Last year, as FB's "On this Day" feature has so helpfully reminded me, I was hit bit a tidal wave of homesickness. I wanted to be with my big extended family at their bbq's, eating vegetarian travesties/"hot dogs" and watching fireworks. I'd still, of course, love to be with my big extended family eating science projects and watching explosions, but... this year the overwhelming feeling isn't homesickness, so much as ambivalence.
Immigration to a place always implies emigration from another, and I am an im/emigrant. Not an expat. Expats are corporate types, or diplomats, sent by their employers for a set amount of time to work "abroad". Cushy! Or they are trust fund kids living the same padded life in Berlin that they would be in NYC, or SF, or London, throwing parties that double as performance art with a bit of tantric shenanigans in the corner (yes, really). No, I am not an expat. I am an immigrant. An emigrant.
Sure, I'll always have my family and friends in the US, will be there very often, will always be bound by growing up there and, inevitably, thinking in ways that are often tied up with that. But the more my accent warps into something amusing/grotesque, the more I switch back and forth between meaning Germans and Americans when pronouncing generalising "we" statements, the more I get to know Germany and, from an outsider's perspective, the USA, the more ambivalent I become.
The USA has lots of great things going for it. My family, to start. It's got loads of people who are forward thinking, accepting massive cultural shifts in understanding of things like gender and sexuality, for example, incorporating new vocabularies and ways of being without much fuss. Lots who do this even consider themselves conservative, and see not much contradiction there. It's got an easy-going, "but of course" approach to its diversity which, while challenged by competing narratives and violent hate crimes, I can still envy when comparing it to the conversation over here. The American approach to freedom of speech, even when it is difficult and makes us angry, is another pillar of American values that I can't help but admire, even if I wish we could smooth down its rough edges.
But it's also got a system that is so, so broken, and has been for a very long time. Trump may have awakened a new awareness of this among many of the formerly less-aware, but the repeated calls for a return to unity, our shared values, and a rejection of partisanism seem to miss the mark for me entirely. Compared with the way democracy works in Germany, with the German constitution - written, by the way, with active involvement of Americans during the occupation - America has a long way to go. Money, its role in public life, and it's place at the top of the hierarchy of American values, makes the promise of popular democracy illusory. Racism, and the legacy of the enslavement and genocide of Africans and Native Americans, are issues that, compared to German commemoration of the Shoah and other crimes of the Nazi period, remain barely addressed, even if many white people have the feeling that all we talk about in America are race and racism. The worship of money, and white supremacy: our twin historical and present-day evils that we just can't seem to deal with to create a society that keeps its promises to all its members. Soaring rhetoric and horrifying everyday realities.
Whenever the time comes for me to be sworn in as a German citizen (to "receive a German passport", as the Germans so detachedly and, rejectingly, phrase it), I'll surely embarrassedly mumble along with the German anthem, as the situation demands, and a bit more joyously sing along with the European one, but I have a feeling I'm stuck with this ambivalence. Maybe that's for the best. Just as I'd never give up my US citizenship, this ambivalence is part of me, pushes me to think. So, this Fourth of July, I will sit over here in Berlin, sipping a Brooklyn Lager and eating burgers and fries prepared by young American hipsters, and feel all torn up inside about the country I've left, but can't really leave behind.
The 5th of September marks 3 years, to the day, since arriving with a planeload of huddled masses young Germans returning from their New York City vacations at Berlin's golden doors Tegel Airport. So I thought this seemed as good an occasion as any to ease myself back into writing after a summer that saw me accomplish very little, thanks to a sneakily depressive inability to focus on much of anything for longer than 10 minutes. Alas. We can call this piece a review, an integration-check, or, perhaps more to the point, a "please, sweet Jesus, don't let me sound like that douchey American dude I overheard at a bar the other night whose accent was all fucked up from spending too much time abroad! Or wait, maybe he was just Canadian.." Yeah, let's go with that. It also serves as a bit of a debriefing after the reverse culture clash of spending six weeks back in the US this spring. Enjoy.
Despite Berlin's hype as some cosmopolitan super hipster Williamsburg-an-der-Spree, in the end, Berlin is in Germany and the culture, attitudes, expectations, institutions, popular knowledge, etc. that make up and shape everyday life are different from those I grew up with. Not like, Kabul or Pyongyang different, mind you, but still. Living in that for three years has to have had some appreciable affect on how I speak (even in English), how I interact with other people, my expectations, my points of reference, and the way I think. As I realized while having a long talk with a friend last week: I actually have no American friends, or even middlingly familiar American acquaintances, here, at all. Vielleicht soll ich doch mit dem ganzen Ami-scheiß aufhören und mich ab jetzt Flori-fabi-christi-an nennen!? Nee, lieber nicht. It's not like I've made a conscious effort to avoid Americans. Not at all, honestly! I'm over the pretentious Andy-circa-2007 "I did study abroad and most of my new friends weren't other Americans doing study abroad, so look at me amn't I great" stage. That's stupid, because, you know, there are some pretty OK Amis. But perhaps this is a topic better explored in depth in another post. Bottom line: immersed in a new culture, one changes. I've changed, too.
So here are a couple random thoughts, compiled into listicles, sans GIFs, to explore.
Nowadays, I:
- Can't start a beer without cheers'ing - it feels wrong. Though that 7 years bad sex thing is bullshit.
- Can recognize a good proportion of the German men's national soccer team on sight. Oh, Per, why'd you have to go?
- Can go days at a time without encountering a German word or expression I'm unfamiliar with. (!!!)
- Think Obama sucks, but not for the reasons most Americans who thinks he sucks do so.
- Think Germany is shitty, but then secretly think Germany is actually pretty good in a lot of ways. Which seems to me to be a really common German trait. Taken to its extreme, however, this Heimatszwiespältigkeitsgruppenonanie (I coin this word!) results in proclamations of Deutschland being so Kacke and how you just think of yourself as European, really... and then later you join in smug comment rounds on articles from the US about kids shooting their machine gun instructors in the head by accident and isn't that just typical stupid Amis and that would never happen here, we're just so enlightened, smug smug smug wank wank wank. Bastards.
- Notice how loud groups of Americans sound in public places.
- Don't find, for example, frank discussions of society's treatment of pedophiles at a dinner with people I've just met to be at all a surprising topic of conversation. Ditto for other topics like politics, religion, social issues etc. that are deemed "not polite conversation" by a lot of people back "home". Ok, so the Germans don't smile and act like it's amazing to meet you right away, but they don't hold back on the sharing once you get them going.
