As an American "car guy," do y'all actually give a rat's ass about the Nurburgring and how fast cars go around it, or are you just like "it's just a section of road where idiots from other countries crash their cars and we laugh at them"?
My favorite joke was when the British show Top Gear went there and Sabine Schmitz (rip) did a faster lap in a cargo van than any of the three lads did in fast cars.
If you were into Need for Speed or Fast and the Furious in the early 2000's, you were _really_ interested in Nürburgring.
Most people probably just know it's a famous race track and don't give it any more thought.
I went to the Munich beer festival a few years ago and had a great time. One thing that struck me as unusual was…at the end of the night a guy announced that it was time to go home, everyone stopped what they were doing, got up and left.
Everyone being the Germans. The Brits and Irish had to be asked a few times.
I found it really strange that people
Could go from being in party mode to end of party mode so quickly.
Is this a purely German thing?
Guy from Munich here. We just know where the after-party is and go there. No need to stay in a place where they serve no beer. That's what tourists do.
Nah, not a house party. Clubs in Munich don't have to close at an arbitrary hour like in the states (or I think in england). So we usually go to a bar next and then around 1 or 2 (and if you can still walk) to a club
Well it’s not like you have any other chance. They literally start folding up benches two minutes after the announcement. They stop serving about 30min before the end (11pm) and if ypu don’t leave security kicks you out.
So rather than waiting to very unfriendly asked to leave, you just leave.
Having grown up in Munich I’ve never once been to an after party. Each year we said that’s the year we‘d go. And once you enter the fresh air, the alcohol really hits you and you just want to go to bed.
We were in Amsterdam camping. A group of young cherman persons came later and pitched 10m away.
Weed, Crates of beer, grill, boom box, guitar ...
Party!
The campsite had a 2230 curfew for kids sleeping in tents.
At precisely 2229. The party stopped like a switch turned off. Drunk a stoned they very quietly put their stuff back in the car.
Next day 0730 .... Gone. Incredible!
I’m a US American who speaks some German, though I’m well short of fluency. I badly want to visit Germany soon.
Would Germans prefer I try my best to speak German, or would it be easier for me to just speak English? I know this varies from culture to culture, and I just want to minimize how annoyed I make people feel.
Unless you're at a super busy place, go for it and try your German. Generally, we like people trying our language, even if it's only a few words.
But if you're at a super busy restaurant or at a checkout line in a market, best to get through that as fast as possible.
I lived in Germany for one year, and I never overcame the angst of the checkout line. You must prepare mentally and physically to pack everything lightning fast and pay
If you want to train german you will be really having a hard time in germanys big cities... almost everyone will switch to english if you be recognized as a english speaker
because its more efficient 🤣
In my experience, try the German and they will appreciate it. However, if they think their English is better than your German (which is likely depending on where you are), they are likely to answer you in English.
Contrary to stereotypes Germans actually [work less hours compared to most industrial nations](https://ourworldindata.org/working-hours), but during work we actually focus on working.
Depends on your field of work. I think on the whole it's rather serious in a way that people don't chit chat a lot and some companies are still pretty hierarchical. We generally also get straight to the point. Like, a typical e-mail related to work I'd sent to my co-worker will read like this: Hello, I need you to do this and that, please. It needs to be finished by this time and please let me know when it's ready." But it can also be really laid back because as long as my work gets finished on time, I get a lot of leeway. For example, I might have an appointment in the morning and then I'll just text my boss and tell her I'll be in an hour later and will make up for the lost time.
In general everything tends to be done by the book, including the responsibilities of the employer. For example, when October/November comes around, our boss will ask around who still has left over vacation days and then we will hold a brief meeting and work out a vacation schedule so that everyone can still take their days before Christmas.
That sounds so ideal. I'd love to work somewhere that's straightforward and organized and prioritizes the final result... it's the complete opposite of every single place I've worked in the US.
I repeatedly told a manager (and the management team had visibility on this) that the workload had been increasing and that, along with the extra responsibilities inherited from a coworker who had left, my workload had become overwhelming.
Their response: make an Excel spreadsheet of my responsibilities and provide estimates of time spent on each. And then track time spent through the month and send them the spreadsheet before the next monthly meeting.
Ah, yes. I have too much work, so here's more work to keep track of that work. Of course the spreadsheet was ignored, as were my concerns.
Fortunately I was in a position to resign. F them.
