General Discussion

The Germans, true to their reputation for being obsessed with bureaucratic detail, in those days used to print the profession of every passport holder in the passport underneath the photo and listed name. When Walter Scheel opened his passport to show the German border police, I saw what was printed in his passport in the line where the holder's profession was supposed to be listed. It read "Alt-Bundespräsident," or "former Federal President." How stodgy can a country get? Can you imagine some CBP officer asking Bill Clinton, arriving from London or wherever, what he does for a living? To their credit, Germany doesn't do that any more.