Some Germans uneasy showing national pride

BERLIN | Youssef Bassal’s heart swelled with pride when he draped an enormous German flag on the building where he runs a cell-phone store in support of the World Cup team.

So the Lebanese immigrant was stunned when German leftist groups tore down the 1,000-square-foot flag — not just once, but twice.

“I don’t understand them at all — every American or Frenchman would be proud to show their flag and root for their football team,” the 39-year-old said at his store in a neighborhood that’s home to many Arab immigrants.

“It’s not like there’s still a swastika on Germany’s flag.”

It’s a paradox rooted in Europe’s multicultural world: Immigrants have rallied around Germany’s diverse soccer team that includes players with roots in Turkey, Ghana, Poland, Tunisia, and other countries.

But 65 years after the end of World War II, some Germans are still adamantly against any expression of national pride and feel uneasy about cheering “Deutschland, Deutschland” during a World Cup match.

Of course there are millions of Germans, especially from the younger generation, who don’t hesitate to paint their faces with the German tricolor on game day. But strikingly, such overt expressions of national pride only appeared widely in the country when it hosted the World Cup four years ago.

At this World Cup, what caught the eye is that Berlin’s immigrant neighborhoods like Neukoelln, Wedding or Kreuzberg have sported many more black-red-golden flags on cars, balconies and storefronts than more traditionally German quarters like Mitte or Prenzlauer Berg.

That’s largely because this year’s team — a bit like the spectacular French squad that won the World Cup in 1998 — has seemed like a celebration of the nation’s multiethnic modern-day makeup. The team of 23 includes 11 players with a variety of immigrant roots.

It all reflects the country’s transition over the last decades from a largely homogeneous German nation to one where 15 million out of 82 million inhabitants claim immigrant background.

“These players, who are the children of former guest workers and binational parents … represent Germany in South Africa on the world’s stage,” Cem Ozdemir, co-leader of the Green Party and the son of Turkish immigrants, told daily Die Welt.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel lauded the German team’s diversity and called it “a role model for the integration” of foreigners, who have often been blamed by mainstream society of living their lives in an isolated “parallel society.”

While the entire nation has rallied behind the World Cup team, relations between immigrants and Germans are not always easy.

Last week, a low-level politician in Mrs. Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic party suggested an intelligence test for prospective newcomers to assure that they “really benefit our country.” The idea was quickly shot down.

While many immigrants complain about racist remarks and xenophobic behavior, many Germans fear terrorist attacks by homegrown terrorists, especially Muslim extremists, after a handful of failed attempts.

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