From this week's Economist:
That alliance (many Germans no longer call it a friendship) was always complicated. Germans have yearned for America since they migrated there en masse in the 19th century. Those who stayed behind dreamed of it—as did Karl May, an author who romanticised the Wild West more than a century ago. Germans still remember the Berlin airlift of 1948-49, when American “raisin bombers” fed and saved West Berlin. This summer they enthusiastically commemorated the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s visit to Berlin. They continue to admire George Bush senior for his effort to make German unification succeed in 1990.
The desirable America stood for blue jeans, chewing gum and Elvis in German eyes, but also for democracy, freedom and rule of law—and the Germans were America’s most eager pupils. American soldiers and bombs (the nuclear B-61s are still stationed in Germany and may be updated soon) also meant protection against communism and other evils. Only under this aegis were Germans able to build their new post-war identity as pacifist Gutmenschen (good humans), says John Kornblum, a former American ambassador to Germany.
But Germans, especially on the left, always had a concomitant image of the ugly American. That America sprayed Agent Orange in Vietnam, water-boarded prisoners in the war on terror and now executes human beings by drone strike. It practises mass-incarceration at home and the unlawful sort in Guantánamo Bay. Its capitalism is ruthless, its demeanour toward allies arrogant. When ugly America eavesdrops from its embassy roof next to the Brandenburg Gate, it tells Germans that, 23 years after they formally regained their sovereignty, America remains an occupying force. When it then harangues its ally, as it just did in a badly timed report that blamed Germany’s current-account surpluses for the economic ills of Europe, Germans feel fed up.
