I spoke at Mathilde’S Café in Hamburg before a small group of friends, members of the Democrats Abroad Hamburg Chapter. During this discussion, I emphasized my purpose in writing the book. Initially I wrote the book as therapy—a sentimental journey at the relationship...

My name is Claudia and political activism is in my genes. My paternal great grandmother marched in the streets for women´s suffrage, my grandfather was an active union shop steward and FDR supporter, and my mother, a gifted linguist volunteered for JFK’s presidential...

I did not realize how growing up in the United States during the Cold War impacted me until my first trip to Berlin in 1990. Children in America would often toss around the phrase “it is a free country” quite loosely in daily conversations or confrontations. One day...

From the moment I stepped foot on German soil in August 1990, I fell in love the country, the people, and the culture. What I did not however, fall in love with was the language. Even though I am a bleeding heart liberal, the one area I tend to side with conservatives...

Interesting tidbits I discovered in my research that did not make it into the final manuscript. The daughter of a Lutheran Minister and a trained English and Latin teacher, Angela Kasner was raised in the small former East German City of Templin. However, Merkel found...