From experience, I think the sooner* we get started the more momentum it'll have. :)
I guess nothing stops people having flashback-esque introductions to any preparations they may have made in Hogsmeade if they want to as a 'prequel' to their proper posts.

* By sooner, I mean 'the further in'. But also the sooner we get started. Let's get going! :P

[b]Incidentally[/b], is anybody going to take any great objection to me designing Germany's wizarding world as I like it? I'm interested in making it quite a right-wing state anyway, but with a bubbling political undercurrent with social engineering aims comparable to those of the death eaters? Nothing's actually [i]happening[/i] but there's implications of quite a nasty political discourse and perhaps slightly expansionist policies. Following the first wizarding war, implied to take place around or in Germany and coinciding with the dates of WW2, there was a period of extreme humility amongst the involved nations (let's say Germany) but now, the wizarding community there is feeling oppressed and that it needs to rise back up against the muggles and assert some dominance - perhaps with a view to national expansion as well as back over the muggles. Johann is a product of that generation.

Obviously there's a lot of making-shit-up here and if we don't want to go down that path, that's fine, but all the English characters have a cultural heritage that everybody's aware of (Death Eater occupation), while international characters are kind of playing blind with regard to their own cultural identity. I did look up Germany on HP Wiki but there's nothing really to go on. I'd certainly like to establish some kind of political scene (if not this one) in Germany just to give Johann a bit more grounding.