Upon Entering Germany

I wrote this essay a long time ago. I created a video to go with it.

Yesterday my friend and I arrived in Germany by train from Amsterdam. I can't help but admire how efficient and effective the rail transportation system is here in Europe. Even though I am well aware of the arguments against such an extensive rail system in the US, it still seems to me that having such an infrastructure that supports public transportation at reasonable cost (even if subsidized by the state) and private transportation is the most socially responsible thing to do.

I wondered when we got to the first German town on our route, Bad Bentheim, where the customs agents were. When I was here fourteen years ago, every time I went to and from Holland, I was asked for my passport. I suppose it is thanks to the European Union regulations that this practice has been abolished.

Still, I could not help but have an overwhelming feeling as we glided into the ordered patchwork of German fields and small villages, that I was back in a place that I never really liked. I lived here for almost a year during a time that now seems like another lifetime ago, and I suddenly remembered why I needed to escape from Germany whenever I could. It was not simply the oppressively overcast skies, or the cold “Auslander” stares, or the deeply submerged Tuetonic rage, or the constant struggle to balance old-world values against the counter-cultural onslaught... it is because this country is soulless.

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