What does Patrio­tism mean for German and Ukrai­nian Youth?

If you want to see a German flag, you​’d better visit the Bundestag in Berlin, or come to Germany during the world cup. Things are diffe­rent in Ukraine, where flags are visible on almost every buil­ding in major cities and small towns alike. But is patrio­tism still a thing for young people? Two editors, Nicole Kauer and Yuliia Ivan­chenko, wanted to find out about it.

To portray what patrio­tism means for young people in Germany and Ukraine, we’ve talked to six people from diffe­rent loca­tions in the Ukraine and Germany, all aged between 19 and 31 years old. Some of them are studying, and some are already employed.

How is it in Ukraine?

Tatiana, 24, is origi­nally from Ukraine and works as an HR manager in Poland. She considers patrio­tism as a sense of love and devo­tion toward the Mother­land. However, she agrees that the poli­tical situa­tion influences patriotic feelings.

„And our situa­tion really makes me feel so bad. You cannot be a patriot if you always hear just bad news. I have lived abroad for 6 years now and I hear from my cowor­kers every day how it was really bad there, and that they don’t want to go back because there is nothing to do. So that’s why I am not going back to my home country yet. But besides that, I am so proud of being Ukrai­nian,“ stated Tatiana.

Anna, 21, studies ecology in Kyiv. Anna explained that being a patriot is objec­tively criti­ci­zing your country, but also showing love for your language, culture, and people. She added that her atti­tude toward patrio­tism has changed since the 2014 Revo­lu­tion of Dignity in Ukraine.

„A few years ago, I couldn‚t under­stand at all what patrio­tism means. But after 2014 and the Euro­maidan Revo­lu­tion when hundreds of people went to fight for the idea, it was incre­dible, and it was a mani­fes­ta­tion of the nation. My mother language is Russian, and I don’t agree with the idea that you can’t be a patriot if you speak in Russian. I love Ukrai­nian and of course, I can speak and read fluently. My personal atti­tude has changed during the last few years. I stopped thin­king that I want to go abroad and change my citi­zen­ship ever­yday,“ explained Anna.

Mariia, 21 years, studies inter­na­tional rela­tions in Kyiv and Cyprus. ​„Once I began studying inter­na­tional rela­tions, and under­stan­ding which instru­ments poli­ti­cians use to create ​„patrio­tism“, I changed my mind. I am not the kind of person who will sacri­fice myself or my success. I am indi­vi­dua­li­stic, and it seems that we still have a Soviet influence on the public good. I don’t like the idea that our govern­ment is trying to split people into black and white – those who speak Russian and Ukrai­nian. And if I don’t support this idea, am I not a patriot? From my perspec­tive, it’s about iden­tity. That’s what makes me diffe­rent from people from diffe­rent count­ries. When I was studying abroad and felt alone, I reminded myself that I know many groups of people who will under­stand me. They can sing Okean Elzy’s songs and laugh at poli­tical memes with me,“ explained Mariia.

… And what about Germans?

Valen­tina, 23, is a media and philo­sophy student in Frei­burg, who grew up in Chile until the age of 10, and has lived in Germany for the past 13 years. When she hears the word ​„patrio­tism“, memo­ries of Chile come first to her mind.

„I know I can be proud to be Chilean and I can walk around with a flag, but in Germany things are diffe­rent. For me, it feels a bit weird to see a German flag, outside of maybe a national foot­ball game. Actually, I own a Chilean flag; but not a German one. In Chile, people are cele­bra­ting our country. Nevert­heless, I’m proud of how German poli­tics and the German social system works, and that people who don’t have a job don’t need to live on the streets,“ said Valen­tina.

For Benjamin, 31, a poli­ceman in Ulm, patrio­tism means to be proud of a country and the people that live there. However, he added that it was more important during the 19th century, when the borders were being nego­tiated and ever­yone was fighting for their ​„terri­tory“, in the truest sense of the word.

„Nowa­days one is proud to live in a country where there is no war, where the legal basis is a given, and where one could main­tain a peaceful exis­tence. I am proud of our legal system, having a free demo­cratic basic order, our laws, and that ever­y­body knows, or should know, how to behave. As a poli­ceman, I work for the state of Baden-Würt­tem­berg, so I assume that I am contri­bu­ting to our country in at least one of the 16 states. To preserve the legal order, to keep miscon­duct of other people within limits, and to point out that there are rights and laws, and that you have to abide by them if you want to live here. This is my contri­bu­tion,“ said Benjamin.

Jannes, 19, is a design student in Leipzig. He believes that one can be proud of belon­ging to the country after contri­bu­ting some­thing to the common good.

„I think foot­ball is the last resort where German people can still live out their patrio­tism, since ever­y­thing that happened back then. The only time every two years at the Euro­pean Cham­pi­on­ship or World Cup, when people can let it all out and hang the flags in front of their homes – all the stuff that people outside the World Cup don’t dare to do, but which is also justi­fied. I mean a little patrio­tism can be good for a country and its people in foste­ring a sense of belon­ging. But there is a very fine line between patrio­tism and natio­na­lism. Finding the status quo good, but no better than other count­ries. People who call them­selves patriots have usually not unders­tood what patrio­tism is and what distin­gu­ishes patrio­tism from natio­na­lism,“ he said.

Any simi­la­ri­ties?

With around 2000 kilo­me­tres between both count­ries, growing up in two diffe­rent socie­ties and having diffe­rent pasts creates such diffe­rent perspec­tives. Accor­ding to our responses from Ukraine, the recent conflict has signi­fi­cantly altered peoples’ minds during the last 6 years. It seems that we have a patriotic new gene­ra­tion in Ukraine with a big hope of chan­ging their country and being proud of living there.

Whereas in Germany, the three respond­ents are still trou­bled with the concept of patrio­tism. They are proud of the consti­tu­tion, the poli­tical system. A feeling that Jürgen Habermas, German philo­so­pher, described as consti­tu­tional patrio­tism. Nevert­heless, what both Ukrai­nian and German share is the impact of historic and recent poli­tical events on their under­stan­dings of patrio­tism.