Very cogent observation McGowan. About the obsessive rule-keeping: I think there is a realization of this among younger Germans—partly due to the youth culture and the contact with the USA. However it is a deep part of German culture. Kant and other philosophers from 200 years ago pushed HARD a concept of “duty” in replacement of traditional Christian grace-based ethics. Germany is still very secular, and when there is no reliance on the grace of God in Jesus Christ—”duty” alone is left.
Today’s Germans are pacifistic—that’s been drilled into there heads since infancy, so we need not fear the old militarism—however without real Christianity, raw rule-keeping (even if its according to a very liberal, seemingly squishy, politically-correct set of rules) is all that remains.
“The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.” (Numbers 14:18)
Germans as a people, yes, but not the German state. Post -war Constitution of BRD has been silently ammended and now it is possible for German government to send Bundeswehr and Luftwaffe into combat missions outside of German territory. That was previously forbidden by the Constitution. People can be changed within a generation to utilize this to the full extent. It is important to remember that it was not German people who financed Hitler to grab the power, nor it was a German people who armed Hitler against the Versailles Treaty clauses. The same story can be repeated and Germans duped like they were in the 1930s. The safety pin to prevent this was included in German constitution, but it has been silently removed.