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German image in US still beer and brats

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German image in US still beer and brats
Photo: DPA

German ex-pats living in the United States complain bitterly about Americans’ views of Germans as a bratwurst and beer-loving people dressed in dirndls and Lederhosen, a new survey said on Saturday.

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But they do a lot to promote that image, Der Spiegel magazine reported.

Overall Germany has never been more liked in the US than now, according a survey from the German Embassy in Washington.

However only a small portion of the population – students, intellectuals and creative types in New York and San Francisco – see Germany as a hip, modern country whose capital Berlin is the centre of everything cool, according to the story.

The author, a German ex-pat with US citizenship who has lived in the States for seven years, quoted the New York Times as saying that “Berlin is like New York in the 80s” but noted that most Americans do not read the New York Times.

For the majority of Americans Germany means beer, bratwurst, sauerkraut, schnitzel and schnaps. But Americans also appreciate Germany for its engineering, design, efficiency and quality.

But in as much as many expats complain about the stereotypical views many Americans hold of them, a lot of them do all they can to promote that view.

Many German organizations in the US are known for their Oktoberfest gatherings, serving asparagus in the spring and cabbage in the winter and also organizing wine tastings or gatherings to watch the Bundesliga.

The Local/mw

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