1 2. Making Germans Germany is infamous for its era of National Socialism and the Holocaust that it spawned in which millions of people were murdered. What makes the matter even more odious is that even as some people―born and raised in Germany―were being carted away because they were not considered German, others―for whom the German language and culture were foreign―were being ‘Germanized’. 1 Still today, a significant proportion of the population born in Germany and steeped in the culture are not considered German while others born elsewhere, divorced from everyday German life, are called German, giving rise to the question that this study poses: What makes a person German? Following reunification of East and West Germany in 1990, when Germany supposedly became whole again and the quest for an identity reinvigorated, a wave of violence swept over the country and ‘foreigners’ became targets of brutish behaviour amidst calls for ‘Foreigners Out!’ and slogans claiming ‘Germany for the Germans’ (Kanstroom 1993; Steger & Wagner 1993; Bade & Anderson 1994; Schwarz 2000). But what makes one a ‘German’ and another a ‘foreigner’? Some of the people being chased out had been born in and had lived their whole lives in Germany. Over two thousand cases of assaults were reported in the year following the reunification, including dozens of cases of arson that resulted in severe injuries and deaths (Kanstroom 1993; Schwarz 2000). In one incident, the assailants later apologised for their deed, noting that they had not realized that their victim was German but had mistaken him for a ‘foreigner’. Putting aside the fact that no one ought to have been beaten 1 Robert L. Koehl’s monograph (RKFDV: German Resettlement and Population Policy 1939- 1945. A history of the Reich Commission for the Strengthening of Germandom) provides a detailed account of selection and grooming of individuals and groups in Eastern Europe and west of the Rhine to supplement the German population.