Germany wins some – looses some
Germany’s biggest loss of this Worldcup came today – two days after the closing ceremony, as the German Football Federation (DFB) confirms Jürgen Klinsmann’s decision to quit. Considering his commute and the amount of abuse he had to suffer before the Worldcup, his decision does not come as a total shock – just as a major disappointment. Thank you, Herr Klinsmann, for your courage to make hard decisions, and for pulling together a fantastic team that played some of the best football in this tournament and that put the spunk back into German football.
On the positive side, however, 90 percent of the foreign Worldcup tourists say that they would recommend Germany as a tourist destination (according to a poll conducted by the German tourism association DZT). The images from Germany during the last month have been very positive: cheerful enthusiasm and hospitality, combined with a new flag-waving self-confidence that seems to be generally well-received.
Personally, I find all this flag-waving a bit silly, but on the other hand it appears to be a sign of a cheerful, self-confident flavor of patriotism that is hardly threatening. And after all, they are waving the banner of the German Märzrevolution (de) (en) of 1848, which was a perfectly respectable (if ill-fated) Democratic revolution. Of all the flags Germans might be waving, we like this one best …