Crossing the Ocean

Ever since they first set foot in the United States, Gitta and Joachim "Yogi" Reppmann have been a living example of the furthering of German-American friendship. Cultural exchanges between Germany and the American Midwest (the "Heartland"), formerly an important destination for German emigrants, have been a major focus of their lives. Drawing on his experiences of four decades spent in two continents, Yogi Reppmann describes differences in mentality and offers his research on the legacy for America of the German democratic revolutionaries of 1848. Dieter E. Wilhelmy, a journalist with the Flensburg Journal, discusses German-American relations with this historian, who spends equal lengths of time in Northfield, Minnesota and in Flensburg, Germany. They analyze typical German images of America, the "soul" of the country, and what lies hidden behind these various notions.