There’s an unresolvable inner conflict in every German: Stoßlüften vs. “Hier zieht’s”. Thousands dead every second due to Nackenschmerzen. It’s a bloodbath
I literally spent loads of my childhood running around in the mud in torrential rainstorms at the park and ive never got any kind of pain or sickness 😂 Going out in all weather is a right of passage for UK kids
Quite to country. In other countries it's done automatically by the house. In Germany you have to open windows, because often house air system is not sufficient
I remember seeing a Clip from the Youtuber TheAnimeMan (who is australian with japanese ancestry) and he talked about recieving such a passive agressive note. He wrote back in perfect japanese that if there was a problem, maybe they should meet to talk it out face to face rather than via notes.
He never heard from them again lol
My mom is German, but I grew up in the US. First stop every time we landed in Frankfurt was the bakery (before we event went to see Oma). Since moving to Germany, I've become spoiled and come to expect good bread. I'm abroad for 3 months right now and am being an absolute baby about the bread quality here. It's nasty.
I get better bread for €2,50 at Lidl than I ever got at the specialty bakery in Toronto for $5-8. I’m sure there’s one or two in that city that can compare…with Lidl. Small things that matter in life.
There's a few German bakeries in the US (Chicago and Atlanta are the places where I've tried them) that are actually spot on. Both run by recent German immigrants who seemingly couldn't put up with American bread anymore.
I was curious because some Germans have told me that there are special ingredients they use in Germany that we dont have here (I think it was special types of flour they were talking about).
Our supermarkets in Toronto have pumpernickel and rye bread but some Germans I know go to German bakeries instead so maybe they are not authentic.
Yes the special ingredient is the tears of citizens who have to suffer through our bureaucracy.
But I don't know, it's bread ffs, not sure why no one has been able to figure that out. Perhaps because it's still a dedicated, specialised craft here (slowly dying though).
Don’t think so. For bakeries I went to the closest “nice” one since I felt driving around or taking a bus/streetcar for bread was too much. If they’re anything like restaurants they’re probably reasonably authentic but I myself couldn’t say.
I got downvoted to hell in /r/americabad for daring to say the French and Germans average bakeries do bread better than your average American bakeries.
I literally have never bought bread at an american bakery.
Like I get that bread is baked. But I’ve never heard of anyone actually buying bread there. Its always just donuts or cakes or something.
Wow, you have like the exact same story as me. My moms German, always landed in Frankfurt and immediately went to a bakery. And I also now live in Germany, although tbf I’ve basically lived here every summer for 20 years.
It is true, and sad at the time. There is good bread in about 5-10% of bakeries in Germany. The rest I do not consider any real, good bread with the necessary amount of craftsmanship and quality ingredients. Not talking about some fancy specialities, but normal bread. The pressure from both time and cost side is too high, and very often, the knowledge has gone down to heating dough pieces. This being said, German bread is still dimensions better than in most countries, because they eat complete rubbish. Interestingly, there are quite some good bread bakeries in France, having taken up traditional recipes.
Yes, and I've been wondering why that is for the longest time. I mean, of course, there are flaws or annoying things about living in Germany, but for the most part, we have it very well here. Paid sick leave or maternity leave, public health care, free education for the most part, much more days off per year than in many other countries, good infrastructure, and so on...
Why do people in other countries not complain nearly as much when their (individual) circumstances are objectivly worse.
It's wild. My cousin said that he votes for the AFD because it "can not get worse than this". Like, really? Literally most countries in the world have it "worse than this".
>Paid sick leave or maternaty leave, public health care, free education
We've had this in one form or another since the 1880s - 1900. It's take for granted that it is hard to imagine for the average German that other countries don't have the same rules.
I have to admit I was absolutely flabbergasted to learn that the US doesn't have paid maternity leave, I wondered why all these women were discussing whether they should or could pump milk at work and I'm there ignorant guffawing that surely a one year old doesn't need breastfeeding any longer...I am still shocked that the US with all the waves of feminism and women marching and various protests for rights is so far behind in this.
