Frankfurt am Main
Cathedral in Frankfurt.
As I wrote before, part of my job dealt with working with apprentices and interns. The age range was about 17-21, and some had traveled to, or spent time in, the US, but most hadn’t. Most were really curious about the US and asked a lot of questions, many of which were really funny. Their view of the US, aside from politics, seemed to be completely based on the American movies, TV shows, and music that make it across the Atlantic. These media are everywhere too. Most all of the movies in theaters are American, 75% of the music on the radio is American (I bought a portable radio to listen to German on my way to work, and was extremely disappointed when I couldn’t find a single station that wasn’t playing music in English), half of the sitcoms on TV are American, and MTV, with NEXT, Flavor of Love, and My Super Sweet 16, is just as popular here as in the US. The thing is, the apprentices that I worked with, granted they’re young, but they watch movies with gratuitous violence, or hear a rap song about gangs, guns, and police brutality, and they think that is how it is in the US. I hate to think of the wonders that Flava Flav and 16 year-old spoiled brats are doing for the world’s perception of American culture.
Michael Moore documentaries and ‘Supersize Me’ are also really popular. I was asked many times ‘Is everyone in the US really so fat?’ or ‘Is it weird seeing so many thin people here?’ Ha! Our ranking as the fattest country in the world is definitely a well-known fact, a fact that ‘Supersize Me’ added visible, albeit one-sided, credibility to. I hadn’t really thought about it, but I guess I’d say that in comparison to the US the German population is generally thinner/in better shape, although Germany is the fattest country in Europe, so the difference isn’t as stark as say it is with Spain. I was also asked constantly about guns: Do I have one? Do my friends all have one/two/twelve? Can 10 year olds really buy them? My boss would even joke about these things. My first week he said ‘no, you can’t be American, you’re too thin!’, and he jokingly asked me a few times ‘Did you bring your gun to work today?’
Frankfurt am Main
I was also asked, ‘is it strange not really seeing any black people here?’ I guess if you watch American movies or TV shows, most of which take place in urban areas like NY or LA, every 2nd person is black, and if you watch rap videos on MTV, every person is black. I hadn’t really though about it, though as hailing from Broken Arrow, OK and Columbia, MO I never really found myself surrounded by color. Compared to Germany though, America is really a racially diverse place. I looked it up, and the US is about 65% Caucasian, 13% African American, 13% Hispanic, and 3% Asian American. Germany is pretty white. There are blacks of course, but few, and I’d say probably about 75% of the ones that are here weren’t born here, but rather emigrated from Africa to find work. The largest minority group by far are the Turks. WWII greatly reduced the male population of Germany and after the war many Turks entered the country as guest workers. The families of these workers stayed, and then more came, to where now there is a large Turkish community in basically every city in Germany. The thing is though, these communities are basically autonomous, as the Turks really haven’t assimilated. The communities are Turkish communities within Germany, not really integrated into the German society. Many don’t speak German, or at least not well, and, partly due to this, many are poorly educated. Many also retain traditional Muslim/Turkish societal/cultural values, which sometimes conflict with those values held by both the traditional and the progressive sides of German society. That's not to say it's totally their fault, in a lot of ways it is really hard for integration to happen, but that's just what is going on, and conflicts do tend to arise. I haven’t personally experienced anything, but I know that there is definitely tension, and you hear it expressed.
None of that is to say that the Germans are racists though. Far from. In almost all of my experience here I’ve found the Germans to be incredibly open-minded, progressive, and tolerant. There are still ‘Nazis’ of course, but these are a very small minority. There is a Nationalist Party here in Germany (as Germany is an open democracy), and although it is illegal for them to officially use the word Nazi, everyone knows that that is what the party is. This party had a political rally outside of Frankfurt a few weeks ago, and there were actually far more protestors than there were demonstrators.
Since WWII Germany is really wary of showing national pride. If someone were to say, ‘I’m proud to be German’, he’d probably be labeled as a Nazi. That is why the World Cup was so great last year, and its lingering effects are still so great. People could/can be proud of their country without being labeled as Nazis. They could/can brandish flags and show national pride without being labeled national socialists.
Frankfurt is really an international city though. It’s the financial capital of Germany and people travel from all over the world to live and work here. Sitting in the subway you can hear, alongside German, English, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Turkish, various African tongues, and a myriad of other languages.
I went to a few clubs here, some HUGE, some small, all pretty nice. All of the clubs play mainly house and techno though, which takes some getting used to.
The weather hasn’t been too hot here pretty much all summer, with rain just about every day, and the last few weeks in the 60s. Last week though, one day when the weather was really nice, I went to a beach club with a friend after work. It was great. The club is a peninsula that extends out into the Main river, and the ground is covered with sand, there are volleyball courts, cabanas, lounge chairs... it is a beach in the heart of the city. Half of the people were wearing swim- the other half were wearing business-suits. We just ordered a few hefe-weizen beers, kicked off our shoes, laid back and went on a mini-vacation.
I’m definitely going to miss Frankfurt. It’s a great city, I had a great experience, and I made some great friends.
Random: I am so very impressed with Germany’s recycling and environmental protection programs. They're incredible. I guess the environment is one of Bundeskanzlerin Merkel’s big issues in international politics, so she’s really pushing reform.
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