German W116-Forum

[116Benz]

It was this downward step down to Holdens...

I can still remember you could "buy" a 300D for $500 or something...they had a silver 300TD on the show for a week, I thought it was stunning, then complained when you couldnt buy one in real life for the sale of the century price. Adding salt to the wound was Hart to Hart, on after Sale, another TD and a 450SL, can you imagine how gypped I felt? Oh and the dirty big 3 pointed star that hung over the car in the showcase. 

[gregdeklerk]

Welcome to the forum Wolfgang! I hope you have fun here.

[michaeld]

One thing about Germany: they made some truly awful mistakes years ago, but by and large they owned up to those mistakes and have spent 60 years trying to make sure that they never repeat them again.

I wish Japan would do as good of a job owning up to it's past horrors.

Not to give America too big of a pat on the back, but the United States' demonstration of mercy and gracious in the total Allied victory (i.e. the Marshall Plan, the Berlin Airlift, the reconstruction of Japan) to enemies who at the time surely merited punishment was one of the great moments in human history; and transformed bitter enemies into friends.  Contrast this with the aftermath of World War I, in which an ailing Pres. Woodrow Wilson was all but pushed aside in his call to limit punitive reparations against Germany.  Great Britain and France - which had suffered far more in lives and misery than the United States - was determined to make Germany suffer.  The result was a bitter, vengeful German people who rose up determined to regain their pride and greatness; and all but guaranteed World War II.

An important lesson is that nations cannot comprimise or negotiate with genuine evil.  They must be willing to rise up and confront it.  It was military force that stopped Hitler and fascism; not P.M. Neville Chamberlin's "peace in our time" comprimises.  The quintessential lesson of World War II continues to apply today.

I think Germans ought to take great pride in their efforts to pursue peace in Europe and so successfully reunify itself (i.e. East Germany).  The one required a disavowel of a century of custom and the other was as difficult as any undertaking persued in modern times.

My brother lived next door to a German couple who were about as wonderful a pair of people as anyone could imagine.  Otto owned a business in Long Beach, but travelled regularly to Germany, and stayed in close contact with his substantial family connections there.  He was one of the most inordinately cheerful and energetic men I have ever met - without ever being annoying in all that cheer and energy.  He was also a great lover of all things Mercedes (especially diesels).

It is ALWAYS innacurate to pigeonhole any people into "lump categories."  I've been wrong every time I've ever done it.  People are invariably indivduals.  You'll always have your great people, and your jerks, in any group or culture.  American movies have gone from making the Germans bad guys, to the Russians, to the Italian mafia, to the Iranians and Muslims.  But heck, I hardly even bother with all that anymore; I mainly watch G rated kids' movies now!