First German Journal Entry

May 1, 2011

First Journal Entry

It is now Sunday May 1 and I arrived here on Wednesday April 27. I’m still a little bit in shock that I’m actually in Germany. I’ve spent the last 8 months studying the German anti-nuclear movement and now it’s actually staring me in the face (though I have not been to any protests yet). So far, I’ve mainly done bureaucratic things - I registered as a resident here and tomorrow, I will get my residence permit. I also had to buy new cleets because mine broke on Thursday at ultimate frisbee practice. I nearly bought a phone, but I was told that I should come back on Tuesday. I also went to the university and I was able to sign up for a German course, which starts tomorrow. I also got a bank account. Tomorrow I will also register at the university and get my student card. I will also move into residence. I’ve been living with Janina, who was allocated to me by the university as a ‘pass pal.’ I first received an email from her at the beginning of March and we’ve exchanged many emails since then. She’s been extremely helpful - she met me at the train station here when I arrived and she’s letting me stay in her room while she stays with her boyfriend. She’s introduced me to the people in her master’s of economics program - we went bowling on Friday night and last night, we went to see a live band. Her program is taught in English, thus there are many international students. I met people from Egypt, Albania, Serbia and the Ukraine. They all seem very nice. I’ve also met Janina’s boyfriend Johannes a couple of times. He’s a little bit shy, but we’ve spoken a bit and he seems very nice. They’ve been together for 2 years. Janina told me that I might be able to come with her to visit Johannes’ family, who live near Konstanz. This is so generous! Janina is coming to Queen’s University in the fall and I hope I can return the favour to her.

Yesterday, I actually conducted 2 interviews with Greenpeace volunteers. This is my main purpose for coming to Germany. I’m trying to get life and travel stories from activists to see how different experiences influence activism. Originally, I really wanted to meet people who have been to Japan because of what’s happening right now. Germany has had such a big reaction to the Fukushima meltdown - the government announced recently that all nuclear plants will be shut down by 2020. Unfortunately, it seems that only one Greenpeace Germany staff member has been to Japan and hopefully, I will interview him in June in Hamburg. Anyway, it’s still interesting to find out how people became involved in Greenpeace. Yesterday, I met with 2 volunteers who live near Konstanz, Michael and Wolfram. Perhaps this is ageist on my part, but I did not think that they would be older. Michael is 68 and Wolfram is 67. We decided to have the interview at the Greenpeace office in Konstanz and it was very quiet there, which is good. I’m recording the interviews using my MP3 player and it picks up a lot of background noise. Michael started giving money to Greenpeace in the 70s and he’s been volunteering with Greenpeace for 7 years. Wolfram and his wife actually started with Greenpeace back in 1988 after Chernobyl. Their children were also involved with the Green Team, which is the children’s group for Greenpeace for kids aged 8-14. Michael is a little bit shy and it was hard to get some stories out of him, but his English was excellent. He used to work in the space industry and he made many business trips to the US and other countries. He gave some presentations there. He has travelled quite a bit to the US, Canada, Israel, and many other countries, but it didn’t seem as if those travels really affected him as an environmentalist. Our interview lasted about 30 minutes. After that, I interviewed Wolfram and he was very interesting. He was born the day after there was an attempted assassination of Hitler. Wolfram and I talked for about 40 minutes and then we had to take Michael to the ferry terminal, as he lives on the other side of Lake Konstanz and the last ferry left at 7pm. Wolfram said that we could speak further if I wanted and I agreed. I was a bit reticent because Wolfram needed a lot of help from Michael to translate, but after we arrived at the cafe, things went pretty well. We stayed at the cafe for over an hour and he told me quite a bit of his life story. I feel like I know him quite well. He told me about how he met his wife, his decision to become vegetarian, etc. He also told me that he’s registered as a disabled person. I’m not sure if I should be privy to such information, but he gave it voluntarily. He showed me a card that states he’s 60% disabled (he said that if you’re 100% disabled, you’re basically dead). He retired early because of this. He used to teach geography and French at high school. When we were still at the Greenpeace office, he told me about all the actions he’s been involved in since he joined the group. He’s gone to Stockholm and collected thousands of signatures from Swedes and tourists. He’s also been to Brussels and Amsterdam. Wolfram has not travelled much outside of Europe. He’s been to the Canary Islands once on vacation, but he has made an effort not to fly in recent years.

Now I need to think about some lessons I learned from the interviews:

1. For Michael - I wish I could have drawn more details from him. Partly it was difficult because he couldn’t remember certain things from the 70s when he first started supporting Greenpeace. He seemed to suggest that going to Israel had some kind of impact on him and I think I should have asked more questions about that. I’m trying to strike a balance between asking questions and letting the stories flow naturally, since I’m using the method of narrative. I need to read more about how to use narrative as a method.
2. For Wolfram- I did gather lots of information from him, but I’m not sure how much of it will be relevant. His stories from after the war were very interesting and I’m wondering if that had anything to do with him becoming an activist. He said that he used to be conservative and very deferential to authority; for example, he didn’t support the 1968 student movement. He did say that after that, he began to change his mind and he became more progressive. It sounds like his wife is progressive, as she was also involved in Greenpeace, and maybe she had an affect on him? They’ve been married for 30 years and she is his 2nd wife. I wonder about his first wife... Maybe I’m just nosy. Anyway, there was a language barrier, but it wasn’t a huge deal. I wish my German were better, but I don’t think I’ll be able to interview in German by the time I leave. We’ll see.

In short, I need to learn more about narrative and I’ll try to put people more at ease and perhaps that will lead to them telling more stories. I will hopefully meet with 2 members of the couchsurfing website soon and I’ll try some interview techniques with them. At the end of June, I will hopefully be going to Hamburg to interview the Greenpeace staff member who is in Japan right now. Before that (or after that), I will also meet with Greenpeace volunteers in Stuttgart and Freiburg. So far, I have only been in contact with the Greenpeace head office in Hamburg and with the Baden-Wurttemberg offices, so I’m going to contact people in other states.