I can't say I'm thankful about being German because I sometimes experience it as a huge burden. But it is an integral part of me and I wouldn't want to escape it. I have accepted it.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I'm German in my mind, but from a Germany that doesn't exist any more.
I'm into all things German. Everything that I own is German. As far as cars go, anyway.
As a German citizen, as a German professor, and as a political person, I hold it to be not only my right but also my moral duty to take part in the shaping of our German destiny, to expose and oppose obvious wrongs.
When you come to Germany as a Jew you have an uneasy feeling, but I've always felt okay in Berlin.
Being German, I think we don't really express a lot of things.
I am grateful for the great education at a public university that Germany gave me, and that - added to a little luck - allowed me to achieve. Education is the key to a career, and its basis has to be provided by government.
The thing that I like about Germany is that Germans are so much like us. It's not like going to some other countries, where the differences are overwhelming and you walk around in a fog. Germans are so similar to Americans.
My friends often tell me how very German I still am.
I do not deny my German identity. But I also feel Swiss. Of my eight great-grandparents, seven were born Swiss. I have been living in Switzerland for more than 50 years.
Sadly, my German is almost non-existent, although I did a little at school.