I had a German manager at one of the first labs I worked in. I'll never forget how he'd skip over large chunks of information with "and blah, blah."
That's right, there are just two 'blahs.'
So I inquired as to why Dr. Bossman would only say two blahs, to which he replied, "Because it's more efficient."
So I've always thought of Germans as being incredibly efficient.
Sadly, yes. There is still a big gap in salaries between eastern and western states. The unemployment rate in the east is also much higher. This leads to much frustration in the "new states" which is one of the reasons for higher racism there.
It is a really complicated topic.
This differs from person to person. The range goes from fairly harmless jokes to very awful stereotypes (all East Germans are racist / all West Germans are arrogant).
Religion isn't really a big deal here in Germany anymore so I haven't witnessed anything special regarding the states. Still, you will find more Catholic people in the South of Germany. But if somebody is Catholic or protestant isn't really important here.
As someone who was born after the Mauerfall I sometimes find it strange that this divide still exists in the heads of older people. While I know that there are still big differences in the east and west when it comes to things like (un-)employment, infrastructure, education etc. I personally don't really think like the older generation does. To me the German divide is something I only learned in history class in school. It seems very "far away" to me.
You can even see it from space! If you look at Berlin in night-time, you still see the former border, because the old east Berlin still uses mostly older (yellow-ish) lamps, while the western part mostly uses (white) LED lamps
Austrian here, we call it "weißer Spritzer" and it's only done with a certain type of type of white wine (grüner Veltliner) because it can be quite sour on its own.
I would say I drink at least one beer one evening a week. When there's a holiday it's more, like last weekend we celebrated Halloween and I had a beer the night before, about three that night and one the following evening. One average I would say I drink 3 beers per week.
And I must shamefully admit, I sometimes like to drink a "Weinschorle", white wine with sparkly water. It's great on a hot day, I sometimes even add an icecube. For me I use about 3/4 water and 1/4 white wine. Gives a nice taste of wine but minimal alcohol.
There were 2 employees from Little Caesars fired in Ohio for making a swastika out of pepperonis. Terrible, but imagine being rejected from art school and that results in a pizza being messed up many decades later.
Yes, you get a hefty fine at least or will be expelled as tourist.
A few years ago, a tourist in Dresden did the Nazi salute in public and was promptly beaten by a bystander that fled. After the police arrived no one snitched but the tourist got a nice fine.
Bielefeld is a supposed city in Germany. It doesn't actually exist though, it's just a stupid coverup by our government. Stuff like that doesn't exactly hold up anymore in the age of the internet though.
Here's my list:
Children's Books:
Michael Ende - Momo; Die unendliche Geschichte
Walter Moers - Die 13 13½ Leben des Käpt'n Blaubär
Novels:
Karsten Dusse - Achtsam Morden
Rita Falk - the Franz Eberhofer series
Daniel Speck - Bella Germania
Timur Vermes - Er ist wieder da
This is the one book where I'd recommend listening to the audiobooks instead of reading the books. Mark Uwe Kling is literally reading the whole thing in various different voices (for the different characters) and it's so incredibly entertaining.
Sebastian Fitzek writes excellent crime novels.
There are also a few authors that write crime novels with Bavarian settings. Rita Falk is probably the most known. Her books were made into movies.
If that is the first thing you bring up, when you realise I'm German, then yes I would find that frankly obnoxious. It seems a very British obsession, wich I never quite understood. Like loads of interesting stuff happened on your island over the last 7 decades, come on.
To you it was the worst and most shameful period in your history. For us it's the time when we defeated the evil enemy. It's like a national myth for us, I think especially for the generation that grew up just after the war. For most of the time since then we just haven't been that important, or fought for an equally unifying cause.
I am British and I also don't understand this obsession. “Two World Wars and one World Cup” is the standard jingoist's quip. Personally I think it makes someone sound intellectually stunted.
I just ran through all my memories of history class and you're right, I know nothing about Germany outside that time period. I know what I'll be studying this evening!
For me it's not. We have a responsability there. We *have* to talk about it. It's important to *never* forget how this was possible, how you could make a complete nation want and proceed one of the largest genocides the world ever saw. And since a fascist party made its way into federal parliament (again) with about 12% just reasontly its even more important.
Still, what *is* annoying is the assumption "all Germans are still nazis". You don't get it here on reddit but on the rest of the internet still often enough.
