Capitol storm: Bruck emigrants are stunned

The storm on the Capitol in Washington shook the world.

An Emmeringer who emigrated to the USA is also shocked - as is a pilot stationed in Bruck's twin city Wichita Falls and his brother who lives in California and knows Donald Trump personally.

• The images of the storm on the Capitol went around the world.

• They also shocked an Emmeringer who had emigrated to the USA.

• Rudi Dullien, who was stationed as a pilot in the USA and still has good contacts, is also appalled.

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- Manfred Gämmerler (64) has lived in the USA for 26 years.

Even for the native Emmeringer, the events of Epiphany did not leave their mark.

Far from Washington, but still somehow up close, he and his family experienced the dramatic hours at home in their own house in Lafayette near Indianapolis.

“My son stormed into the kitchen and made us aware of the live reports on TV.

We were shocked. ”But in the same breath he added:“ This is not our real America.

The demonstrators were crazy like there are in Germany. "

Nevertheless, the US Bavarian is disillusioned.

“Our country is divided like never before,” says the former auto mechanic, who is now retired but still helps out at his company (Walter's Auto Import Repair) a few days a week.

Manfred Gämmerler - in the States he is called Fredie Gammerler because of the lack of umlauts in the English language - is married to an American, but does not want to take citizenship and has to renew his green card and thus his residence permit every ten years.

Therefore he is not entitled to vote.

Everyone in the family is Democrat

Nevertheless, he has a political point of view: “In our family there are all democrats”.

The immediate vicinity in "his" state of Indiana is firmly in Republican hands with around 80 percent of Trump voters.

Friends in the neighborhood are also part of it.

Jimmy, for example, with whom Fred could argue passionately about politics, but does not: "A strict principle is: No politics in the house." This also applies to dealing with another neighbor who is a nurse, but still an avowed corona denier .

Gämmerler has had no contact with her for a few days.

Reason: "She is sick herself and in quarantine." Which is why the US Bavarian has not yet been able to knock on the door and ask how she feels about the virus.

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Rudi Dullien also spent many years in America.

He is surprised how many Trump fans there are. 

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Because guns were also involved in the storming of the Capitol, the 64-year-old is also concerned with this ever-present danger.

His son-in-law even works in a gun shop.

"He told me that they have never had as much sales as in the past few months." Gämmerler himself has neither shotgun nor revolver in the house.

“I still feel safe and well protected by the police.” If there are no restrictions due to the coronavirus, he wants to visit his hometown Emmering again this year, where a small apartment is still set up for him in the motherhouse on Estinger Straße.

Because despite his permanent presence in the USA, not a day goes by without a certain homesickness: “Even after 26 years I am still not a real American and I will probably never become one.” And adds in the best dialect: “Mia Bayern san hoit at home in Bavaria . "

Many acquaintances are Trump fans

Rudi Dullien is back at the Amper.

The 71-year-old spent most of his life as a Bundeswehr flight instructor in Bruck's sister city of Wichita Falls in Texas.

He still has contacts in the USA.

Especially to his brother Thomas, who lives in the Democratic country of California.

And as a top manager in the casino industry, he even knows Donald Trump personally.

After the events in Washington, the brothers agree: “We saw this coming.” One from a closer, the other from a somewhat more distant perspective.

Rudi Dullien: "I have a number of acquaintances in management positions - anything but stupid people - and was really shocked that so many turned out to be Trump fans." The ex-pilot sees the US again after the president's crash Soaring and is optimistic: "Things will calm down quickly once Trump has disappeared from the scene."