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I agree with you too. And I am also wondering if this saving is not just ingrained in their mentality. There used to be even songs like: "Schaffe, schaffe Häusle baue und nit noch de Mädle schaue..." sort of like - working, working, building a house and don't look after the girls. I am not up-to-date if they still have that kind of songs, but I do belief it is or at least used to be quite symbolic.
by Fran (fran at eurotrib dot com) on Sat Aug 20th, 2005 at 02:58:16 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I am also wondering if this saving is not just ingrained in their mentality.

N-n-n-n-o, I don't think so. The current phenomenon is deffinitely a change from the nineties.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

by DoDo on Sat Aug 20th, 2005 at 07:06:31 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I am also wondering if this saving is not just ingrained in their mentality.

- N-n-n-n-o, I don't think so. The current phenomenon is deffinitely a change from the nineties.

Fran's comment might be a bit exaggerated, but actually I think it is not too far off the mark. German consume society has some deficiencies which stem from its lacking and multiply fractured historical tradition.

During the last century, whenever economic crisis became severe, one of the first ideas that were thrown overboard, was that of the comsume society. Moreover, the beginning of the consume model was quite late, compared to other western industrial countries (first of all, of course, the US). It began in the 1920s but failed to establish itself before 1929 when the World Economic Crisis, in Germany aggravated by several extraeconomic factors, wiped it out. It tried a new start in the 1930s under the NS regime and was, for a short period, very successful. But the the NS war economy, especially since 1942, again cut it short.

Consume society returned no earlier than mid-1950s and now was, as it seemed, strong enough to survive economic and political crises (as, for example, the oil crisis in the 70s). But, to be honest, I am not so sure if confidence in the consume model has grown sufficient roots in German mass psychology.

Thinking about writing a diary about the issue.

by Saturday (geckes(at)gmx.net) on Sat Aug 20th, 2005 at 08:33:30 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Now, you are talking to someone who is not a big fan of consumer society :-)

But thanks for supplying the historical outlook.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

by DoDo on Sat Aug 20th, 2005 at 09:49:24 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Actually our relationship to consumer society is not so different. I'm not a big fan either. But the more I committed myself to my country's economic-political history, the more I learned to appreciate the "American" model of consumer society. At least to some degree :-)
by Saturday (geckes(at)gmx.net) on Sat Aug 20th, 2005 at 11:24:28 AM EST
[ Parent ]
My development was the opposite - and mostly based on studying that "American" model :-)

(In the early nineties, I even had the idea that multinational corporations, while problematic on other fronts, might eventually spell the end of wars - how naive I was...)

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

by DoDo on Sat Aug 20th, 2005 at 11:49:25 AM EST
[ Parent ]

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