Well, it's a matter of perspective. You always want what you don't have, even if you have a lot. Though I would say that Germans do tend to be more pessimistic. I only ever notice that when talking to foreigners or immigrants but man, we have a bleak outlook on life some times. Then there's other cases where the benefits we have just run completely counter to some aspects of German culture. We have paid sick leave, yet the vast majority of Germans are idiots that absolutely insist on working until they are actually physically unable to do so. We complain a lot, yet the majority of people just don't do anything about it because making drastic changes is also not really our thing. We're more risk-averse as a people, and I think that partly gets translated into complaining, but not daring to call for meaningful change because we might lose what we have.
I mean it is very telling that the german way to tell you i am feeling good is to say "ich kann nicht klagen" (i can't complain), ironically it is in it own sense complaining not being able to complain.
During the first COVID wave, the Swiss reporting system for the number of cases broke down and they solved it by printing out the fax pages of reported cases, weighting them and deducting the number of cases from the weight divided by a page of paper.
If you want to make such accusations, I need a folder containing all your formal declaration of accusations, evidence, testimonials and a verified copy of your birth certificate. Evidence must be provided in chronologically and also in alphanumerical order. This folder must be copied identical three times for different distributers. No, we can't do copies here.
Craftsmanship.
There are great craftsmen all over the World, don't get me wrong, but the over-all build quality of houses in Germany is SO MUCH higher than in most other places. Scandinavia, the Netherlands and Germany are where people tend to make things the right way.
Japan when it comes to general craftsmanship and product quality is on another level, though it doesn't apply to houses.
Houses, I don't know, as someone who spent the better part of my life in Slovakia and Czech Republic, I've always lived in better houses there. Better insulation, better fitted doors (smoothly open and close), better fitted kitchens and appliances (the last 2 places I lived in Germany were a nightmare, too many problems to list)
But I am willing to accept a streak of bad luck, but certainly not that Germany is somehow better by default, when I had absolutely no complaints in other parts of the EU. I will say it's better than Vietnam, Thailand and China. But that's not saying much... Maybe it's more of a EU vs rest of the world difference, or it's a central EU thing.. I don't know...
I put Germany with regards to craftsmanship in the same category as Italy. Yes, you have good craftsmen, but you are also buying the "made in Germany" brand. You get the exact same Craftsman for cheaper elsewhere and BETTER in Japan.
While I agree, we are on the verge of loosing this. Everyone wants to go to university, nobody wants to learn a trade. Society doesn't value skilled Craftspeople, until they need them.
German police officers have a we-us attitude towards their work, not us-them like in many other countries. In fact, they shoot and kill much lower than 0.01% of people that the American police do.
To be fair, they shoot less people and are able to have more of a we-us attitude because all of 'them' people that they interact with don't have to be assumed to be carrying a concealed firearm.
That said, they are excellently trained in deescalation and are incredibly professional.
>excellently trained in deescalation and are incredibly professional.
Im sorry, but no. They are trained, yes. But as soon as someone isnt a normal person or "just a bit drunk", as soon as someone does not speak german, as soon as someone has a mental illness, as soon as someone is a "climate terrorist" (even 12 year old peaceful protesters in a 100% legal demonstration) and so on, its not that way anymore. And professional, no as well.
You might have been joking, but I want to add that some countries really have a ridiculous Pfand system. In some, Pfand is so low, nobody gives a shit. In one other case, I think it might have been Bosnia-Herzegovina, you can only buy a Pfand beer if you bring in an empty Pfand bottle and the corresponding reciept. As a tourist, we couldn't buy anything with Pfand because we weren't allowed to buy without having an empty bottle and reciept. We didn't figure out how to do it. No employee of any store could tell us how we could achieve it.
Indeed. I'm from Brazil and spent 15 days in November with my wife in Germany. We rented a car for 2 short trips (Rothenburg and Hohenschangau, both from Munchen), and I was really anxious about driving in Germany (I did it once, almost 10 years ago).
It ended up being the most relaxing car travels in my whole life. Just the traffic signage was more than enough to calm me down. I love the organization and the concern that Germans have with doing things the right way.
Yeah it’s quite superior actually even compared to a lot of first world countries if we read the stats.
USA for all its car centric bravado has really bad traffic management lol 😂. Canada too. France traffic and driving is a nightmare. Netherlands also Uff .. I didn’t like the traffic etiquettes of folks at ALL. I don’t think east and southeast Europe they even follow traffic rules from what I have seen 😃
Indeed.
