Meet a German - Grit from Berlin

In this series, we will interview Germans from all around the world about their German identity and their general ”german-ness.” Everybody will receive the same questions, which will allow you to gain a better understanding of how we Germans really are.

Who are you?

My name is Grit and I live in Berlin.

Where were you born?

I was born in Halle, a middle-sized city in the East of Germany.

Where do live and how (1-Zimmer-Whg/house...)?

I live in a one-bedroom apartment with my partner and our cat. Our apartment is situated in Lankwitz, a suburb in the South West of Berlin.

How old are you?

I’m 42, but I feel like 32.

What do you work?

I’m a Study Abroad Advisor at Freie Universität Berlin.

Have you lived in other German states? Where, how long why?

I have lived in Weißenfels, a small town in Saxony Anhalt near Leipzig, for 21 years before I moved to Berlin.

Do you speak a German dialect and if so how often? Do you understand some?

When I still lived in my hometown Weißenfels I spoke a dialect that is close to the Saxonian dialect. The Saxonian dialect is really ugly. People speaking it tends to sound naïve and dull, and it is often used in the media to make fun of the East Germans.

After I had moved to Berlin, my dialect somehow disappeared, and now, when I visit my hometown, that dialect makes me laugh as well, and I’m wondering how I could ever speak that way.

What other languages do you speak and how well and why?

When I was in the fifth grade, we all learned Russian. That was in 1988 before the wall came down. Many people dropped the Russian courses at school as soon as they could after the German reunification. But I liked it, and I even selected it as one of my specialization subjects in the Abitur (the German High School Diploma). However, I haven’t spoken it since. I would not be completely lost in Russia, but it would be quite difficult for me to have a conversation with Russian people.

My second foreign language was English. I’m quite comfortable speaking it. But I’ve been using it only for work and for my studies. That’s why I’m not too familiar with colloquial expressions.

The third foreign language that I learned at school was French. I love it, and I like the French! It took me quite a while to get comfortable with the language though. It’s not too easy. But I had my breakthrough when I was in Paris for a summer internship at the age of 20.

And the fourth foreign language that I learned was Spanish. I started in my mid-twenties because my partner was able to speak it and I didn’t want him to speak for me when we were traveling. My level of Spanish is still low, but I get along when I’m traveling.

What do you think is your responsibility towards the community?

My responsibility is to treat everyone with respect and to let other people live their lives as they want, as long as they don’t hurt others. I volunteer as a mediator from time to time, and when you deal with other peoples’ conflicts you get to realize how many people suffer from slight and more profound psychological disorders because of maltreatment by others. I’m a fan of anti-bullying programs at school and I would love to see such projects more often.

What is the government’s responsibility towards you?

I think that German people have a stronger sense of being led by the government than Americans. The expectation that we all have in common is that the government must guarantee personal freedom and the rule of law. What I expect on top of that is that everyone gets their fair share of society’s wealth. I like the German system of a social market economy with social security for everyone. A society with a huge gap between many poor people and a few well-off people is not a good society to live in for the high achievers either, because it will lead to social unrest eventually. Social security and health insurance for all is not socialism at all, as a part of the American people currently seem to think. I used to live in a socialist country, and I think that I know what I’m talking about.

What is Germany’s biggest challenge?

From my perspective, it’s the right-wing party in the parliaments and the right-wing people that we suspect to have in the police and in the military. I think that they are a minority, but we should be careful. I hope that the Germans have learned from history and that the structures of the German political system (which have been tailored towards multiple checks and balances) prove to be strong enough.

What is the world’s biggest challenge?

From my point of view, it’s the strong inequality between the so-called “Western” world and the “developing” countries that actually do not get the chance to develop sound economic structures at all in the current global economic system. This leads to secondary problems like migration and even terrorism. I’m very pessimistic that the countries that benefit from the current structures will ever be willing to change the system. They rather use their power to fight the secondary problems and, by doing so, cause human rights violations that they would never tolerate inside their own countries.

Do you feel “German guilt” for the

· Shoah/Holocaust

· Second World War

· First World War

· Other atrocities (which)

I do, at least for the Holocaust and for World War 2. It’s still difficult for me to understand how the generation of my grandparents could ever let that happen. However, although I take responsibility for what has happened on German soil and for what has been done by my ancestors, I think that this may happen anywhere else as well.

Do you define yourself as a German or otherwise (for example: German, Berliner, etc)?

I’m East German, German, and European. If I was to choose which flag I want to carry, I would probably choose the European flag.

Do you consider yourself a European?

