Patriotism in Germany

A healthy love for the fatherland or only just the brother of nationalism?

We are all familiar with it: we become victims of a black, red and gold sea of German national flags we can see on the streets and in public places at least every other year, whenever there is an international sport  event. Is that because Germans have developed a comfortable relationship with their nation? Have we all become patriots or does our history still impede the patriotism some people call "healthy"? Do we even need this symbolic expression of our national feeling of belonging and unity? Especially since Germany has become a land of immigration with people of different origins, cultural backgrounds and normal ethnic acts meeting in a community. Maybe values such as philanthropy and solidarity are sufficient for the cohesion of a society. 

The term patriotism, "love for the fatherland", is defined by a strong emotional bond of a person with his*her home country which is usually closely linked to ethnic, political and cultural unity. It is therefore essential for one's identification with his*her country. One is thus proud to be German.

Nationalism and patriotism are forms of human communication and cohabitation. Whoever defines himself a patriot or nationalist can be assigned to an identifiable group of people and at the same time makes it clear that he*she does not belong to any other community. 

Nationalism and patriotism have internal and an external aspects. Internally, inside of the group, they are defined by integration, solidarity and union. To the outside they exclude and define everybody "else" as "other" and not part of their group. These internal and external actions have effects that are particularly easy to make out in more aggressive forms of patriotism and nationalism where they stigmatize the "others" as enemies. 

Why then root for Germany during the world championship? 

One should think about this question. Because it is strange to identify oneself with a nation one was born into and can do nothing for. Because one has done nothing for this country. Why then should one root for the team in the white shirts during a soccer match? Because being a patriot means being proud of ethnic, cultural, political and historic aspects of your country, too. And as a German you really can not be proud of your nation's history. Germany can not have an unbiased or unbroken pride regarding its history. That is how Germany differs from other democratic countries and explains why Germans are less proud of their historic and political accomplishments than nationals of other countries. 

The problem of patriotism therefore is that there is only a small difference between nationalism and patriotism. The only difference is that patriotism only valorizes its own country and respects others, while nationalism demeans other nations. It is not easy to spot it because there are many crossovers and patriotism can easily be misused as a disguise for nationalism. 

The big difference between Germany and other countries: In Germany is patriotism not so acclaimed like somewhere else.