BRITISH IDENTITY AND THE GERMAN OTHER A Dissertation ...

German angst, aggressiveness, assertiveness, bullying, egotism, inferiority complex,
sentimentality, and other negative stereotypes, when exposed, naturally aroused considerable
resentment in Germany and unmasked an irrational side to British Conservatives’ opposition to
reunification. 15
The sudden reassessment in Anglophone periodicals of West German society as
something novel in comparison with immediate post-war years seemed remarkable in its capacity
to both reassure and bewilder. Reports of West German affluence and the comforting familiarity
of western capitalism, consumerism, fashion and enjoyment of leisure coexisted with outrageous
extravagance, the excesses of shock theater, and quirky laws that appear out of synch with
memories of the “overgrown work ethic” that created Germany’s economic miracle. 16 Another
manifestation of this climate of ambiguity and uncertainty could be seen in the readiness of
journalists to exploit outmoded national stereotypes in order to tantalize readers. Semi-jocular
reference to the “Latinization of Germany” and “a distinctly non-Teutonic mañana principle,”
used to describe the apparent sanctity of Freizeit (leisure time), and a quote from Tacitus, the
first-century Roman historian, about furor Teutonicus and “fanatically loyal” Germans, or
Friedrich Nietzsche’s infamous statement on the inherited European dread of the “Teutonic blond
included historians Fritz Stern, Hugh Trevor-Roper, Norman Stone and Gordon Craig.
15 A. J. Nicholls, Fifty Years of Anglo-German Relations, The 2000 Bithell Memorial
Lecture (London: Institute of Germanic Studies, University of London School of Advanced
Study, 2001), 15.
16 See William Rademaekers, “The Oh So Good Life,” Michael Walsh, “Shopping Hell,”
and William A. Henry III, “The Power to Shock,” who refers to state-subsidized German theater
as “a Walpurgisnacht of excess,” in Time (9 July 1990): 80-82, 84. Walsh reports on the “souldestroying”
Ladenschlussgesetz or trade-union-inspired laws restricting shop hours that make life
miserable for Germans and tourists alike.
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