You are right on the money. I have close relatives in Germany and speak German as well. One thing we can never talk about is the war, even with cousins my own age who had nothing to do with it. Even with second cousins my children's age.

The mistake is in considering this a national shame--its actually much more close to home.

Many years ago I visited with my great uncle shortly before he died. In the sitting room of the old farmhouse was a breath-taking collection of Nazi-era propaganda posters about the Anschluss, and a pillow embroidered with the phrase, "Braunau: Hilter's geburtzplatz" (Braunau is a nearby town in Austria on the border of Germany, and the birthplace of Hitler).

I lusted over those artifacts, but after the old folks died, those items were gone quicker than leaves in a windstorm. Queries about their fate were considered impolite.

These are the skeletons in a lot of family closets and it may well take another couple of generations to mitigate their power.

I am German and I think your plan is a good idea. Germany simple has to move on instead of obsessing with certain parts of its past.

My village I come from is pretty small. Only about up to 110 people live there an even we have a war memorial. From Verdun to Auschwitz there is an endless list of names from places where germans and others died, for what actually? I may put it this way, we learned our lesson. If our army digs waterholes and builds roads, this is our way to help. Yes we might not earn glory, but this is a new approach in solving difficult problems. Sending an army and destroying everything is what we all have done ever since. And by the way what is more difficult building up infrastructure or destroying it? We don't need your respect and we owe you nothing.

Good luck digging waterholes, Max, when the next Hitler or Stalin turns on you. You owe Britain and America your freedom.

Germans have become sissies in every aspect of their lives. My grandad -still alive- was a brave Waffen-SS soldier, and was wounded in battle several times.

Compare the Reichswehr and Werhmacht to the Bundeswehr. The latter is just a group of pot-heads, lazy, coward "soldiers", who are disgracing Germany's name and past.

Even former Chilean president Pinochet said so in public!

One can easily say that the French army has more courage than the Bundeswehr. And that is less than flattering...

Pinochet!? Now *that* is a source!

What a stupid discussion is this here? I often believe, all that anglos arround the world (especially brits) often describe the germans in their newspaper as Pickelhauben wearing Bismarcks. In the other way the mean that we are cowards? I think the truth lies (like always) between these two extremeties. I'm glad about my people. They have hardly learned to live in peace (and that was a hard lesson for the whole world, right...?). Be lucky that we are cowards and not on our third way to rule the world.
I don't think that engl., can. or US and A soldiers are more brave than our people here or people in Iraq, Afghanistan, Indochina, Honkkong, Macau, Bombay or south africa or where ever any american, brit or french army has shown their own brave mentality.

Our history is quit a bit differrent from some other and - well - I'm quit proud about, what we have learned since WWII, WWI, Prussia against Austria, Prussia against Napoleon, Wars against sweden, wars against denmark and many more.
We don't need some fucking war or another asshole like this bad and stupid Hitler and this is crystal clear: I give a fuck of Pinochets estimation about his - truly fundamental and surely right (harhar) - conclusion about germans braveness.
The only thing we need to make hour decision between peace and war are 5 Millions murdered jews, 50 millions died in only two wars and the whole Heimatland and the rest of Europe in ruins.
We don't need any of this again. Not in any land of the world! And - be quit sure - we are able to defend our lives and land and philosophie against any harassment, but only if this is necessary and mostly without a war. Which is NOT necessary because it has no ambition, acceptance and mind. I remember not only one war that realy had solved any problem and make the world better than before.

The whole discussion is awfully loopsided. The question alone: are the German soldiers stationed in Afghanistan... Who joins which fight, and where the units are moved to, is regulated by orders, which mirror political discussions. The German soldiers in Afghanistan don't get to decide about that, and they at least actually *are* out in the world, and most NATO allies actually say they are good at what they're doing. They too are making a difference. That a few journalists and bloggers sitting in their warm comfy chairs in front of their screens decide to declare them cowards is at the very least poor choice of words. I suppose it is easier and more interesting than discussing the complicated political backgrounds.

Lets be clear that the Germans did not start the fight. The Americans and the Brits did. Also those who gorge on chocolate and candies and cannot point out India on a world map(a country they have a nuke deal with) should not be talking about others. Anytime an American or a british soldier faces anything more deadly than unarmed population, he or she calls in air support. Seems that the spirit of "Bastogne" and "Noble Six hundred " is long dead and gone.

OK, the German government and people are full of cowards that don't let their soldiers fight.

And it was AQL and Taliban that started this. Insulting American intelligence is stupid and irrelevant.

Wars have made the world a better place. The war in Afghanistan, Iraq, the Falklands and the last two defensive wars to beat up a genocidal Germany worked out brilliantly; except it made them cowards.

I guess they'll need a century or two to relearn that fighting is sometimes necessary. Poor little Germans. Let's just hope they don't overdo it when they return to the land of the living.

Probably the increasingly muslim population of their country will force them how to do so in a few centuries.

Furthermore, the Luftwaffe invented carpet bombing. Maybe you as a nation should go and fight in a real war and learn something about Anglo-American precision bombing before you criticize people who are willing to fight yet not experiment on Spaniards.