Traut the Kraut Scores a Goal for Understanding

"Watch for her gestures rather than her words," advised a palace official ahead of Queen Elisabeth's three-day state visit. It was a somewhat euphemistic way of saying Her Majesty most certainly will not be saying sorry for anything, which is bound to come as disappointment to German mass-circulation daily Bild.

Germany's most-read newspaper recently launched an inflammatory campaign called "Will the Queen apologize?"

And the answer is: "No, she won't." On the agenda, however, is a concert at the Berlin Philharmonic -- intended to raise money for the final restoration of the Dresden Frauenkirche, destroyed in 1945. It's the closest approximation of an apology Bild is going to get.

Traut the Kraut shows the way

Others are more willing to help break down prejudices.

The Queen will have an unexpected companion on her German tour: Bert Trautmann, otherwise known as "Traut the Kraut," will be presented with the Order of the British Empire in Berlin next week for his efforts to improve German-British relations.

Now 82, Trautman first arrived in England as a prisoner of war and outraged fans when he joined first division club Manchester City in 1949.

Back then, some 40,000 people took to the streets to protest his signing. His spectacular goalkeeping soon won them over, but it wasn't until he broke his neck and continued playing in the 1956 Cup final that the British public realized this was a man it could trust.

Later that year he was the first foreigner ever to be named "Footballer of the Year."

Rediscovering national pride

Recent years have seen a sea-change in Germany's relationship with its turbulent past. Increasingly, a new generation of artists, bands, film-makers and fashion designers are breaking with the country's post-war legacy of guilt and aren't ashamed to embrace their national identity.

It's a trend increasingly reflected in Germany's cultural establishment. Günter Grass, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1999, risked charges of revisionism by addressing the topic of Germany's own suffering in his novel "Crabwalk." The book explored the effect on three generations of the torpedoing of the Wilhelm Gustloff ship in 1945, one of the greatest maritime disasters of all time which cost 9,000 German men, women, and children their lives.

Historian Jörg Friedrich (pictured) went one step further with his 2002 book "The Fire," about the destruction of German cities by Allied bombs. Not surprisingly, it was serialized in Bild.

In August, Chancellor Schöder demonstrated how much World War II is bound up with private sorrow for many Germans when he paid his first-ever visit to the grave of his father, a soldier who fell in Romania in 1944.

After decades of shying away from dramatizing World War II, the public's largely positive reception to acclaimed film director Bernd Eichinger's big budget movie "The Downfall," which charts Hitler's last ten days in his Berlin bunker, also goes to show how much progress Germans have made in coming to terms with their history.

Rewriting history?

Recognizing that Germans were also victims in World War II is one thing, but to most of the country, the latest Bild campaign is embarrassingly over-the-top.

And after all, a recent British Council survey shows that more Germans dislike their own country more than they dislike Britain.

The German press might have overstepped the mark, but Britain sure is bearing a grudge.

Speculation about the possible apology first surfaced last week in British tabloid newspaper the Daily Express, which was followed by a comment piece in the rival Daily Mail written by right-wing columnist Simon Heffer which has been given widespread coverage in Germany.

Entitled "Sorry, the Germans must never be allowed to forget their evil past," Heffer rejected the idea of an apology and accused the Germans of trying to "rewrite history."

Evil sells

Her Majesty's trip comes one week after the German government invited 20 English history teachers to reappraise their image of Germany on a six-day, all-expenses-paid trip. But five-star hotel accommodation and a night at the Berlin State Opera weren't enough to persuade them to look beyond Third Reich stereotypes. Everything else is just too dull, apparently.

"The problem with the Nazis is that they are sexy," Gerald Clarke told British newspaper The Guardian. "Evil is fascinating."

Asked whether he'd teach German studies differently in future, another member of the group expressed surprise. "I'm doubtful," he said.

Bild, meanwhile, did an about-turn Friday and decided it would show up its British counterparts and celebrate German-British links.

"If all the nations in the world felt as close as this, the world would be a better place," it said in an editorial.