為什麼現在德國人不講愛國主義？

01-09

We Germans have an uneasy relationship with patriotism

I am a German citizen. Both of my parents are German, I was born in Hamburg, did my high school years in Dortmund, later lived 10 years in Munich.

One of my grandfathers died in World War II as prisoner of war on the eastern front after having voluntarily joined the army. His family was patriotic, and particularly afraid of what Russian Bolsheviks would do to German elites (similar to what they did to Polish elites) if it came to a defeat. My other grandfather also served in the Navy, but was a completely unpolitical man.

Germany is a very young nation state, only formed after the war of 1870/71 with France. Before, it had been one nation, but split into dozens or even hundreds of small fiefdoms, dukedoms and kingdoms. Patriotism therefore does not have a long tradition. In the war with France, the French king Napoleon III even anticipated that the Southern German states, including Bavaria and others, would join on his side against the Northern German states, notably Prussia. A religious divide into catholic South and Protestant North made this even more likely.

Yet, Otto von Bismarck, the Prussian Chancellor, knew how to raise the patriotic spirit of the liberation wars (when Napoleons rule over German territory was ended). The mid 19th century had seen a wave of patriotic feelings in a romanticized way.

So in the new Empire under the Emperors (Kaiser), patriotism was at a peak. But so it was in all of Europe, no matter if Great Britain, France, Austria, Russia, Italy etc.

However, Germans are known for their thoroughness, and this is also true for patriotism, once it is aroused at all.

From the perspective of the German people, both World Wars were basically one war. The dictated peace treaty of Versailles, which did not acknowledge the very much equal distribution of who"s fault led to World War I, was only a pause in the fighting.

For Hitler, it was relatively easy to raise patriotism and nationalism to new levels, once he had managed to give the German people back their dignity and pride (e.g. by re-armament, occupying the German province of Rheinland with own troops and other infringements of the Versailles peace treaty).

Unfortunately, patriotism and nationalism are not only positive qualities. Probably nobody will disagree that loving your own country (patriotism) is something good, and that loving your country also involves loving its people (nationalism). But there is only a very fine dividing line between "I love my country and its people" to "We are actually a little better than the others".

For other countries, this is quite normal. The USA see themselves as "god"s chose country", the French see themselves as "the Great Nation", and the Chinese see themselves naturally as the "Middle Kindom" which is the center of the world.

However, the Germans got completely carried away in their nationalism and patriotism. It turned into outright racism against Jews, Slavs, Gypsies and all kinds of other nationalities, races, religions not seen as Germanic and Aryan. This goes so far that some historians (e.g. Stefan Zweig) believe that Hitler led his war not so much from the pure military standpoint, but in order to enable a maximum of killing behind the front, which would explain some seemingly irrational decisions.

Everybody knows the horrific and industrialized efficiency of the holocaust.

After the war, all Germans had to deal with the facts. And true to form, Germans chose a more radical way than many other countries.

Germany has a unique willingness to never forget what happened, why it was possible, and what it takes to make it impossible for history to repeat itself.

In the US, hardly anybody talks about the fate of the native Americans. The Japanese worship war criminals to this day. The Spanish act as if the Franco dictatorship had never happened, and in France (my wife is French), you could believe that everybody was in the resistance against the Nazis etc.

In Germany, our past is present everywhere. E.g. n Munich, where I lived 10 years, there is an eternal flame in a monument burning in the innermost city for the victims of the holocaust. In Berlin, a very large size monument of concrete columns was erected in recent years.

Or consider this: Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) is a project of the artist Gunter Demnig. The project commemorates people who were persecuted by the Nazis between 1933 and 1945.

Stolpersteine are concrete blocks measuring 10x10cm which are laid into the pavement in front of the last voluntarily chosen places of residence of the victims of the Nazis. Their names and fate are engraved into a brass plate on the top of each Stolperstein.

For the city of Berlin alone there are ~7500 such stones.

If you don"t close your eyes voluntarily, impossible not to "stumble across" them.

But more impressive than any monuments to me was the way that history is taught in school today in Germany. In fact, in my high school (~1985 to 1992), there were many teachers who would not lose one half occasion to talk about the 3rd Reich and Hitler. And by far not only in history class. They would also manage to make this a topic in Politics class, Religion or even German class. No matter what the official subject, they would find a way to work "remembering what happened" into their curriculum.