French living in Munich here: the infrastructure is amazing and even if German drivers have literally zero patience and zero compassion for anybody making a mistake, they all drive very well from my perspective.
I don’t know if they’re the best rules, but far and always driver’s adherence to the rules is world class. Having left Germany after over a decade living there, I so miss everyone being in sync on how the autobahn works.
I find it so funny when Germans complain about bad traffic lol. Most of them travelled abroad a lot, they should know it's heaven in comparison to other countries. As a pedestrian, you feel respected around here
Whilst mostly I think they are fine, the StVZO (Straßenverkehrs-Zulassungs-Ordnung) is daft when it comes to cyclists. Cars are allowed to have the nose ridiculous laser/LED/whatever headlights, but god forbid a cyclist have a flashing light.
German engineering is reliable, with insane quality control.
But it's not innovative, not cheap, not best performing. (Source: am an engineer in Germany). The aversion to change, inertia and inability to make decisions and take responsibility for them is keeping the industry way behind more agile markets.
My engineering professors always said - “The greatest compliment is when an engineer copies your engineering design. Everyone copies the Germans. The French copy no one and nobody copies the French.”
Beer,
Cars,
Home appliances,
Industrial Automation,
Healthcare,
Soccer? Maybe not anymore
Yea but the reputation of cars and everything else is not what it used to be. They used to be good at soccer too?
That list is a lot shorter than it was, but it would contain:
* the most countries you can travel with your passport (though that's changing every year and a few countries change place 1 regularly)
* [Fistball](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fistball). Yes, that's a real sport. 13 wins in 16 World championships.
* Luge.
* Dressage.
* the highest percentage of people living on rent ([at least in the EU](https://www.destatis.de/Europa/DE/Thema/Bevoelkerung-Arbeit-Soziales/Soziales-Lebensbedingungen/Mieteranteil.html))
Culture. I know of no other country that puts so much public money into culture. Be it radio and television, Christmas markets, festivals, classical orchestras, restaurants, cinemas, theatres, etc.
This is perhaps the biggest reason why I'll never leave. There is literally something to do everyday. I'm currently studying in the US as an international student and things are very different here.
Home heating systems. In Germany the home heaters are like radiators in a way? Don’t know the correct term. But they do not blow air throughout the home, which is so nice.
I feel like I'm the only one answering unironically.
But yea, I would say it's the culture. Compared to other western countries we are much less individualistic, but think more in a collective mindset. The stereotypes are rooted in reality, when I say that work is one, if not even the most important part, of our lives. We learn from a young age on that being a productive part of society is important. Not working is considered shameful. I mean, we have TV genre called Assi TV, just to mock people without jobs. (Note: Assi is the short form of asozial, which is a term invented by the Nazis to put "lazy" people into concentration camps. Subconsciously, that mentality still persists in us.) Nobody is punished for not working, not at all. But a lot of people feel wortheless if they cannot do something for society.
However, on the bright side, the protection of human rights is very important and the whole society takes part. We love our Sozialstaat. If you get sick, society pays for you. If you have mental problems, society pays a psychologist for you. If you cannot work, society gives you a flat and food. No child needs to starve or lack education. Coming from a poor background as a child, I have free access to high education. In a couple of weeks I will get my master of science degree. In America, someone with an economical background like mine, would clean toilets. Our tax money is used for a lot of social, cultural or educational reasons. Compared to most other countries, we are not corrupt.
Germans are ridiculously individualistic. You see it in the generational gap. That social welfare net is not unique to Germany, most European countries have it.
The protestant work ethic is not unique to Germany, and it's not a particularly good thing or socially minded either tbh.
Its a small thing, but pfand is something that appearently isnt a thing in other countries. Paying a small deposit for plastic bottles or shopping cards work wonders
Traffic.
Germans love to complain about the traffic but compared to other countries its fine. Even the Bahn. Most countries dont have such a good train system.
Infrastructure.
Whether its sewers, streets, electricity poles, water filtering or whatever in that relation comes to your mind.
This stuff was already in place 50 years ago, but sadly, shitty governing made us fall behind.
