On the eve of the 60th anniversary of Victory (in Europe and the Federal Republic of Germany this day is marked not on May 9 but on May 8 - for historical reasons), the discussion on this topic flared up with renewed vigor in Germany itself. Several leading German media outlets, including such powerful and popular publications as Die Zeit and Suddeutsche Zeitung, provided their pages for a polemic among the most famous German politicians, scholars, and public figures.
Supporters of a 'vote of confidence' find the very framing of the question offensive. 'How much longer?' they ask. 'Nazism has been defeated and will never again revive in Germany. The FRG is a democratic country, human rights are observed here, so how can one question the trustworthiness of the Germans?' Indeed, in the years since the fall of the Hitler regime, Germans have repeatedly proven their commitment to democracy. The country's Constitution contains a paragraph forbidding Germany from starting a war - it was adopted by the Germans without pressure from the Russians, Americans, or anyone else. Every German schoolchild visits at least once a museum built on the site of a former concentration camp - thus every new generation receives a very effective 'vaccination against Nazism.' The percentage of neo-Nazis in Germany is quite small, far smaller than in any other European country, or for that matter, the world.
Generally speaking, right-wing radical (and also left-wing radical) parties have no chance in the FRG of winning not only a majority in federal elections but even any significant number of votes. A characteristic feature: right-wing populist parties such as the DVU, NPD, and the Republicans owe their very existence to an influx of 'fresh blood' from the former socialist GDR - it is in the eastern federal states (Brandenburg, Saxony, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania) that these parties occasionally enter state parliaments. In West Germany, which Soviet propaganda for decades accused of 'revanchist aspirations,' right-wing radicals even in their best times could count on no more than 3% of the vote. At present, the level of support for these parties is just over 1%.
One could sooner accuse a couple of other European states of reviving fascism: for example, Italy - a country in which the prime minister calls Duce Mussolini a 'benevolent dictator,' and whose deputy prime minister is also the chairman of a post-fascist party. Or Hungary, which officially celebrates the 65th anniversary of the founding of its own Falangist organization. At worst, Latvia and Estonia, whose officials take part in marches of SS veterans and neo-Nazi youth organizations.
Nevertheless, the question of trusting these countries and peoples does not arise. The personal opinion of the author of this article: the very fact that the Germans pose to themselves the question of trusting themselves, test themselves 'for Nazism,' speaks in their favor. In Latvia, a policy aimed at discriminating against the Russian-speaking population does not provoke a domestic Latvian discussion on a similar topic. In Russia, the revival of the Stalin cult and great-power rhetoric is perceived as something taken for granted. Germany, having suffered a crushing defeat in World War II, horrified by the deeds of the Nazis, indeed experienced such a powerful shock that the Germans, warlike from time immemorial, turned into a real nation of pacifists - which could be seen quite recently, during the multi-million-strong protest marches against the U.S. invasion of Iraq. For generations there was a real rollback away from Nazism - Germans were ashamed of being Germans...
However, even this obvious overcorrection is now entering a normal course: the country's president, Horst Köhler, does not hesitate to confess from the rostrum his love for his country (and he, a cosmopolitan economist and former chairman of the World Bank, no one would dare call a Nazi!), a German was elected the new Pope. As one member of the Die Zeit editorial board, Christoph Amend, wrote: 'The Germans have become a prudent, calm, boring people.' A people that, nevertheless, does not allow itself to forget the very unpleasant, terrible pages of its past.
There is, however, another side to this coin, pointed out by supporters of the thesis that the Germans still cannot be trusted entirely (this is, by the way, also written by Germans). Here is an excerpt from an article by the feuilletonist Jens Jessen (Suddeutsche Zeitung, No. 19, May 4, 2005): 'The state institutions of the FRG are, it seems, the only ones that were truly effectively denazified... However, THIS remains at the core of society. THIS is visible in supervisors, in lovers of prohibitions and punishments, in hysterical denouncers of any deviations... THIS is entrenched in neighbors who monitor the strict adherence to the order of cleaning schedules, in passersby who report illegally parked cars to the police even though they are not in anyone's way, in mothers who set rules on playgrounds for other mothers and children. Having lost its homeland in Germany in 1945, the striving for national uniformity did not capitulate - it moved out of politics into private life.' However, conclude supporters of a 'vote of no confidence,' everyday nationalism and everyday xenophobia are not a German invention nor a trait of the German national character. Its manifestations can be found in any country of the world. The Germans, perhaps like no other, have learned to combat these phenomena.