I think it is this mindset which allowed Germany to recover from the world"s bad guy to a nation which has one of the best passports you can own in terms of ease of entry, visa requirements etc. to other foreign countries (together with Canada, Switzerland and Sweden).

For about 60 years, patriotism was frowned upon. There were very few German flags to be seen. Few people know the text to the national anthem. Debates like in the US about burning the flag or kneeling before a football game are unthinkable in Germany.

In fact, when I was 16 years old, in 1989/90, I went to the United States as an exchange student for 1 year, and went to the high school there.

What struck me was the omnipresence of the American flag (in fact, I had an ongoing humorous fight about this with my host parents, who laughed about my astonishment, and always wanted to take my picture together with the US flag).

In Highschool, every morning every student stood to "pledge allegiance to the flag", a ritual which I was opposed to.

The most impressive fact was that the US history class which I took (by a very good teacher and very high level), actually depicted Germany much more positively than what I had learned in Germany itself about my own country.

The first, timid resurgence of patriotism came 1954, when Germany won for the first time the world championship in soccer. This victory was a big surprise, and just 9 years after the war, the feeling in Germany is summarized by the famous phrase "Wir sind wieder wer" = "finally, we are back on the map".

Today, there is an increasing number of people who say that enough is enough, more than 70 years have passed, and there is not enough patriotism. These people now have an extreme right wing party, called AfD, which gained 12.6% of the votes in the 2017 national election. This continues to be a small minority, frowned upon by all other political parties which refuse to enter into an alliance with the AfD. However, they cannot be overlooked.

I think it was during the European Soccer Championship in 2012 that all of a sudden, patriotism was seen more relaxed and normal. All of a sudden, scenes like this would be seen in public viewing areas:

The "hot" invention of that summer were little "socks" in the national colors to pull over the rear view mirrors of the car, as well as little flag poles to stick out of the windows of the car. All not quite as extreme as in the first picture of this answer.

But overall, Germans live out their patriotism in other ways than most other countries. For decades, they looked at economic symbols like the Mercedes star or Deutsche Bank as replacements for official national symbols.

It remains to this day very difficult for anybody with a "healthy" patriotism (if that exists) not to be confounded with nationalist/racist tendencies. The safe option is to keep a low profile.

知乎用戶

Jayckey Liu askes me, if German soldiers in WWII only fought for patriotism.

I think soldiers fought for very different reasons.

Already taking my 2 grandfathers as example, this becomes clear.

One thought that he was saving the Western civilization from an equally brutal extermination at the hand of Russians. I don"t want to argue if he was right or wrong, but in any case, that is what he was so convinced of, and my grandmother as well, that they were willing to let him go fight on the eastern front voluntarily, even though my grandmother had 3 small children.

My other grandfather did not have any strong political convictions. He was a PhD in physics, very much engaged in his science, which is inherently a-political. He joined the Navy when he was drafted, and was certainly happy that he was never engaged in any serious fighting. In fact, he worked most of the time in the weather station in Hamburg.

You have to keep in mind that the possibilities of informing yourself were vastly different from today. I think that at the outset of the war, most soldiers were convinced that they were fighting for a good cause.

The Nazis were the first to perfection the system of propaganda, e.g. with a radio in each family, and they controlled the content off course.

After a while, I suppose that many soldiers realized what was going on. From then on, certainly many fought simply for their own survival, and against the destruction of their fatherland.

Of course, war crimes and atrocities could not have been committed, if not a relevant percentage of the army had also believed in Nazi ideals until the end.

This is the big dilemma of the returning soldiers: Pretty much everybody was associated with the Nazi crimes, because the army as such was associated with it. Yet many had simply risked their lives on a daily basis for 6 years, from the desert of North Africa to the Russian Winter, to defend their country. Bravery in war and the causes or higher objectives of war can of course be very different.

Many today say "why didn"t you do something" to the generation of my grand parents. But I find it difficult to imagine to speak up or take action, when this meant you would find yourself at the other side of the firing squad. It is easy for us today to blame that generation.

