Dec. 6, 2006: Comment on DVD #117

I watched [the] documentation movie [A Nation Returns: Germany] which I borrowed from the library. As [an] exchange student at VT I wanted to see how the Americans think about the reunification of Germany. I got really shocked. If you see this documentation, you will think all the Germans are Nazis and Germany doesn't have a Democratic government. This is totally incorrect. You get a completely wrong image about Germany. Unfortunately I can't deny that we have people like showed in this documentation, but these belong to fringe groups. Just very, very few people behave like those showed in the documentation.

In addition many things reported in the movie are absolutely not right. For instance, Germany doesn't treat Turkish immigrants inhumanly. Another example: As an American you will probably think that the German party "Die Republikaner' is a big party, because of its name. So you perhaps can conclude many Germans vote for a populist party. In reality this party is very small and normally less than 1 percent vote for this party.

I am really sad that you lend such a documentation without a comment. I am glad that I didn't borrow this documentation at the begin of my exchange semester. If I had done so, I would have thought Germans are not welcome at VT. Fortunately I watched it now and can say that we are very welcome here. I have had a great exchange semester and all the Americans were very friendly and helpful.

Thank you for your comments. Please do not infer that the movie shows you "how the Americans think about the reunification of Germany." All we know from one movie is what its producers and directors may believe.

As with all other controversial topics, I think Americans' views of German reunification are a composite of their exposure to many points of view in many media. Because these views will invariably come into conflict, because many of the subjects our collections treat are beyond the personal expertise of the library staff, and because we have not "world enough, nor time," it would be impossible for the libraries to provide commentary or disclaimers on our books, videos, or anything else. Instead we have to hope that we have selected a totality that is reasonably robust in its variety and balance and that the majority of our users will ultimately reach reasonable conclusions.

Paul Metz, Director of Collection Management