Nicholas Courtman
@CourtmanNick
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Alfred Landecker Lecturer at @kingsdllc | researching (West) German citizenship law and naturalisation practice after National Socialism
Joined May 2019
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German MP from the liberal party (!) calling for the parliament to eliminate foreigners’ right to organise protests and deny their right to association as a response to pro-Palestinian demonstrations, I see
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Picked up my naturalisation certificate today - I’m finally a Deutscher mit Migrationshintergrund! Taken in front of the spot where the house in which my grandma grew up used to stand.
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Was struck by the number and frequency of Stolpersteine while on a walk in Charlottenburg the other day. This was also the first time I saw a stone noting that an individual’s visa application had been refused by another country, here the USA. An important reminder.
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Mein neuer Personalausweis liegt zur Abholung bereit im Bürgeramt Tiergarten. Man kann ihn aber nur mit Termin abholen. Schriftliche Terminanfragen sind nicht erlaubt, es gibt kein Telefonnummer zum Anrufen, und online gibt es überhaupt keine buchbaren Termine. 🤨
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This plant’s telling me that’s I’ve graduated in absentia this morning and that I’m officially a Dr. now
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Nice map to find when opening the Statistisches Jahrbuch for the BRD from 1955
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@PolizeiBB
@asiramsa
Auf welcher Rechtsgrundlage stutzen die anderen Polizeibeamten deren Aufforderung, die Geschehnisse nicht zu verfilmen?
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I am once again asking European leftists to have someone with minimal English language competency to proof read their flyers before printing
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The head of the Berlin branch of the AfD - which is meant to be a moderate branch of the party - is trying to shift the blame for the right-wing terror attack in
#Hanau
to Merkel’s politics.
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Some context: the topic is how the Federal Republic of Germany gave foreign concentration camp guards German citizenship in the 1950s and 1960s. This is a topic where I, I admit it, have a clear normative position: it was a bad idea for the FRG to reward KZ guards with passports.
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The next available appointment for a visit to the Bundesarchiv Lichterfelde – just for a single day, not even for a week – is the end of March 2021 😳
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For anyone interested in how/why West Germany naturalised foreign Waffen-SS soldiers and other Nazi collaborators from the 1950s into the 1970s (and perhaps beyond?), I'm going to be presenting some work in progress on this topic at the
@kingsgerman
research seminar next week.
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Working on developing the ultimate stack of books to have placed next to my toilet to make German visitors to my home uncomfortable
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Since 7th October, several German politicians have been demanding or proposing changes in citizenship law as a response to pro-Palestinian demonstrations + displays of antisemitism in Germany. A lot of the suggestions/demands are nothing new. Most of them are clearly misguided.🧵
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This whole "the SS and Einsatzgruppen et al. really hated killing Jews, actually" episode in German political discourse is further evidence that Holocaust education and Erinnerungskultur needs to look at actions, motivations, and experiences of perpetrators more prominently
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Interview for what would be a dream research position tomorrow, and what also happens to be my only remaining open application for research fellowships for next year. Wish me luck!
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@ClaasGefroi
Man könnte hinzufügen, er hat um 1990 zielstrebig versucht, die Einwanderung von Juden und Jüdinnen aus der Sowjetunion zu stoppen
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Just booked my airbnb and train tickets to spend a week in august in Duisburg reading the files about all the Dutch Waffen-SS guys being given German citizenship in the 1950s/1960s - this summer gonna be lit 💅🏻 ☀️ 📚 <Nazi integration into fledgling democracy emoji>
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Not getting a migraine 3 hours before my PhD defence 🥴
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How far would this ban on political activity for foreigners from outside the EU go? What of institutions such as Ausländer- or Migrationsbeiräte that exist on local level in many parts of the country to give those without passive/active Wahlrecht a voice in politics?
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The suspense the tension the expectation the climactic moment
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The blood vessel has popped. I have just received a letter telling me that I will not be allowed to publish anything journalistically that uses the material I want to access before I have published on the topic in a peer-reviewed journal.
I am having the most infuriating experience getting my hands on files from the 1950s and 1960s that are still being held by parts of the German federal government for my research, and I think I'm about to pop a blood vessel.
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Thank you all for the good wishes – it went quite well, minor corrections and a lot of very interesting discussion about the thesis! Now time for celebration in government-mandated isolation
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West German officials seem to have gone out of their way to naturalise foreigners who had served in the Waffen-SS who were still POWs in Russia. This was to protect them from having to return to Western nations where they would be looked down upon for fighting for Germany.
