I took two leaves to Copenhagen while in the Army. I learned that natives not only pronounced their city "hey-gen" but were insulted by the German pronunciation of "hah-gen". This was the very early 60s, only 15 years after the war, and many Danes still considered Germans "the enemy."
I learned that WWII was a very recent history to Europeans, not a distant war as for Americans. Frankfurt still had bombed out buildings. I found Nazis sympathizers everywhere, the most extreme treating wars like games in a world series, America was up 2 wars to zero but there was still much war to be fought in the future to see who gets the best of 7. When I befriended a German student in Copenhagen, Danish acquaintances asked if I knew what I was doing.
With the climate conference in Copenhagen, I hear both pronunciations on the news, which brought these memories to mind.
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