Taipei, Oct. 4 (CNA) Germany's tragic experience of nationalism spanning from 1930s to 1940s offers something for Taiwan and China to consider as a responsible government should be more rational than its citizens, a visiting German professor said Thursday.
Germans abandoned their "nationalism dream" after the nightmare of the Nazi era and World War II, which provide them with a better reading of nationalism, said Rudolph Wagner, a professor at Germany's Heidelberg University.
Responding to a reporter's question about the development of nationalism on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, especially in China, Wagner said that the Chinese government is very much aware of the dangers of whipping up nationalistic fever.
China has used nationalism as a political tactic against other countries, such as Japan, but always knows when to stop and pull people out of the streets because it is a two-sided blade which might very well turn against the Communist government itself, he said.
"Neither China nor Taiwan has anything to gain [from whipping up nationalism], " he claimed.
Wagner said he didn't want to elaborate on Taiwan's situation since he is not an expert, and the future of any country is difficult to predict. However, he noted that there are many things happening simultaneously in Taiwan right now, including Taiwan's huge investment in China and the call to normalize Taiwan's status as an independent country.
"A responsible government has to be more rational than its citizens, " he said, adding that a responsible government will not tolerate age-long political or military standoff.
Wagner is scheduled to deliver a speech, titled "German Unification: Popular Culture, Maoist Students, and the Socialist Disneyland, " Saturday in an international lecture series organized by Lung Yingtai Cultural Foundation.
With a Ph.D. from the University of Munich, Wagner has done extensive research on Buddhism, Taoist philosophy, and contemporary Chinese politics and the media. In 1992, he was awarded the Leibniz Prize, the most prestigious European prize in the humanities.