- Have a far greater attention span in conversations, and give others a lot more time to make complicated points. The 6 weeks in the US this spring drove home to me how much of conversation there consists of people shooting off 20-second soundbites and then cutting you off if you go "over time"...
- Both talk and think far, far less about carbs and calories because they're simply not things people talk about here. They talk about how best to "nourish oneself"/ "sich ernähren" instead. You Americans can continue keeping those calorie demons in the hole, though. As you wish.
- Do not support blanket bans on smoking in public places/all bars. Get a grip, people. And bring on marijuana legalization, Dland! And public drinking everywhere, America!
- Unintentionally (as in, not for humorous purposes) come out with bizarre constructions like "I already three years ago.." in English. Slap me when I do this, please.
- Am blunt and slightly sharp right back to people when they're that way with me. Here, bizarrely, it results in the interaction becoming friendlier, rather than escalating it into greater tension. Berlin, wa?
Yet, I still:
- Can't bring myself to wish people "Guten Appetit" before they start eating. It's just silly. Dig the fuck in, I'm sure your appetite doesn't need my verbal encouragement.
- Insist on speaking English most of the time when I'm one-on-one with my closest friends because I'm wittier in English. Sorry. It's objectively just a funnier language. (I'm also lazy.)
- Immediately pretend I can't understand German when encountering crazy people/ticket checkers/the police/anyone where feigning ignorance might help me get out of the situation on a slightly better footing than otherwise would be the case.
- Can't understand why they can't figure out a fairer way to spread out the cost of the public broadcasters. - Ditto on the weird health care setup. The NHS makes more sense.
- Prefer cake that is mostly cake, and not a half inch of cake topped by fruit suspended in weird gelatinous sugar, topped by pudding, topped by whipped cream. That's like, a trifle or some shit.
- Probably still talk as loudly as those groups of Americans in public.
- Always forget that using the words Jew/Jews/Jewish makes everyone really uncomfortable. Not because they're anti-semitic, but because they're really scared of sounding anti-semitic. Chill kids, it's not your fault your grandparents/great grandparents became banally murderous psychos for 13 years.
- Have no patience for this natural/homeopathic/herbal stuff. Load me up on ibuprofen and give me those drugs that may or may not be shown to cause birth defects a few years from now. At least they work. Organic food, on the other hand, I can deal with.
- Refuse to drink a G&T with lemon. Give me limes, or give me death! (Or a different drink.)
In a week's time, I will be setting off for America for a whole six weeks packed with wedding festivities, family time, visits with friends, and sight-seeing with one German lesbian. It will be the longest single stretch of time I will have spent in the homeland since wandering out to Germany in September, 2011. This seemed as good an occasion as any to reflect, not too seriously, on what's grown on me about Germany, and what I still can't quit missing about America. So, two lists, each with the aspects of life I miss about one country when in the other. Family and friends go without saying.
What I miss about America when I'm in Germany
A broad scattering of things I'll lump together under "the taken-for-granted trappings of everyday multiculturalism"
Being able to go to the supermarket and getting ingredients for a wide range of "international" foods, without paying through the nose. Ricotta cheese should not be cheaper in America (far from Italy) than it is in Germany (just a skip north over Switzerland!). The things that German grocers seem to deem "exotic" can sometimes be baffling.
Ditto for non-German beers. Belgian beer is cheaper in America (not in the EU), than in Germany (neighbors!). Por que?
People not having some weird prejudice against garlic. Garlic ≠ spicy.
People generally having internalized what is politically correct, and what not, to say. Even when you mean something nice by it, calling little black children you see on the street "chocolate sprinkles" is not really ok. (Here's looking at you, Gudi.)
General acceptance of the name Kevin as being totally OK.
Jews. Love you, guys!
The ability to watch TV series as soon as they air, on TV, legally, instead of illegally streaming them the next day on one's computer.
Cursing. For having such a.. history.., Germans just can't curse. Drop the f-bomb more often, Germans, you'd loosen up a lot!
There only being one word for "you". Ditto with everyone just being on a first-name basis.
Being able to cross the street on a "don't walk" sign without an old lady yelling at you about setting a bad example.
Smalltalk and, relatedly, people generally being more willing to strike up conversation with people they don't know in public/social settings. There are more topics than work/insurance and regional stereotypes! (Poor people from Ost-Friesland, Sachsen, Westfalen, etc. You all get such a bad rap! The Sachsonian accent is totally easier to understand than the southern ones.)
Warm breakfast.
Things I miss/would miss about Germany when I'm in America
A healthy belief in the democratic state, as the highest form of democratic social organization, to address the needs of society. Not leaving it up to charities to maybe eventually help poor people. Etc. I mean, people really expect this shit to just work!
Relatedly: a general sense of entitlement to things like a decent place to live, time and money for long vacations (twice a year), high quality education, health care, etc.
A healthy wariness of the security and surveillance state. Asylum for Snowden now!
Not debating scientific findings as if they are matters of political opinion. Understanding the scientific consensus on global warming, evolution, etc., are not left-wing positions, nor are they matters of opinion. They are observations about the physical world, supported by data! Rebutting them requires more than saying, "well, that's your opinion. I'm entitled to my own." No, you're not.
Consistency. Germans will tut at you if you use paper plates at a party but still want to call yourself environmentally conscious.
Public drinking.
Relatedly, a general lack of moralizing about alcohol, smoking, sex, and other things that people really enjoy. So have a schnapps, light up a cigarette, and get ready for your next fetish related event. Schlager Nacktparty, anyone?
Relatedly, a half liter of beer, in a bar, for less than what you'd pay for a tiny American bottle of beer. Drinkable wines for 2-3 Euro a bottle from the supermarket.
People recognizing that work is a part of one's life, but not the purpose of one's life.
Pflaumenmus.
The word "doch". Best. Word. Ever.
The division of the year into Zeiten devoted to the eating of a specific, seasonal foodstuff. Spargelzeit, Erdbeerzeit, Grünkohlzeit, etc. Relatedly, Adventzeit (aka Glühwein-Marzipan-und-Lebkuchen-Zeit).
The capacity to both be corny, and to tolerate an astonishing level of corniness in others. Because, if everyone's that corny, then it's ok. Everyone in the club dancing like a bunch of old white people at a christening party? I'm down with that.
Not having to massively tip everyone for everything just because they are so shittily paid otherwise.
Things I miss about the UK when I'm in both countries
Everyone being so goddamn witty all the fucking time. The average British nine-year-old has mastered a fluency in irony and wit even the most adept German or American adult could not even dream of achieving.
