The sight of Germany's democratic flag, the one striped with the colors black, red and gold, has dominated the country ever since the FIFA Soccer World Cup, the world's biggest sports event, kicked off in 12 German cities some two weeks ago.

While the display of the national flag is considered normal in the United States, until now, Germans have been unsure just how much pride they could show before being stamped as acting inappropriate by their fellow countrymen.

Shortly after Germany's opening victory against Costa Rica, however, flags could be seen hung from apartment windows and balconies, painted on fans' faces, and attached to cars - even garbage collection trucks have flags flying these days.

In Berlin, the games involving Germany regularly turn into mass events, with people dressed in the national colors and heavily chanting the German anthem in unison when it's played before the game.

For Tuesday's game against Ecuador, some 700,000 people swarmed the area around the Brandenburg gate, and the roar "Deutschland Deutschland!" could be heard across the entire city.

Not since the Nazi era has there been such a widespread public outpouring of national pride, and observers say Germans may be experiencing a crucial moment in their democratic history in which they are finally shrugging off their Nazi history and becoming a 'normal' nation.

"This is something beautiful, a sign that the country is increasingly returning to normal, that one can show uninhibited pride in your national flag and drape yourself in it," Horst Koehler, the country's president, said recently in a radio interview.

The only moment that came close to the current Germany euphoria was when the Berlin Wall fell in the autumn of 1989, which led to the country's reunification less than a year later. At the time, however, the phenomenon was restricted mostly to Berlin.

The 1972 Olympics and the 1974 World Cup had no such mood - too fresh was the memory of the organized mass murder of some 7 million Jews and a bloody war against the rest of the world.

In Britain, commentators compare the significance of the moment to the death of Princess Diana.

"Then, the British learnt to cry in public," the London Times writes. "Now, the Germans are learning to love themselves."

Politicians and church officials have praised the patriotism, saying Germany was in no way endangered to establish nationalistic movements again, citing the country's openness and friendliness to foreign fans during the tournament and to the World Cup's motto, "A Time to Make Friends."

There have been virtually no incidents of fan groups clashing, and most foreign visitors say they are surprised how friendly the atmosphere in the country is. A player on the Ghanaian national team said after their game against Czech Republic that he was overwhelmed how the German soccer fans in the stadium rooted for an African underdog. "When I heard the Germans chant with our fans, all these people, I nearly cried," he said.

"The new patriotism is a party patriotism, and I don't mind that," said Rezzo Schlauch, of the Green Party, traditionally one of the groups most critical of any nationalist-like movement.

Even Chancellor Angela Merkel, not quite known for her emotional outbursts, was seen cheering heavily when the German national team last week secured a last-minute victory against Poland.

In a way, the new euphoria is once again bringing West and East closer together, said Wolfgang Kaschuba, the director of the Institute for European Ethnology at Berlin's Humboldt University and an expert on identity issues.

With German key players like midfielders Michael Ballack and Bernd Schneider hailing from former communist eastern Germany, the whole country has something to be proud of.

Forwards Lukas Podolski and Miroslav Klose were both born in Poland and later emigrated to Germany.

"Many among the 250,000-strong Polish minority are appreciating that," Kaschuba said.

During the Germany-Poland game Merkel sat next to Polish President Lech Kaczynski.

Round that off with upcoming black players like David Odonkor and Gerald Asamoah, both with African roots, and you have the most 'international' German team the country has ever seen.

It seems like Germans, after years of bad news due to an economic recession with high employment, finally look for a reason to enjoy themselves, observers say.

"The new patriotism has a playful background, that of a soccer game," Kaschuba said. "The reason is not at all menacing but a desire to commonly enjoy the festivities."

Kaschuba added he was surprised by "magnitude, intensity, and humor" with which the new phenomenon has taken hold.

"It's now OK to play with national symbols, such as the flag."

It remains to be seen whether the national pride will survive once Germany is eliminated from the tournament, which could happen as early as Saturday, when Ballack and colleagues play Sweden for a spot in the quarterfinals.

And what about the crimes of the Nazi era? Will they become forgotten?

Kaschuba said the country will not forget its troublesome past, but maybe gain a new approach to it.

"The World Cup will not become a moral eraser," he said in reference to the moral weight that to this day burdens Germans. "But the country's image as a whole will profit. People may not replace their Germany image, but friendly images will be added to the dark ones, and maybe weigh more heavily."

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