German-American Rituals

If you have problems, sweep them under the rug. Following this approach, German-American relations are running smoothly.

Since the end of the Cold War, German-American relations have often been in crisis. Both partners are sometimes pursuing quite different objectives. They argue about German austerity and American debt, climate change and genetic engineering, military interventions and economic sanctions, and yet, they always affirm their unbreakable bond.

The U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier are masters of this ritual. While tensions run high behind the scenes, they energetically smile all the problems away in front of the cameras. Steinmeier effusively praises U.S. operation against the Islamic State terrorist militia, and Kerry the German policy on the Ukraine situation.

There is no more talk about the National Security Agency scandal or the cooperation of the BND [Bundesnachrichtendienst] with American services – which Steinmeier, the former head of the chancellory, was once responsible for. The United States simply refuses to tell the truth, and the German federal government accepts that it relies on information from the U.S. intelligence community — especially in times of crisis. That is how it is. Germany and the United States are solving their relationship crisis in the way recommended by the couple at the end of Woody Allen’s “Husbands and Wives”: If you have problems, just sweep them under the rug.