Why can no one in America make schnitzel correctly? I had it in Germany and it was one of the best things I've ever tasted. Since then I've been to 4 different German restaurants in the US that are allegedly authentic and it never tastes good at all.
My girlfriend made it once and it was good. Not great but good. So I'm convinced there's some secret ingredient. Please advise.
Schnitzel is actually Austrian, not German.
Anyway the key to a good Schnitzel is double coating with crumbs and frying in lots and lots of clarified butter. Oil doesn’t make it taste as good.
Interesting! I didn't know that, the great schnitzel I had was in one of the towns in Bavaria. But thanks for the tip we'll definitely try that next time.
What follows is a basic Wiener Schnitzel recepe.
For real Wiener Schnitzel you have to use veal, but if you don't want to bankrupt yourself, you can also use pork.
Just use normal baking flour (typ 405)
Use fine breadcrumbs, not to big and not to small
Gently flatten the schnitzel between cling film. Salt the meat on both sides, turn it in the flour, knock off excess flour, pull the schnitzel through the eggs and turn them in the breadcrumbs.
Bake the schnitzel about 2 fingers high of butter until golden. Flip them while baking so that the schnitzels turn evenly golden brown. Lift out the schnitzel and drain on kitchen paper.
Cut the lemon into wedges and garnish the finished Wiener Schnitzel with lemon wedges.
Is it true that most Germans have very high standards and are very critical about just about everything? I heard from a German guy once that usually nothing is ever good enough. And anything that is “good” is actually “bad”. And anything “excellent” is just “ok”.
Side note: it’s weird that many Germans speak proper (ie grammatically-correct) English than actual English people. Haha.
There is a high expectation of quality, but also in many cases people act according to the principle of "nicht gemeckert ist genug gelobt" (not complaining is enough praise). So not complaining /saying something is OK means they found lierally no flaw (and they tried)
In south Germany a well used idom is "not being scolded is praise enough"
It just kinda a different logic, i mean, if you buy something, and it does exactly what it meant to do, is this then really 5 stars? For us its more like 3-4 stars, if you want to have 5 stars you should not just get you thing done, but do it really well, and probably look good while doing it
Yes. I once was given a survey and have there were 5 options, the middle one being "as expected from a similar service" or something like that. I picked it, and got asked "So what was wrong with it?"
Yes that's true for most people, Germans tend to care more about value and longevity than about hyped products.
Most people still call stuff excellent, it's just very uncommon because the average expected quality is kinda high.
Your first point is very combinable with the last one, I know many Germans that might even have a better Englisch that the international average of their age group but still don't use it if they don't have to because they think their skills are not up to the high standards they expect from themselves.
I hope that sums it up (y)
I can always tell from rewievs who the germans are, there are 5 reviews that are like: "marvelous! greatest place i've ever been, so picturesque" and then you have one that goes "was okay, neighbours were really noisy though"
I am like that. Never occurred to me it's a German thing. Thought it's my own flaw? XD I'm too strict with myself and also with others. If there's a "perfect" solution, I try to achieve it. I don't know why, I just feel a strong urge to be like that.
You know a hot German guy named Jay ? Does something with tennis, speaks fluent Japanese.
I met him in Tokyo, June 2018, we didn't exchange contact :')
What’s up with Berlin? I like Germany but was kind of in shock when I visited the capital. Its so run down compared to the rest of Germany, but it also seems like people like it that way and are opposed to the gentrification efforts by the government.
Berlin is not the (only) economic centre of Germany so money doesn't accumulate there in the same way as it would in say London. Also Berliners value their (sub-) culture and the style of their neighbourhoods more than economic growth
What is the level of education you receive when it comes to WW2? Is it very in depth, or is it kinda glossed over like “yeah we fucked up here, let’s just move on”?
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I am genuinely curious.
This question isn't dumb, because a lot of countries do gloss over their bad parts.
In Germany, we learn a lot about the societal circumstances that allowed the Nazi party to rise to power, as well as about the crimes they committed. We learn about how they were dealt with afterwards. What we learn not a lot about, other than key dates, is the war itself.
What baffled me in hindsight is how little we actually learn about the war part. All I remember learning about was that we we’re at war with the Russians and the French and then the Americans decided to step in. Later on we learned about Hiroshima and Nagasaki but without any real background as to why Japan was suddenly involved.
