“... our geographical situation, smackdab in the middle of the Continent with not much of a coastline, could hardly be worse.”
I have thought that not only that Demography is destiny, but Geography is destiny. Or maybe Geography creates Demography...
German = autism. LOL !
Me too. From Dad’s side of the family, although they were from Slovakia and Poland
Really? That‘s fascinating!
Slovakia had the Bratislava area, the Spish/Zips region and the Hauerland in Eastern Slovakia with significant populations of ethnic Germans. And in Poland, there were regions like this, too, but a lot of it depended on the borders in any given era. The last German enclaves in Congress Poland were settled as recently as the early 19th century - at the same time the czars settled other Germans in Bessarabia or the Black Sea region.
Fascinating stories indeed.😀
Oh, and may I add that you are right with your assessment of geography being destiny, or at least a significant part of it?