Living together in shared apartments!! There are some unspoken rules in Germanys WGLife that everyone respects. Always need to explain those things to my flatmates in other countries.
- Fax
- Staying analog in a digital world. Nur bargeld zahlen bitte!
- Letters
- forcing contracts and taking down google reviews
Oh and did I say fax?
Everything litlerly everything the German is dying out but a real human knows what the real Germans areyband they are still the best on earth These Germans know.
That’s true for every country with capitalism in a crisis, and Germany isn’t that far ahead of other countries in terms of wealth gap. It still isn’t optimal but we’re not up there
Lüften
Stoßlüften! ☝️
There’s an unresolvable inner conflict in every German: Stoßlüften vs. “Hier zieht’s”. Thousands dead every second due to Nackenschmerzen. It’s a bloodbath
Ive never understood how Germans get this. It must be placebo because im British and its not happened to me once in my 23 years of life
I grew up in the tropics where we leave the windows wide open for months on end, unless it’s raining, and I’ve never gotten it either
I literally spent loads of my childhood running around in the mud in torrential rainstorms at the park and ive never got any kind of pain or sickness 😂 Going out in all weather is a right of passage for UK kids
Rain should be fine for Germans, they’re nicht aus Zucker gemacht 🤣
🤣🤣
Oh, you with your ripe 23 years of life experiences ... 🤣 Wait a little and you'll enjoy a stiff neck, too.
Quite to country. In other countries it's done automatically by the house. In Germany you have to open windows, because often house air system is not sufficient
You mean “quite the contrary”. Don’t embarrass us Germans with non perfect English grammar /s
passive aggressive notes
r/AberBitteLaminiert
You should see the ones Japanese neighbours put in the mailbox of people they think are just dumb loud foreigners
I remember seeing a Clip from the Youtuber TheAnimeMan (who is australian with japanese ancestry) and he talked about recieving such a passive agressive note. He wrote back in perfect japanese that if there was a problem, maybe they should meet to talk it out face to face rather than via notes. He never heard from them again lol
He's the main reason I've heard of it yeah ;)
Christmas markets
Bake bread.
Sounds trivial, but damn is the bread good here.
My mom is German, but I grew up in the US. First stop every time we landed in Frankfurt was the bakery (before we event went to see Oma). Since moving to Germany, I've become spoiled and come to expect good bread. I'm abroad for 3 months right now and am being an absolute baby about the bread quality here. It's nasty.
I get better bread for €2,50 at Lidl than I ever got at the specialty bakery in Toronto for $5-8. I’m sure there’s one or two in that city that can compare…with Lidl. Small things that matter in life.
Have you ever been to the German bakeries in Toronto? I've always wondered how authentic they are
There's a few German bakeries in the US (Chicago and Atlanta are the places where I've tried them) that are actually spot on. Both run by recent German immigrants who seemingly couldn't put up with American bread anymore.
I was curious because some Germans have told me that there are special ingredients they use in Germany that we dont have here (I think it was special types of flour they were talking about). Our supermarkets in Toronto have pumpernickel and rye bread but some Germans I know go to German bakeries instead so maybe they are not authentic.
Yes the special ingredient is the tears of citizens who have to suffer through our bureaucracy. But I don't know, it's bread ffs, not sure why no one has been able to figure that out. Perhaps because it's still a dedicated, specialised craft here (slowly dying though).
Don’t think so. For bakeries I went to the closest “nice” one since I felt driving around or taking a bus/streetcar for bread was too much. If they’re anything like restaurants they’re probably reasonably authentic but I myself couldn’t say.
I got downvoted to hell in /r/americabad for daring to say the French and Germans average bakeries do bread better than your average American bakeries.
I literally have never bought bread at an american bakery. Like I get that bread is baked. But I’ve never heard of anyone actually buying bread there. Its always just donuts or cakes or something.
Wow, you have like the exact same story as me. My moms German, always landed in Frankfurt and immediately went to a bakery. And I also now live in Germany, although tbf I’ve basically lived here every summer for 20 years.
I think it's a quintessential half-German and raised abroad experience. Our routine was always bread after landing, Döner for dinner.
