Press Review: Unbridled Pride Marks Start of World Cup

Bild daily in Hamburg marveled at the newfound sense of patriotism evident in the presence of black, red and gold German flags fluttering on every second car, "whether it's an old Polo or a new Porsche." "Suddenly, the whole nation is smiling," the paper wrote, adding it's not just the Germans who are happy. "Our guests are participating, too. They're covering entire cars in their national colors, filling our market squares in their national clothing, and singing their country's anthem with enthusiasm."

"Is this Germany as we know it?" asked the Heilbronner Stimmung, in awe of the exuberant, extroverted nation that has emerged with the start of the World Cup. "This patriotism is likeable," the paper wrote, "because it's uninhibited and hasn't been prescribed by the state." But the new German spirit is largely the preserve of the younger generation, the paper concluded.

"It's as if a magic spell has been cast over the nation," enthused the Stuttgarter Nachrichten, charmed by the pictures and scenes of brotherly love between the fans of the different nations represented in the tournament. "It's as if Germany was just waiting to prove to all the world that it had all been a big misunderstanding -- that we're obviously not as grouchy, anxious and pig-headed as we always seem to think we are," the paper wrote.

Who's afraid of Ahmadinejad?

Meanwhile, the fear that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad might still come to Germany to watch his team play in the tournament is the focus of many papers, especially after hundreds of people gathered in Nuremberg on Sunday to protest Iran's leader ahead of the Iran-Mexico match. The Tagesspiegel in Berlin wrote that denying Ahmadinejad entry would cause a huge scandal, and suggested it might be better to deploy a bit of "confrontational diplomacy." "If Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wants to come, then he should come, because we would then have the chance to tell him to his face that the motto 'Friends Hosting the World' doesn't apply to him. We don't have to be friendly with everyone who comes. Friendship implies certain conditions, and he does not fulfill them," the paper commented.

Nuremberg's paper, the Nürnberger Zeitung, commented that Sunday's protests show that many Germans are no longer prepared to sit back and listen to the anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic tones coming out of Iran. "They finally want to take a stand against this historical misrepresentation, and did so in impressive fashion with the event staged in Nuremberg," the paper wrote.