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What do you think of Germany?
Juergen Hubert
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Inspired by this thread, I was wondering what you guys think of Germany - to be precise, what you think of modern-day Germany (since otherwise the first thing that will come to everyone's minds is WWII, and while that would certainly be a valid topic for discussion, I'd like to see some more variety in the answers...).
What are the first things that come to your mind?
What are the first things that come to your mind?
Juergen Hubert on
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But seriously, you guys seem pretty cool and I don't have anything against the country as a whole, except perhaps some of the constrictions placed on video games (The whole green blood thing springs to mind). I'll be heading over there for a week in March, so you'd best make my stay a happy one dammit!
Where in Germany will you be staying?
also I miss the food
and my first kiss with tongue was with a German girl
and cobblestones look very nice but suck to run on in the morning
and what's up with the porno at the lunch counter?
Berlin, so right in at the deep end so to speak. Anything I should know about? Things that may make the locals murde me if I do them? What food is delicious and what tastes like the contents of a German toilet?
Oh yeah, the legal age for drinking alcohol is 16 for everything except hard liquor, right?
Butt hose eh?
Is that one of those freudian slits?
I see what you did thar ( :winky: )
never argue with the police
Unfortunately, I've only been there twice, so I can't help you much there...
Fortunately, murdering tourists is quite rare in Germany...
Still, there are a few things you should probably avoid:
- Telling people how "backwards" Germany is.
- Saying things like: "We kicked your butts in WWII, so you are automatically wrong!" or the equivalent (this is just bad debating style. Mind you, plenty of Germans also use similar "Totschlag-Argumente", usually starting with the slaughter of Native Americans and going from there. Just goes to show that jerks are an international phenomenon).
Most Germans will be willing to talk to you, as long as you seem genuinely interested. Questions like "I saw something strange/interesting, but didn't understand it. Could you perhaps explain me what that was all about?" should be a good starting point for conversations with the natives.
Note that religion usually isn't a "comfortable" topic for most Germans - we see religion as a private matter. Politics is another matter - most Germans love to debate politics, but beware of getting sucked into a lengthy diatribe about the current US government - unless, of course, your tastes run in that direction.
First of all, you should visit the lokal bakeries - especially those that are not part of a large chain. Germany has a large variety of of cakes, pastries, cookies, and breads. Especially the latter are noteworthy if you are only familiar with the kind of toast bread wrapped in plastic that seems to predominate the American bread market (or so I've heard). Several thousands of regional bread varieties exist in Germany - be sure to try out some of them.
Apart from that, every region in Germany has its own speciality foods. I don't know what kinds of foods are especially noteworthy in Berlin, though...
Yes. There's also no prohibition against drinking alcohol in public - though of course you shouldn't drink and drive.
Something else: Public transportation is quite good in most German cities, except for rush hours, when they are overfilled - so be sure to buy day tickets for the bus and street car systems.
I know enough about your country to talk about it for a few pages, so I'll just tell you to stop scoring in the last minute. It's not funny. :x
Yeah I had no intention of saying anything like that, its a pretty assholish thing to do. It's bad enough when we had our legions of drunken football supporters over there pissing you guys off (I'm British).
Sounds good, I love me some cakes
I'm going as part of a fairly large group (Around thirty?) so I'm pretty sure some kind of transport has already been organised, which always makes travelling around easier.[/quote]
I'll admit I laughed a bit when Jürgen mentioned bread. My one German friend was constantly bemoaning the lack of proper bread in London. Everything - or almost averything at any rate - was "toast" to him. And by "toast" he meant bread only fit for toasting.
The other food most Germans could agree on was chocolate. They seemed quite proud of the German stuff, saying that while Belgian is often considered to be the "gold standard" in North America (which is probably close to the mark if not bang on), German chocolate is actually better. I didn't get a chance to verify this myself though.
I didn't find that most of the Germans were reluctant to speak about religion. This may have been more to do with the composition of the group though. University students are generally quite open - this applies across all borders I've found. Politics definitely was a favoured topic as well. This was in no small part due to the fact that the core group that I was part of had a large contingent of Political Studies folk.
All in all, the Germans I spent time with were great people and I'm definitely going to visit Germany once I've stopped being poor.
:^:
Really, some of the friendliest people I've ever meet, at least where I was. Reminded me of native Seattlites, but without the sullen indifference you get so much around here. Nice and inviting, rather than nice and distant.
The other thing I noticed when I was in Berlin a couple of years ago was that there seemed to be a sex shop or vendor of pornography or related businesses at about 15m intervals on every street, everywhere. I assumed at the time that this was because all Germans were so heroically oversexed that, having just stocked up on as many magazines and toys and whatnot as they could carry, they would be able to travel about 15m down the street before having entirely exhausted the equipment presently in their possession and so would have to again restock.
While I can't point to any reasons for it, I do think of Germany as being very good at whatever it cares to do. They're smart, stable, and have a record of being able to kick ass in a fight. They do seem to go for restrictive/overbearing government types though.
God, embarassing.
Munich is a tourist trap
Berlin is one of the most amazing, beautiful cities I've ever been to
Bremen is quaint, a place I could see myself living someday
Dresden is depressing, but kinda cool
Hamburg is an OK place, but kinda meh
I do remember him saying that most Germans couldn't handle any sort of jokes about WWII because they were overly sensitive, but I think they have good reason to be. Is it true, in general, people over there hate Hogan's Heroes?
I was born in Dresden, before my parents immigrated to Canada after the wall fell. I tend to go back every 2nd summer or so. I can see why you think it's depressing because well, it is. It used to be one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. The valley it's situated in used to be called the "Valley of the Ignorant" because the way the city is built and situated in it, it was impossible to get Western radio signals. Out of all the places in the former DDR, it was the only place where East Germans couldn't at least have some contact with the West.
And yes, even though I'm German, I still think of Warhammer when someone asks me about Germany.
Me too, though most of the names are gibberish or puns.
I think it really depends on the people you talk to, me and my friends wouldnt have a problem with silly nazi jokes or stuff like that, but some people just dont have a sense of humor.
I heard that at restaurants they don't give you icewater and you have to buy Mineralwasser.
Also, they have three machines where we just have a washer and dryer.
And German children believe that on Christmas Baby Jesus gives them gifts by coming in through an open window before disappearing. (probably only among the small religious segment?)
Oh, and people up north talk very very fast. It's easier to understand people down in Munich.
I grew up with my grandmother going on and on about how efficient the Germans are and how their products were always a mark of high quality, and what a shame it was that the war ended her correspondence with her German pen-pal because the Germans are a lovely people.
Apart from that:
I've only flown over/through Germany. The guards at Frankfurt were scary and imposing, and gave my brothers extremely thorough searches. (:winky:) I like the propriety, though.
Germany has also made some great films.
Oh, and you totally have the best language in the world.
I'd really like to visit properly some day because all the wall calendars at work are determined to portray the most romantic-looking castles and forests and they're nearly always photos taken in Germany.
Yeah, welcome to Europe.
Yes. It's Europe, dude.
Right, I remember - that's a Berlin specialty! That was invented in Berlin in 1949 by a women who owned a fast food stand...
Nope - that's standard even about the areligious crowd that celebrated Christmas (probably the majority). In Germany Santa Claus is a 20th century addition that came from the Anglo-Saxon sphere (though St. Nikolaus is kind of similar).
Incidentally, the gifts are traditionally exchanged on the evening of the 24th, right after going to church - the one day in the year when a large portion of the population actually goes to church.
Well it is not really Baby Jesus, the Christkind ist usually portrayed as a young girl with long blonde hair.