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Germans in Spain ready to jol

Playa de Palma – German flags are fluttering on the "Bierstrasse" and from balconies in Playa de Palma, where bars and restaurants offer bratwurst, sauerkraut and schnitzel and the only language seems to be German.

But this is Spain, and here and there amid the sprawl of bierkellers and grillmeisters, the red and gold Spanish colours are also flying and a few Spanish bars are serving pan amb oli, a traditional appetiser of the Balearic island of Majorca.

As Spain prepares to face Germany in the World Cup semi-final in South Africa on Wednesday, there can be few other parts of the globe where the friendly rivalry between the two countries is more keenly felt than in Majorca.

Some 27 000 German residents on the Mediterranean island, in a population of around 862 000, are joined every year by some four million German tourists – the largest number of visitors from any single country.

Some 450 000 Germans arrived last May alone, according to the local tourist authority.

Centre of German community

Playa de Palma (Palma Beach) outside the island's capital is the centre of the German community on the island.

And this week it seems there's only one thing people there want to talk about.

"I think Germany will win on Wednesday, and that's not just because I'm German," said Juergen, a tourist in his 50s who is visiting from Cologne with his wife.

"The Spanish players are dangerous, but we have the key to unlock them," he said as he downed a beer in one of the dozens of bars in what is unofficially known as the "Bierstrasse" (Beer Street).

At the Deutsches Eck (German Corner) bar and restaurant, manager Uwe said the World Cup results so far "couldn't have been better" for his business.

"We have 150 reservations for the restaurant alone for Wednesday night," he said. "They're mostly the same people who came for the other matches."

Giant screens

He has set up seven giant television screens so that all his customers, who also include Spaniards, can watch the game.

German flags line the outside of the restaurant, while bunting in the German colours of red, yellow and black stretch from the roof up the facade of the apartment block above.

And in the street outside, he also hung some Spanish flags.

He says that most Germans in the town will support Spain if it makes the final, and vice versa.

"If Germany loses to Spain it won't be nearly as bad as if we lose to France or Brazil," said Uwe, who moves to Majorca from Wupperthal five years ago with his family and already feels "a bit Spanish".

Applauding

"When Spain beat Germany in the final of Euro 2008, the Germans here were applauding," he said.

"On Wednesday, we'll be setting off fireworks here no matter who wins."

Maria, a 37-year-old who runs a tourist gift shop near the beach, agrees that the Germans are very sympathetic to Spain.

"We sell a lot of Spanish flags to the Germans," she said.

But Daniel, a Spaniard who works in the music business, admitted there is "some rivalry" between the two communities in Playa de Palma, where Spaniards also keep holiday homes.

Fiesta atmosphere

"The Germans here think Majorca is part of Germany," he complained, standing outside a friend's house near the beach where a huge Spanish flag was hung from the top floor.

Whatever the result, there will be a fiesta atmosphere throughout Majorca.

"Fussballfieber" ("Football Fever") screamed the headline on Tuesday in the Mallorca Zeitung, a newspaper for Germans on the island and which had six inside pages devoted to the World Cup.

Its English language equivalent, the Majorca Daily Bulletin, was understandly less excited about the match, with England eliminated.

"Hotter start to July than usual," was the headline there.
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