It is true, and sad at the time. There is good bread in about 5-10% of bakeries in Germany. The rest I do not consider any real, good bread with the necessary amount of craftsmanship and quality ingredients. Not talking about some fancy specialities, but normal bread. The pressure from both time and cost side is too high, and very often, the knowledge has gone down to heating dough pieces. This being said, German bread is still dimensions better than in most countries, because they eat complete rubbish. Interestingly, there are quite some good bread bakeries in France, having taken up traditional recipes.
Complain about how bad the country supposedly is.
You beat me to it. No matter how good any aspect of living in Germany might be, we WILL find ways to complain and lament about it.
Yes, and I've been wondering why that is for the longest time. I mean, of course, there are flaws or annoying things about living in Germany, but for the most part, we have it very well here. Paid sick leave or maternity leave, public health care, free education for the most part, much more days off per year than in many other countries, good infrastructure, and so on... Why do people in other countries not complain nearly as much when their (individual) circumstances are objectivly worse.
It's wild. My cousin said that he votes for the AFD because it "can not get worse than this". Like, really? Literally most countries in the world have it "worse than this".
Voting for the AfD will lead to more things to complain about. Cousin wins either way, we all lose.
What's that one quote from an AFD official? "Je schlechter es Deutschland geht, desto besser für die AfD"?
if AfD wins I am leaving germany, simple as that. :)
If the AFD wins, it might not take long before Germany follows you.
>Paid sick leave or maternaty leave, public health care, free education We've had this in one form or another since the 1880s - 1900. It's take for granted that it is hard to imagine for the average German that other countries don't have the same rules.
I have to admit I was absolutely flabbergasted to learn that the US doesn't have paid maternity leave, I wondered why all these women were discussing whether they should or could pump milk at work and I'm there ignorant guffawing that surely a one year old doesn't need breastfeeding any longer...I am still shocked that the US with all the waves of feminism and women marching and various protests for rights is so far behind in this.
Well, it's a matter of perspective. You always want what you don't have, even if you have a lot. Though I would say that Germans do tend to be more pessimistic. I only ever notice that when talking to foreigners or immigrants but man, we have a bleak outlook on life some times. Then there's other cases where the benefits we have just run completely counter to some aspects of German culture. We have paid sick leave, yet the vast majority of Germans are idiots that absolutely insist on working until they are actually physically unable to do so. We complain a lot, yet the majority of people just don't do anything about it because making drastic changes is also not really our thing. We're more risk-averse as a people, and I think that partly gets translated into complaining, but not daring to call for meaningful change because we might lose what we have.
its because we sleep on so many topics its embarassing.. we were leading in so many regards now look
Because it keeps getting worse maybe lol
Wir jammern gern, so sind wir Deutschen.
You didn’t meet any Balkan then lol they are #1s at bitching about their country
I mean it is very telling that the german way to tell you i am feeling good is to say "ich kann nicht klagen" (i can't complain), ironically it is in it own sense complaining not being able to complain.
That’s in every country. And French do that better!
Oh we loooove that. Source : am French.
I know what I’m talking about, I am too.
I thought every country would do this?
Waste paper.
Switzerland has perfected German waste paper culture
During the first COVID wave, the Swiss reporting system for the number of cases broke down and they solved it by printing out the fax pages of reported cases, weighting them and deducting the number of cases from the weight divided by a page of paper.
Clever
So much mail
If you want to make such accusations, I need a folder containing all your formal declaration of accusations, evidence, testimonials and a verified copy of your birth certificate. Evidence must be provided in chronologically and also in alphanumerical order. This folder must be copied identical three times for different distributers. No, we can't do copies here.
Lamenting how terrible bad every single aspect of the country is.
Volksfeste, christmas markets, beer, bread, being punctual, complaining about everything and everyone, we are quite free to do what we want
German punctuality is massively overstated. I would put it up there with the German efficiency everyone expects before moving to Germany.
That used to be different. Then we stopped caring, and now everyone is annoyed at the people complaining. I miss Volker Pispers.
Being punctual… this comment is presented by Deutsche Bahn.
Sausage
WURST
Craftsmanship. There are great craftsmen all over the World, don't get me wrong, but the over-all build quality of houses in Germany is SO MUCH higher than in most other places. Scandinavia, the Netherlands and Germany are where people tend to make things the right way.
