German Ambivalence About Nationalism

Callimachus at Done with Mirrors writes about the demands of a German teacher's union that the national anthem not be played for fear that it might arouse nationalistic feelings. He then traces the history of the anthem, which was composed during the Weimar Republicn in 1922, eleven years before Adolf Hitler came to power. The Nazis used the anthem, with their own peculiar and hateful spins. But the song itself, Callimachus suggests in an excellent piece, is benign. It could even be helpful to the Germans.

It's unlikely that modern Germany, with its rapidly declining birthrate, will ever again be the threat to European security that the swelling nation of 70 million was in 1940. A call for national togetherness and identity today seems a relevant thing when the danger is not Germany crushing neighbors under its boot, but rather German culture and identity itself dissolving into a Euro-mash.

I have written several pieces on my observations of the depressed and depressing culture that is bringing many Germans down and of the need for spiritual and national renewal there. See here and here.