None other than the ‘Kaiser’, Franz Beckenbauer got the World Cup 2006 to come to Germany, while Africa – in effect South Africa – was put on hold. It was a diplomatic coup by perhaps the best non-career diplomat Germany has ever had, among his other qualities.

Then Germany was turned into one long “fan mile” and a sea of “black, red and gold”, with other nations mixing in their colours freely, uninhibitedly. It was perhaps the first World Cup centered around the fans in this manner. 14 million people gathered for those outdoor screenings, with only 9,000 arrests by a German police who were so discreet as to be nearly not there. No battling hooligans and slogan-shouting neo-Nazi’s: that helped too. It was the Home Minister Wolfgang Schäuble’s dream of a World Cup come true.

The Germans were so well organized that they had trained 150,000 volunteers in ‘friendliness’ - which paid off. The world discovered the new Germany, which now serves its famous beer and wurst with a smile. Why talk about the world when British fans are checking up on Weihnachtsmärkte (Christmas fairs) and Munich’s famous Oktoberfest, for want of the next World Cup in Germany anytime soon, and British newspapers and tabloids are thanking the Germans – in German? When news agencies are calling ‘team spirit’ simply Teamgeist and the German team simply the Mannschaft?

A tip: Hamburg is planning to bid for the 2016 Olympic Games!

The German retail sector chalked up an extra 2 billion euros in additional revenue, though among the 50,000 jobs that the World Cup created, not more than half will survive the year. Bundesbank President Axel Weber considers “the current feel-good sentiment (to be) a short-term phenomenon”, even if it does give private consumption a fillip. All in all, the World Cup has been no economic miracle.

So what are the Germans feeling so thrilled about?

The reality is better than the image

First of all, about their image abroad. If you have been the villain of the piece for almost 60 years, typified, if not vilified wherever possible; if the very fact of your hard-earned economic recovery has been held against you; if your demographic, financial and ultimately political weight within an unified and unifying Europe is enough to cause angst and Unbehagen – sorry, discomfort or unease; if the fact that football is a game in which 22 players take part and the Germans always win in the end –

The Germans are feeling loved by their neighbours and friends, near and far, for the first time. This gain is immense, both for the Germans and for those friends and neighbours. This World Cup has been the biggest confidence building measure between Germany and the rest of the world.

It has been the “coming out” of Germany, in a certain sense. A whole young generation of Germans have swept away the cobwebs of old taboos, myths, misrepresentations and misapprehensions – and stealthy, surreptitious fallbacks and sympathies. They have declared their own independence from false pride as well as false prejudice and joined the youth of the world – in wearing a black, red and gold bikini, say. Think of that at some Nuremberg rally of yore!

One can only salute these new German fräuleins at the street parties.

The problem is that this “black, red and gold” revolution has been not just one, but many revolutions in one: take those fräuleins, for example. Beer and football used to be the domain of the German men, till the other day; now the fräuleins drink the one and watch the other – on the street.

Think of that German team with at least five major players “of immigrant origin”. This is Multikulti, or ‘multicultural’ with a vengeance. This is integration before the act and long before the pundits and the plaudits. This is de facto and not de jure integration: ask the millions of fans and get a bloodied nose!

One can be sure that there is a fair section of Germans – of middle age and not very pronounced xenophobic tendencies – who have welcomed this “black, red, gold” upsurge for the wrong reasons, misread it, in short. This is not the wheel of history turning back but running forward: there’s a grave danger that the older variety of German patriots might get run over by it.

Opening a window

And this applies for the rest of Europe: the Germans and their World Cup have not only set an example for themselves but also for the rest of Europe.

News item from Rome, July11: swastikas were daubed on the walls the ancient Jewish ghetto in Rome after Monday night’s celebrations. “As an Italian I feel ashamed,” said Interior Minister Giuliano Amato.

Then there’s the Italian right-wing senator Roberto Calderoli who described the defeated French team as being made up of “blacks, Muslims and communists”.

The French have been quick and indignant in protest, but they too know that the celebration of ‘Black-White-Beur’ – as French people of North African origin are referred too – may not last much beyond July 9.

All these – European – countries should know that winning the battle against racism is a much bigger win – as well as a much bigger battle - than the World Cup.

German President Horst Köhler called the World Cup “a new window onto ourselves and our country”.

It is an old window, in effect, but it’s a new country that he is looking at, let us hope.