Papers 'fuel anti-German feeling'

Dr Schweiger's book hits out at the tabloid press

Tabloid newspapers play a central role in creating artificial tensions between Britain and Germany, an academic says.

As the two countries spar up for a friendly football match, German-born Dr Christian Schweiger says Anglo-German tensions exist only in the "red tops".

The Durham University lecturer says any antagonism between Britain and Germany following World War II has disappeared.

But in a book he claims anti-European sentiment prevalent in the 1980s has created a "xenophobic" tabloid press.

The international affairs lecturer, who has written a book on cooperation between Britain and Germany, said: "The role of the tabloid media is the main aspect behind Anglo-German tensions.

"The majority of British people today, especially younger generations, perceive Germany as a partner country, no longer holding any particular resentments about Germany and its people.

'Negative portrayal'

"The obsessive anti-European sentiment expressed by the Conservative government under Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s allowed the British tabloids to use increasingly hostile and often xenophobic language against the UK's continental European partners, particularly France and Germany.

"This legacy has lingered on and becomes particularly bad during football competitions."

In his book, Britain, Germany and the Future of the European Union, Dr Schweiger writes: "Even the negative portrayal of Germany during 18 years of Conservative rule in Britain, or the occasional screaming tabloid reference to the war years could not seriously damage the increasing cultural and political closeness between the United Kingdom and Germany.

"It is therefore not exaggerated to claim that today, normality rules in British-German relations.

"With no concealed suspicions remaining between them, the British and Germans would hence be ideal partners in Europe."