Can I be proud to be German?
July 9, 2006
Yesterday was the first rainy day since the beginning of the World Cup and it gave me a chance to slow down, walk through the streets of Stuttgart and reflect on the World Cup and Germany.
I’ve never thought how much fun it could be to be German! I bought the first German flag of my life and for the Germany games I painted my face with the German colors. Like everybody else here I enjoyed the freedom that the World Cup gave us to be German, finally.
During the last four weeks I was able to talk with many other Germans about the World Cup and their thoughts on our identity as a nation. There’s a deep longing for a national consciousness and a renewed German identity in people’s hearts here. Even though most of us were born after World War II, we still find it very hard to express positive feelings about our country. It is sad that we can only celebrate our country after soccer games.
In the past four weeks, this has also been a personal journey for me. I learned to accept to be German and even to see some good things in that. God also reminded me that His grace for Germany is bigger than all the bad things of the past – and that He is a forgiving God. He can make all things new!
The people of Germany are celebrating the 3rd place of the World Cup at the moment, they are calling the German soccer team already “Weltmeister der Herzen” – “World Cup winners of the hearts”.
But my prayer is that we develop a healthy national identity that goes beyond soccer and the World Cup. This is only possible because God loves us so much and he chose to die for all of our sins! Please pray that the people in Germany would accept God’s amazing grace and that we start to live in our true identity, that God has given us as a nation.
~ Daniela
German fans watching their team playing
Entry Filed under: Daniela, Prayer requests. .
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1.
ADT | July 10, 2006 at 4:23 pm
Unser Vater im Himmel! Bitte segnen Sie die Völker Deutschlands, und jeder, der auf Ihren heiligen Name anrufen werden! Wir wissen daß Sie uns lieben, und Sie durch Jesus alle Dinge neu machen!
Und wir wissen daß Jesus sagt:
“Kommt her zu mir, alle, die ihr mühselig und beladen seid; ich will euch erquicken. Nehmt auf euch mein Joch und lernt von mir; denn ich bin sanftmütig und von Herzen demütig; so werdet ihr Ruhe finden für eure Seelen. Denn mein Joch ist sanft, und meine Last ist leicht.” –Matthäus 11,28-30
2.
ADT | July 12, 2006 at 1:31 pm
Daniela,
By the way, congratulations to Germany for a fine 3rd place finish in the World Cup! Not to mention being such wonderful hosts to such a large event! That picture you posted of the German fans is beautiful!
Sincerely,
Anthony
P.S. I hope my German grammar in the previous comment wasn’t too far from correct!
3.
kelly | September 8, 2007 at 7:38 pm
are u german? ahh w/e. well u can be proud of urself, but i would never be proud to be german. i’m american, white, 1/2 jewish. i’m part german jewish & it makes me sick to my stomach how evil germany is. i know better than to go there! fuck germany!
4.
german | September 18, 2007 at 9:51 pm
omfg kelly u stupid peace of shit…
there were some mistakes in history of germany – but NOW you are able to be proud to be a german! we don’t have to shame forever ! have u ever read a book to get to know how great and old this country is? u just know the years 1939-1945 – everything else is unknows right? think about “preußen” oder the “germanen” – who the hell do u think u are? u are an american? haha ! what about the indians they slaughtered? what about iraq they bombed?
and u tell us that germans are evil ? u are so fucking stupid stupid girl
think about it
5.
anna | November 20, 2007 at 8:58 pm
Hey Daniela
My name is anna im from germany but moves away long time ago.i have a project running for school about germanys pride and the world cup 2006 thats why i found your page.honestly what you wrote really emotionally touched me because i personally found it really hard to talk about germany in connection to pride because i wasnt really proud of germany my country.i visit germany normaly in the summer and the summer 2006 and the world cup changed my opinion about germany the hole atmusphere changed.i must say im proud to be a german .exactly what you felt i felt it too.that waht u wrote is amazing .God bless you
anna
6.
Geoff | March 25, 2008 at 7:34 am
I agree Daniela. It is time for us to start being proud of our nation. It is unfortunate that here in America (my family immigrated when I was 2) all they teach about Germany is the 12 year period of tyranny that our grandparents lived under.
7.
Karen | October 20, 2008 at 12:01 am
You didn’t do anything to be German, I don’t see why you would be proud of it. I think people should say “Glad to be German (or any other country)” than “Proud to be German”
It makes more sense but I guess “Proud” sounds cooler? ;D
8.
Michael Tim | February 28, 2009 at 6:12 pm
I love your site!
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9.
Viking | August 26, 2009 at 1:28 pm
Offcourse you can be proud to be german.
The holocaust was a stupid made up lie!!
Go and watch the movie one third of holocaust…
And if you wanna learn about people who’ve been infairly treated then examine what happened to the american indians.