Well, as for your first question: my sentence reflects the idea that every nation – as every individual – has got a peculiar identity, which is expressed by her history, tradition and culture (by her language, for example), and that by expressing it she can give her peculiar, indispensable contribution to the history of mankind. I know this sounds old-fashioned to many people; and this is admittedly a very Romantic, very 19th century idea (it is also very German [and Italian], and this is one of the reasons why I like it).
But, what am I talking about? This is your second question: " Could you please define 'being German' "? Sorry, I can't.
But, just a moment. I've got a friend whose name is Louis. Obviously, it's impossible, for me as for him and for everybody, to give a definition of his identity (of his personal essence, so to say) – I mean, a strictly logical definition. So, do you think that Louis is nothing? He's certainly something, and that something – his identity – can be grasped by me, who am his friend, with a sort of rational intuition, which is much deeper, and more rational, than the rigid – and somehow narrow-minded – formalism of Cartesianism or logical positivism.
This the way how friendship works. This is also why we need poets, or even psychoanalists: because the most important things in life can't be expressed, or defined, with the ordinary way of speaking. This is also, in my opinion, the way how we know, i. e., we UNDERSTAND, in history, and in the human sciences (this, too, is a typically German, and Italian, idea). So, I think that it's possible, if not to know clearly and distinctly, at least to intuit (though imperfectly, because it's a mysterious thing) what "to be Louis", or "to be German", means.
So, what does it mean? What IS Germany? Sorry again, I can't answer. To do that, I should use a metaphorical, allusive language, and I'm by no means sure that I would succeed in making myself understood.
Nevertheless, don't you think that the phrases "German" (or "Italian", "French", "Indian"…) "tradition" ("culture", "identity", "history") are basically clear? Are you German? If you are (or if you are English, French, Greek, …), don't you know what it means that you are? THAT is what I was talking about.
As you can see, there must have been a misunderstanding: I was not at all talking about the present political or economical situation of Germany. I was talking about the national identity: in other words, about HISTORY and CULTURE. You might object that they are unimportant, if the economy doesn't work; but, if you did, I wouldn't agree with you.
I hope I haven't bored you. Best wishes.

>I think the Germans (or rather lots of them) are strange lot: For example, the vast majority of the movies they watch in cinemas are US American, (as are most TV shows and films) yet, the Germans dub every single film so that you have the impression, it's a German film. In my opinion that's stupid. The German society spends huge amounts of money on teaching every German the English language for years and the result is that they are unable to watch a movie in the original version with German captions/subtitles just like any other European nation does.

many Germans learn English at school but that does not mean that they are able to understand and speak it.

> Germans don't have their own pop culture. They listen to English pop music without paying any attention to the lyrics - hey, am I supposed to understand anything they sing, it's in English!

You don't know much about German culture, do you? There is a German pop scene which is stronger than the English one. Not only Rammstein, but also Oomph, Grönemeyer and so on... Kraftwerk not to forget... We listen way more to German music than you believe!

>Germans have strange greetings such as 'Mahlzeit' - ask any German to explain the meaning of that stupid and empty expression and all you wll get is a blank face! The German language is very inflexible just like its speakers - word order is as strict as many of their laws.

Mahlzeit is a greeting that you say, when you are going to lunch! You also say it during the afternoon and it means something like "good afternoon". The German language is pretty flexible, my friend. We do not have an order for our words. For example :

1) Ich hätte gerne den Ball (I'd like to have that ball)
2) Den Ball hätte ich gerne
3) Gerne hätte ich den Ball.
4) Hätte ich den Ball gerne?

> To my knowledge the Germans are the only European nation with a law that requires any self-employed person to finance a rather useless and very conservative institution called IHK - Chamber of Commerce and Industry. So much for democracy...
Speaking of self-employment: Germany ranks very low regarding the percentage of people being self-employed and thereby taking responsibility for themselves. Especially in East Germany - the former Socialist part of Germany people don't want to take decisions themselves. They wait until they are told what to do by someone else - by an authority, the government, the all mighty Labour Office (Arbeitsamt) ect.

That is called consensus democracy and has got its root in process of conflict solving that countries like Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands do since the Westphalian Peace.

>Germans spend money on all kinds of things such as holiday trips to Majorca, German cars, tabloids, pay TV, digital cameras, cell phones. Yet, when it comes to education they think that the government has to take care of this. Why should I pay for a further education? What good is education anyway?

>Are there any good things about the Germans? Sure. Any nation is a good as another.
I believe provocation can serve as an accelerator, don't you?

You don't know much about us but you pretend to. Sorry!

I'm not German, but I do love Germany, and find your words somehow offensive.
I hope that you will pardon me for not even trying to refute your arguments. But, are they really arguments? For instance, your words about "Mahlzeit" are not particularly brilliant: since you use your brain, you should know that every word or phrase can be "empty" in a certain sense, i. e. if we consider it in the abstract, and becomes "full" when we consider it in the light of history and of current usage in a historically and culturally defined community. If we were to pass judgements about words the way you do, we could easily find thousands of words much emptier than this, in every language.
Although I don't really master the German language, I'm impressed by this monument of intellectual depth, and hope that I'll be able to learn it well and to read the classical German writers.
I'm sorry, but your words sometimes sound like an explosion of bad mood, or emotiveness.

P. S. Why should Germans defend themselves? Who accuses them? They have plenty of good reasons to be proud.