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New decision from the German constitutional court on the rights of descendants of German Jews to German citizenship – this is seriously exciting stuff! Rejects decades of decisions from the Bundesverwaltungsgericht, has potential to fundamentally transform handling of the issue
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On my way to Amsterdam to give a talk on Tuesday at the
@NIODamsterdam
about how and why West Germany granted German citizenship to Dutch Waffen-SS volunteers in the 1950s through to the 1970s - very excited to talk about this topic with such an expert audience!
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For decades, West Germany granted (some of) the individuals who carried out the Holocaust a legal right to citizenship so they could benefit from the privileges of the West German welfare state. This is a horrific aspect of postwar German history that is too little known.
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Die Stellungnahme eines Regierungspräsidiums zum Einbürgerungsantrag eines nach Deutschland als Zwangsarbeiter verschleppten Mann, 1960. Einer der vielen gegen seine Einbürgerung sprechenden Gründe seien seine ‘typisch slawischen Gesichtszüge’ :/
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@nikolaslelle
Very excited to learn more about the specific Indonesian valence and meaning of depictions of Orthodox Jews with bloodshot eyes and SS runes on their hats and how that definitely doesn’t relate to a antisemitic tradition of critical art about capitalism
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So... who’s going to be attending the
@TheGSA
in person this year, and what are you going to be presenting? I’m going to be giving a paper on ‘health’, eugenics and discrimination in West Germany’s naturalisation system in the 50s-70s.
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Today is once again the day of the best German-language drag name
Kristy Himmelfart
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Today I got to take part as an expert in a parliamentary hearing in the Bundestag. A surreal, daunting, and extremely rewarding experience.
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Are you at
@TheGSA
? Are you interested in finding out about how foreign Waffen-SS soldiers became German citizens in West Germany in the 1950s? It sounds like you should be visiting the ‘Denazification and War Criminals’ panel at 6.30 Indiana time
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The Stabi has reopened - and I can finally get to reading this book.
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I do not understand why I should have to go through peer review and publish this in a journal before I'm allowed to write about this in a newspaper, especially since I have already agreed to anonymise the identities of all of the individuals involved?
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Off to Sheffield for my first
@GermanHistSoc
conference. Looking forward to hearing a lot of interesting talks, and presenting material tomorrow on health-based discrimination in West German naturalisation practice from the 1950-1980s.
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Heading back to Berlin after a few days in the archive in Duisburg looking at naturalisation files from the 1950s. I went after seeing indications in other archives that NRW naturalised severa former waffen-SS members from Belgium and Netherlands in the 60s. (Long thread)
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I love how English universities and funding bodies stagger their application deadlines and decision dates, so one can get a steady stream of postdoc rejections throughout the year, regardless of the season
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Many of the protests in have, alongside people expressing a desire for peace or concern for Palestinian lives, involved displays of antisemitism or support for terrorist activity or islamist organisations. Is this a sane response to that? Definitely not
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Just got word today that a German federal ministry has agreed to let me examine a file for my research that contains material from 1993-1999, so within the normal embargo. Good news! The only bad part - I put in the request for permission in December 2020.
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Just found a reference to a think tank with the best name of all time; Ideologische Mission der Moralischen Aufrüstung
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Just found an obituary of my great-grandpa in the
@TheAJR_
newsletter. It mentions his work lobbying the British government to allow German Jews to become British citizens after the war! Feels like a bit of a full circle affair...
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Does the German state really want to start dictating to descendants of German Jews what kind of stance they have to take towards Israel to be able to (re)claim German citizenship through measures of reparative justice?
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Still hyped that the three adjectives used by the German embassy in London to describe me in a report to the Auswärtiges Amt central office were “sharp-tongued”, “meticulous”, and “relatively young”
As someone approaching thirty, adjective no. 3 is obviously most important
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Later tonight, I‘m going to be interviewed on
@dwnews
about the German government rejecting legislation that would have legally solidified the naturalisation rights of descendants of refugees from Nazi Germany. Tune in at 9.30! Fingers crossed I won’t have a heavy burtation!
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It’s still completely wild for me that I’m cited in two sections of this book with reference to German Jews and citizenship law. And a reminder that I need to finish some bloody articles and get them published so I can be cited beyond typo-filled Stellungnahmen for Anhörungen :/
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I can’t believe that applying for naturalisation in the UK costs £1,330 per application. For a family that’s thousands of pounds - seems unfairly designed to prevent working-class families who work and contribute to British society from becoming full citizens. Shameful approach.
