Proud to be a German

So what do all you sensitive, caring non-Germans think of the newest idea to get Germans off their arses and back to work? Me I think it`s all Bollocks, all they need is a decent Gov and a boot up the Jacksie.

I saw this ad tonight. It was on just before LOST and they have the slogan 'du bist deutschland'.
It features many famous Germans.
And it seems to have the aim of increasing pride in being German and encouraging people to make a difference.
I liked it. Thought it was 'sympathisch', non-threatening and well-shot. I especially liked their efforts to show the face of 'multi-culti Germany.'
God knows, Germany needs a little push in the direction of being proud to be German.

This is the link

http://www.du-bist-deutschland.de/

and here is the TV ad

http://www.du-bist-deutschland.de/opencms/...tsAnzeigen.html

Everything is of course in German.
also worth having a look at are the interviews with the people in the ads.

Thanks for the links, Tara.

Nothing wrong with such ads, though I wonder if they ever influence anybody...

There doesn't seem to be any taxpayer money involved, if I understood correctly (apparently, it's the association of German media companies paying for it, i.e. they are probably using ad space they didn't manage to sell anyway...)

Is Boris in there?

But doesn't he live in Switzerland as all sensible rich Germans who want to escape the taxes do so?

My cultural memory may be playing tricks on me, but isn't that "Ice Castles" playing in the background? Good heavens. I mean. Really. Good heavens.

A load of Germans reciting bollocks to the tune of Forrest Gump...

Anyone know where I can get either an MPG or AVI of the 2:00 min commercial? I'd really like to share this with my German Class. Its one of the most well done commercials I've seen in a while.

good point.

they were showing these commercials on SKY TV last night, the campaign aims to give the Germans some direction and encourage them to be proud and enthusiastic again...here's hoping it works.

That bloke that used to be good at racing in the red car with the fat wheels I think legged it over the border as well.

me likes it, got me shivering a little, to be honest.

thing is...well, who am i kidding, ww2-being proud-nazi...u know all that.
guess that's y they made it and that's basically all there is to it.

p.

I think its a brilliant advert. Germans need to like themselves a little more.

true, but we've got loads of tv stuff "highlighting" german stupidity during ww2. do u guys know guido knopp? works for zdf and he's the go-to guy when it comes to german history. he made hundreds of shows reg. ww2.
doesn't make me feel proud either. actually, uk is the only country left on the planet not having done a "major" mistake in history. not bad.

p.

Excepting of course the Irish Potato Famine, Amritsar Massacre, invention of the concetration camp, first use of poison gas as a weapon of mass destruction against a civilian population...

Anyway, some good verarschung of this Deutshtümelei here:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/dubistdeutschland/pool/

Now for the latest, I heard this morning that the German national anthem was played in church...

Errrrrr.

Depends how you interpret your history. Just 2 examples...

Main driver of the 'triangular trade' (Europe - Africa - Americas)... pretty f****** huge negative global consequences (at least for Africa/Africans and their descendants).

20th century: Allocating part of British-controlled Palestine to Jewish settlers... pretty f****** huge negative global consequences...still being felt.

personally i find that extremely offensive , only time I have ever seen nationalism present in a church was the US (national flag) and I wanted to walk out immediately but would have embarassed the shit out of my family there

Interesting phrase you chose there...

While we agree in principle, you got some of the details wrong. You also left out the entire haphazard partitioning of the Middle East with no regard to local politics, tribes or history. Thanks for that one, England.

Britain didn't allocate a part of Palestine to Jewish settlers. British policy was to prevent the Holocaust survivors going to Palestine. they sent them to refugee camps in Cyprus and back to Germany (Exodus, 1947). Britain pulled out in 1947 and handed over the "Palestine Mandate" which included Israel, Jordan and some other bits of the region, to the UN.

The Palestinians' claim to Israel is even more spurious than Jakarta's claim to East Timor.Immigration of Arabs into and within Palestine occurred during the Ottoman and British mandatory periods. That's hardly "our homeland since forever." The Palestinian Arabs still controlled Jerusalem in 1948 despite the partitioning, refused to let the Israelis in the city, and hey continued to try and wipe out an armed group of people, most of whose relatives had already been wiped out and who had an awful lot of fight in them.

But back to the original point: Britain carries more responsibility for the current world's ills and wars than any other country -- including the US which gave up on isolationism the last time in 1941) until from colonisation and arbitrary borders (Africa, Middle East) to playing kingmaker with politics and alliances (WWI which led to WWII).

woof.

Really? So who then lived there prior to the Arab migration?

You mean before the British occupation at the beginning of the 20th century? The Ottomans, and the Jews ignored a denial of their request to move back -- their first settlement became Tel Aviv. Before that various Arab groups and nomadic peoples. Before that the Romans and before them, the Jews.

woof.

such a load of tosh, BD
the fact that the area was conquered by and became part of the Ottoman Empire doesn't make the inhabitants of the region Ottoman by ancestry
any more than the inhabitants of India suddenly became "British" in anything but name when they were part of the British empire

Actually Topsy, as much as I hate to admit it, what BD wrote is actually the closest thing to the truth that I have read here on TT.
The only thing BD exadurated is the "black white" description of it, Tel Aviv was not "the fist", many were established at the same time.
During the Ottoman rule it was populated by jews, Arabs (Palestinians) and beduins (south).
The REAL numbers however are truly unknown till more or less the beginning of the 20th century (early 1900's).
Besides, the numbers varied over the time any how, so when discussing population in palestine it always comes down to ask - at which time?
See this link, in my view it is quite balanced:
http://www.mideastweb.org/palpop.htm

Tel Aviv wasn't "founded" in that time... Tel-Aviv or Jaffa (or Yaffo) dates back as 3.500 years b.c. ... Tel-Aviv was a suburb of Jaffa, founded by Jewish settlers end of the 19th century near Jaffa. Called Tel-Aviv now since the suburb grew a bit bigger than the original city.

Jews as in Arab Jews, Arabs as in Christians, Jews, and Muslims, and bedouins as in Muslims. Nothing is so black and white.

But hey, isn't this topic re. pride in being German?

Topsy: [Redacted.]
Modern day Tel Aviv and Jaffa were only united after the founding of Israel. They were separate cities prior to that, with mostly Jews in the former and Arabs in the latter.

woof.

well, either leave what you wrote in the first place, or delete the whole lot
otherwise just putting a tossy word like "redacted" makes you come across as a right twat