Ah, So This Is How One Thinks of Us Americans

A German recently listed here 45 reasons why things are going down the drain with America. This cannot stand. A rebuttal from the former American ambassador.

Everyone agrees: Close cooperation between the United States and Germany is as important today as in the days of the Cold War, and probably even more so. For the European partner of Germany and above all in the East, the transatlantic link has replaced the Franco-German entente as the mainstay of European unity.

They feel that responsible German leadership in Europe depends, to a considerable extent, on harmonic German-American relations. Ultimately, the rest of Europe needs a balancing American presence to ensure that the European Union brings itself toward unity, which is necessary to meet the many challenges of the future.

The past few years have, however, have raised doubts as to whether the close cooperation of earlier times can be continued. There have always been differences of opinion. Those who remember the 70s and 80s find it difficult to develop feelings of nostalgia for the past. Increasingly, however, the dramatic problems of our time seem to lead to a more fundamental dispute. Especially in Germany, the debate of the government’s policy has shifted toward basic judgments about the nature of our respective societies and even our shared values.

Entering The Foreground

Despite some criticism, opinion polls regularly show that Americans respect Germany more than any other country. Probably due to the goal-oriented nature of Americans here, who value productivity more than debates over tax policy or the war against terrorism. However, in the other direction, German accusations and emotional outbursts have come to the fore so much that they now have a devastating impact on our ability to work together.

When President Obama visited Berlin in June 2013, he raised America’s interest in the role of Germany as one of the leading powers of the West. But no one listened to him. Why this was so remains a mystery. The German-American friendship has survived two terrible wars, a cold war and many international crises. Without American support, Berlin would not have remained free, and the reunification would not have been possible. The close ties to America offer a first-class economic power such as Germany global coverage at tolerable cost, something that could not be found anywhere else.

With Europe increasingly fragmented, only a strengthened transatlantic community can provide Germany the necessary means to compete with emerging industrial powers and cope with the dangers of regional conflicts.

All this is clear to us, and so we are amazed over and over when political and public opinion in Germany gets upset about America 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the foundations of trust dwindle. When a marriage reaches this state, therapists often recommend looking for underlying problems. Why does a partner suddenly decide not to continue the marriage? On Nov. 28, this newspaper offered valuable insights on this issue. Stephan Richter, a German blogger who lives in Washington, claimed to be able to determine the reasons for America’s inability for leadership.

Dynamic and Often Chaotic

In an article entitled “Amerika, du hast es schlechter,” he presented a whole catalog of American weaknesses and mistakes and forecasted the decline of America as a world power. The mere assertion that this assessment is neither true nor balanced would almost be beside the point. The extensive list of 45 reasons why America does not work anymore is already valuable because it allows an untarnished view of Germany’s difficulties in the 21st century to make head or tail of the dynamic and often chaotic culture of the United States.

Equally important is the fact that such an article in this difficult moment in history was published by the Frankfurter Allgemeine. This paper represents the core of the political and economic establishment in Germany. For arguments that could possibly be ignored if they were published elsewhere, they receive extra weight upon being read in F.A.Z.

Even with a superficial review, many would indeed be astounded by some of the statements of such alleged experts on America. While America continues to dominate the world in almost all areas of modern life, the blogger tells us that the structurally conservative society of America believes too much in God, doesn’t give the public sector any respect and has lost the capacity for critical discussion. The country’s capacity for innovation was already copied by the rest of the world, and its technological leadership is in the process of disappearing.

We read an endless list of reasons why the United States has stopped working today, why Silicon Valley will soon be outdated and why America is in the midst of a dramatic decline ideologically rather than pragmatically. Evidence or even statistics in support of the thesis of this article is, however, faulty.

Unreadiness

In other words: Our main problem seems ultimately to be that we are not German. Sometimes when I see how well Germany deals with social and economic problems, I agree with that. But just as often I shake my head at the weaknesses of the German system: lack of flexibility, entrepreneurial hostility, lack of breakthrough innovations, the unwillingness to participate in the common defense of Western interests and many others.

Germany and America are imperfect societies. But for nearly 350 years, the American experiment has been as strongly influenced by German immigrants as of those from other countries, including England. A large part of American imperfections can be attributed to fundamentalist German Protestants, who formed the core of colonial society. Against this backdrop, it shouldn’t be too difficult to find a synthesis between two closely related cultures, one of which is in a small, conflict-ridden continent, while the other has succeeded in a great way in the seemingly endless expanse of North America. But according to F.A.Z., that is truly difficult.

Why has Germany’s most respected newspaper, which regularly advocates more transatlantic cooperation, decided to publish this article marked by self-pity? Why does it provide, as decided proponents of TTIP negotiations, wild accusations against Americans that could only strengthen the already pronounced skepticism of Germans against further transatlantic economic integration?

Perhaps the answer to these questions will be found in history. Looking back at similar debates about the nature of America that took place in the 18th century, American historian Henry Steel Commager (1902 -1998) came to the conclusion: “It is now clear that those who wondered if America was a mistake, were not talking about America, but the Old World, about nature and civilization, mercantilists and physiocrats, about the vices and misfortunes of their own societies.”*

*Editor’s note: The original quotation, accurately translated, could not be verified.