When hatred takes hold, it dies hard. Not long before we spoke, someone uprooted 103 gravestones and sprayed them with swastikas in Berlin's Jewish cemetery. It was on the day Germans celebrated the ninth anniversary of reunification. More threatening than neo-Nazis, von Hammerstein believes, are nihilist youths who attack anyone with a swarthy skin because of grinding frustrations that have little to do with the war. Since 1989, the former East Germany has lost two-thirds of its jobs.
Handy scapegoats pay the price.
It is chilling to wonder how deep these feelings lie. Like it or not, Germany is back. Berlin is again evolving as a world capital of great wealth and power. Culture thrives, from art to music to publishing. Guenter Grass won the Nobel Prize for literature.