Nun that I can see

This will clearly be of burning interest to the idly curious Tom Doyle, if to nobody else. In a comment at Crooked Timber, Tom asks about nuns in foreign (for Tom at any rate) parts, particularly Ireland and the UK. Now it is well known that, in Ireland, nuns cause elderly dipsomaniacal priests to spring through the window. But Tom might be intrigued to learn that in Germany, where I live, there are so far as I can tell no nuns at all.

Oh, very occasionally you'll see a nun; but she is a tourist, no doubt. As a general rule, though, you just don't run across them. This raises an interesting and somewhat Berkeleyan question.

Could it be that there are in fact nuns galore, but all of them are tucked away in heavily-gated and -guarded cloisters, far from the prying eyes of the world? Maybe; but one can't imagine this sort of thing being an easy sell for the recruiters these days.

Or maybe there are nuns a-plenty, who simply no longer wear the distinctive nun-suit. If this is true, then Germany could be positively seething with nuns, to judge by the number of stodgily-dressed, rather frumpy women in sensible shoes. Why, one of them might even become chancellor soon.

Yes; now that I think of it, this is almost certainly the case. Hordes of nuns in mufti are taking over the place; we stand before the establishment of a nunocracy. Father Jack would be horrified.

BTW, you do see uniformed nuns in Germany often enough. But these are protestant nuns! Given that I've never seen one younger than 145 or so, though, I don't imagine we'll be seeing them very much longer.