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On Wednesday I’m going to be talking with Dieter Gosewinkel and Sarah Mazouz about the relationship between citizenship and ethnicity at the
@DHMBerlin
, as part of their current exhibition on citizenship in France, Germany and Poland since 1789. (1/2)
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Finally been to the new Flucht/Vertreibung Museum in Berlin. Still need to think about my response to it, but one striking absence for me - no mention of the difficult + complicated migratory paths of Jewish Germans from Eastern/Central Europe after the war, who often fell ...
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Bei diesem Archivbesuch habe ich zum ersten Mal einen Einbürgerungsvorgang gefunden, wo ein Antrag wegen Homosexualität abgelehnt wurde. 1961 wollte Bayern eine Frau, die als deutsche Staatsangehörige geboren war, wiedereinbürgern. (1/3)
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My dad and my sister picked up their naturalisation certificates from the German embassy today! 🎉 🇩🇪 🍾
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Off to Weimar for the day to do some hunting into Nazi background of dude who was in charge of public law in the german interior ministry throughout the 1950s/1960s peace out ✌️
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Ich mache Isolation in der alten Wohnung meiner Großeltern und habe einige tolle Sachen hier gefunden. Exemplar eins - eine Geburtstagskarte an meinen Urgroßvater aus dem Jahre 1939, mit Abbildungen von allem, was er sich wünschte
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Nice to see it in the coalition contract - the new government is going to get rid of the partial ban on dual nationality for foreigners who want to naturalise, alongside several other sensible sounding changes.
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@benwritesthings
The comment about Germans shaking hands when they meet people also seems not best suited to welcoming Orthodox Jews into the fold of the German national community tbh
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Important thread on right wing violence in Germany over the last twenty years, and why the anti Semitic attacks yesterday are by no measure merely an ‘alarm bell’
The head of the Christian Democratic Union Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer described yesterday's far-right murder of two people in Halle on Yom Kippur as an "Alarm Bell" (Alarmsignal), but there have been many more before this. A thread:
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In the inner court yard of the German Ministry of Justice, one can still see the damage done to the bricks by (what I’m guessing are?) bullets from the Battle for Berlin.
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Interesting article explaining how the GDR's policy by which its citizens needed permission to marry foreigners worked in practice.
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The only thing, that makes me crazier are Germans, who use commas in English, where they would be used in German
Leute die, Kommas nicht richtig setzen, können machen mich wahnsinnig.
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@bmj_bund
@christygoe
Antisemitische oder rassistische Straftaten führen bereits seit Sommer 2021 zum Ausschluss von der Einbürgerung. Das Neue an der geplanten Reform ist der Ausschluss von der Einbürgerung aufgrund antisemitischer oder rassistischer *Handlungen*. Oder?
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Viele der in Deutschland vor 1933 wohnhaften Juden und Jüdinnen besaßen nicht die deutsche Staatsangehörigkeit. Für die, die nach 1945 nach (West)Deutschland zurückkehren wollten, gab es in vielen Bundesländern aufenthaltsrechtliche Schwierigkeiten.
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It is also an aspect of German history that, in my eyes at least, German politicians need to take ownership of if they also want their current proposals regarding changes in citizenship law following 7th October to be taken seriously.
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Upon re-reading this, noticed that there is no call for restriction on right of association; misread the "keine Versammlungsfreiheit" as "Vereinigungsfreiheit". Though I guess a general ban on political activity (politisches Betätigungsverbot) could include political associations
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This has been rescheduled and will be taking place online next Wednesday, 12.30-2pm UK time. If you want to hear about how foreign Waffen-SS soldiers were made into German citizens after 1949, drop me a line for the Microsoft Teams link.
For anyone interested in how/why West Germany naturalised foreign Waffen-SS soldiers and other Nazi collaborators from the 1950s into the 1970s (and perhaps beyond?), I'm going to be presenting some work in progress on this topic at the
@kingsgerman
research seminar next week.
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<insert sounds of celebration here>
Check in on this volume when out to read a bunch of great essays, and one by yours truly on race and racism in early West German citizenship law and naturalisation practice
Many thanks to the editors for their hard work over the last years!
It’s off, it’s submitted, it’s coming out later this year with
@CornellPress
🎉
So grateful to my co-editor
@chinra4
, to
@BethanyWasik
and to all our brilliant authors who have spent years working on this majestic volume
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Can’t wait to enter a job market with my PhD in German literature in the near future!
