German Paper Mocks 'Degenerate' Brits
Thu Jun 13, 8:02 AM ET
BERLIN (Reuters) - A respected German newspaper weighed into a war of words with the British press on Wednesday, describing Britain as a "degenerate country, riddled with complexes."
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) launched its tongue-in-cheek tirade in response to an article in the British Spectator magazine this week which said Germany was an "insufferably dowdy country."
"Great Britain is a degenerate country, riddled with complexes because of its loss of power, inhabited by fox-hunters in ludicrous costumes and hypocritical lefties who send their spoiled children to private schools," the German paper said in a column.
"The British have bad healthcare, bad teeth and bad skin, which they regularly burn on southern beaches because they find suntan lotion unsporty. Their food is inedible, and their beer tepid and tasteless."
The insult-swapping started last month after British newspapers attacked Germany's Der Spiegel magazine for describing Britain's Queen Elizabeth as a "nondescript housewife of 76." The FAZ editorial came as Prince Charles visited Berlin.
Earlier this week, Spectator journalist Andrew Gimson launched a scathing attack on Germany's economic, cultural and political failings.
"Germany, in the opinion of many Britons, is an insufferably dowdy country, inhabited by perpetual students with bumfluff mustaches and satanic fetishes," Gimson wrote.
He acknowledged that not all Germans, whom he described as "the second fattest people in the world," shared Der Spiegel's view of the monarchy, writing that many of them looked on the royal family with as much affection as the English.
The FAZ struck a conciliatory tone at the end of its column. "The above could be our reply... but even in times of strife, one thing we won't give up is our Anglophilia," it said.
