Along with the eagerly anticipated yearly harvest of asparagus, a fresh spring crop of flags has also sprouted in Germany, nurtured by the soccer competition among the nations of Europe during this year’s European championship games. Flown from apartment windows, store fronts, perched atop cars or worn as fashion accessories, this sort of display of national sentiment is still rather new to Germany. First observed and commented on during the 2006 World Cup matches, hosted by Germany, the phenomenon is still a somewhat unaccustomed sight in this country, at least for long time Germany watchers. And while the number of flags now on display is only a fraction of what it was in 2006, their reappearance reminds one of the changes the country has undergone in recent times.

For the first four to five decades of their postwar history, (West) Germans shunned the display of their country’s national symbols. Such demonstrations were considered an anachronistic, even potentially dangerous expression of nationalism, something that Germany’s past excesses cautioned Germans against. Open, unconflicted expression of national feeling, let alone patriotism, was left to those peoples who had not “learned from experience” the hazards Germans associated with an excess of national self-absorption. And those peoples who still reveled in such outmoded practices – the English, French, or, in particular, Americans -- were viewed as naïve, at a minimum, and, at worst, atavistic.

The turnaround in attitude came during the heady days following the fall of the Berlin Wall, when, for the first time, the postwar German republic’s symbols were suddenly taken up and embraced by large numbers of ordinary Germans in celebration of the country’s great family reunion. But even then Germany’s cultural overseers – the left-leaning intellectual set and wide swaths of the better educated – still looked askance at these tumults of sweaty jubilance dowsed in national colors. They preferred to see stars in their eyes: the ring of stars on a field of blue symbolizing European, not German unification. For them, there was something tasteless and vaguely alarming in the enthusiasm with which their lumpy East German brethren waved the German standard. It left them ill at ease, worried that the postwar German ethos they had helped put in place was in danger of being overturned – to be replaced by lord-knows-what.

After the excitement of reunification had faded, the flags were mothballed for a time. The decade-and-more hangover that ensued produced little cause for celebration as economic slowdown combined with the difficulties of incorporating those lumpy East Germans into greater Germany and the increasing inertia of the Kohl government left most Germans in a gloomy state. They were soon back to their usual grousing over how they are somehow being taken advantage of by somebody … everybody.

But by 2006, all those kiddies who had watched in wonder the colorful and euphoric displays of 1989/90 were all grown up. What’s more, with the passage of time they no longer felt the burdens of their country’s past the way their elders had and, as a result, felt freer to sport the national color scheme without the slightest hint of concern. And so they did.

In the meanwhile, however, something of the old meaning had been drained out of it. The once weighty significance of national symbols had been lost. Flag displays here have become innocuous because they no longer signify anything of any real underlying or broader meaning. The German flag has become a team banner; the national colors a mere fashion statement. Rather than an expression of patriotism, let alone nationalism, waving the flag has become easier precisely because it no longer means anything. And it may demonstrate a growing ignorance of or anything-goes indifference about the German past. Unlike, for example, American displays of the US flag on the Fourth of July and at other events, celebrations and commemorations, the current German displays say nothing about Germany as a country, its values, its history or any deeper-going public appreciation of these. It is an empty gesture, a splash of color only.

A bit of a stir was sparked recently by a newly opened photographic exhibit on display at the Paris Historical Library. The ruckus arose over what some feel is the exhibit’s skewed depiction of life in Paris under German occupation from 1940 through 1944. Entitled The Parisians Under the Occupation, the exhibit contains 270 color photos showing the people of Paris engaging in the pleasures of life seemingly undisturbed by events going on in the world beyond the picture frame. The portraits from the city of light show a place barely ruffled by the occasional intrusion of uniformed German soldiers enjoying a stroll or taking in the sights. Critics have denounced the show for its failure to place the photographs in proper context. They point out that the pictures were taken by a photographer accredited to the Nazi propaganda service whose choice of subject carefully excluded the hardships of wartime and the darker sides of occupation – such as executions or the deportation of French Jews.

One does indeed wonder what precisely the exhibit organizers intended. If they sought to remind Parisians that the jackboot-heel of German oppression did not lay equally as heavy on all French necks, then they have obviously succeeded. Any desire on the part of the French to see themselves depicted as victims is jarred by these pictures of smiling, well-clad and seemingly happy Parisians enjoying a delightful sunning at a sidewalk café.

By showing the ordinariness of daily life of many in Parisians, little affected by the “big events” going on around them, the exhibit obviously presents an incomplete picture of the times. But its incompleteness somehow points an even sharper finger at what has been omitted. It also reminds us of just how selective our viewpoints on the past can be, of our preference for remembering the pleasanter things of life – even when they are lived out against a backdrop of mass murder, war and widespread devastation. Sometimes – maybe most of the time – life just goes on.

By coincidence, and not unrelated, the US Holocaust Memorial Museum announced the addition of a set of recently acquired photographs to its permanent collection. Taken from the personal photo-album of the deputy to the commandant of Auschwitz, these pictures also show us people enjoying themselves and relaxing – except that in this case the people depicted are all SS-personnel living out their pleasurable lives in closest proximity to mass slaughter. Again, as with the pictures from Paris, it’s the ordinariness of the things shown and the purposeful exclusion of the horrors going on beyond the frame that is the most striking thing about them.

The two sets of pictures do differ in one way, of course. Viewed with a fuller knowledge, the “normality” of wartime Paris depicts, at worst, an unsettling, disturbing dissonance. The “normality” of SS life at Auschwitz, however, is an outright obscenity.


International Herald Tribune article on Paris exhibit:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/25/europe/paris.php

Paris Historical Library photographic exhibit:
http://www.paris.fr/portail/Culture/Portal.lut?page_id=102&document_type_id=2&document_id=50952&portlet_id=818

US Holocaust Memorial Museum SS photographs:
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/ssalbum/

There were two recent anniversaries here in Europe - the 50th anniversary of the founding of the original European Union organization and the 200th anniversary of the illegalization of slavery in Great Britain. The ceremonies on the 50th anniversary of the European Union dominated the news for a few days and were very centralized. They seem to have had little resonance however, in terms of local relevance or important new political action. EU council president and German chancellor Angela Merkel wanted to use the date to launch a new bid to get a European constituion back on the agenda. The statement ended up being significantly watered down.

The slavery anniversary was not only more global in scope, but seemed to carry more emotive effect. Various news sources reported anniversary events in many countries in Africa, Latin America as well as in Britain. Like the EU anniversary, the anniversary was used politically. In this case, however, it was more about human rights organizations using the moment to draw attention to the continued existence of slavery in many parts of the world and slavery-like conditions for various groups such as prostitutes in western Europe and immigrant workers on limited "guest worker" visas in the United States.

This blog should follow these kinds of events more thoroughly in the future. If you are interested in helping, please see the call for contributors.