The Kaiserslautern Borderland

The area around the German city of Kaiserslautern – or K-Town in American parlance – is home to approximately 50,000 Americans who live within the Kaiserslautern Military Community, the largest organized settlement of American citizens outside the U.S.A. This book comprises the first study to use the concept of the border in order to analyze this bi-national encounter of otherwise transatlantic neighbors. Presenting thick descriptions of the geographical, legal,… (more)

The area around the German city of Kaiserslautern – or K-Town in American parlance – is home to approximately 50,000 Americans who live within the Kaiserslautern Military Community, the largest organized settlement of American citizens outside the U.S.A. This book comprises the first study to use the concept of the border in order to analyze this bi-national encounter of otherwise transatlantic neighbors. Presenting thick descriptions of the geographical, legal, political, economic and cultural contexts of this German-American borderland, the author highlights similarities and differences to conventional international border situations and elucidates the impact of the special temporal and spatial circumstances on the contact region.