False self-deprecation. Like when I was at an academic event in Berlin last year, and a young British academic introduced her work, peppering her presentation with phrases like "Oh, my whole theoretical grounding is probably complete rubbish" and "Oh, my findings are probably completely meaningless, just really, bollocks really, I should have spent another year in the field.." etc. The Germans' facial expressions were just priceless.
Ale. (Though America is better on the "beers that taste like something" front than Germany. Ironically.)
Well, no, but, here's the thing... Jump to the end for the disclaimers, and just stick with me.
Race and racism or, more specifically, how different societies deal with the fact of cultural diversity and migration, have been topics I've been wrestling with a lot in my own PhD research, as well as personally as an American and a migrant myself. As I've come to better understand how German society talks about and politically deals with diversity, the more and more startlingly foreign it has begun to seem. My native society admittedly has a huge number of lingering racial issues, but the discourse (excuse the academic language) here in Deutschland is at times striking for how.. and this isn't a word I use lightly.. backwards it can seem to someone from the outside.
I finally decided to write something about this partially in response to a piece in a magazine for expats, written by Jacinta Nandi, a British woman with a South Asian heritage who has been living and raising a child in Berlin for quite a few years. Click here to read it, then come back to me. It is obvious that she was in a state of anger while writing (and for good reason) - it's a feeling that has bubbled up inside me from time to time when hearing the things people can say, or learning of policies I find racist and offensive. I'm a cis-gendered, white, American male - if this shit pisses me off, I can't imagine what it would be like to be personally targeted by the people around me based on how I look. The worst I get is, "O, yeah, I could tell you were US-American from your dialect." (you mean accent, jackass) I can't imagine how I'd feel if I were a black person and someone referred to my baby as a 'chocolate sprinkle' or if I were of Asian heritage, and suddenly people on the subway starting pulling their eyes into slits and saying konichiwa. (Check the comments section on the original article.)
Anyway, her piece brought up a bunch of really interesting insights into the 'topography of the discourse' on racism in Germany that I've been exploring academically, and want to just delve into them here. By 'topography of the discourse' I mean the way people from all 'sides' of the debate talk about the issues, rather than just the positions they take. This is, in any case, as much an exercise in working out my own thoughts as it is (hopefully) a contribution to a debate that is desperately needed.
Jacinta Nandi: "Sometimes I don't think Germans find anything racist except for Nazi demos in Hellersdorf, the actual Holocaust and Rosa Parks not being allowed to sit down on the bus."
I've had a version of this thought many times. It has seemed to me, again and again, that Germans, especially liberal/lefty types, spend lots of energy obsessing over the fringe neo-Nazi element in society, while ignoring the fact that, HELLO, everyday racism can be found right across the broad spectrum of the population. Sure, violent Nazi attacks are bad, but the way of thinking that makes them possible are not exclusive to the fringes of society. There are, as I see it, some historical and psychological reasons for this focus.
So, there was the Nazi era. That is the last time anyone speaking German talked about "races" as if they were real, actually existing things. Of course, scientifically, they're not - the human population is biologically and genetically very uniform in comparison to, for example, some other primate species. Due to history, however, 'race' as such is a very real social fact in places like the United States and denying that it plays a role in social life is delusional. Use of the word race in German, on the other hand, automatically makes you sound like you're participating in a Nazi era discourse (sort of like using the word Negroid would make you sound crazy and old-timey in America) - you can't. As a result, the only people who can be racist, in this logic, are people who actually are Nazis. In the German discourse, then, stopping racism means the same thing as stopping Nazis. It rarely means checking your privilege, or reflecting on the way using certain words might make minorities feel, or whatever. Of course, it is also understood that racism exists where there are no Nazis, but this usually means America or other foreign countries. I also think it's a lot easier to just focus on hating Nazis than it is to look at oneself and one's own friends and families for the fucked up ways of thinking that are inevitably lurking in the background.
Obviously there are not only the fringe Nazis and then everyone else in Germany, free of any racist/xenophobic thoughts. Racism, or ethnicism, or whatever you want to call it, is pervasive in society. Sure, you can't say 'the Jews' without someone spitting out their drink, but call a black kid a chocolate sprinkle or call mallowmars Nigger-kisses, and that's just fine, because you don't mean them in a negative way. Consider this recent (sadly, real) conversation I had with a new acquaintance (a young, hipstery type, not a grandpa from Brandenburg):
Dude: Oh, wow, you haven't been here that long but your German is really good. (disbelief! cuz, German must be the hardest language, like, ever!) Me: Oh, well, you know, I had three years of it at university in the US first. Plus, its not like.. Chinese, it's not the hardest language for a native English speaker to learn. Dude: Tell that to the Turk* (dem Türken) who was born here and has lived here for twenty years and still can't speak German properly. Me: OMG THAT'S SO RACIST. Dude: It's not racist if it's true. (!!!!!!) You can hear them on the U-bahn and at work, it's ridiculous. Me: ::Vomits on his shoe:: *emphasis added
See what he did there? The "Turk" was born here and has lived here his whole life.. but, he's somehow still not German. Of course, many people don't see it that way, but this way of thinking has roots in the ethnic notion of citizenship that was law in Germany right up until just about 10 years ago. Also, no one has lived here for their whole lives without being able to speak German. I just don't believe that. He may have a different accent and use some different slang because of the community he's from, but so do lots of white kids from those areas nowadays. And that's not a failure, or a degradation of society. That's called diversity!
Accents shift, new immigrant groups change the societies they come into (why do you think Boston and NYC have different accents? Different mixes of immigrant groups historically and today!). This, however, is unacceptable to lots of people. If it is not viewed as a failing of the minorities, then (and this is often the lefty view) it is a failing of the state to integrate them properly. The "foreigners", in this view, need to be helped to be more like the majority, and that's somehow not a racist way of approaching the issue, because helping them is a positive thing. It can be, only, it's not, not when you approach it that way. Banning kids in kindergartens and primary schools from speaking Turkish to each other is NOT OK even if you're just trying to help them learn German. If schools are majority 'migration background', then bring in white kids from other parts of the city, don't ban the 'brown ones' from speaking their second native language to each other on the playground. If kids in majority-minority schools bully the few white kids, that isn't equivalent to the structural and individual racism people with Turkish backgrounds face throughout their lives. I'm sorry, it's just not. That's bullying, not racism. That the term Deutschfeindlichkeit (hostility to Germans) exists, as if it were some equivalent to Ausländerfeindlichkeit (hostility to foreigners), boggles my fucking mind.
