Originally Posted by
Flying Lawyer
Please allow a direct question: Do several US Americans only think about Nazi history when coming to Germany? The Kehlsteinhaus (what you guys call Eagle's nest) ist 250 km from Augsburg. Dachau is one of the smaller concentration camps and it was a Nazi prison, not a copy of Auschwitz. It is, if one wants to do it, 50 km away from Augsburg.
But honestly, your American fascination for the Nazi area is a bit disturbing for many of us here in Germany. How would the normal middle class US American feel if one would narrow of focus of the United States to slavery crimes, civil war, Guantanamo and the native Indian genocide? The US has so much more and so has Germany: a country with 2000 years of history and culture does not deserve to be limited to 12 years of its 2000 years.
And what fascinates me too: You Americans have a tendency to arrive somewhere with the intention to go on a another day trip traveling 500 km. Why that? There is so much to see in Augsburg and when you want to go somewhere else, Ulm is very close and Munich is very close.
You make a very very good point and it's something I have wondered myself during my short visit to Germany last week; how do German's feel about outsiders going on about the Nazi past and Germany's WW1 and WW2 history.
I had wanted to ask people we had met and had conversations with about this very topic but we sadly did not have much conversations with the people we met in Munich...it was not a pleasant trip for us and we opted to sadly leave a day early.
People there (in Munich) were not the most helpful/friendliest and welcoming in comparison to many other parts of Germany we had been to. Not sure why but....anyways.
Having said that, there is so much to see and do in beautiful Germany.
Nazi Past: I can understand your fustrations about this. Totally.