Erlangen (Cont.). Emil Behring School

Yesterday, as is my custom when I return to Erlangen, I was the guest of Helmut Haberkam, a local writer and teacher at the Emil Behring School in nearby Spardorf. I spoke before one of the English classes and answered questions from the pupils.

While some of their questions regarded studying English in America, many questions were about the NSA scandal, Snowden, immigration, Syria, and politics in the US.

While I tried to leave my partisan hat at the door, I wanted to make a couple of points where I thought they might have wrong perceptions. First, I said that any opposition to President Obama was not on account of race, rather it was opposition to his policies. Second, that the immigration debate was about illegal immigration. I made the point that immigration was a good thing, but that it must be done legally and be accompanied by assimilation and acceptance of the values and traditions of the host country.

Today, I plan to visit Nuremberg, tour the courthouse where the war crimes trials were held and visit an Italian friend who runs a local restaurant.

Above: At lunch (left: Helmut Horneber (retired Erlangen official and historian, right Dietmar Hahlweg, former lord mayor of Erlangen)