Deutscher Paß und trotzdem Ausländer? –betr.: „Muslime bei der Bundeswehr“, taz vom 17. 3. 99

Is the concept of an „Ausländer mit einem deutschen Paß“ legitimate in your view? Is the attitude that prompts your writer to express himself in these terms not part of the problem Germans have with assimilation?

Seen from the American melting-pot point of view, this concept is not only an oxymoron, but utterly incomprehensible. If one carries a German passport, one is German. It's like being pregnant: you either are, or you are not. Considering the fact that „race“ is an artificial concept, what constitutes a German as „German“ if not his passport? W. Karin Hall, Stanford University, Redwood City, Kalifornien, USA