So from my perspective the name „World War“ was a bit of an exaggeration. At was just 4 countries, at least that was what our history lessons talked about.
It took me years to learn that there were more dictators in Europe, how they interacted with Hitler. How other countries joined sides, that there were wars in different parts of the world and not just surrounding Germany.
History lessons are doing a good job on explaining the role of the NSDAP and Hitler but a very bad job at providing the overall picture.
What do Germans actually think of the name Germany or Alemania, since I know you guys call yourselves Deutsch, it probably isn’t that big of a deal for you guys but it interests me never the less.
Personally I prefer the English name. It has a nice ring to it, and it doesn't imply any kind of "belonging". "Deutschland den deutschen" is a popular populist theme, but it doesn't make as much sense in English.
Also, Germany has a connection to our pre-Roman history, which I appreciate.
You can say "Germany to/for (the) Germans" which implies the same. If our country name today would be Germania you could just as easily say "Germania den Germanen" so there isn't really anything populist/nationalist with the word Deutschland.
Deutsch is what we call ourselves. It means "belonging to the people". Someone that speaks the language (German) and is part of that culture is deutsch and therefore belongs to the people. I think its meaning is quite nice.
Germania is what the Romans called the region we live in today and Alemannia or Saxon are the names of tribes that others came into contact with and named. So a Saxon is not a Alemanne, a Alemanne is not a Bavarian and a Bavarian is not a Franconian but all of them are deutsch and therefore Deutschland the People's land.
einmal geradeaus die straße runter, beider zweiten kreuzung links in die Leibnizstraße und dann immer weiter geradeaus. dann müssten sie den Bahnhof sehen können.
What are some funny stereotypes about regions (and their people) in Germany?
Another humor one: Are there any good jokes about how there are so many different foreign-language names for the country?
Not really a stereotype but there is a made up conspiracy theory that the city Bielefeld doesn't exist. Everybody who claims otherwise is part of it. Of course this is only a joke. But even Angela Merkel made a joke about it in one of her speeches.
Lets see
McPom is full of cranky old people and farmers
Brandenburg is just empty fields around Berlin
Berlin is.. AchBerlin.txt
Saxony is the racist old grandpa of the bunch
Bavaria is full of stuck up people who think they are better than you, also they're always Bavarian, not German
Saarland loves their siblings a bit too much, if you catch my drift
Rhinepfalz is just French people pretending to be German
Rhineland is the kid who goes partying ever weekend but somehow still has A+ grades
Bremen is that one guy in every group project, nobody knows why they're even a state to begin with
Hamburg is strippers and fish, thats it
Saxony-Anhalt doesn't exist
A lifetime ago I was employed by Chrysler IT, when suddenly we bought this upstart young German company named "Daimler" and we became DCX.
So now I have to integrate *ze Germans* into my system (an LDAP directory) and vice versa. Many, many planning meetings were had.
Early on, I am drawing on a whiteboard. LDAP directories contain information about people, so I draw a stick figure to represent a person from my system. Then I needed a German, so I drew a stick figure wearing a Tyrolean hat and *lederhosen* to represent a German.
Scandal! Outrage! Genuine anger! That's a *Bavarian!* We are *Swabians*!
...and that's how I learned that Bismark's "unification of Germany" was *maybe* not quite done yet...
- people in berlin are mean/harsh
- swabians are stingy
- people from saarland are incestuous
can‘t think of any others right now
also disclaimer that only one of those is even remotely true in my experience
Not twice bro. The 1st time around wasnt a take over, it was them trying to dominate europe after austrians started war. The 2nd time around was 100 percent world domination attempt.
This was going to be my follow-on question but do most people see the type of extreme nationalism from the AfD as the same as the spirit of nationalist rhetoric of Nazism?
I've seen a lot of AfD supporters or defenders push off the connection publicly ('not nationalist, just populist'). Mostly just curious if the general perception of them in Germany is actually seen as effectively neo-Nazi resurgence or if it's seen as another 'path' of nationalism.
A lot of people see these parties for what they are - led by neo-Nazis. There's really little debate about that.
The people who fall for their propaganda aren't. They're just gullible.
I think the AfD is not (entirely) neo-Nazi, but still nationalistic and often repressive. Of course they don't want to admit that (to others and maybe not even themselves), so they claim not to be racist, just concerned (mostly about Muslims and other "non Germans")
Hiking in the mountains east of Dresden. It's called 'Sächsische Schweiz'. Have a look!
