There are several towns named Wittenberg in the US, but there is only one in Germany. Growing up in West Germany I didn’t hear much about it because Wittenberg was in the East, on the other side of the Iron Curtain. We learned at school that Martin Luther taught there…

Yes, you can. And you should. After all, America is the country that lets you return a used toaster when the shade of brown it puts on your bread doesn’t match the color of your kitchen wallpaper — no questions asked. I don’t think the Founding Fathers would mind if…

I know it sounds worn-out and cheesy, but it’s true. Watching Neil Armstrong walk on the moon as the first human was a formative childhood experience that made me want to move from Germany to the United States of America. …

Justice? There is no such thing. It’s elusive and subjective. What’s considered just or fair has changed over time and depends on the society or culture you live in. Plaintiffs and defendants have very different opinions on how justice should be served. If you are the victim of a violent…

(even in America?) — Revolutions in Germany tend to only go halfway. The king gets a gentle slap on the wrist, but his head is usually safe and doesn’t end up on a pike. So, when I became a university student at Düsseldorf University in 1977, it should not have come as a surprise…

Once upon a time in a faraway land called academia, all professors were equal and got the same salary. Their university president came…

I love flying Delta. When I moved from Germany to Minneapolis several years ago Lufthansa was no longer an option. It turned out that leaving behind the barebones, Teutonic version of customer service was a blessing and I never looked back. The other day, however, I found myself staring with…

Freedom was one of the founding principles of the modern research university that originated in the early nineteenth century in Germany. Coming on the heels of the French Revolution it celebrated the individual that had freed itself from the dictate of worldly and otherworldly leaders — kings, priests, and popes…

For a country that was admonished by its first president to avoid entanglements with Europe, the US has been dragging along quite a bit of Old-World baggage. The Founders and those who came after them, for example, had a sweet spot for anything ancient Roman: literature, architecture, and a funny…