Warning: Brace Yourselves for Anti-German Backlash - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

EricSilver · #1 03-05-2003, 01:26 PM

Yesterday, my hood star was torn off of my car in a parking garage. My first thought was that it was random vandalism.

Today I read in BrandWeek magazine (you marketing/advertising folks out there are surely familiar with it) about U.S. backlash against German products and companies, because of their stand on U.S. action against Iraq, and put 2 and 2 together.

Don't be surprised if you find more door dings, "stolen" ornaments/emblems, sratches, etc. than usual because of the small-mindedness of people who are "expressing their opinions" about Germans via damage to your vehicle. (A friend with a new CLK 430 just told me that her's was keyed!

)

When parking in a garage or elsewhere, be sure to be in a very visible area where people are less likely . Perhaps pull up as close to a wall as possible, so no one can gain the levereage necessary to yank your star off in the first place.

It's sad that there are dumb-asses who do such things.

#2 03-05-2003, 02:26 PM

I have not thought of vandalism, but I have wondered when I will start hearing anti-German car rhetoric much like anti-SUV rhetoric.

You are right, this is VERY small minded. Odds are about 100,000 to one that the German car setting there does NOT belong to a German.

I suppose that it takes all kinds to make up the world.

Good luck,

Kestas · #3 03-05-2003, 02:43 PM

This is the same mentality as the "Buy American" crowd that focuses on japanese cars........ like Honda, which ironically has more North American content than the average GM make. Ford Probe and Mazda 626 are built on the same line in Flat Rock, Michigan. "Buy American" mentality still has strong undercurrent here in Detroit.

To add to the irony-- during the heyday of "Buy American" that the auto companies supported, I visited Chrysler and Ford manufacturing facilities and saw German - not American - machinery bought and put in place to manufacture parts at each factory!! It was a case of "Do as I say, not as I do"!

G-Benz · #4 03-05-2003, 03:14 PM

Take heart knowing that the backlash is just a bit of mindless vandalism, and you aren't one of the folks that were shot at or had mosques burned or bombed when the same types of idiots took their anger out of anyone of middle eastern origin just after 9/11.

Remember Pearl Harbor? We Americans rounded up Japanese-American families and placed them in compounds after the attack.

As a country, we are certainly not above some of the atrocities we witness elsewhere, and unfortunately, there will be those who are too ignorant to realize where to direct their backlash, and many are dangerous in that quest.

It's the state of the world we live in...

#5 03-05-2003, 04:22 PM

I sure hope I am misunderstanding you and you are not comparing the Holocaust, or even the bombing of Pearl Harbor to our rounding up Japanese Americans and keeping them in one place for a few years.

I don't want anyone to think that I am condoning the Japanese American camps, but that IN NO WAY compares to the Holocaust.

Have a great day,

G-Benz · #6 03-05-2003, 04:59 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by LarryBible
I sure hope I am misunderstanding you and you are not comparing the Holocaust, or even the bombing of Pearl Harbor to our rounding up Japanese Americans and keeping them in one place for a few years.

I don't want anyone to think that I am condoning the Japanese American camps, but that IN NO WAY compares to the Holocaust.

Have a great day,

Not in the LEAST!

Just noting historically, that we are not without skeletons in our closets...

blackmercedes · #7 03-05-2003, 05:01 PM

My family is from Germany, a looong time ago. Fled "Germany" in about 1450 to the Ukraine, and to Canada in 1842.

By uncles fought in WWII, and we lost family fighting the Nazis.

Still, when the war was over, my uncle John changed his name from Schellenberg (My dad lost the "c", another very long story) to John Shellen to escape anti-German sentiments.

It didn't matter that he laid his life on the line for nearly SIX years for Canada. No one knew that when they saw his name.

We have along history of acting the goat, and I didn't think it would change with our current "conflict."

I bet there are lots of proud Canadian and American middle-eastern desent families that fear the same consequences right now, no matter their feelings. We just seem doomed to repeat ourselves...

EricSilver · #8 03-05-2003, 05:15 PM

Ironically, the folks who do these things will turn around and be critical, and scornful, of anti-Americanism is Germany!

Basically, it's OK for the American vandal to hate Germans, but not OK for Germans to hate him back.

What shocks me about this whole issue is that Germans are being ostracized (by too many Americans) for not being war-like and aggressive.

These people have very short memories and fail to recognize that Germans have been ass-kickers since the days of Rome, and were the instigators of two world wars. Their present anti-war attitude should be applauded.

EricSilver · #9 03-05-2003, 05:26 PM

FYI:

I was just on the phone ordering a spare from the dealer and he tells me that this is also the time of year for college scavenger hunts -- and Mercedes hood stars are often at the top of the list. So be mindful when parking around the campus...

mpnye · #10 03-05-2003, 06:55 PM

The ONLY thing I fear from GERMANS are SCHNITZEL FARTS at the HOFFBRAU in Tustin . . .

Happy Hour is HELL on Thursdays

#11 03-06-2003, 07:02 AM

I too am of distant German ancestry. I lived in Germany for two years and have traveled there often in the last few years.

The German PEOPLE, generally speaking are great people. They are organized, law abiding and well meaning. They have been through quite alot in the course of reuniting their country, not to mention that there are many still alive that went through the horrors of WWII.

I believe that among the German citizenry, there is not widespread American hating going on. I believe that most of this is the government speaking. This is very similar to the way that MOST Americans (I think) feel toward the Germans. I don't believe that MOST of us would not be able to sit down at a German get together and enjoy each others company.

My $0.02,