Why the Dutch Despise Germans

Only weeks before the last border controls between Germany and the Netherlands are to be lifted, Chancellor Helmut Kohl came to The Hague for a private meeting with about 30 Dutch politicians, intellectuals and business leaders. Participants were sworn to silence and not even the topic of the discussion was announced, but it might have been "Love Thy Neighbor."

 

Mr. Kohl had come to discuss ways of confronting deep anti-German sentiment in the Netherlands. It is one of Western Europe's most enduring prejudices, and with the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II approaching, political leaders in both countries want to curb it.

 

The hostility exists despite the fact that the Dutch and Germans are neighbors who share a racial and cultural heritage. They maintain very close political and commercial ties, and as the recent flooding in both countries showed, face common environmental challenges.

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