譯文請見：Janny：為什麼現在德國人不講愛國主義？

謝邀！

「愛國主義」這個名詞往往被濫用，而且多數是被公權濫用，來強迫人們壓制自己的不同見解，並為統治集團充當炮灰走狗。
真的愛國，不需要「講」，而是通過落實公民自由權利，切實讓公民感到自己是國家的主人來實施。這種愛國，比天天升國旗唱國歌的灌輸，要真切有效的多。

答案提供者為Gunter Schoech先生（知乎用戶），原文見：Gunter Schoech：為什麼現在德國人不講愛國主義？此處只是對他的回答的粗略翻譯，僅供大家參考：

我們德國人對愛國主義有不安的陰影

我是德國公民。我的父母也都是德國人。我出生於漢堡，在多特蒙德上高中，之後在慕尼黑生活了10年。我的一個爺爺自願參軍，二戰中在東面前線作戰，後來被俘死去。他的家人曾今很愛國，特別害怕如果德國戰敗蘇聯的布爾什維克會像對待波蘭精英一樣對待德國精英（譯者備註：見卡廷慘案）。

德國是一個新生國家，在1870/71年與法蘭西第二帝國普法戰爭後才建立起來。在此之前，雖然也是一個國家，但是實際上被分割成了幾十個甚至上百個領域，小公國和王國。因此並沒有愛國主義的悠久傳統。在與法蘭西的戰爭中，法國國王拿破崙3世甚至猜測德國南部巴伐利亞等各州將會加入他的陣營一同抵抗以普魯士為代表的德國北部各州。南北宗教信仰的不同（天主教和新教）使得這種可能性更加明顯。

而普魯士首相奧托·馮·俾斯麥在培養解放戰爭愛國主義精神上頗有手腕（在結束了拿破崙對德國領土的統治之後）（譯者備註：俾斯麥在完成了德意志的統一之後，又率兵進攻法國）。

我們可以看到19世紀中期德國充滿了具有浪漫色彩的愛國主義情懷。

因此德國建國以後的新帝Kaiser時期是最具有愛國主義情懷的時期。但是當時歐洲所有的國家，不管是英國、法國、奧地利還是俄國、義大利，在這個時期都很有愛國主義精神。

但是德國人因徹底精神而出名，一旦愛國主義精神被喚起，這種徹底精神也會貫徹到愛國主義精神上。

在德國人看來，一戰和二戰本質上就是一場戰爭。沒有劃清一戰責任的《凡爾賽和約》只為這場戰爭帶來了短暫的停頓。

對於希特勒來說，只要他能夠幫德國民眾找回失去的尊嚴和驕傲（例如：重整軍備，佔領德國萊茵省，擁有自己的軍隊和其他違反凡爾賽和約的行為），將民眾的愛國主義和民族主義精神激發到一個新的高度相對比較容易。

不幸的是，愛國主義和民族主義並不只具有積極的含義。也許沒人會反對愛國是對的，愛國也包含愛這個國家的人民。但是在「我愛我的國家和人民」和「我們比其他名族更優秀」之間有一條很細的分界線。

對於其他國家來說，為自己的國家感到自豪是非常正常的一件事。美國人認為他們是「上帝選中的國家」，法國人認為他們是「偉大的國家」，中國人認為他們國家是「中心之國」，在世界的中心位置。

而德國人當時在愛國主義和民主主義的道路上已經失去了理智，變成了對猶太人，斯拉夫人，吉普賽人等非日耳曼和雅利安人的各種民族，種族以及他們的宗教的徹底歧視。種族主義的道路走得太遠，以至於一些歷史學家(例如斯蒂芬·茨威格)認為希特勒並不是純粹從軍事戰略角度領導戰爭，而是為了能在後方製造最大的殺戮，這樣才能解釋他的一些非常不合常規的決定。

