My brother Richard has become more or less German. Despite his having grown up in Illinois, his nearly fifty years of analyzing German history and nearly forty years of living in Germany have left him with a German family, a German accent and a German perspective on world affairs. Meanwhile, my family has become French, although not to the extent that Richard’s has become German. My son Chris was born in Angers, France, and all of us eventually accumulated years of French residence. When our families get together, we often compare notes on French/German/American differences.

In the 1970s, a few years after Richard and his charming Würzburg-born wife Elisabeth moved from Connecticut back to Germany, my family visited them from France. During the visit, we all went on an excursion into the thick Teutoburg Forest near Detmold. There we joined hundreds of Germans picnicking at the Hermann Monument. Two million people visit the monument each year, the most popular in all Germany.