Germans Called ‘Bullies’ in British Memo

LONDON —  Britain’s attempt to quell a controversy over an official’s unflattering remarks about Germany foundered Sunday with the publication of a high-level government memo that characterized Germany as an egotistical bully with an inferiority complex.

Britain has been publicly reiterating its support of German unification in recent days in the wake of a magazine article in which Nicholas Ridley, minister of trade and industry, was critical of the European Community, Germany and France. Ridley resigned Saturday.

But London’s moves to end the dispute were bedeviled by Sunday’s publication in the Independent newspaper of a memorandum written following a high-level seminar March 24 on the implications of German unification. The memo listed German national character defects as “angst, aggressiveness, assertiveness, bullying, egotism, inferiority complex, sentimentality.”

The session, attended by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd, concluded that “we must be nice to the Germans.”