"Germany...(I want to get) Lost in Germany"

Listening to all the gibberish around me.
Wonder, how much longer can I stand it?
Looking for a phone I cannot find.
Ohh woe is me. Like a politician in disguise,
you know I had to look you in the eyes and
smile, while I crawled another mile in Germany.
Lost in Germany"


King's X-"Lost in Germany"

"Deutschland, Deutschland uber alles!"


My mom recently did one of those Ancestry.com DNA tests. When she said she wanted to share the results with me, I was thrilled. Finally, I would at least know half of my true heritage. When I learned most of my roots were in Germany, I was not surprised, but now at least I knew part of the story.

I've always downplayed the German part of my heritage. One, because it is so common in my region of the United States. It's not exactly a revelation or something to celebrate because it is not unique. If you say you are part German, no one bats an eye. So is about half the people in your family and your circle of friends if you are a south-central Pennsylvania native.


Reason two is because Germany has a few enormous black marks against their history: World War 1. World War 2. The Nazi Party. The Holocaust. Rudolf Hess. Hermann Goering. Heinrich Himmler. Josef Mengele. Adolf Hitler. Dachau. Auschwitz. Bergen-Belsen. The Berlin Wall. Who wants to be associated with a country that has infamous people, places, and moments like that associated with it? Doesn't exactly want to make someone jump up and say how proud they are to be of German ancestry. Especially me.


However, due to my mom's discovery, I am more interested in studying the history of Germany and visiting the country. I know for certain it would be a country I would enjoy visiting.

First off, I love good food, and I have always wanted to have proper German cuisine. I know some might say "You are in PA Dutch country. You already know German cuisine". No, I know Americanized versions of German cuisine. I want the real deal. I want to have proper German beer and go to a proper Oktoberfest. I want to drive on the Autobahn at 150 miles an hour. I want to visit the Black Forest region. I want to go to Berlin and have my picture taken by what is left of the Berlin Wall. I want to see all the quaint little towns, country villages, mountains, hills, and fields that dot the landscape. I want to go to Hamburg and see where the Beatles honed their skills as a live band. I want to go to Munich and visit the Olympic Park and Stadium, and the Olympic Village so I can pay my respects to the Israeli Olympic team members that lost their lives in the Munich Massacre.


Is it wrong to say I want to visit the sites where the concentration camps were? I want to pay my respects to the victims of the Holocaust as well as the memory of a couple of Catholic saints who were also victims: St. Edith Stein and St. Maximilian Kolbe. I feel weird saying I want to do that, because it was one of the biggest genocides in human history and I don't want to treat that as some "tourist attraction", because it isn't. Am I making any sense? I hope so.


I'd love to visit the town that 6-time Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher came from, Kerpen. I'd love to visit the town that current racing superstar Sebastian Vettel is from. I'd love to go to rock concerts like Rock Am Ring or Wacken. I'd love to see if I could drive a lap of the legendary Nurburgring Nordschleife. There are so many things I would love to do in Germany.

One thing I want to see is streetscapes like this! So cool!

Mostly, it would be to find out if I still have roots there, or living relatives, no matter how distant. If I met them, I would want to know what they saw and what the felt about all of the big world events that shaped our planet and our respective homelands. I would want to know if they ever knew that they had distant relatives and if they had searched for them. I would also want to know if any of them lived through the horror that was Nazi Germany and the Third Reich. Let me just say I would have a lot of questions. I would be talking to people who have a bit of my blood in theirs, and they in mine, so yes, there are many things I would like to know.


One day, I hope my family and I will make the trip. It is important for me to hopefully visit all of the lands that my ancestors called home.