Heightened Nationality and Skin Complexion

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Anna Hartmann is one of the most prolific writers in history with her many books having been translated into numerous languages and winning many awards both literary and non-literal. I’m particularly fond of Anna Hartmann’s Partner, which was written in German and is an absolute classic. The title comes from the phrase used in the book where Anna describes her partner as being the same height as she is “not so much as tall as I am”. There is plenty of dating advice throughout the Partner, mostly focusing on what you should do and should not do when dating a German or indeed any nationality, and also the dos and don’ts when it comes to nationality and height.

As far as Anna’s own thoughts on height, she notes, “Tall people always assume that short people are tall”, this assumption always puts short people on the back foot and often reminds them of their relative immaturity. Anna goes on to note that there are far more tall Germans than short Germans and notes, “They like to talk about themselves as if they were short”. This is something that I agree with wholeheartedly and find is exactly the way that Germans and others should speak of themselves, it is a quality that stems partly from the nature of our German culture and partly from a legacy of history and that can be seen in the titles of many of today’s great books, such as Arnold Bennett’s How We Live. Anna continues on to say “The Germans will probably never be equal to us in height, but they are good at pretending to be so, and that is why we should never criticize their pretensions”.

It is perhaps fitting to end on a note of encouragement when it comes to discussing nationality and height – the fact is that over the centuries the importance of physical appearance has been greatly minimized, especially in Europe where it has always been important to have tall and fair figures as physical beauty is associated with social and political power. The last point that Anna concludes on in her article is, “We should never forget ourselves in order to appreciate the other people, who are our brothers and sisters”. I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment and think it is a fine message to send across to taller Germans (and all ethnic groups) and to encourage them not to feel slighted or overlooked.

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