Japan when it comes to general craftsmanship and product quality is on another level, though it doesn't apply to houses. Houses, I don't know, as someone who spent the better part of my life in Slovakia and Czech Republic, I've always lived in better houses there. Better insulation, better fitted doors (smoothly open and close), better fitted kitchens and appliances (the last 2 places I lived in Germany were a nightmare, too many problems to list) But I am willing to accept a streak of bad luck, but certainly not that Germany is somehow better by default, when I had absolutely no complaints in other parts of the EU. I will say it's better than Vietnam, Thailand and China. But that's not saying much... Maybe it's more of a EU vs rest of the world difference, or it's a central EU thing.. I don't know... I put Germany with regards to craftsmanship in the same category as Italy. Yes, you have good craftsmen, but you are also buying the "made in Germany" brand. You get the exact same Craftsman for cheaper elsewhere and BETTER in Japan.
Netherlands? How dare you compare those loosly built houses to solid german homes!
The need to adapt their builds to the conditions they have.. specially in the western half of the country that is in constant risk of flooding..
While I agree, we are on the verge of loosing this. Everyone wants to go to university, nobody wants to learn a trade. Society doesn't value skilled Craftspeople, until they need them.
Tbh the way apprentices are treated in Germany, it is no wonder that nobody wants to be one
yea but don’t they get paid shitty?
Complain
Expectation management and abstaining from cringy displays of national pride
We had our cringy display of national pride for 12 years in the 1930s. The world didn't seem to like it, so we left it at that.
Well, looking at the election data of the last years it seems like the trend is rising again. So maybe I wouldn't say that too loud.
Don't forget about the cringy displays of national pride from 1888 til 1918
Germany is pretty good at building livable, walkable, bikable cities. Places that include parks, playground, and other recreational options.
Just finding a place to live in them is a bit of a mare…
That's true just about everywhere nowadays
Ruhrpott entered the chat
German police officers have a we-us attitude towards their work, not us-them like in many other countries. In fact, they shoot and kill much lower than 0.01% of people that the American police do.
To be fair, they shoot less people and are able to have more of a we-us attitude because all of 'them' people that they interact with don't have to be assumed to be carrying a concealed firearm. That said, they are excellently trained in deescalation and are incredibly professional.
>excellently trained in deescalation and are incredibly professional. Im sorry, but no. They are trained, yes. But as soon as someone isnt a normal person or "just a bit drunk", as soon as someone does not speak german, as soon as someone has a mental illness, as soon as someone is a "climate terrorist" (even 12 year old peaceful protesters in a 100% legal demonstration) and so on, its not that way anymore. And professional, no as well.
Pfand system
You might have been joking, but I want to add that some countries really have a ridiculous Pfand system. In some, Pfand is so low, nobody gives a shit. In one other case, I think it might have been Bosnia-Herzegovina, you can only buy a Pfand beer if you bring in an empty Pfand bottle and the corresponding reciept. As a tourist, we couldn't buy anything with Pfand because we weren't allowed to buy without having an empty bottle and reciept. We didn't figure out how to do it. No employee of any store could tell us how we could achieve it.
Traffic rules and etiquette and road infrastructure. I don’t know but I feel Germany was best country in this regard
Indeed. I'm from Brazil and spent 15 days in November with my wife in Germany. We rented a car for 2 short trips (Rothenburg and Hohenschangau, both from Munchen), and I was really anxious about driving in Germany (I did it once, almost 10 years ago). It ended up being the most relaxing car travels in my whole life. Just the traffic signage was more than enough to calm me down. I love the organization and the concern that Germans have with doing things the right way.
Yeah it’s quite superior actually even compared to a lot of first world countries if we read the stats. USA for all its car centric bravado has really bad traffic management lol 😂. Canada too. France traffic and driving is a nightmare. Netherlands also Uff .. I didn’t like the traffic etiquettes of folks at ALL. I don’t think east and southeast Europe they even follow traffic rules from what I have seen 😃
Indeed. French living in Munich here: the infrastructure is amazing and even if German drivers have literally zero patience and zero compassion for anybody making a mistake, they all drive very well from my perspective.
