Evil Flag
Some time ago I talked with a German girl about the use of flags in Germany. She told me that the only time it is seen as okay to be waving the German flag is at sport events and official buildings. The rest of the time the fear of feeling national pride is too big. It is in fact so bad that some Germans even feel uncomfortable when they see other countries waving it at hotels and the like.
In Scandinavia we use our flags completely different, but it’s not like in North America where you see flags everywhere as a sign of national pride.
Every time we have a celebration of any kind we raise the flags, because here our flags doesn’t so much symbolise national pride as much as it has become a symbol of happiness, joy and having a good time. And something I haven’t seen in other countries is that we use it when celebrating birthdays. So if you walk by a house here and see 20 small flags in the front yard, it’s not because the people living there are nationalists. It just means someone is celebrating their birthday.
We even put the flags on Christmas trees like so http://www.museum-sonderjylland.dk/BILLEDERNE/web-dansk-juletrae.jpg http://naturvern.imaker.no/data/b/0/98/41/7_2701_0.jpg http://www.airynothing.com/photos/2005_Christmas_Montreal/2005_Christmas_Montreal-Thumbnails/108.jpg
12th August 2010
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1 year ago #9417671
In Germany you see the U.S. and the British flag more often (on clothes and stuff) than the German flag.
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In Germany you see the U.S. and the British flag more often (on clothes and stuff) than the German flag.
1 year ago #9385644
When I visited Texas, the Texas flag was everywhere as an antidote to the American Flag. Unless it was Federal Building (like post office) Texas Flag always was seen alongside USA flag. Texans are very proud that they were a republic before they were an American state, and for this reason gives them the right to fly their state flag at same height as national flag. Many Texans consider they are Texans first and Americans second. Many of them disown George Bush Sr. as a "faux texan" as his family were from New England (North eastern USA) and he simply bought himself a "toy ranch" and called himself a Texan rancher.
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When I visited Texas, the Texas flag was everywhere as an antidote to the American Flag. Unless it was Federal Building (like post office) Texas Flag always was seen alongside USA flag. Texans are very proud that they were a republic before they were an American state, and for this reason gives them the right to fly their state flag at same height as national flag. Many Texans consider they are Texans first and Americans second. Many of them disown George Bush Sr. as a "faux texan" as his family were from New England (North eastern USA) and he simply bought himself a "toy ranch" and called himself a Texan rancher.
2 months ago #9522425
You can be national without being nationalistic. Being national is something you choose to be and not about any of those things you are born into. A muslim guy I knew once turned up to a christmas part wearing a danish "klaphat", sang christmas carols, drank non-alcoholic beer and just pretended he was a drunken idiot likes the rest of us. Claimed he was "drunk on happiness". No amount of fistbump would have enough...
Also... Chin up Germany. We're pals
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You can be national without being nationalistic. Being national is something you choose to be and not about any of those things you are born into. A muslim guy I knew once turned up to a christmas part wearing a danish "klaphat", sang christmas carols, drank non-alcoholic beer and just pretended he was a drunken idiot likes the rest of us. Claimed he was "drunk on happiness". No amount of fistbump would have enough...
Also... Chin up Germany. We're pals
4 months ago #9499750
Actually, using the flag at birthdays is an exclusively Danish thing. When I, a Swede, first came to Denmark I was super provoked by it and saw it as an other one of Denmarks oblivious ways of being racist. I utterly dislike flags and anything that smells of nationalism. They are connected to war, sports thugs and racists. They include some people at the behest of others. I feel no pride in my flag whatsoever and I'm not ashamed to say it.
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Actually, using the flag at birthdays is an exclusively Danish thing. When I, a Swede, first came to Denmark I was super provoked by it and saw it as an other one of Denmarks oblivious ways of being racist. I utterly dislike flags and anything that smells of nationalism. They are connected to war, sports thugs and racists. They include some people at the behest of others. I feel no pride in my flag whatsoever and I'm not ashamed to say it.
5 months ago #9490689
In England our flag is only used for sporting events really, but apart from sports fans the only people who wave them are tourists.
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In England our flag is only used for sporting events really, but apart from sports fans the only people who wave them are tourists.
8 months ago #9464937
On Christmas, I made and cut out flags from Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Sweden, then hung them on a rope and put them on a tree. I thought that they looked pretty.
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On Christmas, I made and cut out flags from Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Sweden, then hung them on a rope and put them on a tree. I thought that they looked pretty.
1 year ago #9384987
@pn3105 Yepp, totally correct about the first and third stanza of our national anthem.
Problem was that idiot Hitler -eeeerr, no, cut the idiot, that's an insult to all idiots- used the first stanza plus the Horst-Wessel-song so successfully in combination that nobody remembers the original meaning of the first stanza.
The current national anthem was created during a time when there was no real "Germany" per se, rather there were dozens (or even hundreds, depending on the time during the 19th century) of principalities that were split up into the Germanic states, but not a single nation. Dito for the German flag, but in reversed order top-to-bottom.
That's what the "Germany above everything" was supposed to signify - not that they were better than others, nor that they were Bavarians, Swabes, Saxons, Hessians, or one of the many other composite regional principalities. No, they were supposed to see themselves as "Germans" first, and then as whatever state they lived in. Not that they were supposed to be better than anyone else in the world, or above anyone else. No, it was 'first be a German, then worry about the rest of your background later'.
It was a unification call, not a call to rule over the world. Yet that <censored, censored, censored> damn f'ing <censored> Hitler totally royally f'ed it up by slathering in that coat of shhh...- -ameful inferiority-complex he must have had.
Luckily that idiot didn't like the black-red-gold tricolor of the Weimar Republic because he believed it was a slander to Germany. Otherwise we would have had to invent a new flag, too, after WWII.
So, be proud of the great things from Germany's history, and abhor the horrible things that happened.
"Never forget; never repeat." But not as a mantra, only as a reminder. ;-)
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@pn3105 Yepp, totally correct about the first and third stanza of our national anthem.
Problem was that idiot Hitler -eeeerr, no, cut the idiot, that's an insult to all idiots- used the first stanza plus the Horst-Wessel-song so successfully in combination that nobody remembers the original meaning of the first stanza.
The current national anthem was created during a time when there was no real "Germany" per se, rather there were dozens (or even hundreds, depending on the time during the 19th century) of principalities that were split up into the Germanic states, but not a single nation. Dito for the German flag, but in reversed order top-to-bottom.
That's what the "Germany above everything" was supposed to signify - not that they were better than others, nor that they were Bavarians, Swabes, Saxons, Hessians, or one of the many other composite regional principalities. No, they were supposed to see themselves as "Germans" first, and then as whatever state they lived in. Not that they were supposed to be better than anyone else in the world, or above anyone else. No, it was 'first be a German, then worry about the rest of your background later'.
It was a unification call, not a call to rule over the world. Yet that <censored, censored, censored> damn f'ing <censored> Hitler totally royally f'ed it up by slathering in that coat of shhh...- -ameful inferiority-complex he must have had.
Luckily that idiot didn't like the black-red-gold tricolor of the Weimar Republic because he believed it was a slander to Germany. Otherwise we would have had to invent a new flag, too, after WWII.
So, be proud of the great things from Germany's history, and abhor the horrible things that happened.
"Never forget; never repeat." But not as a mantra, only as a reminder. ;-)
10 days ago #9543617
Too many people confuse nationalism with patriotism. There's a huge difference.
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Too many people confuse nationalism with patriotism. There's a huge difference.
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20 M
the sad thing is, that even Merkel denied this flag in disgust, once... video fotage on YouTube... really glorious times to be a german