We need to following information for our study on Poles in Germany :
What are social and cultural occupations of Poles in Germany ? Where do they meet ? Where they are concentrated ? What specific social-cultural occupations they have ?
The old adage remains sadly so in the public persona among Germans vs. Poles:
Bleibt dein Wagen noch gestohlen, Such ihn wieder mal in Polen! (Is your car one more lost soul? Chances are it's with a Pole)
The social and cultural 'avocation'/vocation appears, as always "thief ", placing them just one rung above the Turks and the Russians on the German social pecking order:-(((
Incidentally, I'm not a German national but an American and so I don't really concur with the sort of anti-Polish prejudice displayed on this ad, whether it's from the States or from Europe.
How so? What is ideological about car theft jokes?
....times three-hundred and twenty, granted, not thousands like Germany-:))) Apropos well-deserved prejudices, how does anti-German prejudice strike you? Also undeserved??
Stereotypes are mostly well earned! ;) Every country has them...the reason for alot of jokes! The individual might not deserve it but who cares...
men work as thieves, girls are easy and prepared to do anything for a bit of money. Some of the more educated men, sell cigaretes and some of the decent polish girls try to convert you into jehovas witnesses, and if your handsome will sleep with you too
shame to say, Polish people are not much socializing with their co-patriots in Germany (my experience). If you are in "cleaning" or "building" business you might meet some people though. However, if you married to a foreigner (German or other) and have an university degree and good job you can forget it- envy, jalousy and other unpleasant behaviour will destroy any potential friendship with Polish expats.
Am Polish citizen and lived already across the world but I've never met any nationals who will so little organize meetings, national fests, etc. like Polish people. And that is a big shame!
From a German perspective I had to learn to other day that the Dutch have a similar joke about Germans stealing their bikes... So it goes from west to east--- Dutch bike to Germany, German car to Poland.... Anything going from Poland to Russia? :-)
It used to in the old days. In the time of People's Republic of Poland (PRL) and the Soviet Union, we used to trade a lot with Russians - we gave them meat (for free) and in exchange they took coal from us (free of charge). :)
While we're on the topic of prejudices, i.e. "well-earned" stereotypes, how about "All Krauts are Nazis!!", huh? Is that also a well-deserved? I DON'T THINK SO!
t "All Krauts are Nazis!!", huh? Is that also a well-deserved? I DON'T THINK SO!
Why not well-deserved?
Do you really believe the after war fairytale that there had been only a handful real Nazis and the rest had been resisters by heart (as you can hear so often from other countries) ? ;)
No, I too am well aware of the 'kalte Amnestie' after the war for many former Nazis
On the other hand, naturally, there were numerous Germans who honestly felt bleedin' guilty (as well they should've) about their country's part in WW II and tried to make amends, i.e. Wiedergutmaching, with both Israel as well as with returning German Jewish "citizens". The Zimt affair in the late 50's though cast a pall over the entire country, just as it was starting to emerge from the shadows of Hitler!
...then again some Poles have made it incredibly big in Germany, e.g. Marcel Reich-Ranicki. Take away his thick accent, his German is perfect, he's written many books and his writings on German literature in particular are off the charts. An example of an "immigrant" who succeeded more or less on his own merit, hated, yet ruefully admired, by gentile German society because he still has the whiff of the 'kleine schtetl Jew' against the perceived supriority of Aryan hegemony!
Do you have the temerity to suggest that Reich-Ranicki's not a Pole, merely because he also happens to be Jewish??
@B.B. "Ruefully" means lit. "Mit Reue", d.h. "reuenvoll", suggesting that, being voted "deutsche Literaturpapst" or not, this still doesn't mean he's liked by non-Jewish Germans, merely respected. There's a big difference-:) Our former late president Nixon obviously respected the experience and learning of Harvard prof. Dr. Henry Kissinger, yet there's certainly no reason to infer, based on the former's own diaries etc. that he liked Kissinger. He merely tolerated him professionally, that's all.
, this still doesn't mean he's liked by non-Jewish Germans, merely respected
Well....for Germans that means even more. You can like whom you want for a plethora of reasons, but hard earned respect is something else.
What is your problem? Why should we like people? Just because they are Poles? ;) If you could choose, what would you take? Superficial sympathy and a clap on the back or respect and admiration?
