On the night of Nov. 4, there was a “grosse party” at the Nuremberg campus with a live band, American flags and bunting everywhere, and a replica of the Statue of Liberty. The Germans were mostly dressed in red, white and blue, and the fare was hamburgers, nachos, chili and other American food.

In a conference room adjoining the party hall, Kunkel sat in on several panel discussions and question-and-answer sessions. Others on the panel included a retired State Department official, a representative of the U.S. consulate in Munich and some German political experts.

The questions were fairly typical ones about the campaign, the role Obama’s race played, the Electoral College ... The notable difference was that many of the attendees were carrying beers and other drinks.

“It was kind of amusing,” Kunkel said.

The next morning, he was up by 6 a.m. German time and immediately switched on his hotel TV, found the BBC and was able to get caught up on what had happened in America after the polls closed. But he was quickly off to another breakfast meeting at a local corporation, attended by leaders of the Nuremberg business community, where he gave his lecture on the election again.

That night, about 150 people were at the Erlangen campus to listen to Kunkel. On the Thursday after the election, it was 75 people in Stuttgart. The weekend was spent visiting the western Bavarian village that was the hometown of Kunkel’s great grandfather.

When he connected with relatives there, the topic of conversation didn’t necessarily change.

“Yeah,” Kunkel said. “They were giving thumbs up for Obama.”

In fact, Kunkel said the support for the Democratic nominee was more than overwhelming.

“At the party, we’d asked, ‘Who’s for Obama?’” he said, describing the cheers and raised hands that followed.

When the same question was asked about McCain?

“One guy sheepishly raised his hand,” Kunkel said. “ ... That was the one person in all of Germany that I found who was for McCain.”

Kunkel described the popular opinion as a sort of “group think” that typically wasn’t rooted in any understanding of the positions of the two candidates on the issues. Still, Germans and other Europeans yearn for an end of the Bush presidency — and what they see as its legacy of war, torture, unilateralist foreign policy and opposition to tackling global warming.

“Overall, Germans really love America and they’re happy to be in love with America again,” Kunkel said.

There’s also admiration that Americans are capable of looking past skin color in choosing a head of government, with several European commentators expressing doubt it could happen in their countries, Kunkel said.