Citizens of Everywhere

In 1939, with Europe on the brink of war, Peter Gumbel's grandparents fled Nazi Germany for England. In 2019, appalled by the result of the Brexit referendum and the ugliness it exposed in our politics and wider society, he became a citizen of Germany, the country that had persecuted his grandparents 80 years earlier. How had it come to this? Through the powerful lens of his family's story, Gumbel reflects on the resurgence of a nationalistic world view, the growing multiplicity of identity in our digital world, and the surprising reversal of roles as Germany has replaced Britain as the hope-bearer in Europe. Above all, he reminds us why tolerance and freedom of movement are still worth fighting for.