Eurōpā

Germany’s identity angst – New German pride emerges from rubble of war

Go into any high street bookshop in Britain and the European history section will groan under the weight of books about the Nazi era. Most of the time you will look in vain for something on Bismarck or Brandt. (If you are lucky there might be a copy of the excellent Iron Kingdom, by Christopher Clark, about the rise and fall of Prussia.)

Of course the Third Reich and World War II are an exceptionally important part of Germany’s past. But generations afterwards many British, whistling the theme from The Dambusters, seem happy to define their relationship to Europe’s biggest country solely through this prism. The Faulty Towers “don’t mention the war” episode was so brilliant because it was about a British, not a German, collective psychosis. But that I have written about elsewhere.

BBC News – Mark Mardell’s blog