The way the discourse plays out here can sound really naive, and even offensive, to some people coming from the outside. Sometimes it feels like no one here has heard of structural racism, intersectionality, examining one's own privilege, etc. Even a lot of the people who mean well just seem hopeless sometimes, because they are sort of stuck, stuck in the discourse this society can offer. Like when the Carnival of Cultures in Berlin, instead of being like the Notting Hill Carnival in London, ends up feeling a lot like one of those human-zoo World's Fair exhibitions from the 1890s. Or the Marxist party campaign posters with little black kids in 'traditional garb' shaking maracas, with some bullshit slogan about solidarity underneath. All that gets really frustrating. So frustrating that at times you need to write a piece like this one, or the one Jacinta wrote, because you just can't even take one more minute of it. This isn't to say that the US or British ways of approaching these issues are 100% right, or that they're racism-free (ha!), but I do think they have more experience of confronting these issues than German society does. It's not only the minorities who need to adjust to be successful in Germany, it's Germany that needs to adjust to be successful as a modern, diverse society.
*I use 'the Germans' here broadly, knowing full well that it is really generalizing - but sometimes you need to generalize. German society DOES have a different discourse on race and minorities than the US, even if individuals within the society might not always fit into this generalization. But, societal and political discourses aren't individual so I don't care, in this instance, about speaking in broad terms. Sorry in advance if you feel offended by that - go and check your privilege.
Now if you made it this far and you're really pissed off at me, or racism, or whatever, watch the video.
With the German federal elections just around the corner, I thought it might be a good time to resurrect ye olde blogge! And what an inspiring election it is..! Oh, hm, well, no, actually not. In fact, commentators in the German media have begun calling it a Nichtwahlkampf, or non-election campaign. I like the ring of un-election better, though, as it syncs pretty well with the idea of an unbirthday from Alice in Wonderland (and gives me an excuse to include youtube link). Watch, enjoy, return to text.
You see, you have unbirthdays 364 days a year, and birthdays only once. Just as you don't get any older on your unbirthday (not officially, anyway) you also don't get anything new out of an un-election. Angela Merkel, she with the mouth drooping rhetorical finesse, seems pretty well destined to remain Chancellor even after all the votes have been counted and any necessary coalition building deals have been agreed. But why? From the outside, it might be hard to understand - people in the southern European countries like drawing unflattering historical comparisons, her austerity measures have driven nearly as hysterical photo editing reactions from even respected publications, and she leaves many Germans stupefied and asking "Why?" (among other questions related to braindeath..). But among a large share of the voters, she remains well-liked, well, because she's just so well-liked! Kidding aside, her personal approval ratings are high even though, when polled, voters strongly disapprove of many of her government's policies and handling of such issues as the NSA/domestic spying affair. Love the sinner, hate the sin, functioning well in German politics!
The other parties don't have a chance of getting a large enough share of the vote to lead a coalition, and with the SPD having already ruled out a coalition involving the far left Linkspartei, well.. Merkel it is! Because, for most Germans, times are pretty good. With many average voters still stuck with the mindset of the Euro crisis as the fault of "the lazy Spaniards/Greeks/Italians who are just ungrateful to the hardworking, generous Germans", that issue is a non-starter. Meanwhile, the SPD is rhetorically hamstrung by their own leadership, preventing them from speaking credibly at the federal level about the said development of the working poor, and the increasing costs of living even as wages remain stagnant. And why no one sees the same ingredients for a housing bubble developing here, the way they did in the US/UK in the 2000's, I just can't understand. It's a bit like watching history repeating. As it is, the biggest issues in this Nichtwahlkampf remain rather.. tame.. by American standards. Disagreements on how best to fund universal childcare provision, the rising cost of energy in the face of a remarkable transition towards renewable sources of power, train service disruptions in Mainz and too-expensive airports and railway projects in Berlin and Stuttgart - the Germans are complaining at a high level, while ignoring or downplaying bigger issues.
And perhaps this tameness is the hardest thing for me to understand. Having come of age as a lefty during the Bush II era, I'm very used to pretty much hating the political opposition, or at least being dumbfounded by the backwardness and often the mean-spiritedness of their views. German politics just doesn't have anything like the anti-government tea party to moan about! Merkel has moved her party so far to the center that she's not all that distinguishable from Steinbrück. Everyone agrees the state should do lots of things to help people live their lives more comfortably, most people don't see any reason for the German military getting involved in other peoples' affairs, most people want their privacy protected from snooping even at the cost of "extra security". Granted, the current government isn't my cup of tea..but still, I can't really hate Merkel, because I still think she is a thinking, reasonable person with basically alright intentions though slightly misguided views of modern society. The right wing of her party is less pleasant, but marginalized, and the election posters of the far-right parties are so silly that they could appear in the Onion. Combine this with a voting system that gives everyone two votes, one for a direct constituency candidate, and the other to be used freely to "top up" the proportionally distributed seats in Parliament with any party you like... and German democracy seems to be running enviously well from an American viewpoint.
And so we'll slog along, through the unelection, and on to the status quo that comes after. And I'll sit here, mildly bemused by it all, secretly hoping for a German Michelle Bachmann to come along and get me more fired up.
I feel compelled to resurrect this blog (after a lengthy respite) by the course of current events in both Germany and the USA. This week, as almost everyone by now knows, the US Supreme Court will be hearing arguments on two cases concerning marriage equality for same-sex couples. Depending on how the justices rule, this can result in anything from nothing, to the overturning of the anti-gay Prop 8 in California all the way to the full federal recognition of marriage equality and the simultaneous striking down of all state-level laws and constitutional provisions against it. Big time stuff. If the best-case-scenario indeed came to pass, the USA would have full marriage equality even before Germany.
Germany has something commonly referred to in the press and popular parlance as the "Homo-Ehe", or "Homo-Marriage" (they don't mince words, the Germans..!). Despite the misleading name, it is not actually marriage, but a form of civil union that includes nearly all the legal benefits of marriage except for a peculiar structure of income tax benefit and the right to jointly adopt children, as a couple, from the start of the adoption process. The German Constitutional Court has recently chipped away at rules against gay couple's adopting, such that they can now do so, but "through the back door" (ha ha) and only after one of the partners is already the legal parent of the child(ren).
Court cases aside, opinion polls in both countries, as well as ever stronger commitments from the left/liberal parties in both countries, seem to suggest that full marriage equality for same-sex couples is only a matter of time. My question, and concern, is thus: what happens after that battle is won?
