The Italian Prime Minister compared a little-known German politician to a Nazi prison guard during a heated debate at the European Parliament in Strasbourg last week, triggering a furore that cast a shadow over Berlusconi and German-Italian relations.

Berlusconi's insult, telling Martin Schulz he would be a perfect candidate for a Nazi character in a film, drew rebukes across Europe. But in Germany the outburst caused more shock and sorrow than anger or indignation.

For 63 million Germans born after World War II - some 75 per cent of the population - Berlusconi's astonishing insult tore open old wounds.

"Won't these unseemly Nazi comparisons ever end?" wrote columnist Rolf Kleine in Bild, Germany's top-selling newspaper.

"Whether outside Germany or from within, it's always tempting when there are no other arguments to bash Germans with the Nazi battering ram. The darkest chapter in our history is often used as a killer argument. Just stop it now!"

Six decades after the war Germans are sensitive about their Nazi past and Nazi references are often political dynamite.

Schroeder dropped his justice minister Herta Daeubler-Gmelin last year after she stirred a row with the United States by comparing President George W. Bush's policies towards Iraq to those of Adolf Hitler.

"Nazi analogies are total nonsense," said Dietmar Herz, political science professor at Erfurt University. "They have nothing to do with Germany today. Abroad, they're being artificially kept alive by the press in countries like England."

When overseas, Germans are often bewildered to still be confronted by the past - called Krauts or greeted by the stiff-armed Hitler salute. But they are unable to completely shrug off the burden of guilt from that era - and would rather not be reminded of it.

"Germans are always having to fight old cliches abroad," said Herz.

Student Anna Mueller-Busch said Berlusconi was out of line.

"Berlusconi's remarks only perpetuate the image abroad of Germans as Nazis," said Mueller-Busch, 27. "The Germans he attacked had nothing to do with the Nazis."

Gerhard Haendeler, a Wuppertal tax adviser, said Berlusconi had insulted generations of Germans born after the war.

"Italy isn't short on fascists itself," said Haendeler, 53. "Our generation had nothing to do with what went on back then. It's especially ironic given the amount of power he wields."

A Berlin student named Beatrice, 20, said she was tired of always having to defend her country when she was abroad.

"People abroad think of Germany as Nazis and beer. You always have to deal with it and always have to defend yourself. I was on a school exchange programme in Israel and, because I was German, the subject was always raised."

While Germans may be admired for their powerful economy, they just aren't liked in many places, opinion polls in foreign countries consistently show.

In spite of huge efforts to improve their standing and put behind them the image of dangerous billigerents whose armies trampled across Europe in the 20th century, Germans regularly encounter resentment abroad.

A recent survey of 1,000 British young people between the age of 16 and 24 by the Goethe Institute showed a majority had negative views of Germans.

"We shouldn't forget the Nazi past," said student Ines Daniels, 26. "But we have to move on and draw a line somewhere."

(China Daily July 9, 2003)