British, German Papers in ‘Boor War’

The two most sensationalist West German and British newspapers were locked in editorial combat Friday over the question of which country’s holiday makers are the worst slobs.

The opening salvo was fired by The Sun, a tabloid that is Britain’s largest-selling daily newspaper. Earlier this week, The Sun published a story under the headline, “Vot Makes Krauts Holiday Louts?”

The Sun, assailing Germans vacationing on Tenerife in the Canary Islands, referred to “beer-swilling Krauts” who were ruining the vacations of proper Britons by being rude and gluttonous and grabbing all the deck chairs early in the morning.

The Germans, The Sun’s reporter said, gobbled up the best food before anyone else could get at it and made a lot of noise.

The report labeled German women “sour fraus. “

On Friday, the Hamburg-based Bild-Zeitung opened a blitzkreig counterattack on British tourists on the Mediterranean island of Majorca, describing them as fat, noisy drunks.

A reporter whom Bild-Zeitung had sent to the resort of Palma said he found that British vacationers were hitting the beer before noon and staying at it virtually until dawn the next day.

“For many,” he reported, “the motto is, ‘We drink until the early hours and then fall down.’ ”

Devoting most of a page to the subject, Bild-Zeitung, whose circulation tops even The Sun’s, described British females on Majorca as “fat women showing bright red stomachs between skintight trousers and short tops that could hardly hold what they were supposed to.”

“When dancing, they clung to their men--they could not get closer--and rolled their eyes longingly.

“Between 2 and 4 o’clock in the morning, they trooped in groups back to the hotel--noisy, without thought for people sleeping--and celebrated further in their rooms, with shrill voices.”

Bild-Zeitung concluded its case by quoting several German tourists on the bad manners of the British.

“H.B.” of Coblenz said, “They turn the beach into a pub and throw their empty bottles around them.”

On reading the account, a German who has spent several vacations in the Balearic and the Canary islands commented: “When the Germans go on vacation, they seem to cast off their normal reserve, just as they do during carnival. But if there’s anyone who acts worse on holiday, it is the British.”

Millions of Bild and Sun readers were looking forward expectantly to the next barrage in the war of the tourists.