Bad feelings?
- Thread starter Jean-F
- Start date
I remember my grandparents regularly holidaying to Spain in the 1980s. It was the start of it becoming a trend amongst holidaymakers.
I remember word got back about the topless women on the beaches
I also remember people talked of the towel wars between the Brits and Germans, were apparently they would race each other down early in the morning to get the best sun loungers, and each would put their towels on some of them to save them for their friends. But the 'other side' didn't like this, which resulted it some grabbing of towels. It sounds like it was just certain people of each group that would compete against each other.
I've not heard of that situation happening in years though. Probably because we're all more integrated and the war is so distant.
@Jean-F there is a good series that was shown on Sky TV, I think in the 90s called The Tourist Trap. It's on youtube somewhere. The programme invited a group of different nationalities to a venue and then setup situations to see if each group would react according to their stereotype. It was an interesting social experiment.
I found the first episode here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BmJni9bBOA
Thanks for that, it was amusing, but kind of weird, I imagine that had I been at the bar when someone was stealing liquor and passing it around, I wouldn’t have accepted a freebie, simply because I wouldn’t want anyone to think that I was so hard up that I had to accept stolen booze.
An American bloke (whose name I've completely forgotten) not long after the 1812 war between the USA and the UK (which wasn't long after the American war of independence) became so annoyed at the endless propaganda from media and politicians in the USA trying to stir up anti-British nationalism for their own power and profit that he decided to make the point very publically and very dramatically by sailing to Britain and walking the length of it carrying a huge USA flag. Alone and unarmed. If the propaganda was even vaguely close to being true, he would have been murdered before he covered 100 yards. Instead, people politely greeted him and many invited him into their homes for food and drink and often a place to sleep for the night. The only problem he encountered was that it was often much windier in Britain than he had expected and that caused him some trouble with the very large flag acting as a sort of sail and pulling hard on him.
In most cases, most people aren't so mindlessly nationalistic that they maintain a hatred based solely on it. That takes some severe mental health issues and often doesn't happen even then. For example, I know (or knew - some of them are dead now) a few British people who had PTSD (and I do mean PTSD, not a hyperbolic exaggeration of something far less severe) as a result of WW2 and were fine with Germans shortly after the war. Sometimes even during the war (there were a fair few German PoWs in Britain during the war).
In most cases, most people aren't so mindlessly nationalistic that they maintain a hatred based solely on it. That takes some severe mental health issues and often doesn't happen even then. For example, I know (or knew - some of them are dead now) a few British people who had PTSD (and I do mean PTSD, not a hyperbolic exaggeration of something far less severe) as a result of WW2 and were fine with Germans shortly after the war. Sometimes even during the war (there were a fair few German PoWs in Britain during the war).
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You hit the nail on the head there, outside of quiet mainly private conversations the public voice of Germany has been castrated and Merkelised. Sad really, as a military force they were spectacular. I am told Bavaria is still a stronghold of less pummeled sentiments.
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People don't really care to be honest..... unless there's a football game on and there will be shirtless yobs fighting in the streets. 
Towel wars still happen. It's always the Germans who are first.
You have to admire the Germans they are a resilient race and probably superior in some ways.
They fought in World War I and lost.
They rose in power again and set off World War II and lost again.
They were severely castrated after WWII (demilitarised and divided) but have still managed to rise in power and dominate Europe once again, this time in the far more modern economical sense !
All done in the space of 100 years !
Here in the UK we keep seeming to be our own worst enemy and despite being a small country are divided both politically and geographically
They fought in World War I and lost.
They rose in power again and set off World War II and lost again.
They were severely castrated after WWII (demilitarised and divided) but have still managed to rise in power and dominate Europe once again, this time in the far more modern economical sense !
All done in the space of 100 years !
Here in the UK we keep seeming to be our own worst enemy and despite being a small country are divided both politically and geographically
Very much so.
I can vouch for that. One of my friends is Bavarian, she's as un-PC as they come. She doesn't count herself as German though, only Bavarian!
You what now.. decrying a shift away from right wing sentiment in Germany and praising their spectacular military past.
If I wasn't convinced before that you were a troll account, I am now.
You are aware of the close relationship between pre-WW2 Germany and Spain?
What was Spain's position During WW2?
What is the real point of this thread....
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Plasmahal struggles to determine if a thread has right or left wing undertones, and therefore is confused how to react.
I mean the West including the UK rebuilt Germany post WW2, we spent billions on the Cold war which eventually led to the collapse of the USSR and the unification of East and West Germany, we were a founding member of NATO which provided security to Western Europe and realistically may have stopped the USSR and Communism from consuming all of mainland Europe. I'm getting bored of hearing how bad the UK is.
You are clearly incorrect in understanding what I was asking the OP.
It was for the OP so let them reply for themselves.
its disingenuous to say brits as all the aggression ive seen is from english abroad. The Welsh, Irish particularly the Scots are big fans of the French for example.
The Germans are nearly always absolutely exemplary and the other end of the scale the Russians are universally abhorrent. My experiences only etc etc.
The Germans are nearly always absolutely exemplary and the other end of the scale the Russians are universally abhorrent. My experiences only etc etc.
Maybe slightly related, there were definitely efforts to bring the two countries together after the war. My dad was in the British police. In the mid 1970's when I was around 8 years old we would regularly go and stay with a German police family and they would regularly come and stay in the UK with us. When I was older my parents explained it was part of a British/german liaison effort to heal old wounds. I do remember getting comments from my classmates at the time calling me "jerry lover" when I came back from holidays there, which shows the attitude of their parents at the time. But I felt nothing but welcomed in Germany. So possibly the anomosity was only one way.
This was all pre-internet days of course and I've searched but not found any more information on these inter-country Police liaison efforts. So whenever the topic comes up I try to mention it as a way of preventing the information being lost.
This was all pre-internet days of course and I've searched but not found any more information on these inter-country Police liaison efforts. So whenever the topic comes up I try to mention it as a way of preventing the information being lost.
Nice bit of editing of my OP, I actually put “When Brits and Germans first found themselves in the same bars”, NOT “When Germans first found themselves in the same bars.”
I guess you mean that prior to WW2, Germany, (and Italy), supported Franco in the Spanish Civil War.
Spain’s official stance of ‘non-belligerence’ during WW2 is best taken with a pinch of salt, in reality Spain was probably the most involved of all “neutral” countries.
The point of the thread was mild curiosity about any possible acrimony between German and British holidaymakers in the first days of package trips to the Costas, aside from the apocryphal “towel wars.”
I can vouch for your vouch, when I first used to visit my elder son and his German wife in Bielefeld, (before I picked up enough of the lingo to take the train from Hannover or Dortmund), I’d rent a car from the airport.
One day my kid said, “Did everyone give you a wide berth on the autobahn today?”
“Not that I noticed, why?”
“Your rental has München (Munich), plates, that’s Bavaria, they think that they’re superior to other Germans, and that they own the road, all we natives try to give them a miss!”
I said, “Native? You were born in Stepney, and raised in Bermondsey!”
He said, “Maybe I was, but I’m seen as one step up from a Polish or Russian immigrant over here.”
You're like an American saying "Ohh yes, Guinness is the best beer!" in a thread about Britain.
