I am also a devout admirer of German and Scandinavian Society/Culture. 

• THOUGHT :
  It always fascinates me how, over the course of about 7-10 short centuries, the Vikings (Scandinavians) and Goths (Germans) have gone from being savage pillagers and warlords -- who ritually drank apple brandy from cups made from the skulls of slain enemies -- to the World's most civilized, humane, honest and charitable people!  All while the descendants of ancient Babylon, Mohenjodaro and Harappa, supposedly the earliest human civilizations, deconstructed into the peoples of contemporary Iraq, Pakistan and India.  Does that imply that civilization does both evolve and devolve?  And what was the role of the Augustana Lutheran Christian Evangelical Church in elevating the polity of these Northern Europeans in their civilizational trajectory? 

  Ah well!  Penny for my nerdy thoughts ...