In that sense you have a good point. . . exposure and first hand knowledge is what we lack.
Riots, protests, gang violence = these things are the only first hand knowledge of the overall nature of violence and social unrest that many Americans have *unless* they are in the military and deploy to a warzone (or immigrate here from a warzone). Even then - quite a few people will never *be* in a riot, will never *witness* a protest and will never participate or be a victim of gang activity. Our country is so vast it's very easy to go your entire life completely avoiding these situations.
A real, full scale and all encompassing war has not been waged on our soil. That physical separation removes us from "the fight" and distances people from the reality of it. . . this actually leads *many* people to support our war in the Middle East and so on with the phrase "as long as it's not in *my* back yard" (meaning - as long as it's not on our soil they'll be ok with it).
However, by living in Germany and other nations in Europe you know and see first hand accounts - constantly - of WWII, WWI and so on. . . knowing full well the long lasting and horrific aftermath. How it effects your economy, your social-coagulation, culture and so forth. It's all *very* real and *very* home. . . you don't need to see it in a movie to witness what happens because of war - you know.
Now - I find it interesting the # of people on this forum who are *from* Germany. Bennyhill posted frequently for a while and he made me interested *in* German politics - so I read some news papers and even read your Basic Law. Anti-war and violence is a fundamental component of your Basic Law on which many other laws are founded - that's not saying that Germans are without crime, of course - but it's a solid government-belief that violence and warfare is detestable and should be avoided at all costs. Whenever something is ingrained in the core of the government's ways - it becomes ingrained in the core of people's beliefs on how everyone should live.
Now - how do we compare to the rest of the world on this? The leading 10 countries? The leading 50? . . . when comparing Germany to the US its' easy to note the differences but, of course, we're not the only two countries in the world.