BERLIN - Germans got an unwanted reminder of their nightmare past this month with Silvio Berlusconi's Nazi slur and as they tried to put the episode behind them as fast as possible they wondered - Why does everyone hate us?

　　The Italian Prime Minister compared a little-known German politician to a Nazi concentration camp 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 an Italian film - drew rebukes across Europe. But in Germany the outburst caused more shock and sorrow than anger or indignation.

　　Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder first demanded an apology and then after a hastily arranged telephone call said he gladly accepted Berlusconi's expression of regret.

　　Sensing Germans have no stomach for Nazi stories or reminders of their grandfathers' crimes, Schroeder welcomed what he labelled an apology as a chance to close the chapter.

　　Berlusconi later insisted he had not apologised, saying he had only expressed his sadness for being badly interpreted.

　　"I did not make an apology," Berlusconi said. He defended himself, saying he had in mind a clumsy German soldier named "Schultz" in the 1960s US television series, "Hogan's Heroes."

　　Schroeder had no further comment. "The wider political dimensions were cleared up and the Chancellor considers the case closed," said Schroeder's spokesman, Bela Anda on July 4.

　　But Schulz, a little-known member of the European Parliament who angered Berlusconi, said last weekend that the Italian leader had only confirmed the worst fears of his detractors with the outburst.

　　"Berlusconi is cooking up a new version of events every day but it doesn't change his nature of the insult," said Schulz, 47. "He should apologise to the European Parliament as fast as possible and make it clear that his lapse won't happen again."

　　Nazi comparisons

　　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 country's 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 US by comparing President George W. Bush's policies towards Iraq with 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 Nazi salute. But they are still 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 an 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 belligerents whose armies twice 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."