Brigitte Pelzer, a 68-year-old pensioner, was among millions of Germans who watched Germany play Costa Rica in the World Cup on television at home last week. When it came to the national anthem and its opening line "Deutschland, Deutschland ? alles", so often accompanied by uncertainty and shoe-gazing, much of the 65,000-strong crowd rose to their feet and joined in, as did the national team. The VIP spectator Claudia Schiffer also seemed to capture the national mood, rejecting haute couture for the day in favour of a Germany football shirt and scarf. "At the opening game I was overwhelmed and I cried," said Mrs Pelzer, sitting with her family outside a caf?n Ruedesheim-on-Rhine, the heart of the wine-growing region.Suddenly, Germans are waking up to the fact that it is normal to be patriotic. Since the Scond World War, most Germans have been wary of celebrating their nationality.Patriotism has for decades been associated with nationalism, and the sinister past of blind obedience to a dictatorial leader. If you are a proud German you generally do not express that by flying the national flag or singing the national anthem, both of which have been more associated with Germany's far-right parties.

And the event that has triggered the discovery is the World Cup. Few could have predicted the way in which this event like no other in modern Germany has engendered what might be a lasting patriotism.As successive generations distance themselves from the Nazi past - without forgetting it - there is a feeling that the World Cup is a timely celebration of Germany's modern democracy. It seemed to start a week before kick-off when fans from all nations began to arrive, proudly bearing their national colours from cars, camper vans and on thousands of replica shirts. At that point many of the 80 million Germans, with a proud footballing heritage, seemed to have asked themselves, why are we not doing the same?Mrs Pelzer said she had welcomed the new mood. "Why shouldn't it happen here? In other countries where they host these events they have been much more spontaneous I've got two Germany flags hanging from the balcony at home. But I also love watching the other matches such as Holland against Ivory Coast," said Mrs Pelzer.She said that the mood in 1974, when West Germany won the tournament on home soil, was "much different".

"There were no mass gatherings in town squares and no giant television screens. And we celebrated the sport, rather than the nation," she said. But this is the first time that the World Cup has been held in a reunified Germany.Her son-in-law Dieter Hopper, 42, added: "It's finally time to bury the old version of Germany No more Adolf. It was nothing to do with me and nothing to do with my children Earlier we didn't trust ourselves with the flag. But other nations do, so why not us?"The surge in patriotism has created a mini-retail phenomenon in sales of flags, face paints, T-shirts, wristbands and practically any merchandise in the national colours of black, red and gold.

At Germany's two main petrol station chains, "das Car Flag" has sold 80,000. They may not be as ubiquitous as the St George's car flag, but German companies have suddenly realised if they can arrange delivery quickly enough they have a license to print money before the bubble bursts, if indeed it does.In Germany's more racially diverse cities, parts of the Muslims population have joined in, mainly in the form of young men flying the flag from their cars. The sight of a Muslim mother flying a Germany flag from her baby buggy is being interpreted as a small but significant victory for integration and a setback for Islamic fundamentalists who would rather that they did not join the party.The issue of national pride - the Patriotismus-Debatte - has become the main talking point in the German media, coming second only to the tournament itself in occupying column inches. Germany's biggest-selling daily newspaper Bild has been characteristically bold, running the front page headline "Black, red, great" on two consecutive days last week. "Suddenly black, red and gold is flying from every car, whether it's an old Polo or a new Porsche," said Bild."Suddenly a whole nation is smiling Suddenly the world seems relaxed. Finally our repressed relationship to our own nationality is being blown away. Germany is a friendly country; and a country of joy," it said in an editorial.