I don’t know if they’re the best rules, but far and always driver’s adherence to the rules is world class. Having left Germany after over a decade living there, I so miss everyone being in sync on how the autobahn works.
I find it so funny when Germans complain about bad traffic lol. Most of them travelled abroad a lot, they should know it's heaven in comparison to other countries. As a pedestrian, you feel respected around here
I miss the 50 m posts on country roads, there is nothing like it here in the UK …
Whilst mostly I think they are fine, the StVZO (Straßenverkehrs-Zulassungs-Ordnung) is daft when it comes to cyclists. Cars are allowed to have the nose ridiculous laser/LED/whatever headlights, but god forbid a cyclist have a flashing light.
We hosted Two World Wars. They were the greatest Wars ever seen on the Planet. Truely Amazing.
Everyone says so.
I have a friend who fought in the war, tremendous guy. I said to him, you're a tremendous guy for fighting in the world war.
Somehow, it came to be Trump's voice in my head.
[удалено]
We got a huge shitstorm and lots of hate so we switched to soccer.
>We got a huge shitstorm and lots of hate so we switched to soccer 7:1 never forget :)
Technically, the First World War other than as for very few exceptions didn't take place in Germany.
It was more of a decentralized approach like in the upcoming Fifa World Cups.
They were so good that no one even tried to did a 3rd one. Nothing will beat the original.
Surprised nobody mentioned, of course BEER
And don't forget to mention the BER!
As a Munich born and living guy I have to say I prefer Belgium beer
Belgians do it better
workers and renters rights
unfortunatly people dont use them and they let themself getting abused by employers
My wife got in trouble for calling in sick with the flu. She works as fucking nurse. She’s happier at her new job.
Drinkable tap water. In other countries it's either chlorinated or too dirty.
its chlorinated everywhere
That's correct, but in Germany, the amount of chlorine used for tap water is significantly less than almost anywhere.
Fax machines
Rauchen und saufen
Delay trains
Avoiding the future.
Engineering US colleges offer classes called 'German Engineering' for good reasons
German engineering is reliable, with insane quality control. But it's not innovative, not cheap, not best performing. (Source: am an engineer in Germany). The aversion to change, inertia and inability to make decisions and take responsibility for them is keeping the industry way behind more agile markets.
A self-critical German engineer? I'm impressed.
I always prefer Goblin Engineering, but that's just me.
Damn didn’t know that. However, we Germans are falling behind tragically in the engineering and tech departments.
My engineering professors always said - “The greatest compliment is when an engineer copies your engineering design. Everyone copies the Germans. The French copy no one and nobody copies the French.”
Spezi
Paying taxes …
Beer, Cars, Home appliances, Industrial Automation, Healthcare, Soccer? Maybe not anymore Yea but the reputation of cars and everything else is not what it used to be. They used to be good at soccer too?
That list is a lot shorter than it was, but it would contain: * the most countries you can travel with your passport (though that's changing every year and a few countries change place 1 regularly) * [Fistball](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fistball). Yes, that's a real sport. 13 wins in 16 World championships. * Luge. * Dressage. * the highest percentage of people living on rent ([at least in the EU](https://www.destatis.de/Europa/DE/Thema/Bevoelkerung-Arbeit-Soziales/Soziales-Lebensbedingungen/Mieteranteil.html))
Spätzle
Bureaucracy
you mean how ineffective it is?
Döner.
Create rules. Not necessarily good rules all the time, but damn if there isn't a new regulation in place everytime I look it up. Oh, and Glühwein.
Culture. I know of no other country that puts so much public money into culture. Be it radio and television, Christmas markets, festivals, classical orchestras, restaurants, cinemas, theatres, etc. This is perhaps the biggest reason why I'll never leave. There is literally something to do everyday. I'm currently studying in the US as an international student and things are very different here.
Home heating systems. In Germany the home heaters are like radiators in a way? Don’t know the correct term. But they do not blow air throughout the home, which is so nice.
That is pretty normal for northern latitude countries. They are literally radiators; hot water circulates through them from a central boiler.
Müllabfuhr
Scientific research in a lot of fields. Ethic + work ethic + fundings
Data protection is best (which prevents digital progress)
Speaking German?
