Relaxed Krauts

Do you know this guy? Perhaps not, if you're not residing in Germany. It is Matthias Matussek, the chief of the culture department of the German news magazine "Der Spiegel". He has not only a fancy taste for fashionable colour combinations, he has also something to say. Matussek has written a book about Germany and is now a renowned Germany-expert and a perfect example of a relaxed German nationalist.
I haven't had the time to read the book, but I can cite a newspaper review: Matussek writes "marvelous sentences in his book, for example 'Schiller speaks of the German culture nation' or 'Mozart's music is beautifully and often completely simple', or 'in a mysterious way Poschardt lives his house, that is noble and factual and quiet' or 'Sartorius remains nervous in my proximity'."
Sounds weird? If you want to have it a bit simpler: asked to give a spontaneous and short definition of what he likes most about Germany, Matussek answered: "roast pork".
According to the press, this book is in part another pamphlet against the "narrow-minded antinationalists" of the generation of '68. One of these people apparently sat in front of Matussek some days ago in a TV debate about German patriotism. When this stubborn left-winger proclaimed that he couldn't stand the narrow-minded nationalism of Matussek, it was time to teach him a lesson: According to the daily newspaper "Sueddeutsche Zeitung" Matussek not only complained verbally about this infamy, but grabbed the arm of his opponent after the show and shouted: "You diehard lefty! I'll bring you down!"
Facing "anti-German provocations", there was no alternative for Matussek.
It's hard for German Patriots, they are facing an indissoluble contradiction: On the one hand fighting against Political Correctness which is beating up the national conscience by reminding "us" constantly of the "freak-accident" (Matussek) Hitler and against cosmpolitan intellectuals ridiculizing Germany and Germans.
On the other hand and at second view, it's the other way round: No one dares to laugh, when Germans expose the German forest, the allotment, the garden gnome and roast pork as their authentic contribution to the history of humanity. The quote "But, what difference is there between the history of our freedom and the history of the boar’s freedom if it can be found only in the forests?" is very old, as I pointed out already before.
And in fact, now, when the old-school Nazis nearly have died-out after happilly consuming their pensions, it becomes more and more clear that the German Nazi past can also be a treasure: Remember the flaming speeches of Joschka Fischer and others for war against the "new Auschwitz" in Kosovo and against the "Serbian Nazis" or another only apparently contradictive history lesson: the mass protests from below and from above against the "Nazi-style american warmongers" when it comes to sanctions against dictators who are really threatening to wipe the Jewish population of the middle east "off the map". Even conservatives in Germany acknowledge the good job that the despised "antinationalists" of the former red-green coalition have done for German expansion in the world.
So after reconciling with Germany, Matussek should perhaps also think about reconciling with his past as a Maoist militant. Concerning a relaxed attitude to Germany, his party was a model already in the seventies, when the Communist Party of Germany/Marxist-Leninist wrote a declaration claiming "Germany to the German people" and asserting that "we draw strength from the psychological kind of nature of the German people, we draw strength from its work diligence and its sense of order, from its scientific and artistic genius that our people has proven so often and that justified the fame of the German nation."
Sounds like a red-hot smack in the face of unrelaxed Germany-bashers, doesn't it?
By the way: The diehard left-wing national nihilist who offended Matussek was Roland Tichy, deputy chief editor of the "Handelsblatt", a leading German business paper.