es ist deutschland hier

this is amusing, but also a touch troubling. it's probably not quite as troubling as it is amusing but it's early days and if nothing else it makes you wonder what goes on in the man's head.

the man in question is guido westerwelle, leader of the german liberal democrats who have just effectively won the german general elections together with the much bigger CDU/CSU combo (the christian democrats with their bavarian counterpart), headed by angela merkel. what's likely to happen is that westerwelle's party will form a new coalition government together with angela merkel's and at the moment it seems everybody's assuming that he himself will therefore get the job of foreign minister.

now watch (below) what happens when the man from the beeb asks him a question in english at his very first press conference, even before he's got the job. sadly, the video clip is not subtitled, but i can tell you: the correspondent introduces himself and announces he's going to ask his question in english and could he, westerwelle, please answer in english. westerwelle promptly raps his knuckles by telling him that as they are at a german press conference, he should ask his question in german. so the bbc man says, fine, may he then ask the question in english and westerwelle can answer in german. westerwelle uses a phrase that's roughly the equivalent to the english 'with all due respect' which normally means the direct opposite and so the journalist's translator steps in and says: 'we'll translate'. before she gets around to doing so, westerwelle drones from the podium that 'just as it is the done thing in great britain to speak english, so it is the done thing in germany to speak german'. so finally, the bbc man gets to ask his question which his translator then poses in german and westerwelle answers by telling him that he's just asked the same question as his german colleagues had asked and that the answer is still the same: he won't go into any speculation about cabinet posts (even though he clearly wants one, everybody agrees.)

then comes the icing on the cake: just as the chair or master of ceremonies or whatever his title would be at a press conference is about to go on, westerwelle says: 'to make it absolutely clear: we can certainly meet up for a fabulous cup of tea some time outside a press conference, and then we'll speak nothing but english, but... - this here is germany.'

all of which suggests that the man widely tipped to become germany's new foreign minister in what's supposed to be a 'centre-right' government either:

a) doesn't speak english (bad news if you are foreign minister of any country in today's world)

b) does speak english but is unwilling to use it when somebody who doesn't speak his language asks him a question, and then doesn't even want to listen to the question when it is suggested to him that he may reply in german, which means he is simply rude (bad news if you are any kind of diplomat)

c) is so much of a nationalist that he won't tolerate any foreign tones being uttered at his german press conference in his german fatherland, because "this here is germany", jawoll. (bad news. full stop.)

whatever the answer, it doesn't bode well. of course, the point has been made already in various comments and blogs, and it keeps being made, that nobody would expect david miliband for example (the british foreign secretary) to field questions in german (or spanish, or italian, or french, for that matter) at a press conference in london. but it's a mute point. because the fact is that the lingua franca of our day is not portuguese, or mandarin, or french, italian, spanish or esperanto. the language everybody speaks is english. it used to be french, in diplomatic circles; and a long time ago it used to be latin. and maybe in a few decades' time it will be german, who knows. or hindi. but for the time-being it's english, like it or not. so for the foreign-minister-to-be of any country, let alone the biggest economy in europe, to refuse to answer a question in english is at best embarrassing, at worst a throwback to awful extremes.

we used to fall about laughing as kids in switzerland, because our grandparents told us how their german neighbours across an increasingly anxiously watched border started referring to the banana as 'schlauchapfel' (literally 'hose apple') in a drive to rid the german language of any un-german elements. but clearly, while highly amusing, the thinking and mentality behind this was anything but.

it may be going too far to draw the parallel between that kind of thinking and westerwelle's desire for german purity at a german press conference. maybe he's just not that confident when it comes to foreign languages. but then why not say so: 'sorry, mate, i really don't speak your language very well, can you talk to me in german please.' and who could be offended? but 'this here is germany': what that implies is 'this here is germany, either be german yourself and speak german, or get out.' and that from their foreign minister. that's troubling. amusing, yes, but troubling...






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