Yesterday, as a full-throated roar from hundreds of thousands of German football fans around the Brandenburg Gate, it signified something completely different. It was evidence that Germany was finally shrugging off the legacy of National Socialism and becoming a normal nation once more.

Not since the Third Reich has there been such a public outpouring of national pride, though this bears no comparison to the stage management of the Nazis.

After 60 years of inhibition and embarrassment, the national colours of black, red and gold are fluttering from every windowsill and car, shrouding brothels, town halls and high-speed trains.

In the television departments of supermarkets, men with tears in their eyes belt out the national anthem and the shop attendants join in. Young women are buying black-red-gold underwear so that every time a goal is scored they can raise their skirts and flash the flag.

President Köhler has entered the spirit of the moment: “For me this is something beautiful, a sign that the country is increasingly returning to normal, that one can show uninhibited pride in your national flag and drape yourself in it.”

Christa Zoegling, a 43-year-old teacher among the vast throng in central Berlin yesterday, was amazed. “The only time that I have experienced such emotion was when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989.”

It helps that fans from other nations have arrived for the World Cup bedecked in their national colours, but the novelist Thomas Bruessig says that there has not been such naked spontaneous German patriotism since the start of the First World War in August 1914.

“We’re stunned and we’re asking ourselves: are we allowed to do this?” says Herr Bruessig. “Have we become dangerous again? Have we forgotten the lessons of history?” He shrugs at his own doubts. “But, hey, I’ve been singing, too, and painting the German colours on my face.”

The newspaper Die Welt declared in an editorial: “One and a half centuries after 1848, we have learned to value and show the colours of our flag as a sign of our democratic nation.” 1848 was the date of a failed democratic revolution.

Neither the 1972 Munich Olympics — stained by the murder of Israeli athletes — nor the 1974 World Cup was like this. Nor, even was the moment the Berlin Wall crumbled. In 1989 there was still something edgy, dangerous even, about waving the German flag. Such was the reluctance of ordinary Germans to show pride in their country that it has sometimes seemed as if the neoNazis were the only enthusiasts for national symbols.

Some commentators have described this wave of patriotism as a cathartic moment. Others compare it with the impact on Britain of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. Then, the British learnt to cry in public. Now, the Germans are learning to love themselves.

Perhaps the most startling development of the past fortnight is that Germans return smiles on the street — and not just because of a governmentsponsored Friendship campaign.

Orders for polyester German flags have overwhelmed German manufacturers and the Chinese factories where most are made. Normally German businessmen would be complaining about the poor quality of the Chinese competition but it has all been taken with good humour. Even Angela Merkel, the frequently dour Chancellor, has been caught up in the festival mood, loudly cheering the home side against Poland.

Today Germany play Ecuador to determine whether they come top or second in their group and whether they face England in the next round. But Germany are through, and even if they do not win the cup they can take pride in being cheerfully efficient hosts.

Will the euphoria survive after the final on July 9? One striking aspect of Germany’s football-inspired patriotism has been the number of immigrants openly supporting the national team. Turks talk about the German players as “our boys”. During the Angola/ Portugal game, German fans chanted: “Stand up if you’re German!” Ten thousand Angolans promptly did so.

• About a hundred riot police charged England fans in the centre of Cologne last night and a number were arrested. Trouble flared as police were pelted with bottles after they tried to clear about fifty drunk fans who had climbed on to a statue. Until yesterday there had been 2,514 arrests related to the tournament, only 52 of which involved Britons.

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