Empty flagpoles

Um, wow. It's been about three weeks since my last post--so sorry everyone!

Walking down the sidewalk late at night, the chilly wind pressed against my skin, almost a caress but the goosebumps left behind weren't from pleasure. I huddled against the cold, pressing each foot ahead of the other. Strange sounds swirled around me--the rustle of underbrush as one of the many rabbits shied away from the sound of my footsteps, the wind whistling softly behind me, the shuffle of feet causing me to glance behind me and then another, stranger sound. The clink, clink, clink of a rope against a flag pole. Normally, this sound is normal, but it was lacking in something I couldn't quite put my finger on. Glancing up quickly at the poles, far above my head, I realized what's missing--flags.

I didn't understand at first why that was odd--the sound of just the rope clinking against the pole. Certainly, during the day a flag whips in the wind. I ignored the sound, and let my feet pull me swiftly home. But as the days have progressed, walking by two or three sets of different flagpoles everyday, my first assumption is proven false. No flag whips proudly in the wind, or lies lazily in folds atop any poles here at the university. I've walked about the city and seen then waving in front of the Rathaus...and nowhere else. At first I didn't think much of it.

At home, every flagpole carries the proud flag of our nation. It's believed that patriotism, or nationalism, is one of our many stereotypes, and compared to here--it's probably true. I didn't realize how much it bothered me until I let myself really think about it.

In Germany, the shadow of the World Wars lies upon the country like a heavy blanket. The fear that the nationalism that was the glue holding the country together during those days, the fear that they may be regarded as they were--and sometimes still are, keeps the German people from expressing their pride in their nation as forwardly as, say, America. The concentration camps shadows stand as reminders, so that the world and the youth may come and see. And Germany is left with a hole, a standard they are held to that is impossible to keep. The terms nationalism and patriotism have become taboo. And the consequences have been the removal of flags on public property--empty poles reaching towards the sky holding only ropes and clinking against the wind.