Why One German Spent €6,000 to Thank America

For his 50th birthday, a wealthy German placed a full-page ad in a left-leaning newspaper thanking America for 50 years of freedom and peace. He says the ad and the response it generated were well worth it.

For Manfred Petri, an independently wealthy former businessman from the Bavarian town of Hof, the day George W. Bush arrived in Mainz for his visit to Germany was a day to celebrate. It was February 23, 2005, which also happened to be Manfred Petri's 50th birthday.

The day began with breakfast in bed, which would be followed later by a family celebration with Petri's wife and two teen-aged sons and, that evening, a family dinner in a local restaurant. But there was one present Petri wanted to see first. He asked his wife to buy every available copy of the liberal daily paper "Die Tageszeitung" (taz) in the city of Hof. Petri's wife managed to come up with five copies, three from the newsstand at the train station and two from a book store. The title of the cover story read "Ick bin ein Mainzelmännchen," (I am a little dwarf from Mainz) a play on US President John F. Kennedy's famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech intended to belittle Bush, who was shown in a caricature wearing a dwarf's hat.

Petri, normally an avid reader of the conservative daily the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, was not amused. As he leafed through the paper, he wasn't looking for reports on the strict security precautions taken by German authorities in Mainz, which included a heavy police presence, streets cleared of all civilians and the removal of all mailboxes, where presumably bombs could be hidden. Petri was more interested in page 5, where a photo of a US flag fluttering in the wind covered half the page, and below it, printed in large and bold type, were the words: "Thank you America for 50 Years of Freedom and Peace!" Then came Petri's name and his date of birth. Nothing else.

In taking out the full-page ad, Petri was giving himself the most expensive birthday present he's ever had. It cost him a little over €6,000. He did it to express the feelings of those who, like himself, still believe in German-American friendship. He also did it to provoke those who don't share his opinion, particularly the liberal paper's core readers. In all, considered it quite successful and was extremely pleased.

Manfred Petri is a quiet man. But ever since his birthday, people have been stopping him on the street. Friends have been congratulating him and strangers have been approaching him, curious to know exactly who Dr. Manfred Petri is. Today he is sitting in a café in Hof, wearing a plaid shirt and a dark tie, watching the steam rise from his café au lait and gazing out at the snow-covered street. He says placing the ad wasn't a big deal, really, just something he spontaneously felt needed to be done.

He says he came up with the idea one day in late 2004, while having a conversation with his father, who was 85 at the time. It was a day of reminiscences and clearly Petri's father sensed his life was coming to an end. He talked about World War II a great deal, about how he had spent more than eight years in a Siberian labor camp, shoveling coal underground and learning Russian because he loved the country and the Russians themselves, but that he had no affection for communism.

He talked about how he had returned to Germany in 1953 -- too old to finish high school but too young to give up on his future. Eventually, he established an electronics company in Hof, a town near the border between the two Germanys. He told Petri that everything he did was to make sure Petri would have better opportunities than he had had. Then he asked Petri: "Son, do you think I did the right thing?"

Petri drinks his café au lait and talks about his sense of gratitude -- to his father and to America -- both, he says, helped shape him into what he is today.

He mentions an important event in his life, his first trip to East Germany, when he was 18. At the border crossing, soldiers held mirrors under his car to check for contraband. In East Berlin, he witnessed military parades and experienced nighttime curfews. His next important journey was to Cleveland, Ohio, where he spent a year attending a boarding school in 1972. In Ohio, he made friends he still has today. With them, he discussed the Vietnam War, demonstrated against President Nixon, and discovered a liking for politics. He decided to get involved in politics in his own country and, writing on a postcard from Ohio, he applied for membership in Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD). He said he was doing so "because of Willy (Brandt)," the German chancellor and Nobel Prize winner who was an early voice of reconciliation between post-war East and West Germany. Petri maintained his belief in the SPD even after Brandt resigned amid a spy scandal in 1974, but left the party in 1982, when Helmut Schmidt, Brandt's successor as chancellor, was voted out of office.

Today Petri still waxes nostalgic when he talks about his year in the United States. "I returned and suddenly I was an adult," he says, "and ever since then I've felt that I have to give something back."

When his father died three weeks ago, Petri contacted an advertising agency. They took a picture of the US flag Petri's friends in the Ohio boarding school had given him as a goodbye present, and accepted his ad. Its purpose was two-fold: to bid farewell to his father and to sum up his own emotions at a time when 70 percent of Germans aged 30 to 44 believe that Germany no longer owes the United States any gratitude for its help during post-war reconstruction. It's also a time when 29 percent of Germans trust Russian President Vladimir Putin and only 24 percent trust US President Bush. "I wanted to thank America and the Americans," says Petri, "not their president." Choosing Germany's most liberal newspapers for his gift was deliberate.

The paper makes no secret of his financial need and its advertising department immediately accepted the ad. The day after it was published, when Bush had already left Germany and was visiting with Putin in Bratislava, members of the newspaper's editorial staff met to discuss Petri's curious public expression of gratitude. They also talked about ways to make sure ads like Petri's would be spotted more quickly in the future and wondered why no one had caught the ad and discussed it before it ran.

But it wasn't like the firely old days at the leftist paper, which was founded by a generation of post-1968 intellectual rebels. There was no uproar or angry response. The editors simply printed a brief story about Petri and everything returned to normal. For taz, that meant returning to its typical America-critical stance.

