This underlying seriousness in Germany proved very successful in the 19th century in the creation of modern scholarship and science. Look not only at the books written the 19th century, but also the economic progress - the inventions, the patents - that Germany had to its name. Combined with an educated civil service, this approach had the blessings of the government. Germany was far out in front on all of these matters, and all of this came out in the wash between around 1850 and 1933. To some extent, it's on its way back again, not just since 1945, but also since 1989.

Go to a big bookstore in Germany, and you may find a whole room of philosophy books and a wall of philosophy books on tape - three volumes of Adorno, seven discs of Kant. This is unthinkable in America or Britain or France. Yes, we have our philosophy sections, but they are the size of a window. Historian Heinrich Winkler said that Germany has completed its long road west, and I agree, but this underlying greater seriousness is what makes the real difference. And I think you see this when you look at the German impact on America. America may speak English, but it thinks German. This is down to the people of German heritage in America. The whole public culture there, the universities - it's much more like Germany than like British entities.

I seriously need to get over there and experience my ancestors' homeland. My people are from Leipzig. As I get older this is getting more interesting to me.