US election: Germans in Trump”s ancestral village react to his victory
Some of the usually even-tempered citizens of Kallstadt, a picturesque village in Germany’s Rhineland Palatinate wine region, woke up in a bad mood on Wednesday. None of them predicted that brash billionaire Donald Trump – whose grandparents grew up in their village, but left for the United States more than a century ago – would […]
Some of the usually even-tempered citizens of Kallstadt, a picturesque village in Germany’s Rhineland Palatinate wine region, woke up in a bad mood on Wednesday.
None of them predicted that brash billionaire Donald Trump – whose grandparents grew up in their village, but left for the United States more than a century ago – would win that country’s election.
"I was up most of the night watching television and only slept for three hours," says Veronika Schramm, a 69-year-old woman who owns a hostel in Kallstadt with her husband, Gerd.
Both are appalled at the result.
"It is truly terrifying. I feel ashamed on his behalf," she says. "I was telling my husband: I know the people in this town and not a single one would talk like that, nor do they share any of his views."
Donald Trump’s grandfather Friedrich – who later anglicized his name to Frederick – set out for New York in the late 1800s and later headed west as part of the Gold Rush.
Friedrich sent some of his earnings back to his relatives in Germany, who used it to buy property in Kallstadt. But, nowadays, there are few traces of the family that once held a stronghold there.
"Trump’s win doesn’t carry much importance here," says Hans-Joachim Bender – a retired vintner and a distant relative of one of Trump’s ancestors – adding that he will be glad when the media loses interest in his town.
"Trump is a great actor. But I don’t think he is going to convince anyone with his policies," says Bender, who is – by a quirk of history – also related to the erstwhile head of the Heinz ketchup dynasty, also from Kallstadt.
Joerg Dorr, Kallstadt’s tourism manager, says Trump is a polarizing figure and makes an "outlandish" impression on both visitors and residents of the town.
He adds that Trump will not become a mascot for the town unless he earns his stripes as a politician.
Schramm and her husband are worried about what a Trump win might mean for their country and for the European Union. Veronika Schramm says she thinks her two grandchildren may grow up in a "radically different Germany than the one we know now."
She giggles nervously at the prospect of a meeting between president-elect Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "I think her stomach will turn," she says. (DPA)