German outrage at British tabloids

GERMANY’S popular press took a swipe at British counterparts yesterday for their coverage of Pope Benedict XVI’s election, declaring in a banner front-page headline that “the English are insulting our Pope!”

The Sun greeted Tuesday’s elevation of German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger with the headline “From Hitler Youth to ... Papa Ratzi.”

Germany’s mass-circulation Bild daily vented its outrage. “It is outrageous to reduce the German Pope to a Hitler Youth on the day after his election.”

Bild was also unimpressed by the Daily Mirror’s description of the new Pope as “God’s Rottweiler” - a reference to his previous job as the Vatican’s doctrinal watchdog.

“The world is celebrating our Pope, and the British are making a stink,” it said.

The BZ tabloid also vented about the British tabloids. “Where does such poison and envy come from?”

Benedict has written openly about his time in the Hitler Youth as a teenager, which was compulsory under the Nazi regime. He also was drafted into a German anti-aircraft unit during World War II as a teenage helper.