De Maizière, the German – What?

The Capitol is visible on the horizon and behind him stands the impressive U.S. Justice Department where German Minister of the Interior Thomas De Maizière, in Washington this week for talks, just gave an interview for German television. A school class happens past and De Maizière makes a beeline to them with half a dozen photographers in his wake. He asks them where they’re from and they answer, “New Orleans.” He says, “That’s great!” and with a few quick pats on the back, he’s on his way.

One student asks, “Who was that? The German — what?” He knows as much about the German minister of the interior as he does about the U.S. attorney general or about the National Security Agency eavesdropping scandal that Eric Holder was just discussing with De Maizière, for that matter. One bystander shrugs his shoulders. “NSA?” he asks as though it were no longer in the news. “Sure, I’ve heard about that.” And then wonders aloud, “What’s the big deal? Aren’t there more important things to talk about?”

German-American Cyberdialog

The big picture is just like it is here on the street: People on both sides of the Atlantic are different. The Americans want to quickly forget the NSA scandal; not so the Germans who refuse to forget. The Obama administration would like the whole NSA affair to die and be buried sooner rather than later. After all, they’ve promised to make improvements and have already begun to do so.

By the end of this year, new regulations will be in place, perhaps even sooner than that. Henceforth, raw data will not be kept by the NSA, and the data will only be analyzed after approval by the courts and presentation of a valid need to do so.

Moreover, a German-American cyberdialog sprang into life. On June 26 and 27, the two sides will meet for the first time in the German foreign ministry. President Obama is sending John Podesta, his right-hand man for data privacy matters. Is that a satisfactory response?

Many Germans don’t think so. They are disappointed with Obama and feel and let down by the United States. They feel the president should have reacted more quickly and been more apologetic.

But many Germans appear to cling doggedly to their anger. A few are even stubbornly adamant. For them, the NSA scandal seems to have confirmed what they’ve always thought about America: This nation and its politicians are not trustworthy. This deep-seated conviction won’t easily go away even if Obama were to beg for forgiveness on bended knee.

A Very Small Part of the Overall Conversation

The Merkel government is caught between American indifference and German intransigence. On the one hand, Merkel is trying to promote understanding in the U.S. that Germany is saddened by America’s action and is actively investigating the spying affair via parliamentary hearings.

On the other hand, the White House approved a lengthy legal brief laying out why Germany should not question whistle-blower Edward Snowden — currently residing in Moscow — in Berlin. Mantra-like, Steinmeier, Merkel and de Maizière repeat the explanation that scarcely a year after the incident was discovered was insufficient time for Germany to return to business as usual. The wounds were far too deep for that.

Consultation with Technology Companies as Well

At the same time, they stress that the NSA affair should not dominate the entire agenda. The global problems, including privacy concerns, are too important and according to de Maizière’s statement in Washington, the NSA issue is just a small part of the overall picture.

According to de Maizière, just in the last few months they discovered that private individuals needed protection not only from government snooping but from commercial organizations as well. He therefore conferred with representatives of major Internet and technological organizations in order to impress upon them the German and European view of data privacy, i.e., that customer confidence should be seen as having an economic value.

Many Germans had also hoped that the chancellor and her minister would also engage in a bit of table pounding in order to reinforce the European point of view. But no one in the United States would have been impressed by that so it would not have been advisable in any case.

The cyberdialog is an important beginning because we as Europeans think differently about legalities among ourselves since we’re culturally, sociologically and psychologically different from one another — the same holds especially true for Europeans and Americans. These differences must be worked out and bridged as much as possible. Where that isn’t possible, we must at least respect one another so that all freedom-loving people may sit down together at the table; that alone would be a success.

Sometime this fall America’s Attorney General Eric Holder will visit Berlin; de Maizière has already extended that invitation. At that time, it is said, Holder will finally transform Obama’s promises into action and present concrete suggestions as to how foreigners may be better protected in the future from U.S. espionage activities.

That would be an important step; it may even help bring a bit of appeasement.