German Culture

The culture that we have learned in the past two semesters of German have really reinforced my beliefs of German culture and how they play a role in my life day to day. My wife and her entire family is German. Most of her family still lives in Germany to this day. Most live in Köln and a couple live in Wiesbaden. My family spent a couple years living in Germany but it was mostly on an American military base. My grandmother is from Germany on my mother’s side of the family and my great grandfather on my father’s side is from Germany. Growing up we did a lot of things that I see now were German in culture. We always celebrated St. Nicholas day in December and we always had bratwurst and beer in October in celebration of Octoberfest. We even had an Octoberfest in our yard for the entire neighborhood for several years. However, after meeting my wife and her family in Germany I have really seen the German culture first hand.
I don’t think that Germans are much different than we as Americans are. The social network and economical set up is much better and stable in Germany than it is in America. There are different classes of people in Germany as there are in America. My wife’s Opi is from the upper class and he tolerates nothing from the public people. He looks down on everyone and really does not like foreign people in his country. We learned that there are many Turks and such in Germany. I have noticed that most Germans do not like this as many Americans do not like the foreign build up in this country. My wife’s Opi was also a youth soldier in Hitler’s army. There are many things that he has told me that have been reinforced by the things that we have learned in this class. Most Germans did not come to like Hitler and what he was doing. However, everyone had an extensive fear of going against him. I actually sat down with my wife and watched the movie “Valkryie” with my wife a couple weeks ago and surprisingly it represents what times were like then very closely. There is a lot I could say about things in Germany past and present but I think I will make it too long. I can say that if anyone ever has any questions I would love to entertain them and feel free to email me at alfredd@email.unc.edu.
What we have learned has really allowed me to tolerate our country a little more. I still don’t like it here and I am very ready to move out of here. My wife and I are moving to Germany as soon as I am finished here at UNC. I really can’t wait. I grew up here in America and my wife grew up in Germany. From what I have learned in class and how my wife talks about her childhood I would much rather have my daughter raised in Germany than here in America. I think that she will be a better person with more culture in her blood because of it. We have no culture in America.