In Germany, in contrast with France,friendship is much more clearly a matter of feeling. A

dolescents, boys and girls,from deeply sentimental attachments,walk and talk together-not so much to polish their wits as to share their hopes and fears and dreams to form. a common front against the world of school and family and to join in a kind of mutual discovery of each other's and their own inner life. Within the family, the closest relationship over a lifetime is between brothers and sisters. Outside the family, men and women find in their closest friends of the same sex the devotion of a sister, the loyalty of a brother. Appropriately, in Germany friends usually arebrought into the family. Children call their father's and their mother's friends "uncle"and "aunt". Between French friends,who have chosen each other for the similarity of their point of view,lively disagreement and sharpness of argument are the breath of life. But for Germans, whose friendships are based on common feelings,deep disagreement on any subject that matters to both is regarded as a tragedy. Like ties of kinship,ties of friendship are meant to be absolutely binding.

Young Germans who come to the United States have great difficulty in establishing such friendships with Americans. We view friendship more tentatively, subject to changes in intensity as people move, change their jobs,marry, or discover new interests.