Earlier this month there was heated discussion on defining the difference between a “German” vs. “German national” on the German Way Forum. This debate hits close to home as my husband and I have lived seemingly parallel lives as second-generation Koreans. The difference being that I was born and raised in the U.S. and he in Germany. More than geographic though, the greater difference is that I grew up in a culture where I was eventually encouraged to embrace my American identity as both an American citizen and an ethnic Korean while he remained a Korean citizen till he was in his late 20s and considered himself Korean rather than German for a long time. While he has since resolved his internal debate, it’s the external one that continues to ensue.
Debates relating to the German vs. German national difference abound as we have seen in the Forum discussion. To name a few more which I have witnessed while living in Germany: I was astounded to learn that a good friend of mine here, who was born and raised in southern Germany to Croatian parents, chooses to have a Croatian passport rather than a German one. Even though she is entitled to German citizenship and even though it is an inconvenience when she wants to travel to other non-EU countries such as the United States, she felt that by choosing a German passport, she would be giving up her Croatian identity, and not just the Croatian passport. In her mind, choosing citizenship was the equivalent of choosing her dominant identity. An American friend here is German on both sides of her family by several generations, somewhat of a rarity in America, and refers to herself with pride as a German American. Her German husband has issue with that and insists that she is American because one can only be either German or American.
As a Korean American, I understand my German American friend and object to her husband’s distinction. Granted, America’s immigrant roots, to which Germany’s own history of immigration is incomparable, are far more inherent in our psyche as Americans allowing our perceptions of fellow citizens to be more flexible. I am nonetheless discouraged by how often it seems unfathomable that my husband is (Korean) German and has “such a German name like Johannes.” I have repeatedly heard the same shock expressed even by university educated and well-travelled individuals that my Asian-looking husband has “such a German name.” While on one hand, I admire Germans, generally speaking, for having a healthy interest and curiosity in all things “multikulti” and also for their lust for travel, I believe that there is still an overall societal barrier to accepting that multiethnic German identities are increasing in number and will not remain an exotic margin of German society. I am not nearly as cynical as the German American or American German footballer Jermaine Jones, but what I am witnessing now reminds me of when I was a child growing up in America. I still have uncomfortable memories of when a substitute teacher in 3rd grade had made a similar comment about how I had such an “American” name. The unspoken bit was of course the same: that I didn’t “look” American. It is however with relief that I can now say that Americans no longer bat an eyelid when I introduce myself with my purely English name of Jane. For this reason, I think that German perceptions will change with increased exposure and time in correspondence with the increased number of immigrants projected by a demographic shift in the economy.
Admittedly, in case you could not yet tell, I am a complete product of the PC (politically correct in this case) generation. Having attended mandatory pluralism workshops as a first year student (N.B. not freshMAN) in university, a tri-college minority student institute and other Asian American student conferences throughout college, perhaps my sense of awareness is heightened. I was roaring as an Asian American woman by the time I graduated, but I also know that I have mellowed with age. Don’t get me wrong. Like most people, my husband and I like to talk about ourselves when asked. My objection has been the underlying challenge to my husband’s German identity (German as the adjective and also German as a national).
In the spirit of having a positive and characteristically American happy ending, I believe that in the future, my two ethnically Korean daughters will not face such initial objection when asserting their own German identities. Just as attitudes of acceptance progressed and changed over the last twenty-five years in the United States, I believe they will here too.
- Jane
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