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I was still at university undergrad when Schroeder was elected in 1998. Although politics was not my area of study as an armchair historian I sensed there will be something big brewing in Germany when Schroeder won. People at that time painted him to be as in the same mold as Tony Blair and Bill Clinton i.e. former radical leftist who had accepted free market reforms, and who had grown realistic in use of arms and defending against threats. (Now we can pontifate whether Bill Clinton was one but presses in non-US West were not glowing on Clinton when it comes to his foreign policies - he was still too conservative for non-US Western Left).

Back to Schroeder. But people also forgot that the Social Democratic Party of Germany had a generation of anti-American radicals in their '68 generation that Blair never quite belonged there and their hold on the SPD is much stronger than Leftists' hold in the US Dems or even British labour Party. And Schroeder was born in 1944 - precisely the first generation of German that had no personal memory of WWII and only had impressions of post-war Allied (US and British) overseeing (or lording or supervising, if you will) of his country in his memory. Anyone who were in such upbringing naturally tend to be quite anti-whoever occupied/lorded his country.

Looking at his behaviours in Kosovo I was already muttering at myself that "Oh no, when the chips are truly down Blair would perhaps support the US, but Schroeder would cut and run and sit on the fence.". Subsequent post-9/11 period lent me brief hopes that this would have awakened Germans since they had far more common to Anglos than Latins (French, etc) but I was proved wrong. Amazing considering America has more German ancestry than British ancestry and German influence is as much as Anglo-Celtic legacy. But modern day Germans spurn on Americans.

Amazing considering America has more German ancestry than British ancestry and German influence is as much as Anglo-Celtic legacy.

The wave of German immigration to America happened over 100 years ago. Americans of German ancestry don't identify themselves as a special ethnic group like blacks, Asians, or Hispanics. The don't demand that when they vote, their ballots are printed in German or their utility bills come printed in German. They gave up speaking German a long time ago. When they go to college they don't demand and get special housing for only ethnic Germans or special progams for academic success targeted only for them. They are now in their fourth and fifth generations. They simply identify themselves as American.

Well before WW I, the Germans in America had tended to accept the political culture of whatever regions they'd settled in. Thus the Germans who settled in Texas, and there are many, became Texans and the ones who'd settled in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, or St Louis, became like most of the people in their area. They assimilated to the political culture of the area too. To make matters worse for German heritage and pride, there was a lot of harassment and negativity towards German-Americans during World War I. By the time WW II came around the only Germans who'd really been out of step with the general outlook were the German Bund. They were largely a group of cranks, and they quickly got the message after the attack on Pearl Harbor that they were not going to be allowed to evolve into a 5th column in the US. But the majority of Germans were so Americanized by then that disloyalty or even Germaness was a non-issue. As you are undoubtedly aware, the man who led the combined allied forces in WW II was an American from Kansas. His name's origin was neither of British nor of Scottish origin. He was the type of American that American snobs couldn't stand as he was seen as too plainly American. No doubt if he'd had any ancestors left in Germany they too would have considered Dwight D. Eisenhower a boorish American. Like Reagan and so many successful conservatives, including this president, being underestimated by self-proclaimed superiors was no threat to their egos. Eisenhower got the job because of his professional soldiering abilities and his last name was more coincidental than anything. Today, I'd say, most Americans of German heritage see the US as a place where motivation and not ancestry are the keys to success. And I think to believe otherwise, to believe that success comes primarily from color, race, or religion in the US, is to wallow in despair, and it leads to failure.

Take care,