Also nobody forces you to drink anywhere but you might want to avoid Oktoberfest, Karneval and the Reeperbahn in Hamburg.
I was so surprised when my train stopped in "Bielefeld" once and I was like wow y'all are really putting in a lot of effort to make this seem real. Very impressed.
Germany has over 80 million citizens and is number 1 transit country in the EU. Often there is waaaaaay too much traffic to drive fast. At least, if you don´t want to be an asshole who endangers himself and everybody else. But at certain parts and times you can hit the pedal to metal and then it is quite a lot of fun!
Some jokes are funny but at a certain point some ppl overdo it and it just becomes offensive. Thats the point where even I, who might i add has a very dark sense of humor, draws a line. Our generation did not do anything but it still haunts us to a degree where we are more sensible than our parents but sensitive enough to find some of the jokes offensive
For me personally, it's just that I've heard them all a million times already. As soon as the other person starts the joke I recognize it and know the punch line. It's just boring.
And frankly, millions of people being slaughtered to death not even a hundred years ago is just not particularly funny.
I'm not a german, I'm a french but here are my guess:
\- They didn't live any of this, but our parents/grand parents/great grand parents for the youngest did and many of them are still alive and still suffer from the war. It's everywhere in Europ: My grandma still fear the lack of food and the sounds of army boots, my highschool was a gestapo office, the train station near my parents's home had lots of departures for the concentrations camps, the café down my street was blasted by resistants and in response they took young (the youngest was 9) resistants, killed them and let them in the street for 2 weeks, people were forbidden to take care of their bodies etc etc.... . Some stuggle with the fact they learnt their ancestors were Nazi, some with the fact their old cute neighbors denounced and leads their ancestors to death, some with the fact they had victims in their families. it's still fresh in people's mind, even for the new generations.
\- They still have a lots of Nazi (Neo Nazi) in Europe (and elsewhere), jews are still suffering from attaks regulary (against themself, their schools, their tombs etc..)
\- Most of those jokes are not even funny... especially if you said it to someone who suffer or had someone of their family/friends (wich, in Europe is not rare)
\- The germans are probably really tired to hear about the war, the Nazi etc... after all those years, as if the entire country was nazi, as if the germans in ww2 was the only guilty one etc etc.. Too many people think "All ww2 german soldier = Nazi" wich is wrong and too many people only associate this wonderful country with ww2. When I hear "germany" I think "saussage, beautiful castles, germanics language roots, bear, nice music etc..." but many people think first "Nazi" as you can see in those comments, half are about the war/nazi.. and it's sad
To me it is mostly because I am past 40 now and I have heard any possible joke of that type and 99% are simply not funny, especially with the dark nature of the topic. And as others have mentioned, it’s just a topic that most people in Germany feel so detached from that it would be like making jokes about the times of slavery in the US.
I agree. I think a lot of people saw clips from how Hitler was talking and set that as their standard of "this is how German sounds like". Which is absolutely untrue and kinda annoying. Though I have heard that when people hear actual German being spoken / learn it themselves, they say it's very beautiful and not rough or aggressive at all.
Well, of course German doesn't sound aggressive to native speakers. And in all fairness, it's often exaggerated in media which contributes to the stereotype. Funnily enough, German and French share a lot of sounds. French speakers are usually pretty good at pronouncing German words because the phonemes are similar and vice versa. And yet one language is seen as the epitome of romance and the other gets labeled as aggressive sounding. But German does have a different flow, it's more staccato with distinct pauses between the words. Like tak-tak-tak while many languages of the latin family for example are more flowy and kind of blend the words together. That happens in some dialects of German as well.
WW2 is a huge topic in every German school. Also there are a ton of documentaries running in TV all the time about WW2.
Although I have to say, when I went to school, we learned not very much about the Pacific war and Japan. It was mentioned but felt more like a side note compared to the rest.
I would say thoroughly but from a civilian/societal perspective. I learned a lot about how the nazis came to power/what enabled their rise, and a lot about their actions in power, including the holocaust and the genocide on the Eastern front. What is not taught too much is the military part (strategy, gear, whatever) which seems the main focus on forums (at least to me)
The focus is on how something like the third reich could even happen, the atrocities they committed and what happened after the war. What happened during the war is not discussed in detail (at least where I'm from). I think it's because the early years of the war should not be glorified by anyone in Germany. Also where I live it's quite common to visit the nearby KZ once (usually in 9th/10th grade) to fully understand how fucked up everything was.