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Soooo… who is planning on going to the German Studies Association conference in person this year?
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Heute hat der Bundestag es abgelehnt, einen gesetzlichen Einbürgerungsanspruch für die Nachfahren des NS-Regimes zu schaffen. Ich habe mit
@Freddy2805
für die Welt darüber gesprochen.
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Well into the 1970s, foreign Waffen-SS soldiers and members of foreign units intimately involved in the Holocaust (e.g. members of Ukrainian Auxiliary Police in Lemberg/Lviv) received the red carpet when it came to gaining citizenship in West Germany.
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Für alle interessierten - in ungefähr einer Stunde gibt’s eine Debatte zum Staatsangehörigkeitsrecht im Bundestag dank eines Antrags der AfD. Expect the high quality, sachliche discourse which this topic never fails to generate in german politics
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A journalistic text on the topic prior to the publication of an academic article, the authority informs me, would no longer be 'Wissenschaft', but would instead be 'politischer Meinungskampf', in which I would 'no longer be dedicated to truth and knowledge', but a biased party.
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Can anyone please come up with a good translation for ‘Zeitzeugen’. Do any English native speakers who don’t speak German speak even have an idea of what German people mean when they talk about contemporary witnesses?
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Berlin Denglish that could have easily been avoided, figure 43
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@nthnashma
The next stage of Berlin’s public sexual health - “WE ARE DIFFERENT FROM WHAT YOU’RE USED TO, WE WILL GIVE YOI NOTHING”
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Having to only quote German texts in English translation in journals specialised in German Studies feels icky
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First draft of PhD conclusion done and now get to read started on this. So much of it would be great for undergrad translation classes - well written, funny, and smart and incisive to boot.
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Mentioned the whole Aiwanger affair in a discussion with my hairdresser and ended up having to hear that Germany had paid enough reparations to different parts of the world for the country to no longer need to feel bad about the Holocaust.
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Just saw that one of my American family unironicallly has this as their Facebook cover photo
Thank you to whatever angel/djinn/spirit made my mum move to London
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In 1955, West Germany legislated to give Eastern European ethnic Germans who had served in the Waffen-SS a right to German citizenship upon application. Most of these applications went through the Bundesverwaltungsamt (BVA) - over 3,000 between 1955 and 1960. (1/3)
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Ich habe den Gesetzentwurf gelesen und er ist erstaunlich gut. Er geht viel weiter als ich jemals erwartet hätte, auch bei den Nachfahren von Menschen, die Deutschland wegen NS-Verfolgung verlassen mussten, ohne die deutsche Staatsangehörigkeit zu besitzen.
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Ein Haus in Wedding will Passanten dazu ermuntern, ihren König umzubringen
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German transpositions of English phrases into contexts and registers where they would never be used in English continue to be hilarious
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In 1955, the CDU/CSU created a special provision that granted ethnic Germans living outside of the FRG a right to German citizenship *on the grounds* of having been in the Waffen-SS. This included concentration camp guards.
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Pretty interesting to see which words have been used to discuss the Holocaust in the Bundestag since 1949, and with which frequency.
#bundeswoerter
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(thread) Something has been bugging me for days. In 1955, the CDU/CSU in the German Bundestag introduced an amendment to German citizenship law which granted former, non-German Waffen-SS members a right to German citizenship upon application (i.e. an 'Einbürgerungsanspruch').
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Am waiting on final comments on my PhD from my supervisor before hopefully handing in in next week and a half. Spent today going through documents and notes for next research project and can only say: I am so excited to be able to put my full* attention towards it!
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So I’ve started the first day of 1700 Jahre Jewish life in Germany festival by reading about the treatment of Jews in 1950s west Germany and I’m feeling somewhat like this
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Ich gucke mir gerade Einbürgerungsanträge von Berlin aus den 60er an – Damls mussten Sachbearbeiter zu den Anträgen einen Bericht ausfüllen mit drei Teilen’ : ‘Deutschkenntnisse’, ‘Persönlicher Eindruck’, und dann: ‘Verbundenheit mit dem deutschen Wesen und Volkstum’. 😳
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I’ve never realised the extent of the horror that I’m spared by not owning a TV and not being exposed to german domestic television
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While waiting for response from job interview, every ‘new email’ notification on my phone home screen a shocking jolt, the moments waiting for Face ID to reveal email sender and subject fearful anticipation, the revelation that it’s only dominos pizza coupons a cruel torture
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