2014 World Cup

[derspiess]

David Hasselhof is going to rock the finale.

Only if he brings his light-up jacket like he had in his Berlin Wall concert.

[Liep]

Celebration in Berlin today. Musical guest: Helen Fischer, one of, if not the most successful German musical artist at the moment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haECT-SerHk

I assume then that the Eurovision is hugely popular in Germany? Because this song wouldn't even beat Armenia.

[Syt]

I believe there's a large demographic intersect in her music, joining young proles who want nothing to do with foreign music and who music see primarily as something to which you shout drunkenly along on the one hand, and the people 50+, especially females.

[Zanza]

I assume then that the Eurovision is hugely popular in Germany? Because this song wouldn't even beat Armenia.

Not a fan, but she easily outsells every Eurovision contest singer in German-speaking countries. Eurovision is not taken seriously at all in Germany. Apart from Lena Meyer-Landrut about five years ago I couldn't name a single German contestant. 

[Iormlund]

Eurovision is not taken seriously at all in Germany.

Is it taken seriously anywhere else?

[Liep]

I assume then that the Eurovision is hugely popular in Germany? Because this song wouldn't even beat Armenia.

Not a fan, but she easily outsells every Eurovision contest singer in German-speaking countries. Eurovision is not taken seriously at all in Germany. Apart from Lena Meyer-Landrut about five years ago I couldn't name a single German contestant. 

It sure sounds like Eurovision music though, maybe they need better PR people for the German market.

[Josephus]

What about that chick who did 99 luftballoons

[Syt]

It's beginning again! o/ 88 etc.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/nationalism-runs-rampant-in-world-cup-germany/

Nationalism runs rampant in World Cup Germany

While many members of the Jewish community support the national team, others fear the accompanying xenophobia brought on by football fever

BERLIN — When child Holocaust survivor, Huguette Hermann, 86, watched Germany defeat Brazil 7-1 last week, she was proud of her country's team. She was particularly impressed with their humility after winning.

"They were so fair, they didn't exult or make a big show. I liked that. I think this is something new. I don't think that would have been like that in the 50s or even in the 60s," says Hermann.

Hermann has no problem with all the flags or expressions of German pride currently sweeping the country.

"I think it's normal. Every country would be proud if their team had got so far. If the British team got so far, the British would do just the same," says Hermann.

Hermann fled the Nazis in her native Belgium, and survived World War II in England. In 1950, she moved with her then husband to West Germany where she encountered an "atmosphere redolent of Nazism," she recalls.

"[West] Germany in the 50s was awful," she says, remembering Germans waxing nostalgic for the Nazi period and a latent animosity in the air. In the 50s she encountered a country without smiles and a cruel bureaucracy. "Today, they've gone to the other extreme," she observes.

Hermann lives on the bustling Chauseestrasse neighborhood of Berlin, where the atmosphere is light and festive. People of all races and nationalities walk the streets, which ahead of the World Cup finals are heavily adorned with German flags and fans wearing funny costumes supporting Germany.

Many of the team's fans are not even German. In Berlin's touristy Hackescher Markt, young people with faces painted red, yellow, and black wear artificial flower leis in the same colors. They drink beer in pubs festooned with German flags. Some speak Swedish; others in American accented English, and the festive atmosphere is akin to Munich's Oktoberfest. However, whereas Munich has its lederhosen, in Berlin during the World Cup is dominated by the German flag.

One German who will not be wearing any flags today is Stefan Kunath, 25. Kunath is an activist in Germany's left of center Die Linke party. In an online correspondence he writes, "Many Germans use the World Cup as [an] outlet to show their suppressed nationalistic feelings. This why soccer is not solely about soccer, but the regaining of German pride after Auschwitz..."

"Only during the World Cup usually sanctioned nationalistic attitudes become mainstream and widely accepted. Recent studies have shown that xenophobia and nationalism are increasing during World Cups in Germany. This is why I am sure that you can't get one thing (a happy football festival) without the other (xenophobia, nationalism)," he writes.

Will Kunath watch the game?

"I think I will watch the game and I hope to see them losing 7:1 for Argentina," writes Kunath.

Those slim odds certainly aren't the hope of Hermann's grandson, Doron Rubin, 32. Rubin was born and raised in the Stuttgart area, and today is the chairman of Berlin's fast growing Orthodox community, Adass Jisroel.

"The question if I feel like I am supporting my national team is a bit tricky, there is a long answer somewhere, but I guess I support them like a Jew in Switzerland is supporting Switzerland," says Rubin.

Other members of the Jewish community find it difficult to support the national team. Ioulia Isserlis, 24, like many of today's younger Jews in Germany, immigrated as a child from the Former Soviet Union. She grew up in Dresden, which unlike multicultural Berlin, is known as a less tolerant and conservative city, with annual neo-Nazi marches.

Today, Isserlis is happy to live in Berlin.

"In Dresden, they made sure that I never felt at home. In Berlin I feel at home because of the international community," says Isserlis.

Her experiences with German anti-Semitism and xenophobia weigh on Isserlis's relationship to her national team.

"As a Jew, you cannot fully support them," she says.

Yet, Isserlis is also an avid soccer fan.

"Germany is one of the best teams nowadays, of course if they win, they deserve it. If they win, I won't have negative feelings."

And which team would Isserlis support, if not Germany?

"If I were to choose a country to support, it would be Israel. But unfortunately Israeli soccer is not there yet," says Isserlis.

[Syt]

[Maladict]

It's beginning again! o/ 88 etc.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/nationalism-runs-rampant-in-world-cup-germany/

Nationalism runs rampant in World Cup Germany

wow

[Tamas]

I am quite open to the idea that Germans in general are deep within quite convinced that they are the bestest country/people in the world, and I would not be in quite total agreement with them on that, but:
-if Serbs/Hungarians/Chechens/etc. are allowed to be convinced of that, it is hardly fair to deny this to Germans and
-that article is idiotic

[Syt]

There was a minor media shitstorm about the celebration in Berlin yesterday (and no, it's not about the "music").

Some players decided to do a little dance: "The gauchos walk like this" (hunched over in defeat) "Germans/victors walk like this" (upright and happy).

[Zanza]

The truck they used for the parade yesterday is shown in front of my office right now.

[Duque de Bragança]

It's beginning again! o/ 88 etc.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/nationalism-runs-rampant-in-world-cup-germany/

Nationalism runs rampant in World Cup Germany

Already running out of diversions for the Gaza operation?

[Tamas]

It's beginning again! o/ 88 etc.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/nationalism-runs-rampant-in-world-cup-germany/

Nationalism runs rampant in World Cup Germany

Already running out of diversions for the Gaza operation?

oh please