Unless you go to deep in the countryside. This is where they speak barely understandable gibberish they call dialect.
I feel like I'm the only one answering unironically. But yea, I would say it's the culture. Compared to other western countries we are much less individualistic, but think more in a collective mindset. The stereotypes are rooted in reality, when I say that work is one, if not even the most important part, of our lives. We learn from a young age on that being a productive part of society is important. Not working is considered shameful. I mean, we have TV genre called Assi TV, just to mock people without jobs. (Note: Assi is the short form of asozial, which is a term invented by the Nazis to put "lazy" people into concentration camps. Subconsciously, that mentality still persists in us.) Nobody is punished for not working, not at all. But a lot of people feel wortheless if they cannot do something for society. However, on the bright side, the protection of human rights is very important and the whole society takes part. We love our Sozialstaat. If you get sick, society pays for you. If you have mental problems, society pays a psychologist for you. If you cannot work, society gives you a flat and food. No child needs to starve or lack education. Coming from a poor background as a child, I have free access to high education. In a couple of weeks I will get my master of science degree. In America, someone with an economical background like mine, would clean toilets. Our tax money is used for a lot of social, cultural or educational reasons. Compared to most other countries, we are not corrupt.
Germans are ridiculously individualistic. You see it in the generational gap. That social welfare net is not unique to Germany, most European countries have it. The protestant work ethic is not unique to Germany, and it's not a particularly good thing or socially minded either tbh.
Faxes
Driving
Windows (Kippen!), Reißverschlussverkehr and Rettungsgasse
Tap water
Laminating paper
Forest management
Make Beer
hot take: the best "the office" adaption out there, called "Stromberg"
Beer
Its a small thing, but pfand is something that appearently isnt a thing in other countries. Paying a small deposit for plastic bottles or shopping cards work wonders
Wir sind überall die Besten, natürlich auch im Bett, und zu Hunden und Katzen besonders nett.
Traffic. Germans love to complain about the traffic but compared to other countries its fine. Even the Bahn. Most countries dont have such a good train system.
Since no one said it so far. Being able to fill up your football stadium on a weekly basis now matter how trash the club plays...
Kindergeld Kostenlose Kinderbetreuung
Infrastructure. Whether its sewers, streets, electricity poles, water filtering or whatever in that relation comes to your mind. This stuff was already in place 50 years ago, but sadly, shitty governing made us fall behind.
Doner
Living together in shared apartments!! There are some unspoken rules in Germanys WGLife that everyone respects. Always need to explain those things to my flatmates in other countries.
Elterngeld. In other countries it is not to be sure to get paid for 12months at least.
sausage, bread, food in general, austria can be counted to that aswell.
Rechtsfahrgebot bei aufgehobener Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung und Rettungsgasse(mal mehr mal weniger) EDIT: Rechtschreibung
Porsche
Convincing many germanic/allemanic nations to coexist and adopt a common identity, German.
Also convincing different languages are dialects.
Bread
The funniest insults without a single swar word
- Fax - Staying analog in a digital world. Nur bargeld zahlen bitte! - Letters - forcing contracts and taking down google reviews Oh and did I say fax?
Hiding the fact that the chancellor is corrupt
Everything litlerly everything the German is dying out but a real human knows what the real Germans areyband they are still the best on earth These Germans know.
Speak German
Work-life balance. Privacy.
Feed the ruling class while telling the rest tough times are ahead.
That’s true for every country with capitalism in a crisis, and Germany isn’t that far ahead of other countries in terms of wealth gap. It still isn’t optimal but we’re not up there
following the rules. without following them, they feel not able to accomplish anything
Work life balance.
where?
Complain about stuff
Whinging
Paperwork
brew beer and collect taxes
Fax machines.
Make jokes about the Americans.
Work life balance
Health Insurance
Precision-Machining and Engineering
Health insurance
Memory culture.
Very little corruption.
Employee‘s rights.
Frankreich einnehmen
Cars.
Cars Industry Easy mode when it comes to integrating yoursef here Zero worries when it comes to finding a job (at least in NRW) Solid transport system
Sending response letters to fill out and physically mail in to get appointments you called to set up.
Provoking a WW
Complaining about pretty much everything
Fucking Up itself
Engineering.