A shopkeeper recently hung huge German flags in front of his apartment building in this cosmopolitan capital only to have them ripped down by people accusing him of inspiring Nazi sympathies. He is a big fan of Germany's national soccer team, which faces the mighty Spanish team Wednesday in a World Cup semifinal. Yet some in his neighborhood, teeming with a mixture of Muslim migrants and educated German elites, think such symbols of nationalism are uncouth.Here's the twist: The flag-bearer is an Arab immigrant to Germany, more willing to show off the national colors than his native German neighbors. He told local papers he was proud of the national team, which for the first time this year includes three Muslims, of Turkish and part-Tunisian descent. "They come and curse us," Youssef Bassal Mohammad, a Lebanese-born citizen of Germany, told the Berliner Morgenpost. "They do not understand that Germans who are not of German descent would defend Germany."
Mohammad's tale is but one example of how much Germany has changed since its team last achieved greatness in the World Cup two decades ago, a time when I was living there as a college student.