Are Germans embaressed or depressed?

Question

I know that living in a nation where Nazism once ruled all would embaress me.

Answer 1

I am embarassed about this era, of course. The large majority of us is.
Many of us are very ashamed about it, can't believe how this could happen in our country - or elsewhere.
It's hard to talk about it, and in every day life, it's especially hard to talk about it.
But that doesn't mean it'd be forgotten. We learn about it at school (some more, some less - in my school we learned about it for 4 or 5 years), read articles in newspapers, museums and so on. Some more, some less.

Some deny it ever happened (which is forbidden to do), some rightwing extremists glorify it (which is forbidden as well), some others on the left side judge Germany exclusively about this era and let the rest, or the suffering on the german side be unvalid.

I myself learned how to be ashamed about this era and still love my country. I am not depressed with my country, cos my country is more than the terrible events of these 12 years.

I am not proud to be German, but I feel a strong love for my country - there's a difference.

WW2 killed millions of people.
It did not kill time. Time goes on, and nowaday's Germany is a whole different country. Like it was a whole different country 60 years before ww2.

We are well aware of the victims and most of us feel very sorry. But that doesn't mean that we are depressed. Even though we had loads of losses on our own side as well, also with millions of civil victims (I know, many don't want to hear that but it's the truth), we rebuilt our country.

The people in my environment are open minded and far far away from racism. And we live a happy life, we are proud of our country, and since last year we wave our flag again, show our colours in pride, sing the anthem without the weird feeling that would have come along before 2006. And this made us grow together even more, also with the foreign minorities, who mostly joined in the world cup harmony and showed german flags as well.
(A turkish guy who had no flag wanted wave my flag so badly, so that I gave him in the end ;) )

Let's put it this way.
I am very embarassed, ashamed of the nazi era, which is a part of my country. And yet, I love my country for many reasons.

Flowers can grow out of ashes.

Answer 2

I cannot speak for the Germans, nor does any two Germans have exactly the same feeling on the matter, but think about it in terms of America. Americans killed off the native Americans by the thousands. For most Americans that is not something to be particularly proud of. I would imagine Nazism is not something Germans are proud of, but that was 60-70 years ago and is not relevant to what the new generations are trying to accomplish.

Answer 3

Obviously its not an episoid in german history which people will go round boasting about. Its hard for younge Germans to work out exactly what happened then, and we will never be able to explain away the attrocities.

But not everyone was a passionate nazi, and their were still those who stood up fpr what they believed:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_resistance

Of course every nation has a few nasty epizoids in it's past, we've moved on. I think its more important to worry about persecutions in the modern world.

Answer 4

that i have seen multiple exhibits showing the atrocities of the holocaust accompanied by written apologies by the german gov't thruout the country. i was surprised that the people have been so public about the issue...

Answer 5

George Bush depresses me.

Answer 6

Are you able to travel? Come and take a look. It´s so hard to describe oneself.

Answer 7

ich bin verlegen

Answer 8

depressed
i should know my brother is german
and he's allways depressed