"It's nice that Gerhard and George are friends again," it wrote, in a front-page editorial on February 24. "The best of friends, in fact. A head and an ass, so to speak."

It does me as an American no good to know that NOT ALL of you think we're The Great Satan because enough of you believe it that American soldiers are unnecessarily having to die on the battlefield because the rest of the world doesn't have the cojones to confront despots and terrorists who have killed Americans with impunity for far, far too long.

I couldn't disagree with your post more than I do.

A minority opinion such as Manfred Petri is what we build on. The 24% of the German population who trust our president are our allies.

It is the liberals who want us to forget about these people, to become estranged from these people and to withdrawn from these people.

I won't, the president doesn't and you shouldn't. They are the future from which change will evolve that will do us all good. Damn the inferiority of low expectations and propaganda.

BTW, I don't even believe that it's only 24% who trust us. These polls are bought and paid for by the liberal German MSM and are nothing more than push polls.

This was a great article.

I couldn't disagree with your post more than I do.

That's your right to disagree. Do you have a son fighting in Iraq? A daughter? A husband? A wife? I didn't think so. None of our guys and gals would be there if the rest of the world had EVER had the guts to back up their words with actions.

It is the liberals who want us to forget about these people, to become estranged from these people and to withdrawn from these people.

I won't, the president doesn't and you shouldn't. They are the future from which change will evolve that will do us all good. Damn the inferiority of low expectations and propaganda.

Where did I advocate disengaging with these people? Perhaps you should read my post again. Did I not say we would willingly and enthusiastically help them replace their current governments if they wanted us to?

Here are the two relevant paragraphs . . .

Those Canadians and Germans who disagree with their government's actions are the ONLY ones who can change said government and, while we will willingly and enthusiastically help them all we can to change their government, they should in no way be given a FREE PASS just because they agree with our positions.

There is a third classification to be thought of here . . . those who disagree with their government, but do NOTHING about changing their government. Why should they be thought of as OUR FRIENDS when their inactivity is perpetuating the very anti-U.S. sentiments expressed by their government?

If someone says they agree with us . . . then they sit quietly on the sidelines and do nothing to change the current situation, why should I be excited that there's 24% or 10% or any percentage of these kinds of individuals who fit into that category? I'm not saying ALL 24% sit on their hands and do nothing . . . but they sure get drowned out easily when the hate-American'ers protest in their streets and empower our enemies.

Have you EVER seen a counter-protest in Germany when the America-haters are on the War Path? I haven't either.

We're at war. If you were in Iraq fighting this war, would you be placated if 24% of your platoon were Quakers and they said, "Go get 'em, guys. We back you 100% but our religious views keep us from helping you tote the load?"

I know, I know . . . you think my example is too extreme to be fair. Okay, fine, you come up with one where our soldiers are helped by the knowledge that 24% of the Germans agree with what we're doing.

Let's assume the Germans had a 10,000-man Army. Would that mean 2400 of them would help us in the War on Terror? Not give lip-service to us, but put their lives on the line like our warriors do?

BTW, I don't even believe that it's only 24% who trust us. These polls are bought and paid for by the liberal German MSM and are nothing more than push polls.

Hey, what difference does it make if there's 49.9% of their population that're pro-American? If they don't have the power to change their government, it does us no "immediate" good.

Again, read my post again . . . I never said, nor did I imply, this wasn't a good article and it's "somewhat" reassuring that 24% of the Germans don't hate our guts. You're right . . . at least they and us have some place to start. And I'm all for it. Point me to a legitimate organization that's trying to help in this fight and I'll try to help all I can . . . both financially and through direct action.

Until then, the cheerleaders standing on the sidelines aren't helping the team on the field one little bit. It's all fluff with no substance . . . and American soldiers continue to die every single day.

You had Clinton and his ilk ruling for 8 years,and a few years before that you had elected Carter. Should we blame all Americans for that?

Where did I blame ALL Germans for anything? Why don't you read it again?

Let me make this simple for you. If 76% of the Germans don't agree with our policies and the government they elected refuses to stand beside us . . . what difference does it make to our "immediate" future if there's 24% of the German population standing on the sidelines cheering us on?

I never, not one time, blamed ALL the Germans for anything. I do, however, blame the German Government.

Two of my favorite FReepers are Canadian and German. The MAIN reason I respect them as I do is because they're ACTIVELY fighting the Liberal tides in their countries, oftentimes alone. I'm a poor man, very poor, but I donate what money I can to help their causes because they've backed up their "cheerleading" with actions. But, while their actions are commendable, their actions still don't make American soldiers any safer in Iraq.

You bring up Pee Wee Clinton and Jimmy "I've never met a despot I couldn't love" Carter. You ask should you blame all Americans for them being elected? Obviously not . . . just as I never made that leap either.

Let's assume the Berlin Wall was still standing during Pee Wee's terms and the Russkies were clamoring to take over Western Europe during Pee Wee's and/or Peanut's terms. If we had simply withdrawn our forces and allowed the Russkies to run roughshod over you, killing German citizens and soldiers on a daily basis . . . would you feel any better that 24% of the American citizens didn't agree with this move?

I didn't think so. I rest my case.

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