By Marc Young, Editor
marc.young@thelocal.de
Are Germans the new Americans?
That's what some commentators are asking as Germans face growing animosity from their fellow Europeans amid the seemingly endless eurozone debt crisis.
Because just like the United States in many parts of the world, Germany is finding itself unloved yet indispensible at the same time.
The Germans fork out their hard-earned cash to bailout bankrupt Greece and how are they thanked? Angry mobs in Athens burn their flag and Greek newspapers brandish pictures of Chancellor Angela Merkel dressed up as a Nazi.
But it's not just the Greeks raging against what they see as German-mandated austerity measures. The beleaguered Irish moan that Berlin is trying to establish a Teutonic dictatorship. Others around the Continent just grumble the Germans' current economic success is somehow at their expense.
It's gotten so bad that the German government this week decided to take a page out of the American foreign policy playbook by starting a campaign to win hearts and minds around Europe.
The Foreign Ministry's 13-page paper sees greater communication with the country's neighbors as the key to assuaging fears of German dominance. But Berlin is also planning to counter the poor perceptions of Europe's handling of the crisis around the rest the world.
Will it work? Probably as much as the Bush administration's ham-fisted PR effort to polish America's image in the Middle East after the Iraq War.
Instead of trying to spin European public opinion, Germany would be better served if its government officials simply stayed on message.
For example, just days before parliament backed a second rescue package for Greece, Merkel's interior minister made counterproductive comments that the country should be encouraged to ditch the euro and go back to the drachma.
Or perhaps the Foreign Ministry's pricey PR campaign should simply be directed towards influencing members of the chancellor's own cabinet.
