Free Republic

GERMANY unveiled a huge advertising campaign yesterday to boost the nation's flagging self-esteem and lift the depression caused by its gridlocked general election nine days ago. A black cloud seems to have settled over the country since the vote. Young Germans talk of emigrating, and middle-aged architects plan to move to the countryside to raise children, breed chickens and escape the sense of decline. The economy, which was supposed to splutter into life next year after a long recession, now looks likely to grow by less than 2 per cent. High time, then, to mount a € 30 million (A$47...

BERLIN -- A multimillion-dollar campaign to boost Germans' low self-confidence has backfired after it emerged that its slogan was coined by the Nazis. The $34 million "Du Bist Deutschland -- You Are Germany" -- campaign was devised to inspire Germans to stop moaning and do something good for their country. Beethoven, Einstein and the sports stars Franz Beckenbauer and Michael Schumacher have been cited in advertisements encouraging Germans to take more pride in their homeland. But a historian from Ludwigshafen has provoked an uproar with his discovery that the same "Du Bist Deutschland" cry was used at Nazi rallies in...