When did you ever really feel German?

Simon Strauss

Editor in the features section.

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When Israelis tell me that I am very German.

Do you have a favorite German dialect?

Yes, all southern German dialects, because they go more into Romansh and are then more melodic.

Up here in the north everything sounds a little too much like machine gun salvos.

Which word in the German national anthem is most important to you?

"Blossom".

That sounds to me like a beautiful flower that can open up.

For me, this reflects the potential for growth, it smells a bit like the Garden of Eden.

In the Jewish tradition, the garden is generally associated with education or learning.

The garden is a place where people are happy and can realize themselves.

Where is Germany most beautiful?

The further south you go, the better it gets.

What is the best German invention?

The letterpress.

Which German food do they despise, which do they love?

I'm a vegetarian and German cuisine is very focused on meat.

That means I can't do that much with pork knuckles.

Otherwise, the potato is typically German, too, which I think is fine, but of course it's not very creative.

Germans are very good at baking, but not really good at cooking.

Which two personalities from German history would you like to discuss in a conversation?

I myself would like to work with Emperor Otto III.

discuss, who was of Lower Saxony origin on his father's side and the son of a Byzantine princess, i.e. an Anatolian woman, on his mother's side.

He tried to let Italy and the German-speaking areas north of the Alps grow closer together in the Holy Roman Empire, and even tried to build a seat of government in Rome.

I believe that this unconditional will to unite different worlds is based on his ambivalent personal biography.

And then he died at the age of 21.

I would like to talk to him about what he thinks about Germany and its future.

Do you have a favorite joke about Germany or about the Germans?

Unfortunately, I hardly know any jokes. I'm not that humorous, but I suspect the majority of the jokes are somehow aimed at Germans being control addict and pedantic. The fearful description of the Teutons in the Talmud occurs to me spontaneously: it is noted with concern that the Romans did not manage to conquer Germania and that we should all pray that the Teutons will not succeed in crossing the Limes because they otherwise would destroy the world. Which of course was then related to the great migration. But of course people nowadays read this in the light of recent German history - no joke, I know, but I can't think of anything funny about Germans.