Germans' eagerness to display their national flag, which seemed to come from nowhere during the World Cup in Germany and continued even after all the foreign guests had gone, has now, pardon the pun, flagged considerably. Here and there a black, red and gold banner is still draped from a window, or, less frequently, fluttering in miniature on a car. But the streets are largely back to their earlier, non-partisan look.

Many commentators, both German and foreign, taken aback in June and July by the unprecedented swells of flag-waving Teutons, said the Nazi-traumatized country had gotten over its fear and loathing of patriotism. "Gone, finally, is our strained relationship with our own nationality," wrote Hauke Brost, a commentator in the mass circulation tabloid Bild.

If Germany has indeed returned to "normality" -- that is, to "healthy patriotism" -- then what's a "normal," "healthy" attitude toward the flag? Is it flying them on flagpoles in front of home after home, on building after building, and -- separation of church and state be damned -- even inside churches? Is it pledging allegiance to "one nation, under God, who's on our side and will help us bring light to the benighted"? Es war einmal: "Am deutschen Wesen soll die Welt genesen." The Germans learned a lesson.

Some commentators didn't buy the breathless pronouncements that Germans' patriotism had risen from its wheelchair. It was more a case of "partyotism," they said, and all those German flags, all those faces painted in the national colors, were mainly World Cup party accessories. What were the German hosts supposed to do, anyway, with all those foreign fans waving foreign flags in their faces? Just sit there? The World Cup was a golden opportunity for Germans to break postwar taboos: wave the German flag, chant "Deutschland, Deutschland," and vow to kick Poles' butts, if only on the playing field.

German retailers -- out to make a killing, naturally -- were loaded with black, red and gold paraphernalia. The weather was unusually grand, Germany's team went on a surprising roll, and Germans bought scads of the stuff.

Since the World Cup ended, left-wing extremists reportedly stole and burned thousands of German flags to make the streets "deutschlandfrei" again. The GEW teachers' union continued its attacks on Germany's "nationalistic" national anthem. And German politicians -- citing, among other things, Germany's Nazi past -- rejected an appeal by Israel for peacekeepers in southern Lebanon.

No, Germany's "strained relationship with its nationality" isn't gone. Going, maybe, but not gone.