Of course, marriage equality is not the be all and end all of the LGBT movement. Sure, for many bourgeois types who insist we are JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE, that may be enough. But for those of us who see "just like everyone else" as merely code for "the current order of sex, gender, and familial norms and structures is just fine and dandy", this remains problematic. Even "everyone else" aren't actually like everyone else - straight, cis-gendered white men also suffer and need liberating from this system. And, even if they were, why would anyone want to fit into a system of power relations and cultural hegemony in which rape culture is justified and normalized, in which signs of gender non-conformity even in young children are all too often greeted with horror and disgust, in which our trans* brothers, sisters, and somewhere-in-betweeners continue to face discrimination and violence, and on and on and on?
I see, on the horizon, a rupture in "the movement" rearing its head. This rupture, between the "we are/want to be just like everyone else", and the more radical forces who seek to question and subvert the current order of sex and gender relations has, of course, always been there. The marriage equality issue has simply made it less apparent, as even those who find marriage to be an institution mired in a history of sexual domination based on the ownership of women by men agree that, in our day and age, it should be an equal opportunity "oppressor". Perhaps the movement as such will more obviously splinter, and probably have less money at its disposal from the bourgeois HRC-type conforming gays. Then again, a leaner, meaner, more culturally aggressive movement, unafraid to offend certain sensibilities, couldn't be all bad.
How my homeland and adopted country compare is, overall, a wash. In some ways, gender and sex relations in Germany are more progressive (from my point of view). Women hardly ever wear heels, childcare burdens seem more evenly shared, the law provides for paternity leave in addition to maternity leave (the US provides for neither..), and so on. More broadly, the general German willingness to engage with ideological commitments and personal convictions as matters of a shared social life, rather than as personal consumption-oriented lifestyle choices, seems to me to enable social transformation of gender and family life more in the long-run than it does in the US. On the other hand, radical voices are also present in great numbers in the US, and often institutionalized in settings like the university in a way they are not here in Germany. For example, Queer/Gender Studies is nearly non-represented in degree and course offerings in the German university landscape.
Of course, I can't cover the entire landscape of the German and American LGBT rights movements and the cultures of gender etc in each country in one blog post. I simply wanted to ask the question, what comes next for the movement after this battle is won? I'm not sure what it will look like, but I am sure that, 10 years post-marriage equality, it will be an entirely different beast.
Those industrious Germans! Deutschland! Shining example of the rewards of hard work and saving. Able to teach those lazy Greeks a thing or two about what it takes! Well, actually, no.
Despite everyone (except the Greeks) in Europe thinking the Germans are the hardest workers, the Greeks have it closer to the truth. Ok, so the Germans are more "productive" per hour worked than the Greeks are, though curiously less productive than the French and Belgians(!). Nevertheless, the myth of the incomparably hard-working German doesn't stand up to the test of reality. Germany's success owes to lots of complicated factors, but hard work alone cannot explain it.
After nearly a year in this country, I can tell you that the Germans shirk work with an efficiency unmatched in the homeland. Try to get something done at a bank on Fridays, you can almost forget about it. Need to file one of the 50 million forms essential for daily life? Most government offices are open about 3-4 hours a day, 3 days a week. Need to go shopping outside of your normal working hours? Sorry, shops close by 7 or 8pm, early on Saturday, and don't open at all on Sunday.
Besides working an average of only 35 hours a week, the German worker is guaranteed at least 28 paid vacation days per year (which they use unashamedly), plus public holidays, plus nearly unlimited sick time. If you're ill, you just need a note from your doctor, and your employer simply has to accept it.
And I don't just mean for the flu or consumption or whatever. No, no. In fact, Germans suffer a variety of maladies unknown in the New World. Most notable among them is the phenomenon of Kreislaufstörung - literally, problems with one's circulation. Now, in America, when you have problems with your circulatory system you usually end up in the hospital and under close observation of a cardiologist. Germans, on the other hand, see such problems as so normal as to be almost unworthy of note (except the doctor's note!). The exact cause is unknown. Some conjecture that it stems from the Germans' notoriously cold hearts, though that remains unproven. In any case, any time you feel a bit tired or unpleasant you just chalk it up to a circulation problem, run to the doctor, and get a nice little note for your employer and perhaps a prescription for herbal-magic-homeopathy rose hip water pills. Problem solved, blood flowing easily once more!
Then there is the problem of burnout. From working so hard, this is something the Germans struggle with endlessly. Of course, when an American feels burnt out, they simply try and get more sleep or take up meditation or an addiction to prescription medicine. For a German, on the other hand, burnout is simply another source of the cherished doctor's note. For particularly bad cases, your doctor can even write you a prescription for a few days trip to a spa resort. Paid for by insurance, not counted against vacation time. For Europe's hardest workers, only the best.
After a long day of procrastinating and getting half as much done as intended reading hundreds of pages for my doctoral studies, sometimes you just want to turn the brain off for a while. While we don't have a TV, I have occasionally enjoyed the wonders of German television elsewhere or online. Landing in Germany after leaving an American home with digital cable, hundreds of channels, and access to an almost endless variety of programming can be a bit of a rude awakening.
First, American television shows are shown fairly regularly on German TV (thanks, American cultural hegemony!). But, and this is a big but, they have been dubbed over into German, not subtitled. Granted, this makes sense - why would Germans want to have to read through their evening's TV time? Still, knowing what they originally sound like, it is hard to watch Sheldon and Penny bantering in German on the Big Bang Theory. The voices are just... wrong.
Of course, Germany makes its own TV programming, too. Lots of it. Well, ok, not that much. As in, most people in Germany still only get about 15 channels, unless they are paying extra (which not many do, compared with the US). In Germany, there are a mix of regional and federal TV channels (publicly funded, so no commercials!) with some for-profit stations alongside. The private ones tend more on the bad 80's movies and dubbed-over CSI: Miami marathon side of things. The "best" stuff comes on the public channels..
For example, over on Das Erste (a channel whose name is simply "The First") is the stalwart of German TV: Tatort. Tatort - or "scene of the crime" - is basically a cops seek murderer show. The German twist, bringing German federalism to the screen, is that the show cycles among many cities in different parts of the country. Some teams are serious, some more funny, and the show always seems to address a social theme (last week it was predatory lending and the big banks, a few weeks back it was the evil meat industry, etc). My favorite is Tatort Münster - the two detectives are an unlikely uptight nerd/slovenly slouch pair, there is a midget little person medical examiner, and the district attorney is a chain-smoking woman who sounds like a drag queen. (Watch til the end of the clip!) Great stuff.
