New German pride slogan has roots in Nazi rallies

from JoeUser Forums
In a huge 'D'oh!' moment, the nice folks from the land of Streudel have found that the slogan they picked to help rebuild pride in Germany was used at Nazi rallies back in the 1930s.

$34 million worth of ad campaign shot to heck because of the dark history of the country. Argh!

Original news article snippet follows. Headline is linked. Please see original article for complete story.




German esteem builder backfires

By Kate Connolly
LONDON DAILY TELEGRAPH
November 26, 2005

BERLIN -- A multimillion-dollar campaign to boost Germans' low self-confidence has backfired after it emerged that its slogan was coined by the Nazis.
The $34 million "Du Bist Deutschland -- You Are Germany" -- campaign was devised to inspire Germans to stop moaning and do something good for their country.
Beethoven, Einstein and the sports stars Franz Beckenbauer and Michael Schumacher have been cited in advertisements encouraging Germans to take more pride in their homeland.
But a historian from Ludwigshafen has provoked an uproar with his discovery that the same "Du Bist Deutschland" cry was used at Nazi rallies in the 1930s.
Stefan Morz uncovered photographs of a 1935 Nazi convention in which soldiers display a banner reading, in Gothic script, "Denn Du Bist Deutschland (Because You Are Germany)." The slogan was topped with the head of Adolf Hitler. Leading Nazis such as Hermann Goring and Joseph Goebbels attended the event.
"Every time I see the slogan 'Du Bist Deutschland' I am reminded of this rather disturbing parallel with the past," said Mr. Morz, a historian and archivist.


... more at linked article
politics
4,054 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
Great article!

Including Einstein, a Jew that had to flee the Nazis, in the advertisements, is more ironic than anything a satirist could have dreamed up.

Thanks for posting this.
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
As with Bakerstreet's clipping of the Candian government official that was concerned about intergalactic wars, sometimes the real news is better than anything that could ever be made up.

Thanks for posting this.
Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top
This is priceless!  It is a shame the Nazi's used it, but the whole thing is funny as hell!
Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top
Not as disturbing as they are making it out to be. from 1945-1991 there was no ability to refer to a single Deutschland and the slogan would have been out of place. Now, 14 years in to a unified "Deutschland, a slogan of this nature returns, and quite frankly, rightly so. The country needs a good shot of nationalism instead of being wiped all over the European board by the French whimps who have been steering the German Schroeder government. With Angela Merkel as the new Chancellor, a ministers daughter from the former East Germany, they have every right to find some new form of German identity. It will probably side more closely with the US in any case. How bad can that be?
Reply #5 from JoeUser Forums Top
The country needs a good shot of nationalism....


Hmmm, combine that with a heavily modified form of socialism and a good healthy hatred of one particular group in society and hey, they might have something there.
Reply #6 from JoeUser Forums Top

The country [Germany] needs a good shot of nationalism....


That's exactly what Germany doesn't need.

And no, it won't make Germany "side more closely with the US". German nationalism has no interest in siding with the US, unless the US is represented by American nationalists (not patriots) like David Duke and his ilk.

German nationalists will side with other nationalists, but how does that help?
Reply #7 from JoeUser Forums Top
German nationalists will side with other nationalists, but how does that help?


Please read the rest of my post;
Hmmm, combine that with a heavily modified form of socialism and a good healthy hatred of one particular group in society and hey, they might have something there.
Please note how it is dripping with sarcasm. I was, in my own *special* way, saying the same thing as you.
Reply #8 from JoeUser Forums Top
I didn't realise that you (uBob) and Poldark Maximus were the same person?
Reply #9 from JoeUser Forums Top
I didn't realise that you (uBob) and Poldark Maximus were the same person?


We're not. I'm referring to post #5. I thought you were too. Sorry.
Reply #10 from PolMach Forums Top
Methinks there are those who run in mortal fear from any resurgence of German natjonal identiy. Consider that any German younger than 60 (sixty) years was born AFTER the war, and may feel it common to assert some sort of national identity. As would any Canadian feeling the need to distinguish themelves from US citizenship. What matter of fear in us universally associates German National identiy with rabid anit-semitism? Poldark Maximus would rather see a legitimate German national identity at the core of Europe than the monstrosity that called itslf the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR) or East Germany. Think back 15- 50 years to that vile manifestation of German (communist ) nationalism.

Refusing Germans a national identity has been tried and it has failed. Several times. PM's point about Angela Merkel was to draw stark relief between the moderate attitudes of the CDU/CSU and those of the SPD's Schroeder and Green Party Joshke Fischer whose dislike of America is rivaled only by many of those living in the US. Besides, its not for us to decide. Who died and made the Americans Grace Kelly on this issue of national identities?.