When I did the daily periodical review for Russia, I was very aware that my view may have been skewed. I don't read Russian and so I really don't know what Russians were seeing in their papers. Only what the English language Russian press was saying. That made me uncomfortable.
In Germany I had no such problem. Speaking the language of the place dramatically improves one's ability to observe directly without filters. Reading German papers for two weeks gave me a pretty good sense of where Germans are right now.
So, what are they thinking about? As you know, our stay in Germany coincided with a severe winter storm. Of course the papers were full of those stories - that's just current events. I was somewhat taken aback by their sense that they were coping well. Having lived in Canada, where it really snows, my sense is Germany responded poorly.
The more serious and long-term concerns that recurred were about immigration and Germany's demographic “problem”. Not enough German-Germans being born. Germany's challenge will be integrating people whose native culture is not German. They know this and are worried about it.
They also worry about the EU. Germany is the pillar on which the EU rests. Yes, pillar, singular. Germany may be holding things together, on its own. Without their support, it would collapse. Lots of stories reflect the centrality of Germany in European politics and of European politics to Germany. EU governance stories seemed more prominent than internal German politics stories. Kind of the way DC politics overshadows state politics in the US.
WiT? Clue: Can't post a statue of Ché. That would be too easy. So we have this guy, a kindred spirit in some ways...
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