Definitely. I have met so many people from other European countries who are like me and who I feel very close to.

What does the EU mean to you?

I think it’s a great project and I’m sorry to see it moving from one crisis to the next. I think that it needs more responsibilities and power to be effective, but unfortunately, many people want to conserve power at the nation-state level.

Are you religious and if so, which one do you subscribe to?

I’m an atheist and I don’t miss spirituality at all. Being religious has been discouraged by the East German government; that’s why I don’t know many people who believe in God. But we have been taught Christian values that are reflected in our culture. For me, this has always been sufficient to live a good life.

Have you ever been part of the German military? What are your feelings towards the German Bundeswehr?

My friends and I have always been rather left. That’s why most of the men that I know chose the civil service over the Bundeswehr. I would have done that as well.

Germany has been in the comfortable position, in the post-war years, to have a small military only and to be protected by the former allies and NATO. I think that the former allies liked to have it that way because Germany has been seen as the aggressor in two world wars. Now that large parts of the German society have developed an anti-military, or rather anti-aggression stance, we are asked to spend more money on the military. This is somehow weird, but well, times are changing, and our allies are probably right to insist on a higher German contribution, even if I would prefer to spend the money on education.

What is “typisch Deutsch”?

It’s definitely not Sauerkraut or Lederhosen (leather pants). In Eastern Europe, many people eat Kraut as well, and Lederhosen are worn in South Bavaria which is actually culturally closer to Austria than to the rest of Germany.

I cannot think of anything that’s typical for Germany. Germany is quite diverse with landscapes and mentalities similar to the Netherlands, to the French Normandie, or to the Bretagne in the North, and landscapes and mentalities similar to Austria and Switzerland in the South.

The big cities are really multicultural. This is what American students find most surprising when they come to study in Berlin.

What is the German identity?

For a long time, a big part of the German identity was not to have a strong German identity at all. Since the ideology of the Nazi regime was based on race and nationality, we grew up in an environment where it was completely inappropriate to be nationalistic. Even patriotism has not been encouraged that much.

I got the impression that this has been changing though. Flag-waving at football championships is okay today.

I’m even surprised to hear, every now and then, in the foreign media, that they appreciate the German leadership in the EU. I think that we didn’t ask to become leaders. But our chancellor seems to be trusted a lot by her counterparts.

What is the best thing about Germany?

It’s the German social (!) market economy and maybe even federalism and all political structures giving many people a say in important decisions. This makes the political process cumbersome, of course. But many views from different angles lead to good outcomes, and we have come through all crises of the past decades quite well.

And what is the worst thing about Germany?

The German history, which is still alive in the memories of everyone. But it’s good that there are so many monuments and museums showing the atrocities. We should never forget and learn for the future. So we are the bad example for the world, but I think that we have to carry that weight.

What does the German Reunification mean to you?

A lot. It changed my life completely. It was a real (positive) cultural shock. There were more differences between East Germany and West Germany than the ones that I discovered between France and Germany or between the U.S. and Germany when I lived in these two other countries later.

What does the DDR mean to you?

It’s the country that I have lived in for 12 years. I’m happy that I got all the opportunities that I’m having today in a free society. However, I’m also glad that I had the possibility to experience life in an authoritarian country with a poor economy. I know that it’s possible to live without bananas and that it’s not the end of the world not to have a Barbie doll or other fancy stuff.

Is there a difference between “Ossis” and “Wessis”?

Oh yes! I live in an Ossi-Wessi partnership and I have a few West German friends that I have known through my partner. The East German culture was a collective culture where the group is more important than the individual, and the West German (now pan-German) culture is individualistic. East Germans are, in general, more social and less career-focused.

What should everybody know about Germany?

People separate private life from work a lot more than people in other countries. Many Germans tend to be goal-oriented, efficient, and busy at work, but relaxed, communicative, and funny in the private sphere.

Friendship is meant to be serious and is often lasting for decades. Friends are not the people that we spend a fun night with, but rather people that we can rely on in difficult times.

What should one know before coming to Germany?

I think that Americans should expect a more direct way of communication. German people say it as it is; we don’t have the tendency to paraphrase negative things in a positive way. We also speak about problems and failures in life. Face-saving is not as important as in the U.S.

And here comes my most important advice: Don’t ask “How are you?” if you do not really want to hear how people are doing. We take this question seriously; and people will tell you about health issues in their families, about a failed exam, and about how stressed they are by life. If you don’t wanna hear that, please say only “Hi” or “What’s up?”.

Grit, Berlin