The American Dream

My personal American Dream has come true: Once seeing the Spirit of St. Louis hanging from the ceiling of the Smithsonian Institute and the Bell 1, Chuck Yeager's plane that broke the sound barrier for the first time. Those were my heroes in my parents' Readers Digest. They looked amazing, so different from German people of the same age, somehow more like rockstars.

But Charles Lindbergh, the Spirit of St. Louis pilot and transatlantic flyer, is a perfect example of how ambiguous everything can be here. Lindbergh was the undisputed hero of his time. He was worshipped and people even thought he would be a good next president. He looked good, was humble and kind to everyone, the favorite of moms and fathers-in-law.

On the other hand, he was a jerk of the highest quality. A supporter of eugenics, convinced that there are people who have no right to live and who somehow need to be disposed of to avoid messing up the average. He was such a Nazi fan that even his biggest admirers had enough of him and he disappeared from public perception.

Personally, I have always considered the phrase 'Make America great again' to be nonsense. It implies that America is not great now. But it is. It's Memorial Day weekend and the city is full of people walking proudly through their capital and being fascinated by the monuments. Entire schools are posing in uniform blue in front of the Capitol and will remember it for the rest of their lives.