I spoke with an acquaintance here in Munich, who when asked about a soccer game, replied glumly, “They played badly. They deserved to lose.” I discussed it with a few others and it struck us that team loyalty and fan-dom in America has comparably little to do with collective strategy and skill throughout a series of games. Instead we value heroic plays, injustice, and moment by moment action. There’s very little sense of personal responsibility between a player and hir job, between a player and hir team, and even between a player and hir country. Since when does injustice become a catch all term for a slighted sense of entitlement? When did losing honorably and owning up to the quality of play become obsolete? When did it become ok for individual players to seize upon the glory and pride of their team/country/city? To me, that’s unjust.
Principles of personal responsibility to one’s Manschaft (German for “team”) don’t stop at sports though. There are a myriad of other manifestations throughout die Gesellschaft (“society”) where people demonstrate their commitment to each other. Zum Beispiel, people refrain from crossing the street until the street lights indicate it’s ok—Rot ist der Farber!—and they are especially particular around schools. If someone sets one foot off a curb, they get overt glares… even in the middle of the night. I found out quickly that they refrain in order to “set a good example for the children”. Unlike an American take on “family values” which tends to conflate protection with sheltering and repression, Germans see things differently. Children are encouraged to learn from everyone in their society, not just conscientious parentals, and the society as a whole participates in raising children.
Public and historic spaces themselves also benefit from this. The gutters have little more than a gum wrapper in them. I noticed this particularly after the 850 year anniversary of the city this past weekend. There were thousands of people, so many that you could barely move all the way from Odeonsplatz to Marianplatz and all throughout the pedestrian zone. Even on non-festival days, there are street vendors everywhere and places to buy shiny knickknacks mummified in too much packaging. Nary has a cleaning crew been spotted though, and the only people I’ve seen litter are tourists CoughobviouslyamericansCoughCough.
The only other place I’ve seen gutters this clean was in Winona Lake, Indiana, which feels unnaturally clean to me, like, say, Stepford. It’s not the dirt per se that I notice in Muenchen. All the buildings are dirty, especially the Ratshaus (Town Hall), so it’s not that extraordinary. What matters is the location of the dirt and what put it there. Dirt on the old buildings has to do with nature’s effects, the building’s age, the direction the buildings face, and the complexity of recessed reliefs, etc. Dirt on the street, however, ties directly to the behavior of the people. Even the gutters have at most a gum wrapper in them, even right after the 850 year anniversary of the city this past weekend. There were so many people that you could barely move all the way from Odeonsplatz to Marianplatz. One would think that the public areas would be trashed, but I’ve spotted nary a cleaning crew in all my walks. There’s no need. People take responsibility for their public spaces.
Quick, somebody, figure out what they put in that beer. It makes the children clean, skillful and responsible! Think how many mothers would buy it! Get it now in this QVC exclusive offering in three delicious flavors… dunkles, helles, und weiss!
