No Way Back. Why I still am a Convinced European.

November 7th, 2011 • Politics

I spent my last weekend in England where one of my best friends celebrated his wedding. My friend is German (as I am) and he married his English girlfriend. While spending the weekend with my friends I had an interesting conversation with one of his English friends about Germany’s role in the European bailout process. He told me what other Brits had told me before: They expressed compassion for all the money that specifically Germany has to stake now (the last bail out sum was EUR 211 bn) to save the EU – while the UK’s share as a traditionally Euro-sceptic nation is much lower.

Upon returning to Amsterdam my girlfriend and I got to know five young Italians at Schiphol airport who needed support to find the right train to get to the city center. They were tourists and asked a lot of questions about living in Amsterdam and our reasons for moving here. And at one point one of them asked us: “How do you like Italy?’

It is difficult to answer something reasonable when being asked something like that. But I quickly realized what this young guy from Turin actually wanted to know. He wanted to find out about our German perception of the weak econonomic situation that Italy finds itself in these days. His personal explanation of the current Italo-German relations sounded almost exactly like this: “Italians like to live – they enjoy long lunch breaks but nobody really works. Germans on the other hand are ambitious and they have a good working attitude which is why Germany is the richest country in Europe nowadays. And they wanted to push the EU further so they can help out.”

No doubt, I had to disagree. I have heard similar stereotypes before. But neither is there an economic German success gene nor is there something like inexhaustible money well in Germany. Just 10 years ago Germany was considered as the Sick Man of Europe. To quote an article from 2002:

The German economy’s underperformance is a result of an economic structure built on social consensus rather than market forces. The Weimar republic and the following Nazi era led to Germans attaching a very high premium on domestic stability. (…) The structural rigidity of the German economy has meant that it could not react quickly and nimbly to changing circumstances. (…) Occasionally the FDP (Germany’s liberal party) might mumble something that would be a step in the right direction, but aside from their self-inflicted implosion, they would in any case not be a major force.

A decade later and FDP – aka the only German party that gets it – is on the brink of disintegration. Europe’s market squares have become camp sites for OccupyWallstreet protesters, even Harvard’s Business Review asks ‘Was Marx right?,’ and Germany has miraculously become Europe’s fit man. This is not the result of the aspirational German working attitude. It is the result of something completely else.

That’s why I had to contradict the young Italian guy from the train: What is happening right now has nothing to do with Germans being ambitious and Italians (or Greeks, or Portugese, …) being lazy. It has got something to do with a clear Political agenda of economic reforms that Germany conducted in the mid-2000s. Many Germans had to accept extreme cuts and much lower levels of social grants than before (oh…and it cost our former Chancellor Schroeder his job – but that’s a different story). Just pretending that this is a mix of good luck and the right attitude is simply not true.

The result was a stronger economic climate as you can see in the following diagram which shows the German unemployment rate since the reunification.

In fact: this wealth was paid for by many Germans since the mid 2000s – and luckily it paid off. But we are not talking about money that was heaven-sent.

When I think about the two mentioned conversations I do not only have to contradict the young Italian. I also want to contradict my British conversation partner who expressed so much compassion with Germany’s role as one of the two steersmen on the bridge of this…leaking… ship that Europe currently is. I am a convinced European and I want this endeavour to succeed. My country together with France risks an awful lot right at the moment: But I just spent a weekend as a German travelling with my Polish girlfriend to England, partying with Brits, Austrians and many other nations before meeting a group of Italians on the way to my apartment in Amsterdam. You get my point? There is nothing to feel compassion for. This concept called Europe has to succeed as there is no way back. And it will succeed.

Unfortunately this European Union is a much better concept than the boring semi-economic/fiscal institution that our Politicians represent. And it is also much more important for our daily lives. I love to live and travel abroad in Europe. It is normal for me. And certainly I don’t want it to change. For my father’s generation living and travelling abroad was a much more challenging thing. Within just one generation the European Union helped us to leave visa questions, exchange rates, and many other hardships behind. Working in the Netherlands, Spain, the UK or France? For a young European that’s almost as normal as to work in your own country. My Dad is part of the first European generation that didn’t fight a major European war against each other. And I am part of the first European generation that in many ways doesn’t think in national states anymore – my Europe is open to anyone who wants to make it richer and more exciting. I like to learn, eat, listen, dance, read and experience what the nations of this continent have to offer.

I wish we all could begin to reflect this again and start to realize that Europe is much better than the shower of news flicks about the Greek misery or billions in bailout. Europe in fact is my reality – personally and professionally – and if there is one thing I know then this: there is no way back. No matter if you are German, Brit, Greek, or Italian. And that’s great. Not just because we won’t ever fight a war against our neighbours again. But because we are learning from each other. And we are becoming more than just the sum of our parts.

Reference

• Mapping Sterotypes: http://alphadesigner.com/project-mapping-stereotypes.html
  

  Tags: Amsterdam, Europe, Germany, personal, Politics

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