Football craze!

It's astounding, time is fleeting
Madness takes its toll
But listen closely, not for very much longer
I've got to keep control...

(The Time Warp - Rocky Horror Picture Show)

Yeah, it really is astounding.
As for the history of our country in the 1930ies and 1940ies, the majority of the Germans have a quite ambivalent feeling towards nationalism and the national flag, not to mention the national anthem.

I remember that we were tortured with our “national heritage” (yes, I mean those horrible, dreadful, appalling, disgusting years of Nazi government) for several years at school (it’s a pity that we never learned much about the post-war times, which would have been quite interesting, too).
Of course, it is important to know what happened way back then. But even my Dad was just a few days old when the Nazis provoked WWII, and my Mum was not even born.
Somehow, teachers and society always told us – quite successfully - (and some still do), that it was an original sin we couldn’t ever shake off, thus we may still have a kind of guilty conscience towards what happened, although neither we nor our parents couldn’t have done anything about it.

Anyhow, I know, and I agree, that we should never forget what happened then.

---

* sigh *
Off we go.
What I wanted to say is that I’m really amazed with what happened in the past few days.

We knew it would take place. But somehow, noone – except for the initiators, maybe – was too enthusiastic about the World Cup. There had been much discussion in advance, about the ticket sale, the silly Goleo mascot (and it’s even more nutty football “Pille”) and the official emblem, so, somehow, the mood was still somewhat damped.

And then. When it turned out that the German national team was actually capable of playing football and be worth to be in the game not only as a host, a country livened up.
Amazing!
Yes, of course we watch international football matches and of course we were really interested in our team’s fortune in the last few years.

But I have NEVER EVER seen so many German national flags around here.
On cars.
In windows.
At doors.
People wearing German football shirts.
And all this not only on days when the national team has an official game.
It’s crazy! They say that they can’t meet the demand for national flags!

When Germany beat Sweden last Saturday, the parade of cars, cruising and honking overzealously, didn’t seem to stop for hours, even in our small town.

Understand, it’s not as self-evident as, say, in the US of A, to hoist the flag here. This is normally left to official occasions, for instance, commemoration days, and done at official buildings.

So, showing off support for our national team in such a way is quite new to me. It already seems even stronger and more elated than when Germany actually became world champions in 1990.

Somehow, I still don’t know what to think of it. It’s only a game, after all ;-)
But I’ll surely watch the next game, too... Argentina... oh my! That won’t be easy...