americans (and others) opinion about germany?

Nazi persection of Jews, gays, Gypsies, Communists, Socialists, the mentally ill, started LONG before 1939.

 

Didn't German troops commit horrible killing of mothers and children during the Great War in 1915?

 

I like Germany's economic and social policies, by and large. I dislike their approach to free speech, however.

 

the Nazis also started forcibly sterilyzing people with non-genetic diseases, in 1933.

and of course the criminal Nuremberg Laws started in 1933 as well.

 

Had Hitler stepped down in 1939, he would have been remembered as a rabid psychopath, who persecuted hundreds of thousands of Jews, Gypsies, Communists, Socialists, left-wing Nazis, and anyone else who he felt was an "Untermensch".

 

Yeah... but that goes hand in hand. If people have free-speech, then they will use that freedom to oppose the economic and social policies.

Without the removal of free-speech, and the removal of political freedom, socialism will never work. There has never been, nor ever will be a socialist system that is not oppressive, because without forcing the system on the public, they will reject it.

 

They don't prevent people from discussing politics, though they do at times suppress those with ideas they deem too radical, such as the Neonazis. As long as the government is suppressing speech, I see it as overstepping its bounds.

Of course, I would also tend to agree with you regarding socialism, at least in principle, though I think they are doing a fine job so far with the implementation of those policies that could be called socialist. They take care of their citizenry.

 

Who are you referring too?

 

Die Deutschen, if I understand your question correctly.

 

That has something to do with mental exaltation and being quite the nationalist people. Their position in europe, being at the very center, probably made germans a little paranoid and megalomaniac at the same time. Thank god they were stopped.

Today's germans to me are efficient, quite respectful, but somewhat cold people. Not the funny guys at all, but i think they are better overall than many others.

 

My image of Germany is biased at best. My Mom never got to know her Dad (My Grandfather) as he got a big dose of Mustard Gas in WW I and died shortly after the war was over. My Dad had 3 brothers. 2 went to the Pacific and my Dad and another brother went to Europe during WWII. My Dad came back, his Brother who went with him to Europe is in the ground at Cambridge American Cemetery in England.

With that being said, I do admire the German people for their resilience and work ethic.

 

I understand what you are saying, and I thank you for expressing your feelings so respectfully. I come from an old military family who lost many members in the two wars against Germany (in fact, I am named after a great-great-uncle who won a posthumous VC during the Battle of Britain).

However, I think we cannot judge any people by what happened in a war against them, especially when that war is very much history (not even my gran was alive during WW2).

There is almost no one still alive who fought in 1940, so why should we judge today's 20 year olds by what their great-great-grandfathers might have done in a world we would have no chance of recognising? It would make as much sense for me to judge modern Americans by the soldiers who fought against my distant relatives in 1776.

 

Don´t get me wrong, i´m sad that your family lost members in some historic wars, but thats not my fault, nor am i responsible for that. Do you see me blame sweden for the 30 year war in germany?

 

Even if he did persecute people before 1939 that's still overshadowed by how he got germany back on track as he did. Quite a feat in my view, very impressive. The ironic thing with fascism is that they have the best economic policy: corporatism. See the wonders it did in germany? See the wonders it did in sweden? That's corporatism. Hitler got the economy right indeed. The key is to balance the need to have a welfare state for your citizens, and to still have a competitive and growing market. The sad thing is that because you're german, you're not allowed to state this truth.

And yes, starting wars is normal, and tbh, the wars germany started aren't much different from others in history. The reason Germany was so willified is because industrialisation greatly increased the possible destruction, and because new media could convey that to the people, and because the governments all spent very much on propaganda.

yes, yes, and the US weren't really that great when it came to handling native americans, or black people, or other minorities. It's really no point in trying to portray germany as something much, much more evil than the rest of the west. Truth is, that the west in general has a pretty (*)(*)(*)(*)ty record of handling minorities' human rights, as do all of humanity btw.

the US and Sweden also had their eugenics programs, and so did other countries and yet more considered it. It was common in those times, and not at all unique to Germany.

 

I like your education system and labor rights. Most companies there seem to have a democratic way of running things that is lacking here.

The only significant flaw I see in your system is the difficulty you seem to have in integrating Turks. Your citizenship laws seem to need reform.

 

And that's a problem shared with most western european countries. But I agree, Germany is pretty much flawless overall. Probably only the already mentioned problem, and their anti-nuclear stance that bothers me. But then, germany does have the luxury of not having to pay much for it's protection. So a comparison to the USA, or even to UK and France, is rather unfair.

 

I wouldn't say it's unfair but somewhat apples to oranges.