BRITISH IDENTITY AND THE GERMAN OTHER A Dissertation ...

strenuous objections to Germanophobic hype and statements like “We have to teach the Hun a
lesson” in the tabloids. 29 The self-conscious and embarrassing absurdity attending the use of
such antiquated stereotypes probably offers the most promising hope for their eventual demise,
especially in light of European integration. To suggest that British soccer fans’ objections to
mixing sports with politics brought a sea-change in attitudes may be stretching a point. Recent
Journalistic efforts may prove more effective in debunking cultural stereotypes, like the runaway
best-seller in Germany entitled My Dear Krauts (2006) by the Times Berlin correspondent Roger
Boyes. Commenting about an anticipated British edition, Boyes declared the welcome passing of
war-time allusions and “heel-clicking clichés,” and he referred to the popularity of British
comedy in Germany shown by “an encyclopaedic knowledge of Benny Hill, Monty Python,
Fawlty Towers, Mr. Bean, The Office—slavishly copied—and Borat.” 30 Finding Germans “on
the same wavelength” and even somewhat belatedly amused at “jackboot jokes” and Hitler
satires, Boyes attributed the “serious German” stereotype not to any character deficit but to a
sociological separation of humor from everyday life. If his descriptions of a “banter-less
society,” averse to sudden sarcasm or irony and torn between national pride and crippling self-
doubt, seem a bit like benign renditions of earlier stereotypes, at least Germans themselves find
Boyes thought-provoking and amusing.
This dissertation has argued the endurance of stereotypical thinking and the role of
stereotypes in national identity construction. Stereotypes of Germany in nineteenth-century
29 Head, “Jürgen Kinsmann, EURO 96,” 107, 110-12, 115, refers to “The Daily Mirror
Invades Berlin,” Daily Mirror, 24 June 1996, 2.
30 See these comments by Boyes prior to the publication of the British edition in “Sour
Krauts?” The Times, December 21, 2006.
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