Maria Young - Kultur 9

I really enjoyed the Kultur article this week on patriotism in Germany. This is definitely a topic that I have talked about with my cousins, and one that is confusing for them to explain. Especially as Americans living in a country that is built on patriotism, "the land of the free" it is shocking to hear that Germans would not want to fly their flag, and have the same pride in their nationality. However, I find it very interesting that they have a set concept that means learning from their past. I think this shows a lot about Germany as a country, and what type of values they hold moving into the future based on past events.

I found the neighbors piece to be very amusing, but I wonder how true this really is. Especially in cities populated with young adults, do these standards really hold true? Can a law really be broken by simply having some family and friends over for a BBQ cook out? In Germany, I've always heard that real estate stays in families longer than in America. Houses are passed down much more frequently in Germany than in America, and therefore neighbors are kept in the same families as well. This just got me curious to think, I guess that these neighbor standards could be true considering that families may have the same neighboring families through generations.