I have spent almost all of my life living in England but I have also spent periods of time living and working in Germany. I am fascinated by the English view of Germans and Germany. It’s a cocktail of envy, fear, admiration, suspicion and, increasingly, familiarity.
The envy is of German organisation and economic strength. Of having a serious manufacturing sector.
The fear is of German influence and control. I, and a fair few people I know, have worked for English companies that have been bought up by German ones. Germany is seen as the centre of gravity of the European Union.
The admiration is for vast, efficient, clean public buildings and for premium brands such as Porsche, BMW and Mercedes. Janice Joplin didn’t sing “Oh Lord, won’t you buy me an MG Rover” and, if in some kind of time-warp, she had done, it wouldn’t have had the iconic resonance.
The suspicion is because they can understand our language but we can’t understand theirs, the cunning swine! And because of all the parallels between the two cultures. It’s not just about a taste for beer and football, the deeper you scratch, the more the similarities. Not least the Northern European polite reserve in personal interactions, leading slowly and gradually to firm friendships.
And now that you can fly to Germany for about £30, even more than ever before, we’re there, they’re here and the cultures are becoming mingled and familiarity is extending beyond the stereotypes. Despite Schadenfreude being such an acutely English characteristic, we don’t even need a word for it because we just recycle the German word. German Christmas markets are in every major English city. English pubs are cropping up all over Germany. We start with the stereotypes and then the real identities start to leak out, including the darker sides of each nation.
