How they see you

As an American, you are generally welcome in Germany.

In the southern half of the country, there were so many American military installations until not long ago, that Americans were literally everywhere.

The vast majority of Germans will see Americans the same way many Americans see themselves and their own country: they like the people, they cherish the beauty of the country, they like the promise and ideas on which the country was founded.

And they don't like the government, greed, the absence of health insurance, or torture.

If you have German roots in your family, you get bonus points.

You also get bonus points over here if you are black or native American. For the first group, I rely on statements by black military veterans and Germans.
My claim of bonus points for native Americans rests largely on Sherman Alexie's smiling comment about European women and native Americans.
Then there was this kid who was half German, half Apache. The size of his female (German) entourage was a sight to behold.

And, in Germany, there are the books of Karl May, a prolific writer of Westerns and Easterns (mid Eastern based), who shaped the German view of native Americans.

Attitudes change, of course. When Obama was elected president in 2008 and my co-workers were discussing the election results the next day, my comment was: relax, at least you can now travel freely in Europe without having to claim you are Canadian.