Mr. Mansour, when did you really feel German?
Simon Strauss
Editor in the features section.
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Since I got the German passport and didn't have to think much about whether I need a visa or not, for example for Arab countries to which I was not allowed to travel as an Israeli.
It's just a piece of paper, but it allows me to feel part of German society.
Do you have a favorite German dialect?
Bavarian.
Maybe that comes from my love for Bayern, which began in 1999 when I lost to Manchester United.
I still find the Berlin dialect unsympathetic, although I was socialized here first and have lived for sixteen years.
Which word in the German national anthem is most important to you?
Law and freedom.
Above all freedom.
This is my most important value in life.
Freedom is the word that gets most emotional because I grew up in bondage.
In a patriarchal, unfree environment.
Where is Germany most beautiful?
Where the mountains are.
Especially in the south, the Alps.
My dream is to have a little house someday when I turn seventy, where I can see the snowy Alps while having a coffee in the morning.
What is the best German invention?
Letterpress.
Which German food do you despise, which do you love?
Oh, now I'm getting racist.
I wonder if there is any German food that I like.
If I orient myself to my in-laws, then I always get salad with spaetzle.
Contempt is perhaps a little too much said, but I think German cuisine lacks creativity.
If you let me pass Wiener Schnitzel as at least a German-speaking meal, then I would choose it as my favorite dish.
Which two personalities from German history would you like to bring into conversation with each other?
Helmut Schmidt and Angela Merkel on the subject of migration - whereby the SPD Chancellor would probably be the more conservative of the two.
And if it is to be a really historical conversation, then I would like to bring Friedrich Nietzsche and Martin Luther together for a conversation about religion.
What is your favorite joke about Germans?
All the jokes about Germans arguing when they get the wrong socks for Christmas.
That was my greatest fear when I first came to see my in-laws.