Clean streets, clean government, good beer. On a trip through Germany, many hints of our Wisconsin home.

It was an obvious gap in my education. For anyone who professes an interest in the history of Milwaukee and Wisconsin, a trip to Germany would seem mandatory.

Milwaukee, after all, is the most German of America’s largest metropolitan areas, with 36% of its population reporting at least some Teutonic ancestry, and Wisconsin, with 42%, is at the top of the same demographic heap.

 But our German ties go far beyond statistics. Travelers remark on how much the landscape of Germany resembles Wisconsin. Our insistence on clean streets and clean government is said to rise from German roots. Milwaukee, in particular, is supposedly an American version of Munich, with Summerfest taking the place of Oktoberfest.

And so my wife, Sonja, and I went to southern Germany this fall....   ...more

Ken Notes: Great read and insight...