Jefferson County Knows Germany Better Than Germany Knows Jefferson County
-Watertown NY By Hans Wilder
One of the things that always amazes me is how many Germans seem convinced they have America figured out.
Here in Jefferson County, that’s actually a pretty funny assumption.
This isn’t some isolated corner of America where people only know Europe from watching movies. Thanks to Fort Drum, the 10th Mountain Division, decades of overseas assignments, military marriages, and international families, Jefferson County has one of the most globally connected populations anywhere in Upstate New York. Thousands of local residents have lived in Germany, served in Germany, married Germans, raised German-American children, and spent years learning firsthand how German society actually works. Fort Drum alone is home to more than 16,000 residents, with roughly 8.6 percent of the population born outside the United States. When you add Fort Drum’s international population to the broader Jefferson County community, our county has far more direct experience with Germany than many German commentators have with America.
That is why it becomes so frustrating when German media outlets lecture Americans about immigration, energy, border security, or democracy.
I’ve lived there.
My mother was a German citizen. I worked there. I paid taxes there. I dealt with the German bureaucracy firsthand.
And despite all of that, Germany made it extraordinarily difficult for me to stay and work.
The same country that now lectures America about immigration once told me, in effect, that I wasn’t German enough.
That experience taught me something.
Germany loves immigration when discussing America.
Germany becomes considerably less enthusiastic when discussing Germany.
For decades Germany maintained strict residency requirements, work permits, labor restrictions, and bureaucratic hurdles that many Americans would find shocking. Yet many German commentators react with outrage when Americans demand border security or immigration enforcement.
Apparently sovereignty is wonderful when Germany exercises it.
Not so much when America does.
Then there is the energy issue.
For years German politicians shut down nuclear power plants while becoming increasingly dependent on Russian natural gas. The result was that when Russia invaded Ukraine, Germany suddenly discovered that relying on Moscow to keep the lights on might not have been the best strategic plan in history.
Americans were repeatedly criticized over our energy policies during those same years.
Yet somehow it was Germany—not America—that ended up scrambling to replace Russian energy supplies.
Another thing many Americans don’t realize is how German television works.
Much of Germany’s major television news comes from publicly funded broadcasters, including ARD and ZDF. German households are required to pay broadcasting fees that help support these networks. Critics have argued for years that this system creates a fairly uniform political narrative and discourages ideological diversity. Supporters claim it protects journalism from commercial pressures.
Whatever side you take, it is difficult to ignore the results.
Many Germans receive a steady diet of anti-Trump coverage that would make CNN blush.
The reaction to Donald Trump among portions of the German media often borders on obsession. One could watch some broadcasts and conclude that American voters spend their days doing nothing except discussing Donald Trump.
Meanwhile Americans are worried about groceries, housing costs, gas prices, taxes, and whether their kids can afford a home someday.
The disconnect is remarkable.
None of this is to say Germany is a bad country.
Germany is beautiful.
Its engineering is world class.
Its history is fascinating.
Many Germans are wonderful people.
I know because I lived among them.
But Germany has its own problems, its own contradictions, and its own hypocrisies.
Maybe before lecturing Americans about immigration, energy policy, or democracy, some German commentators should spend a little more time examining the decisions made in Berlin over the last twenty years.
Because from where many of us sit here in Jefferson County, it looks like Germany has plenty of homework of its own.
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