Emotional Connection to Germany

You said something very remarkable.

Uh, y-you said, uh, "Thank you.

I

always tried over the last decades to get Germany out of my mind.

Intellectually, I did quite well,

but I didn't get it out of my heart."

Hmm.

Why not? What's still so German about you being

born in Frankfurt am Main in 1967,

living now

for almost all your life in America?

Why is there still this emotional affiliation to Germany?

Man, I,

I, it would be strange if there weren't.

I think that would be much more strange if there weren't.

But you left Germany when you were one year old-

Yeah, but my, my-

... so you don't have any memories.

You don't have any cultural-

My, my grand- my grandparents were here.

You know, I was, uh, there was sort of, uh,

in some ways I grew up ...

I went to, yeah, I went to English-speaking schools in

America, but, uh, spoke

German at home. So I really, I grew up between

And, uh, and so yes, there's, there's, there's a, there's,

there's a, um,

yeah, there's a, there's a part where it's sort of

understandable. So all these reasons things have, have

gone, gone somewhat wrong, but it's, it's also very important for us to

find a way to turn Germany around. It's, it's at the heart of Europe.

In some ways, Europe is still, you know, at the core of, of, of

Western civilization. So if there's a crisis of-

So sorry about that. It's an inter-

There's a crisis of the West. There's a crisis in Europe and,

and Germany.

Yeah, but you're shifting back to intellectual

analysis.

I know. I know. I always do that.

We were talking about feelings, about your heart.

I, I, and, and I-

So what do you love about Germany? What, what is it?

I mean, the past of Germany is difficult.

We spoke about-

Yeah, but y-

... the present and the future, that's also quite difficult.

So what do you love about Germany?

It's just, it's just part-- I, I'm al- I'm always bad at answering this question.

This is, it's just part, part of my, part of who I am.

Okay.