HaHa, nice, chocolate with caffein :D never knew this brand myself.

A more serious approach to life has led to highly developed and wealthy societies in the north, but one has to wonder at what cost?

Indeed, one wonders.

We overdid it in terms of controlling the peoples bodies and minds and payed the price. Then, we also overdid it with banning our own sense of nationality and mistook it for having cleansed the past. Even though I mentioned that the elders did not accept English as a language, the younger ones felt ashamed of their tongue and til the 80s you could not find German modern music on the hitparades.

I was around 14 years young when the "Neue Deutsche Welle" entered the music charts and Nena became famous in the world, singing in German. Singing in ones mother tongue was long considered as "the language of the criminals". Until today you cannot call yourself a patriot, for you will be quickly labeled as a Nazi (not, that I find it neccesarry calling myself a patriot). These times seem to have a comeback.

Yeah, the differences in courtship were clearly there and they were welcomed :) One can look at it this way: Once the fact is there, that a nation lost war, it doesn't help wanting to defeat foreign influences in terms of everyday peoples encounters. Befriending the strangers is, in my opinion, a good way to get along. There is no way to control all the people and turn them around mentally. They even will stick to their convictions the more you try.
Also, what often is called the "conflict of generations", is a result of having gone through war and hard ridden times. I wouldn't want to estimate how often my mom shook her head about us children inwardly but did not break it loose.

I wonder the extent to which post-War Germany has been careful not to appear too 'militaristic' or like a police state.

I think that was something we got careful about. No military parades walking the streets ever since, I guess.

I really am not sure, if I adopted liberality as primarily an active effort to overcome those strict times and it was more the effects of "non effort", if you know what I mean. The great silence by the elders, who had experienced war first hand, that often is mentioned, may also have contributed to this form of growing up unbothered. I myself can consider myself lucky to have grown up in a time window between 70s and 90s in a non political household. Also, I might have felt liberty because I myself was a liberal young person, LOL :-D

Since then I often asked myself, if visitors from other countries experience our boarding controls in the same way like I did, when I first came to the US. I felt like a criminal under those suspicious eyes and checkups at the emigration points.

to mind their "gawdamn" business. 🤠

HaHa! I like this attitude of "mind your own business"

Please greet your wolfish relatives from me. I bet they still eat meat ;-)