“From a historical point of view, it’s funny that Herr Geithner is thinking that way,” she said.
Zeulenroda’s leaders say they’ll take any help they can get. A furniture factory that employed 14,000 people at the time of Germany’s reunification in 1990 is out of business. The town has shrunk by a quarter since then and is the same size as it was in 1908, when Timothy F. Geithner’s family left its rowhouse on Brunnenstrasse. Unemployment, at 8.2 percent, is higher than Germany’s overall 6.8 percent, although the town is doing better than other areas of the former East Germany.
“We’d like to invite Geithner here and have him take care of our finances,” joked Dieter Weinlich, Zeulenroda’s mayor.
Geithner has passed through Germany frequently during the financial crisis to press the American case to Europe’s most powerful decision makers. Just weeks ago, he dropped in on the vacationing German finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, at an exclusive island resort. But Zeulenroda is hours away from anyplace that could be considered a financial capital. If he has visited the old family seat, it was low-profile.
Geithner, through a spokeswoman, declined to comment for this article.
Wishing for ‘security’
For many of Germany’s Geithners, the United States might be a fine country, but it long ago lost its attraction as an immigration destination.
“For me personally, it’s not the life I want to lead,” said Alexander Geithner, 20, who is studying to become a civil servant and wrote to Timothy F. Geithner’s parents to ask whether they had a copy of their family tree so that the two families could compare notes. In the United States, Alexander Geithner said, pop culture focuses on rags-to-riches stories, but the safety net is so frayed that chances to strike it big are low. “In Germany, most people are down to earth and looking for a good education and a good job so that they can be satisfied” — not rich, he said.
His father, Thomas Geithner, 47, an electrician, concurred.
“It’s always important to have security,” he said. “It’s Germany.”
Petra Krischok contributed to this report.
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