Germany also seems to love reality shows almost as much as America does. The main difference from America on German reality television - and on German TV in general - is the presence of... wait for it... ugly people. Or average looking people, whatever you want to call them. As it has been explained to me, the public would rather see people on TV they can relate to, rather than airbrushed super beauties. I have my doubts.
For example: Bauer Sucht Frau - "Farmer Seeks a Wife"
This one seems to be a bit of a phenomenon, or at least I've heard a lot of people mention it, and have sat through a couple episodes myself.
Farmers seeking wives.
The picture above shows a group of studly farmers, desperately trying to escape loneliness. Gorgeous, aren't they?
Schwuler Bauer sucht Mann.
American exceptionalism.
And should the gays feel left out, the recent season (yes, there have been several) included a gay farmer seeking his Mann. Gays are supposed to all be good looking, right? Well, maybe not. To the left you see homely farmer Philipp, in plaid, with his man Veit.
There was apparently a rather less successful American version of this show produced by the CW called "Farmer Wants a Wife".
For the American approach to casting "reality", please see the picture to the right.
And thus, with this case study, I think we see a stark cultural difference. For a country remarkably full of tall, good-looking people with perfect skin (eugenics?!), Germans readily tolerate imperfection on screen. Perhaps this explains why Americans have 500 channels and Germans have 15.
All in all, German TV is not bad, except when it is so bad it is funny. Either way, good language practice for me and an interesting spotlight shown on to the collective cultural psyche of a country far from Hollywood.
Health, or gesundheit, is a universal human concern - few, if any, people or cultures delight in illness and the discomfort it can bring. However, different societies have very different strategies for maintaining health, and some worry about maladies that are unknown elsewhere. The French smoke like fiends and have little idea of vegetarianism, yet take days off work for heavy legs, a solely French affliction. South Koreans fear fan death - untimely demise caused by sleeping in a closed room with an electric fan left running overnight. In short, every culture has it's own health phobias and ideas about what is good for you and what is not.
Germans are no exception. Despite drinking almost more beer per person than any other country (except the Czechs) and downing bread and processed meat products at alarming rates (a more specific food oriented post will be forthcoming), they live on average around two years longer than Americans. What are their strategies? Some initial observations, in no particular order:
Fresh Air. Germans are seemingly obsessed with "frische Luft", and rarely miss the opportunity to "lüften" a room even on the coldest day. Rarely a seminar has gone by without some of the students opening all the windows, letting all the nice heated air out and exchanging it for cold damp chilly air. If they haven't done it, the professor usually requests the opening of windows, lest we run out of oxygen. In most German homes that I've been in, bathroom windows are often left open. Because, you know, the room where you get naked and stand under running water is most pleasant when kept within a few degrees of freezing. Leaving the house for the day? Turn off the heat and open the windows! Shiver the sickness away! I'm hardly someone who likes the house well-heated in Winter, but this particular German propensity baffles even me.
Bio-everything. Bio (pronounced bee-oh) is just the German word for organic. You can basically get bio versions of whatever you want, and bio supermarkets abound. Everything from milk to potatoes, broccoli to bratwurst. It is WAY more prevalent here than in America, the Whole Food US upper-upper-middle-class notwithstanding.
Sneaky exercise and the great outdoors. As was recently pointed out to me, Americans can be seen jogging around our cities, Germans only jog along lakes and rivers. Where they do most of their exercise, I don't know. There are gyms, sure, but even then, there are simply fewer really fat people here than in the US (not that Germany is exactly a thin land, in fact, women seem to be/feel less pressured here to maintain ultra-slim standards). This may all come down to Germans simply walking or cycling more, given the less suburban (in the American sense) layout of most towns and cities here. They do love their outdoors, witness the Schrebergarten - a bizarre backyard for hire, away from home, usually along a rail road track.
And there you have some wild generalizations about German strategies for health maintenance.
In a fit of international self-promotion, the German federal government branded the country a "land of ideas", though they could just as easily (and rather more aptly) have branded the country as the "land of paperwork". Simply living in Germany, not only as a foreigner but for everyone, requires a continuous effort to satisfy the bureaucratic powers that be. A never ending cascade of forms from diverse public and semi-public bodies must be obtained, properly filled out, signed and stamped by the right people (a task that can sometimes make the little hobbitses' journey to Mordor seem like a spaziergang in the park), and submitted in very specific orders.
Would you like to: live? live in a certain place? own a pet? watch tv? go fishing?
There's a form for that! And an application, and sometimes a fee, probably a license, too.
Indeed, by virtue of living in Germany one must have health insurance, by law. This is sensible (and coming to America, unless the courts get in Barry and Nancy's way). You can't get much done without proving health insurance - to enroll in university, for example, you need to show you have insurance.
You also need to register with your local Einwohnermeldeamt, or inhabitants' authority, so the state knows where you live. It is required.
As a foreigner, and non-EU citizen at that, I have had to go through many steps to get settled and given permission to remain in the country. Granted, it started off nicely, the immigration official at the airport didn't ask a single question and the visa can be obtained after entering the country (this is in stark contrast to both the US and the UK, where upon entering the country you're often left feeling distinctly less than welcome!). Since then, however, I have been required to obtain in the following order: 1. A bank account (and Verpflichtungserklärung stating my parents would not allow me to fall destitute should i run out of money!) 2. Health insurance - most people are insured through public bodies, but since I didn't qualify it was a long procedure to obtain private insurance (that was all too reminiscent of the US ''system''. 3. Immatrikulationsbescheinigung - the enrollment certificate from the university, which itself required the previous two documents in addition to various letters from the department of the university I am studying in. 4. Meldebestätigung - registering where I live. 5. Aufenthaltserlaubnis - the permit allowing me to live where I live. 6. Student visa and work permit - self-explanatory, need all five previous documents to get this! With this comes an ID, which I will be technically required to carry at all times, just like everyone else in Germany.
There are good reasons for all of these requirements, so I don't mean to complain, even if I do enjoy doing so from time to time. For Germans it is natural that the state pervades many aspects of life - it is unavoidable. I have questioned, given, well, you know... history!.. doesn't this strike anyone as vaguely big-brother or authoritarian?As it has been explained to me: no, because in a democratic society like Germany, everyone is a member of the state (important to my PhD project! The German word for citizenship literally means ''state membership'') and state and society are intertwined. Unlike in America, where the state (aka government) is often viewed with suspicion at best, here the state is seen as a protector, both of rights and of a general standard of life. It seemed a good solution to all the nasty problems that led to fascism, and has generally worked since 1945.
So, I will take on the paperwork gladly, in the spirit of social democracy and anti-fascism. Vorwärts..!