現在所有人都知道希特勒製造的大屠殺恐怖而工業化的效率。

戰後，所有的國人都需要面對這樣的事實。一如既往地，德國人選擇了比許多其他國家更激進的方式。

德國有著獨一無二的意願，那就是永遠不會忘記曾今發生了什麼，為什麼會發生，需要付出什麼代價才能讓歷史不再重演。

在美國，幾乎沒有人談論美洲土著的命運。日本人仍然崇拜戰犯。西班牙人彷彿弗朗哥獨裁從來沒有發生過，在法國，人們會相信曾今人人都在抵抗納粹等等（譯者備註：實際上可能二戰時期法國接受了德國納粹的佔領沒有反抗）。

在德國，我們的過去會在各種地方清楚地展現。例如在我生活了10年的慕尼黑，在市區最中心的地帶為大屠殺的受害者建立了一個紀念碑，裡面燃燒著紀念受害者的永恆火焰。在柏林，近些年豎立了大量的紀念石碑。

再看看這個：藝術家Gunter Demnig的一個名為「絆腳石」的項目，這個項目是為了紀念1933年到1945年間被納粹迫害的人們。「絆腳石」是鑲有黃銅片的10x10cm石塊，Gunter Demnig將它們鋪設在納粹受害者生前最後居住的房屋前的人行道上，黃銅片上刻有受害者的姓名和命運。

單柏林一個城市就已經鋪設了~7500這樣的石塊。

如此數量龐大的「絆腳石」，有眼睛的人都無法忽略它們。

但是對我來說比任何紀念碑印象更深刻的卻是如今德國的學校教授的歷史。

事實上，我上中學的時候（1985到1992），許多老師都會抓住半數的機會講述第三帝國和希特勒。而且目前為止，都不止在歷史課堂上講述，他們還會將這個話題放到政治課、宗教課甚至德語課上講。不管是什麼課程，他們總是能夠找到辦法將「勿忘歷史」放入他們的課程中。

我想正是這種思維（直面錯誤謹慎未來的思維）使得德國能夠從世界反面形象恢復成為一個護照被最多國家接受並認可的國家之一，持有德國護照可以輕易得到加拿大，瑞士和瑞典等等國家的入境和簽證許可。

60年來，愛國主義都是不被贊同的。我們很少見到德國國旗。很少有人知道國歌的歌詞。像在美國一樣因「燃燒國旗」或「在一場足球比賽中跪倒」而引發的辯論在德國是不可能發生的。

事實上，1989/90年，我16歲的時候，我作為交換生去美國當地的高中留學了1年

讓我非常不適應的是美國國旗的無處不在（當時我不斷地用比較幽默的方式對我寄宿家庭的爸爸媽媽表示對美國國旗無處不在的抗拒，而他們則會笑我少見多怪，並總是想讓我跟美國國旗來個合影）

當時每天早上學生們都要站在國旗下「向國旗宣誓效忠」，我很反對這樣的儀式。

印象最深刻的是我在美國高中上的歷史課（歷史課的老師非常棒，非常資深），事實上美國歷史書上/老師的授課中對德國的描述比我在祖國學到的關於自己國家的描述正面得多。

1954年德國在足球世界盃中首次獲得冠軍的時候，我們的愛國主義才怯怯然地抬頭。這場勝利對我們來說是個大驚喜，就在戰爭結束的9年以後，我們在德國的感覺可以用一句非常有名的話來形容"Wir sind wieder wer" =「我們終於重新回到地圖上了」

如今，越來越多的人會說70年過去了，我們的自我懲罰已經夠了，現在的社會缺少了一點愛國主義。這些人現在擁護一個叫AfD的極右翼黨派，該政黨在2017年選舉中得票率為12.6%。這說明像AfD一樣想法的人只佔少數，所有其他政黨都不贊成與AfD為伍。但是也不能忽略他們。

我認為是在2012年歐洲足球杯的時候，突然之間，我們的愛國主義變得比較正常了，人們不在談之色變，謹小慎微。突然之間人們認為愛國主義是可以在公共場合展現的東西了。

那年夏天流行的一個發明是用於移動車後視鏡上的國旗色小「套子」，和插在車窗外的小國旗。但所有這些行為都比第一張圖上展示的要低調（譯者備註：一輛車子全身都被大國旗包圍的圖）。

