Mühltal, September 12, 2006
A fact one could easily have forgotten. For during his first year in Germany Ambassador Timken has been almost inexistent in the German media. The more I was surprised yesterday to see he had given an interview to my favourite newspaper Die WELT *. I was even more surprised when I read the conclusion he is drawing at the end of the interview. He said that there was no anti-Americanism in Germany. Quite a challenging statement for me as owner of the “anti-anti-Americanism” domain. For if he was right, my website would be superfluous. Mmh, so either one of us is wrong or we have a different idea of what is anti-American.
Now I do not know how Timken came to reach his conclusion, as for me, I am reading German newspapers, I am watching German news programs on TV and I would say nobody doing this can deny there is an anti-American bias in a lot of reports. So maybe Ambassador Timken does not read German newspapers? Or maybe he does read them and diplomatic restraint keeps him from commenting? In any case, I hope he knows that never ever a problem has been solved by denying it`s very existence. For anti-Americanism does not start when Americans are beaten up in the streets in Germany. Of course it starts on a verbal level. First of all in the media. And surprisingly even Timken admits he was disappointed by a certain “tone” in reports about America. In my view that is exactly where anti-Americanism starts. After all, it is the tone that makes the music, right?
So what do we make out of all this? Maybe we can agree on the following:
There is an American ambassador in Berlin – although we do not see him.
And there is anti-Americanism in Germany – although he does not see it.
What do you think?
P.S. Sep 14, 2006: The same day Ambassador Timken had stated there was no anti-Americanism in Germany, a comment on ARD Tagesthemen ** equalized President Bush to Osama Bin Laden.
* Die WELT vom 11. Sept. 2006, “Dieser Angriff war eine Kriegserklärung” US-Botschafter Timken über die Anschläge vor fünf Jahren und deren Folgen (Das Gespräch mit Botschafter Timken führte Jacques Schuster)
Ausschnitt aus dem Interview:
WELT.de: Zum Schluss noch eine persönliche Frage an Sie. Ein Jahr sind Sie nun in Deutschland. Was waren die größten Enttäuschungen, was war erfreulich?
Timken: Der ganze Job ist erfreulich. Ich reise viel durch Deutschland, spreche mit vielen Menschen und habe keinerlei negative Erfahrungen gemacht. Im Gegenteil. Was mich manchmal verwundert, ist, wie viel Platz die Medien allen Nachrichten aus den USA einräumen. Zuweilen sind diese Berichte in einem gewissen Unterton gehalten, der mich enttäuscht.
WELT.de: Nehmen Sie in Deutschland antiamerikanische Tendenzen wahr?
Timken: Nein, nicht Antiamerikanismus. Es gibt Meinungsverschiedenheiten etwa gegenüber dem Irak, aber keinen Antiamerikanismus.
** ARD Tagesthemen, 11. September 2006, 22:15 Uhr:
Zu den Lehren und Auswirkungen der Anschläge vom 11. September der Kommentar von Christoph Lütgert vom Norddeutschen Rundfunk.
You may also want to have a look at the discussion on “US Representation in Germany: Is Ambassador Timken doing well?” and the discussion on the ARD comment “Christoph Luetgert: Bush and America to blame for terror” at Davids Medienkritik.
Und für alle deutschsprachigen Leser natürlich Henryk M. Broder auf der Achse des Guten über “Glatzen in der ARD”