PS: I'm going to broadly generalize and observe that it seems 60% of people here own parkas, and women wear sensible shoes almost without exception. The end.
A good friend sent me this link to an article in the Guardian, talking about Britain's "Nazi obsession" and the tendency to use Nazism as a go-to by-word for "evil". Any quick stop on the History Channel, or in the European/German history section of any US bookshop, will tell you that this obsession is not isolated to Britain! It makes my point of "not mentioning the war", or at least not mentioning it unnecessarily, perfectly.
Interesting outtake, my favorite part is in italics:
'What is extraordinary is that the use of the Third Reich as an all-purpose metaphor for evil extends to every area of culture. The sculptors, the Chapman brothers, seem to derive some artistic drive from Nazism. Theatre directors feel obliged to pump up Richard III, Macbeth, even Hamlet's Denmark, by depicting them in 1940s Germany. The parallel has gone beyond cliched to seem obsessive, and shows no sign of relenting. Only football supporters seem at last to have moved on.
I am baffled as to what it must be like to be a German in modern Britain – as if I were living in Paris awash in references to Hundred Years War atrocities. German friends respond with a weary patience, like the Fawlty Towers guests suffering Basil's antics at their expense. Nor is it just a matter of the constant identification of Germany with the Third Reich. There is little attempt to set it in proportion to other more creditable aspects of German history. This is strange given that Anglo-Saxons were nothing if not Germans. As Simon Winder notes in his entertaining book Germania, Britain and Germany are "the mad twins of Europe, Protestant, aggressive… with superiority complexes of a kind that have, for good or ill, reshaped the world".'
Despite the Bild Zeitung's claim that "We are the Pope!" (believed mostly by the more gullible), Berlin seemed more ambivalent about just how much Germans or Berliners in particular could identify with that statement. This is, after all, the historically Protestant north of the country, with Berlin further positioned (with the exception of its western districts) in the formerly communist (anti-religious) East. Furthermore, Berlin is and throughout its history has often been a liberal, cosmopolitan, and some would say hedonistic haven. Given all this, any visit by the Pope is sure to stir up a bit of controversy. On top of it all, this Pope in particular has been a vociferous opponent of theological and ecclesiastical progressivism, as well as any innovation in teaching on sex and gender. Despite his flair for footwear, Benny the 16th has been no friend of the gays or ladies!
The reaction? A counter demonstration put together by queer and other groups opposed to the Pope's positions on myriad topics, especially those related to sex and gender. Cycling back from the center of town, we came very near to the protest route, and could hear the less than inspiring music selection therefrom! Personally, my feelings about the Pope and his teaching are firmly in opposition. While I find the Church to be totally and thoroughly ficked up, I cannot discount the role of my Catholic school upbringing in communicating some very fundamental messages about equality, solidarity, and social justice (even if they came wrapped in SO much hypocrisy and illogical thinking!) There are many good and sincere people there, it is just a shame that the good continue to associate with so many wrongheaded, bad people with incredibly misguided priorities including Ratzinger/the Pope. I didn't attend in the end, even if I did mull it over a while first.
Unlike many religious people, I would not claim to know the mind of god (nor whether a god even exists). However, I did capture the following scene just as the demonstration was kicking off. It might lend us some hint of god/FSM/the universe's opinion on the whole matter:
On Sunday, Berlin went to the polls to vote in state and local elections (Berlin is both the capital city and its own federal state - sort of like DC, only not disenfranchised!)
The prevailing electoral system in Germany is in many ways more representative than the system used in the United States. At the state level in Berlin, and at the federal level, Germans essentially are given two votes. For one, they vote directly for a candidate who will represent the constituency in which the voter lives (much like in the US). The second vote is not for a candidate, but for a party. The party selected can, but need not, be the same as the party of the candidate you directly voted for in the first selection. This system allows smaller parties who might not otherwise be competitive enough against particular parties and candidates to potentially gain representation in the parliament, at a level roughly proportional to their share of the vote. The result: lots of smaller parties co-exist with the larger ones.
1 From top: Typical SPD poster, FDP hilarity
Berlin was covered in campaign posters and billboards for parties of all sorts and sizes. Some were more entertaining than others, but for me all provided a peak into an entirely different political landscape than the one I am used to in the United States. So I now present to you, dear reader, a rundown of the parties large and small that participated in Sunday's election, along with some pictures of campaign posters I managed to snap!
In (roughly) descending order of popularity in the voting results:
1 - Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands - Social Democratic Party of Germany
The good old SPD are a party of the center-left here in Germany, which would place them roughly in "ranting crazy left wing loony" territory in the USA, but they are really very sensible! They are led in Berlin by current Mayor Klaus Wowereit (openly gay!), who will have the task of assembling a coalition with another party(s), given the SPD's failure to win a majority of seats. Their goals include ensuring that wealth is (re)distributed fairly, and the economy structured in such a way, so that all people benefit during prosperous times and are protected from falling too far in hard times. They are generally friendly toward LGBT people, people with migrant backgrounds, working people, students, etc. In the first picture, the poster at top is representative of most of their campaign posters - a friendly looking candidate with their name and party. Their electoral slogan "Berlin verstehen", or roughly "we understand Berlin", was intended to stress their overarching appeal across all of Berlin's diverse communities and population. They gained the most seats, having earned around 29% of the vote.
2 - Christlich Demokratische Union - Christian Democratic Union
This party of the center-right, despite their name they generally embrace logical thinking (their coalition with the FDP notwithstanding) and are not overtly religious. Picture three, third from top, provides a representative poster of theirs. "Gerade. Richtig" roughly translates as "Straight forward. Correct." One could also add humorless and bourgeois to those descriptors. They are the most right-wing party to win seats in the state parliament, having garnered roughly 23% of the vote. They currently are also the largest party in the national parliament, with their leader Angela Merkel serving as Chancellor of Germany. Though hard to love, they are a sane conservative party, so it is difficult to get TOO worked up over them (especially compared to the GOP).
2 Top: NPD filth, Bottom: Greens
3 From top: More NPD filth, the Pirates, the CDU, the Greens.
The Greens polled a record 17.6% of the vote, earning them the third highest number of seats and a potential role as coalition partner with the SPD. Also a roughly center-left party, their base of support comes from stroller pushing urban professionals who would like to protect their children from non-organic breakfast cereals, appropriately sized airports, and nuclear power. Their role in promoting environmentalism in Germany since their founding has been large, making Germany one of the greenest countries in the world. Their posters can be seen in pictures two and three - in 2: "Pankow ist es wert" roughly means "Pankow's worth it", Pankow being a city district. In picture 3: A woman from the 1920's on the phone tells her friend "Naturally, I will vote Green".
