Foreign Perceptions

Foreign Perceptions Humor. Personally, I'm more likely to think of The Scorpions or Rammstein when I think of Germans, but I'm big into hard rock music. Music is a force that can change the world, to be sure.

The perception of Germans may be somewhat worse in European nations than in the United States. It hopefully is improving, but as recently as the late 1980's, I encountered a young German woman who was applying for a job at the same time as I was. We got to talking, and she said that in Great Britain, people tended to be very unfriendly towards Germans because of what had happened during World War II.

The late Per Ohlin was the vocalist for the Norwegian black metal band Mayhem. He was born of a Swedish father and a German mother. Perhaps his ancestry never came up in interviews, but he didn't make a point of mentioning it either. I can't know for sure, as there is no way of contacting him save the Ouija board at this point, but I do wonder if a person who was of German ancestry living in Sweden might wish to keep their heritage somewhat under wraps to avoid confrontation.

Hopefully one of these days all of these prejudices will be ancient history.

--Tempest