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Such a mode of address is, needless to say, unimaginable in the other domains covered in this book. But, while it would be virtually impossible to take offence at remarks (e.g., these within the context of television football reporting), as the author argues, behind the humour lurks the ethno-cultural definition of the nation: The nation is defined by something as “obvious”, and enduring, as its food. Yet, the attack by German supporters on a French policeman in Lens in 1998 caused a notable irruption of the discourse of the civic nation even in football coverage, a discourse that would again be mobilised in an attempt to interpret German fan behaviour during the World Cup held in Germany in 2006 (this is analysed in the final section of this book, “Conclusion”). All domains, however trivial they may seem to be, are sites of discursive struggle. As the author shows on more than one occasion, opposing and even incompatible discourses can appear in the same newspaper, at times in the same article.
Perhaps the most famous German of all once wrote: “the tradition of the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the minds of the living” (Karl Marx, 1852/1978, p. 9). In the case of 20th- and 21st-century Germany, as the author points out, it is not the tradition but rather the sins of the dead generations that weigh, like a nightmare, on the minds of the Germans of today. Binding the four domains covered by this book together—and no doubt many other domains besides—is the constantly evoked memory of the national socialist past. Germany must present itself as a “good” and selfless European to banish the ghost of its former militaristic and aggressive self.