Germany v Ecuador Preview: Long-term inhibition has given way in Germany to new and joyful displays of national pride, writes Keith Duggan

At a coffee shop in Berlin's Hauptbahnhof, the opulent central rail station that seems like a city in itself, a young Korean who has lived in Germany for the past three years remarked yesterday morning he was stunned by the sudden blossoming of patriotism in Deutschland. "I suppose it is a wonderful thing," he said. "But very strange, and almost overnight."

All Germans agree the sight of the city buildings draped in the black, red and yellow colours of nationalism has been a novelty to them also. Berlin, sun-drenched again yesterday, was no exception. On a baking afternoon the build-up to the latest chapter of Germany's football team was well under way. German flags were draped all around the wonderful Brandenburg Gate and were also hanging from many of the steel-girded balconies on the plain, high-rise apartments that still dominate in the part of the city that once stood behind the dark side of the wall.

But German kids are also wearing Deutschland garlands around their necks, they are painting their faces in those three bold colours and are dying their hair in honour of their football team and their land.

Of course, visitors supporting teams all over the world are doing the same thing. But in Germany, such exhibitionism carried such an insupportable weight of history that many citizens simply didn't do it. The World Cup, though, has changed that, and though reservations have been expressed, President Horst Köhler set the mood at the weekend by welcoming these gestures of national pride, commenting "it is indicative the country is coming around to being normal and people are now pointing at a more relaxed way at their flag and decorating themselves. We should see that as good."

As Switzerland played Togo in the balmy afternoon sunshine on a massive television screen, Tom Schumacher and Mattias Klute from Cologne believed that for younger Germans, being decorated in the famous colours was not such a big deal. But as both were in their late 20s, they also agreed that not long ago it would have been unheard of.

"Maybe five or 10 years ago, you honestly would have found it hard to buy a German flag," said Tom. "Maybe if you went to a sailing shop, then yes. But now, you can get them on every street corner, and not just because of the World Cup."

But prior to this World Cup, Germans would have been, as Mattias put it, "inhibited" about embracing the national colours.

"And not just because of the historical links but because there was no real culture of doing that at football matches when we were growing up anyway," he says.

"But I was struck by the fact that when the Italians played Ghana, this chant when around the stadium, Stand Up if You Are From Ghana. And all the local fans at the match stood up. I think Germans want to celebrate hosting this World Cup and that has helped to get everybody behind our team."

A victory this evening in Berlin would leave Jürgen Klinsmann's young team looking like much brighter prospects than was just weeks before the tournament began. And there is no doubt that, while the performances have not been scintillating, Germany's two wins have quickened the nation's pulse and enhanced the vivid flowering of patriotic hues across the country.

Ironically, while the fans go about from match to match in a state of nationalistic harmony, there were indications yesterday of tension in the squad. The customary press conference held in the plush, air-conditioned ICC building in Berlin was dominated by the topic of a satirical radio programme that had pilloried Germany's young striker Lucas Podolski, who has not scored in four matches. The sketches, broadcast on the ARD network, were said to be particularly nasty, with explicit reference to Podolski's Polish background, playing on the old racial stereotype that he was less than clever. The Cologne-based player is said to be considering suing the broadcaster.

That drama came in the wake of apparently misinterpreted comments from Podolski's forward partner Miroslav Klose that the younger player was very "tense". Yesterday, Klose said he merely meant Podolski had been " a bit uptight lately". Given that Podolski was sitting two chairs away, it was a potentially awkward moment but Podolski managed to defuse it by agreeing he was feeling the pressure "because I am only 21 and have not scored in this World Cup yet."

The emotion of playing against his native Poland last Wednesday was taxing enough without the furore of the radio broadcast. To complicate matters, Klinsmann had communicated with soldiers serving in Kabal on a two-way television programme aired by the same media organisation that offended his young striker. It was an unfortunate coincidence and represents the first setback for the young manager and his team.

The general mood in Berlin is happy and expectant. Although it was hardly taken consciously, it is as though there has been a decision to use this World Cup to showcase the country for what it means today. And so along with the harmless manifestations of nationalism has been the strange and sight of football fans from all over the world visiting the historical and symbolic monuments to the country's most infamous chapter.

In Berlin, this has been particularly true, the old landmark of Checkpoint Charlie, now a glitzy consumer street, doing brisk business on a broiling summer day. Along the Topographie des Terrors, where 200 metres of the Berlin Wall have been preserved, there is a riveting audiovisual history of the Nuremberg trials and a frightening section devoted to the Gestapo. And just behind the Brandenburg Gate is Berlin's famous Holocaust Memorial, busy with the sunny colours of Ecuadorean fans smiling and taking photographs.

It is the presence of these solemn markers that makes the simple act of celebrating one's nationhood through pageantry such a radical development in Germany. But as Tom Schumacher, pointing to a German wristband on his arm, said, "We have just visited the Jewish museum and later we will put out flags for the game tomorrow night. And there would have been a time when we would have been hesitant about doing that. But especially in a city like Berlin, where there are a lot of cultures, it feels okay. It has been like a big party, this World Cup."

And whatever about sport and politics, if this World Cup allows Germans lay claim to their colours without thinking of their bleaker associations, then all the better. They reckon the period of national bliss will continue until the quarter-finals anyway.

"If we make it to there," smiled Mattias Klute, "then I think Germany will celebrate for the rest of the tournament no matter who wins. But if we get that usual bit of luck, then who knows, maybe we can go and win the World Cup. Why not?"