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26
February
2003
North, South,
Ossis, Wessis
Do you know the main differences between Germans and Americans? No? Do you know what they have mostly in common? No? Neither do I! However, as a German foreigner in the United States, I would like to express what I see: what we have in common and how we differ from each other.
First of all, who are we? Is it not too simple, too narrow-minded to speak about THE Germans and THE Americans? Since I have been in the USA, here in the "Natural State" of Arkansas, I have noticed a lot of differences between Americans — just as I saw a lot of differences between Germans back home.
U N I T E D A N D D I V I D E D .
To me it is interesting that the nation, which proclaims "united we stand," is in some ways divided. Take, for example, the various divisions between the states. In the Northeast, the people there are still the "Yankees," but on the other side of the divide there is a region of nearly one third of the "United States" that is proud of not having been a Yankee state.
The Civil War in the USA ended 140 years ago, and still there are cultural differences between the North and the South. I remind Americans to remember this part of their own history when they look across the other side of the Atlantic to a reunified Germany, one much bigger than the Germany of the Cold War. Though reunification happened 12 years ago, Germans still suffer from being divided into East and West after the end of World War II.
When I write the word "suffer," I do not stress the fact of a big economic gap between the former West and the former East, although this is an evident problem (as there remains a more industrialized North and a more rural South in the USA?). Rather, I would like to note that there are mental and psychological differences between regions within nations — and both Germany and the United States have to search for explanations of these differences by looking to their history. While Germany has to deal with consequences of the Cold War, the USA has to cope with memories of the bloody war that took place on its own territory.
O U R S H A R E D F A T E .
I am led to two assumptions about our shared fate. First, sometimes we as human beings have more in common than we might think at first glance. Although we have different citizenship, we share similar experiences. Second, the cultural divide between regions of the same nation exemplifies how difficult it is to speak about THE German or THE American. People are just too different from each other to lump into one convenient category.
This, of course, does not mean that history has followed the same course in both countries. The roads these separate nations took to this point in time may be radically different, but I ask you to think about how different causes seem to have similar effects.
In the USA you still talk about the Yankees. At the same time, it is not uncommon to hear an Arkansan make fun of a person from, let us say, Texas or Mississippi. Ask a Texan about it, and he is sure to say he is proud of being from Texas.
R E G I O N A L D I F F E R E N C E S .
These regional differences we have in Germany, too — and probably all over the world! There are definitely regional aspects at play when a Northern German makes fun of THE Bavarians. By the way: Do all Bavarians eat "Weisswurst?" I am sure that just like in the USA, where the North and the South are still rivals, the perceived differences between "Ossis" from the East and "Wessis" from the West is evident today — and will still be evident more than 140 years from now. Thanks to stereotypes, sometimes "Wessis" are seen as modern colonialists, "Ossis" as persons who profit from all the advantages of the capitalist society without working (hard) for it.
Why do I write all this? Probably because I want to show that there are always differences between THE Americans and THE Germans — but as well between Americans and Americans, and between Germans and Germans. We all have more in common than we know.
Mr. Kranz can be reached by E-mail
at alexanderpaetow@web.de
*This is the first step toward THE One World Language.
Step Back: Balderdash and bombast in a binomial!
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