IN HIS Irish Journal the German writer Heinrich Boll once identified the most salient difference between the Irish and the German. If something terrible happened, the Irish person would be likely to respond, by saying, "could be worse whereas the German would most likely respond by saying, "the worst thing has happened".
Where the Irish in the 1950s had been brought up on hope, luck and a certain reliance on Divine providence, the Germans tended to insulate themselves against chance and fantastic intervention. Where the Irish person thrived on the accidental, the German tried to choreograph the accident.
It is always tricky to define any such national characteristics, particularly in relation to Germany which is undergoing huge social changes at the moment, but Heinrich Boll did so very successfully in his legendary Irish Journal which has as much, if not more, to do with the German character, as it has to do with the Irish.
Since then, many things I have come across, have confirmed or augmented his observations. In contrast to Ireland and our casual nature towards prosperity, Germany has always been greatly admired for the way in which they came back from the defeat in the war.
And, if it is possible to generalise about character, our casual attitude towards such things as friendship, guilt, honesty, and even language itself, is in sharp contrast to the precision and respect with which these sacred things are treated in Germany.
Language in Ireland is handled delicately like an inflammable liquid. In Germany, it is more like a scientific laboratory experiment.
Perhaps the best description of the German soul is the image of Klaus Kinski dragging the ship over the mountain in a primal landscape. He is almost silent, like the Wim Wenders character in Paris, Texas walking mutely across the American desert. In fact this central feature of the German character has been observed frequently by its writers, poets and film makers. That pain of silence and guilt to which the Germans had been subjected after the war, is one that perhaps the Irish can understand most readily, because of our own history. History is ultimately what shapes the character.
The problem is that very few of the images of Germany have come to us directly from Germany. Unlike Germans, who like to receive their view of Ireland from direct sources, our view of Germany has always tended to be secondhand, usually through British or American eyes. For instance, I am told that the ratio of books translated into German from English is greater by about 10 to one to the amount of German books translated into English. Popular books about Germany tend to have been written by British or American writers. And the whole subject of the second World War has often come to us with a whiff of triumphalism through in British and American cinema.
Any time Hollywood was stuck for a villain, they have often found bit convenient to fly on a German accent. The upsurge of neo Nazism has been treated with a knee jerk hysteria in British newspapers, whereas in Germany it is urgently discussed as the part of the racism and street gang violence which has been a growing phenomenon throughout the developed world.
Reinforcing a potentially evil image of Germany has always suited Britain and America for their own dark reasons. It helped to make them squeaky clean and incapable of doing anything wrong. though the Irish have always admired the Germans, we have been the recipients of such an imbalanced view.
In Ireland, we are rarely treated to the subtleties of Germany, like their TV personalities, the gossip, or the German view of history and the ways in which they have tried to come to terms with it. It is rare that we are treated to the new breed of writers, like the Turkish/German writer, Jakob Arjouni, who has written with great skill and humour about the cultural clash in which a young Turkish private detective finds himself dealing with the white lace collar attitudes of Germany; a first generation sleuth with impeccable German, using the kind of critical eloquence with which Hanif Kureshi treats modern day Britain.
In fact, the only way of knowing what the Germans of today are really like is by going to Germany and talking to them, learning German and reading what they say about themselves. Watching Germany's prowess at soccer is not enough. It is better to discover the real nature of German society and its complex ways of looking at the world now.
I remember sitting in the reception room of a factory in Berlin, looking for work with an Irish friend. We both sat silently, staring at the sign Anmeldung (reception), waiting for the boss to come and interview us. My friend suddenly misread the sign turning it into "Animal dung". We both cracked up laughing, and I still wonder what that factory owner thought of the Irish workforce when he found the two of us laughing uncontrollably in the foyer, wasting his precious time.
Nowadays, many young people are going to Germany and experiencing that country for themselves, just as Germans are more likely to come and live in Ireland now.
I believe that when Chancellor Helmut Kohl decided to come to Ireland, he had the idea of holding a party for all German nationals in Ireland. He got a shock when he discovered that there were over 3,000 Germans living here. Maybe he should hold a party for all the Irish in Germany. He would be in for an even bigger shock.