Luftwaffe has any links with the Nazis. The two are nothing to do with each other and it's a weird link to make. Politicians will do what they want, and that is the end of it," he said.

The redesign and repainting operation will cost more than £5 million.

[BikerTrash]

Awwww...isn't this special? I feel so much better now.

Idiots.

[UnklGene]

The word "Luftwaffe", which means air force, How about "Luftheiss," for hot air?

[B Knotts]

Ha ha ha ha.

Yep. Changing the name will make it all better.

Idiots.

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

The German government moves at the same pace as ours. Luftwaffe

[StarfireIV]

Do you mean heisse Luft (hot air) or Lufthitze(air heat)?

[B Knotts]

The redesign and repainting operation will cost more than £5 million.

That must be a heck of a paint job.

Earl Scheib will do it for $199.95.

[Finny]

Personally, I think this kind of stuff is ridiculous. My husband is into building model airplanes, especially combat aircraft, and these days it's hard to find models of WWII German aircraft with swastikas! I mean, it's HISTORY, for Pete's sake! Politically-correct censorship, aka rewriting and sanitizing history, is a disservice to everyone.

BMW built the engines for the fabled, feared, and respected Focke-Wulf 190 fighter plane, and Daimler-Benz built most of the engines for the equally legendary Messerschmitt 109, which was probably the most famous German figher of all. (Rolls-Royce built the Merlin engines that powered the lovely, incredible Spitfires, and Packard-built Merlins, licensed via RR, powered the great P-51 Musgangs). Heck, BMW started out as a builder of airplane motors -- to this day, its logo is of a rotating airplane propeller. For that matter, so is the logo of Mitsubishi, which built the engines that went into the Japanese Zeros. So what's the deal -- are BMW, Daimler-Benz, and Mitsubishi all supposed to pretend this didn't happen, and is the world supposed to pretend that the planes they helped power, especially the Me 109 and the FW 190, were anything other than great feats of engineering and design?

Furthermore, RR, BMW, and DB are among the companies that pushed the ol' piston engine to its ultimate limits, and the constant refining and improving they did on those old figher-plane engines has found its way to the cars we drive today, making them safer, faster, and more economical. We have all benefitted from it. The fact that BMW and DB engines went into Nazi planes, doesn't negate the facts that they were great engines to be proud of.

Denying history doesn't do anyone any good. Changing the name on a plane, removing swastikas from historical replicas, is stupid. Denial is destructive. Embrace the truth of the past, abhor what was evil in it, and celebrate and use for future good and the development of morale and national pride, the positive things that came out of it. That's my philosophy.

[Husker24]

Good God, what a bunch of pussys. We must have kicked their asses a little too hard.

[Jagdgewehr]

A hearty bump to you!

[Cacique]

So, does this mean that Schröder will stop wearing Nazi uniforms? Will they finally stop singing Deutschland Uber Alles? Will they change to Kumbaya as their national anthem?

[illumini]

Ah but the world really misses Messerknifesmittedge

[yankeedame]

Denying history doesn't do anyone any good. Changing the name on a plane, removing swastikas from historical replicas, is stupid. Denial is destructive...

In more ways than one. Changing this and removing that only makes the (model) plane more valueable/desirable - after all, forbidden fruit is always the sweetest. If they had just left the plane as-is no one (no mentally healthy person, I mean) would have given it another thought.

After all, just try and get a copy of the chldren's book "Little Black Sambo". See how much they want for it, and are getting it! Tell you're husband to take care of his pre-PC, WWII German planes. He may have a little gold mine there.

[Prodigal Son]

This is silly. Why not just rename the whole country?

[Gringo1]

And remember that huge numbers of American companies built war-related items and weaponry(including Singer Sewing Machine Machine Company...they built M-1 Garand rifles)during WW2.....The Germans are living in a terrible world where history right or wrong is being erased due to PC.

[peteram]

Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, was forced to express regret for remarks in which he compared a German MEP with a Nazi concentration camp guard (Sgt. Schultz),

A FICTITIOUS Nazi concentration guard! He was talking about a television character!

(I'd like to know the exact quote anyway)

[300winmag]

And remember that huge numbers of American companies built war-related items and weaponry(including Singer Sewing Machine Machine Company...they built M-1 Garand rifles)during WW2.....The Germans are living in a terrible world where history right or wrong is being erased due to PC.

IBM built hundreds of thousands of M-1 carbines during the war, but that has been excised from their official history. But I have an as-built unmodified IBM carbine to show those who believe that IBM would never have actually built weapons.

[UnklGene]

Yes and yes.

[Finny]

And remember that huge numbers of American companies built war-related items and weaponry(including Singer Sewing Machine Machine Company...they built M-1 Garand rifles)during WW2.....The Germans are living in a terrible world where history right or wrong is being erased due to PC.

I didn't know that about Singer Sewing Machines! Interesting! or would that be, "verrrry eeenterestink!"