Lingering effects on Germany from WWII?

Question

I'm just wondering how events from WWII shape the present day in Germany in the large scale and on the individual person.

Answer 1

WW2 was one reason why Germany did not invade IRAQ - unlike the US. WW2 is the reason why Germany has no death penalty - not even in case of war. WW2 is the reason why "hate crimes" are illegal in Germany. WW2 is the reason why German soldiers do not wear uniforms in public. WW2 is the reason why German soldiers can question the orders of their commanders. WW2 is the reason why g**s can join the German army.

Answer 2

From what I have learned, there is still a heavy burden to  come to terms with the past on both a large scale and for the individual, literally it is termed Vergangenheitsbewältigung. A lot of this struggle seems to be played out through art, such as the Holocaust memorial in Berlin, poems, literature, etc.  Also, owning any sort of n**i paraphernalia or denying the Holocaust is a punishable offense.

Answer 3

I don't know about any lingering attitudes.  When I was there in fall '06, many seemed happy about what progress  has been made.

Answer 4

well....i have lived in germany for some time now and they dont seem to have any regrets about the war...most of em are dead now....the worst thing i think germany did after the war was open the doors to all the foreigners and offer them money....they make up almost half the population in germany and they are still coming (82 million peeps)..we are after all talking about a country the size of montana, and every germany wonders why there are no good paying jobs....really from all the germans that I know of not one of them really has a clue about ww2 other than what was taught in school....I know some of the older generation that were children at this time think that hitler was not wrong he just went to far.....a major problem in germany is when you call a foreigner stupid in germany they automatic call you a n**i...why i dont know....funny part is They look really dumb when I start to talk perfect english to them then they just walk off...after the war i think they all just looked forward to better days for the most part.  which is what anyone would of wanted in them days....

Answer 5

Well, my grandpa came back from Russia more or less in pieces, had one leg amputated, and died a slow and painful death. When he finally died, I was about four years old, so my memories are dim, but my grandma used to tell me stories about who he was and how he lived. He never was a n**i; he was sent to war like everybody was in those days. Simple choice: get shot on the spot, go to a concentration camp, or go to the "eastern front". Thinking about the chances of survival, he took the best choice.

Things like that are part of almost every German family's history, and they linger on and on. Things like that made me become a pacifist and absolutely anti-war. And I simply hate it that "Germans" and "n***s" still seem to be associated with each other in some countries; and I hate the so-called "Neo-n***s". They don't know what they're talking about. And I hate the holocaust deniers. WE knew, EVERYBODY knew what was happening in the KZs. Those who pretend they didn't know are blunt liars. But you had to shut up; otherwise you'd ended up at Dachau yourself.

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edit:

> owning any sort of n**i paraphernalia

No, this is not punishable. You can legally own a n**i flag, or a copy of Hitler's "Mein Kampf", and you can perform the "Hitler greeting" in private: Germany is a DEMOCRACY, just in case someone doesn't know. The state doesn't intermingle with your private affairs. (Well, anyway, they might, but as of today, still they don't.) But it's true that showing n**i symbols, or performing the Hitler greeting IN PUBLIC is a punishable offense. But rather a minor offense. I met a bunch of young neo-n***s at Leipzig central station; one of them (obviously drunk) showed the Hitler salute when he saw two policemen approaching. That cost him 200 euros. He paid and got his receipt, and if that hadn't been enough, when the police were about to leave, he turned around, made the Hitler salute, and shouted "Heil Hitler!". This time, he was handcuffed and arrested. I don't know how expensive that got. 500, maybe more.

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@HamburgNETT: Agree with almost all of your statements, except the last one. I served my 15 months in the army, and I can't remember that anyone ever questioned me if I was g*y. (Don't worry, I'm not.) But you forgot that for quite a long time, they didn't allow women into the army, not even if they volunteered. There had to be a High Court rule that women have the same rights as men, and can serve in the army carrying weapons, if they wish to do so. But still, men can be drafted; women must apply.

Answer 6

Well, one of the things that came out of WWII is the seperation of Germany into 2 parts, East and West with the Iron Curtain running right through the middle. The separation ended 1989, but its aftereffects can still be felt in daily life all over Germany. This is especially true for people older than 25 who can still remember living in the GDR.

Answer 7

The effects can be found everywhere and you could fill a whole room with books covering this subject but three things that effect every German are the following:

1) We Germans don't really have a national pride. We don't have stickers on our cars saying "proud to be German" etc. The after-war generation was raised with a bad conscience and we had to learn everything about WW II over and over again at school. As a consequence being a racist/ n**i and voicing this opinion in public is being despised by the whole society.

2) After the war was over the allied forces disassembled all factories that were still intact after the big bombings and rebuilt them in their countries. This was the foundation for the economic boom in the 60/70ies in Germany. Since we had to start from scratch our factories and machinery was high-tech compared to the other countries and therefore our products "made in Germany" were high quality and there was an increasingly high demand for German goods.

3) A whole generation of men was almost eliminated. So the diversity of the German gene pool was decimated. The effects cannot be measured really cause nobody can tell what potiential may it be negative or positive was destroyed. Nobody knows what the descendants of these killed man could have/would have achieved...