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Germany is a very new country (1871) and still comprised of markedly different regions. the French German axis has increasingly dominated the EU and driven a st

Germany is a very new country (1871) and still comprised of markedly different regions. the French German axis has increasingly dominated the EU and driven a strong export culture. As globalization has hit a plateau Germany are now in a tricky position. Many are loathe to admit it but the 'desirable products' Germany produces have a very distinctive Germanic flavor which people identify strongly with the idea of Germany and its people. Consider Jaguar, a car firm strongly identified with Britain and now owned by Indian Tata Steel. They were selling well in China as a 'British' global brand, but when they built Chinese factories sales fell off a cliff, partially due to Chinese people not wanting to buy a 'British' car owned by Indians and built locally. Consider how BMW bought the Mini brand and marketed the car as 'British', with styling cues from Issigonis's original quintessentially English mini. BMW literally plastered Union Jack flags all over it despite it being a German car with a French engine. Buyers care deeply about places and their peoples. Unique identity. Who wants to fly 5000 miles and get off the plane in exactly the same place they just left culturally? The bland out and erradication of cultures is a disaster on multiple levels, not least ability to market differentiation

thaumasiotes 7y ago
> Germany is a very new country (1871) and still comprised of markedly different regions. Interestingly, this is apparent in the genetics of Germans. You can distinguish, say, Frenchmen from non-Frenchmen fairly easily -- they form a natural cluster. Germans don't form a German cluster; they break down into three clusters focused in the north, south, and east. Northern Germans may look more like Danes than they do like Eastern Germans.
- gharding 7y ago
  You clearly do not understand "the French" and you should be careful making those claims anywhere you go in France to any actual native European french people outside of Paris. Every single people native to every single region will despise you for making such vile claims.
  - thaumasiotes 7y ago
    I would advise you to make sure that a factual claim is false before you start going around calling it "vile".
- olivermarks 7y ago
  The northern German 'look' spreads into Scandinavia and the UK also. regarding the French... it's complicated... https://www.eupedia.com/forum/threads/24932-Genetic-make-up-of-France https://www.eupedia.com/forum/threads/24932-Genetic-make-up-...
gharding 7y ago
I totally agree with you, even though what we are all heading towards is nothing but the total eradication of actual diversity, especially in Europe, pretty much on the American model that totally destroyed all unique characters of the American people of the various American states over the last 70+ years. But the "Germany is a very new country" trope/propaganda is not accurate, as is rather easily identified by simply thinking about it for oneself for just a few minutes. It's like saying the USA is a young country since Alaska joining the Union in 1959, when the current USA was created. Or that the USA has only existed since the Civil War that essentially ended the very core characteristics of the USA that was from then on basically just the USA in nominal (name only) manner, essentially totally void of its core characteristics. It's very much like when a corporation keeps the brand name, but the business becomes a totally different and even inverse of what people believe it still is. KMart/Sears comes to mind, a company that used to operate a retail giant, which was turned into a kind of private equity, real estate holding con job company that did not at all care about performing its core purpose of operating retail outlets.
- olivermarks 7y ago
  Fair point. My take from UK history lessons last century was that the 1871 'German' entity was in hindsight a very early example of centralization of smaller nation states rebranded as'Germany'. There are arguably traces of this logic in the formation of the original EEC which gradually expanded into the vast and homogenizing EU entities today. Globalization is arguably a stratospheric layer above the EU, US, China etc etc that is rendering the old nation state paradigms of less and less importance, something I don't like...
- selimthegrim 7y ago
  Sitting here and writing this from Louisiana I _strongly_ beg to differ with your notion of American homogenization.
  - olivermarks 7y ago
    I'm in California, I agree that the idea that the US is fully homogenized is overblown

thaumasiotes 7y ago

> Germany is a very new country (1871) and still comprised of markedly different regions. Interestingly, this is apparent in the genetics of Germans. You can distinguish, say, Frenchmen from non-Frenchmen fairly easily -- they form a natural cluster. Germans don't form a German cluster; they break down into three clusters focused in the north, south, and east. Northern Germans may look more like Danes than they do like Eastern Germans.

gharding 7y ago
You clearly do not understand "the French" and you should be careful making those claims anywhere you go in France to any actual native European french people outside of Paris. Every single people native to every single region will despise you for making such vile claims.
- thaumasiotes 7y ago
  I would advise you to make sure that a factual claim is false before you start going around calling it "vile".
olivermarks 7y ago
The northern German 'look' spreads into Scandinavia and the UK also. regarding the French... it's complicated... https://www.eupedia.com/forum/threads/24932-Genetic-make-up-of-France https://www.eupedia.com/forum/threads/24932-Genetic-make-up-...

gharding 7y ago

I totally agree with you, even though what we are all heading towards is nothing but the total eradication of actual diversity, especially in Europe, pretty much on the American model that totally destroyed all unique characters of the American people of the various American states over the last 70+ years. But the "Germany is a very new country" trope/propaganda is not accurate, as is rather easily identified by simply thinking about it for oneself for just a few minutes. It's like saying the USA is a young country since Alaska joining the Union in 1959, when the current USA was created. Or that the USA has only existed since the Civil War that essentially ended the very core characteristics of the USA that was from then on basically just the USA in nominal (name only) manner, essentially totally void of its core characteristics. It's very much like when a corporation keeps the brand name, but the business becomes a totally different and even inverse of what people believe it still is. KMart/Sears comes to mind, a company that used to operate a retail giant, which was turned into a kind of private equity, real estate holding con job company that did not at all care about performing its core purpose of operating retail outlets.

olivermarks 7y ago
Fair point. My take from UK history lessons last century was that the 1871 'German' entity was in hindsight a very early example of centralization of smaller nation states rebranded as'Germany'. There are arguably traces of this logic in the formation of the original EEC which gradually expanded into the vast and homogenizing EU entities today. Globalization is arguably a stratospheric layer above the EU, US, China etc etc that is rendering the old nation state paradigms of less and less importance, something I don't like...
selimthegrim 7y ago
Sitting here and writing this from Louisiana I _strongly_ beg to differ with your notion of American homogenization.
- olivermarks 7y ago
  I'm in California, I agree that the idea that the US is fully homogenized is overblown