但總體來說，德國人與很多其他國家的人相比，在身體力行地表達愛國主義方面採用了不同的方式。幾十年來，我們用賓士之星或德意志銀行的經濟化標識代替了正式國家的標識。

這種影響延續至今，對於每個德國人來說表現出一份「健康」的愛國主義情懷（如果有的話）而不被認為是民族主義或種族主義傾向非常困難。所以安全的做法是盡量低調。

想知道更多，請關注Gunter的微信公眾號：有朋自西方來

或者他的微博：Sina Visitor System

還可以在知乎用戶上向他提問。

不是不講，而是不會直接講「愛國主義」，至於原因相信每個人都很清楚。

誰不愛自己的祖國，德國人也不例外，而歷史負擔讓德國人失去了表達愛國的權利。文人不敢歌頌祖國的美好，教材不敢承認過往的榮光，政治人物不敢強調國家的利益……矯枉過正，以至於德國人對唱國歌之類的活動都很小心，這並不是正常的心態，推崇這種「小心翼翼」未免「別有用心」。

問題中"講"字是什麼意思不明確。

德國人乃至整個歐盟國家平時都不太注重愛國主義教育，即沒有像中國美國那樣周一早上升國旗唱國歌的儀式。很多歐洲人都不會唱自己的國歌。歐洲大國兩次世界大戰中民族主義都被刺激得特別高昂，所以為了避免任何不必要的仇恨，現在歐洲國家政府都採取淡化措施。

其實兩德合併以後，愛國主義當時又被提起過用來團結兩德人民，即使直到今天分裂的傷痕還沒有癒合。更何況德國是中央權力弱，地區權力強的國家形式。比如巴伐利亞一向孤傲，作為經濟第一大省，方言又濃重，經常戲稱其他省「他們德國人」。所以，德國文化節目還是時不時說一說Heimat, Vaterland之類的。

按地域語言貼標籤、並劃分「我們」和"他們"是一種樸素的思想，正常人都會有，不需要教育。愛國也包括在內。雖然一個柏林人和一個慕尼黑人互相瞧不起，但來一個法國人，前兩個人就團結地自稱德國人了。世界盃的時候，德國人不都揮舞國旗上街支持德國隊嘛！

歐洲大都不講。

德國是二戰集體主義太強，現在反思過猛，比較規避這一點，而且他們有新納粹問題、民族問題（比較歧視土耳其裔德國人），強調愛國主義很容易陷入這兩個問題，政治更不正確。

法國是另一回事兒，個人主義太盛，以至於很反對國家主義，法國人是十分愛國的，而且很自豪。

結論是，他們可以自己在家掛國旗，但是你想搞個運動，讓大家揮國旗，那是絕逼不可能的。

另一種是北歐、瑞士等國家，比較強調獨立自由主義，各管各的，提倡個愛國主義在他們看來很稀奇的事情。不是說他們不愛國，他們看法是自己做好自己事情就是愛國。

如果這群傻【消音】當年沒有嘗試去操翻全世界最後被盟軍反過來艹了一萬遍連卵蛋都給閹了的話。

他們也不會不敢大聲唱的。

愛國主義這種東西有利也有弊，希特勒時期就是很好的證明。希特勒利用愛國主義把德國從衰敗中挽救過來成為了世界上的又一個帝國，可是後來又利用愛國主義這種東西發動戰爭。所以德國人不太喜歡這種東西。

額，這只是我的一種猜想。

德國的意識中國大多數接收不了的。中國一個一個把朝鮮人抓回去，討論朝鮮作為戰略緩衝區的時候，德國收了一堆影響治安的難民。。不要以為只有我們看得出難民的潛在問題，但不接受他們中真難民就可能死。怎麼辦？

德國沒什麼愛國主義教育，從不在學校唱國歌，宣誓衷於祖國，這點和中國美國天壤之別。德國的論調一般是:你不應該為你沒有貢獻的事驕傲。

再說了，出生在一個教派家庭就必須愛這個教的人大家喜歡嗎？那把教派換成國家呢？

文明和意識的認同之愛，才是真愛。成天嚷著"我媽養我不容易"的男的一般被叫做什麼來著？

不是不講，而是不敢講~~

矯枉過正了吧，德意志萬歲都不敢說，不過國歌依然是馬斯到梅梅爾，埃施到貝爾特。。。