A Muslim man was denied citizenship in Germany after refusing to shake hands with the official in charge of granting him citizenship, who happened to be a woman.

submitted by Chipit from (dw.com)

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[–]jet199 1 insightful - 4 fun1 insightful - 3 fun2 insightful - 4 fun -  (4 children)

Germany has only been a country since 1871.

Short idea of history.

[–]Minedwe 4 insightful - 4 fun4 insightful - 3 fun5 insightful - 4 fun -  (2 children)

A unified country yes, but Germans as an ethnic group didn't just pop into existence. Prussia, Saxony, etc. in the north and Austria, Bavaria, Baden, Wurttemberg, etc. in the South have long been influential and prosperous states; Prussia in particular.

[–]jet199 1 insightful - 3 fun1 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 3 fun -  (1 child)

The Prussian empire is a completely different entity.

Germans as an ethnic group were defined by shared language, not by shared national feeling or culture until recently.

Many speakers of slavic or romance languages can understand each other but they don't see that as a shared ethnicity or national identity and neither did German speakers in the past.

Indeed there are still places like Romania where around half the population are called German due to past language differences but still see themselves are 100% Romanian.

[–]Minedwe 2 insightful - 3 fun2 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

This is 100% semantics. When I say "Germany", you know full well what region and group of past and present nations I speak of.