4. Die Linke - The Left Party
A far-left though still fairly mainstream party, especially in this part of the country. For the last ten years they have been the coalition partner in the Berlin state senate with the SPD, though their share of the vote has fallen too low this time to make that possible. Though they may have many former East German communists among their ranks, they also promote democracy and appeal to young people and others concerned about social and economic inequality in the city. I have no pictures of their posters, though they ranged from the catchy "Ja!" ("Yes!") to others detailing how they were for all the different ethnic communities and groups making up the patchwork that is contemporary Berlin.
5. Die Piraten - The Pirates
These "children of Marx and Microsoft" are an upstart party of the center-left who promote data privacy, net neutrality, free public transportation for all, and unicorn rides for all children under 14 on their birthdays. They earned a staggering 8% of the vote, getting them 14 seats in the state parliament. In picture 4, their poster can be seen on the bottom: "Fragt eure Kinder, Warum Sie Piraten Wählen" - "Ask your kids why they're voting Pirate", stressing their appeal to younger people and the net generation.
Minor Parties (did not win any seats):
6. Freie Demokratische Partei - Free Democratic Party
Though they are the junior coalition partner in the current national government with the CDU, their support has totally collapsed over the last year, leaving them dead in the water ahead of the next federal elections. Their role as the party of business and the wealthy places them closest to American libertarians - greedy bastards who don't care if you're gay, but don't care if you die from a toothache for lack of insurance, either. Well, I exaggerate, but only somewhat. They have declined due to numerous political missteps at the national level, particularly their highly Euro-skeptical populist response to the current Euro crisis. This sort of anti-EU, small-minded thinking does not fly in today's Germany. They earned just 1.8% of the vote in Berlin on Sunday. Their posters often containing hypothetical and ridiculous questions and (often inaccurate) answers. In picture one, roughly, "Is the FDP a party of workers, or high-earners? A: We would like that with work one can earn better than without" ie: Get off welfare, lazy. Unpictured: Q: Why do the SPD want the 30 km/hr speed limit everywhere in Berlin? (BTW They don't!) A: So the S-Bahn (overground urban train network) doesn't seem so slow. Ha. Ha. Ha..
4 From top: Yet more NPD Filth, the Pirate.
7. NPD - The Neo-Nazis
Their support is almost too small to make them worth mentioning, though their posters could be seen in many parts of the city. They would be almost funny, if satirical, though disturbing for their sincerity and hateful messages. They have to be very careful about what they say, as parties espousing overtly Nazi ideology or political stances opposed to the constitutional order are banned in Germany. In picture two one can see their poster at top (always placed high to make them harder to be torn down), with an image of Arabs on a flying carpet with the message "Guten Heim Flug", or "Good flight home". In picture three is the always catchy "Sicherheit durch Recht und Ordnung", or "Security through law and order." In picture four, at top, is their leader on his motorcycle with the disgusting caption "Gas geben!", idiomatically meaning "Step on the gas", though literally meaning "Give gas!", a clear allusion to the Holocaust gas chambers. Luckily, this sort of thinking appeals mostly to a very small fringe.
To end on an up-note, their were also many posters for both small parties and satirical parties including: Die Partei - simply, The Party; and Die Bergpartei - The Hill Party; Teirschutzpartei - The Animal Protection Party (bless them); and finally, the Partei Soziale Gerechtigkeit - The Party of Social Justice, a real life trotskyite party and therefore close to my own heart.
Much to my own and, I am sure, everyone else's delight, I have decided to start a new blog in the tradition of Tea and Apathy and its American cousin, Coffee and Excessive Hugging. I hope to provide sporadic and nonsensical musings insights on life in today's Germany, all from the perspective of an ex-pat American (or Ami, in German slang, pronounced like the last syllable of "salami". I think imperialistisches Arschloch might also work??). I'll skip justifying the trite banality of another "American living abroad" blog - you can refer to the beginning of TandA for that if you really want!
For now, a word about the title. Yes, I could have gone with something like Beer and Ambivalence, but I thought "Not Mentioning the War..." was more to the point. For many Americans, the immediate mental associations surrounding "Germany" are: 1) The Holocaust of European Jewry and the Nazis' simultaneous mass-murder of everyone ranging from socialists, to Roma people, to gay men and lesbians, to Jehovah's Witnesses; 1a) World War II; and 2) The Berlin Wall. Pleasant! As an American, and therefore a citizen of one of the "good guys" aka Allies, historical collective memory of that period is one of unspeakable atrocities ending with victory and the liberation of Europe. For Germans, of course, collective memory and consciousness of that era is far more complicated, which can make many children of the "victors" feel uneasy.*
The blog title derives from something an English person, who had been living in Germany for a year, said to me while I was there in June:
"As a Brit or American, at first you really just feel like you should avoid mentioning 'the War' (cue ominous music/thunder) to Germans, even though it is probably the first thing you ever learned about Germany. But, really, the people in Germany who feel most awkward mentioning 'the War' are the Americans and Brits, not the Germans."
German society has been fundamentally reshaped by the horrors of the Nazi era - but the eventual end result has been openness and honesty about the past, and an equal commitment to opposing the types of thought and action that made it possible. So, as the English dude put it, "children of the Allies" needn't fear mentioning the war to Germans, but should be aware that there is so much more to Germany than its past. American tourists often miss out on the latter by focusing on so-called Holocaust tourism, lederhosen, medieval villages, and Oktoberfest. With this blog, I hope to communicate some of the things that I think make today's Germany cool and interesting, as well as many of the cultural quirks and other minutiae that strike me along the way.
In other words, while it is totally ok to mention the War to Germans, there is a lot more to mention about Germany than just that! I doubt it will figure very much (or at all) in my everyday life in Hamburg, so I probably won't mention it very often here (unless for highly inappropriate comic effect).
I will also state up front that I'm sure this blog will be updated on a... random schedule. Taking a look at my past record, I can't imagine being any better about posting when I've got the work of a full PhD on my plate. Forgive me in advance.
*[Side note - I believe: As humans, the Nazi era is one we all have a duty to learn from and internalize as part of our collective memories. It was a horror perpetrated by humans, not simply by Germans. In any case, most Germans alive today were children or not yet born at the time, so bear no more responsibility for it than anyone else. We all have a responsibility to learn from it, however. Smug complacency on the part of Americans due to the fluke of where they were born is both immature and irresponsible. Americans could stand to be a little more pacifist!]