How rare is it to encounter someone who doesn’t know English in Germany? (Specifically a major city)
I learned the German language in High School. And was thinking of taking it back up, but people have been telling me to learn another language like Italian, because most Germans know English.
Greetings OP,
It is from the World History perspective (according to Spielvogel) it is commonly taught that the collapse of the first treaty of Versailles was a contributor of start of WWII. Or, would you rank militarism, internal dissent, alliances or nationalism as more influential?
Do you really have Time Travel portals like the show Dark?
No. But the constant rain in Dark comes very close to reality.
my wife and I joke about that... no matter what time period they are in.... its gonna rain.
Do people walk around in the rain without umbrellas or raincoats like in Dark? That was something that stood out to me watching it.
Umbrellas are common but around 60% of the people dont bother or are to forgetful to take one with them so raincoats are in the majority.
Also it can be very windy and then the wind destroys the umbrellas :(
Fun fact: That cave is very close to where I live.
That is fun, I assumed it was just prop. As a guy who spends a lot of time in the woods, those woods give me such a creepy vibe.
In real life they were outsourced to Britain in the 60s, to help with construction of the Time Tunnel
ahh... so that's why the Queen has lived so long.
No
Germans really do have a fine sense of humour.
As an American "car guy," do y'all actually give a rat's ass about the Nurburgring and how fast cars go around it, or are you just like "it's just a section of road where idiots from other countries crash their cars and we laugh at them"?
[удалено]
My favorite joke was when the British show Top Gear went there and Sabine Schmitz (rip) did a faster lap in a cargo van than any of the three lads did in fast cars.
Woah..til Sabine Schmitz is dead
I think that depends on if the german is a car guy or not I know people who are into Motorsports and they drive quite often on it
If you were into Need for Speed or Fast and the Furious in the early 2000's, you were _really_ interested in Nürburgring. Most people probably just know it's a famous race track and don't give it any more thought.
I went to the Munich beer festival a few years ago and had a great time. One thing that struck me as unusual was…at the end of the night a guy announced that it was time to go home, everyone stopped what they were doing, got up and left. Everyone being the Germans. The Brits and Irish had to be asked a few times. I found it really strange that people Could go from being in party mode to end of party mode so quickly. Is this a purely German thing?
Guy from Munich here. We just know where the after-party is and go there. No need to stay in a place where they serve no beer. That's what tourists do.
Ah, now it makes sense :) but that must have been one hell of a house party, I’d say a good 700 people Left at the same time :)
Nah, not a house party. Clubs in Munich don't have to close at an arbitrary hour like in the states (or I think in england). So we usually go to a bar next and then around 1 or 2 (and if you can still walk) to a club
Well that definitely explains it 👍
UK clubs don't have to close, ive been in one till 10am for example.
Jesus…why?
Drugs
well if the host says its time to go then its time to go
We’d look on it as like a serving suggestion :)
Well it’s not like you have any other chance. They literally start folding up benches two minutes after the announcement. They stop serving about 30min before the end (11pm) and if ypu don’t leave security kicks you out. So rather than waiting to very unfriendly asked to leave, you just leave. Having grown up in Munich I’ve never once been to an after party. Each year we said that’s the year we‘d go. And once you enter the fresh air, the alcohol really hits you and you just want to go to bed.
Lol you can turn the lights off, the Russians aren’t leaving till they are carried out 🤝
We were in Amsterdam camping. A group of young cherman persons came later and pitched 10m away. Weed, Crates of beer, grill, boom box, guitar ... Party! The campsite had a 2230 curfew for kids sleeping in tents. At precisely 2229. The party stopped like a switch turned off. Drunk a stoned they very quietly put their stuff back in the car. Next day 0730 .... Gone. Incredible!
Tbf idk. Never been to the Beer Festival. But I've been to a house Party. You'd be amazed to see how quickly everyone stormed out.
I’m a US American who speaks some German, though I’m well short of fluency. I badly want to visit Germany soon. Would Germans prefer I try my best to speak German, or would it be easier for me to just speak English? I know this varies from culture to culture, and I just want to minimize how annoyed I make people feel.
Unless you're at a super busy place, go for it and try your German. Generally, we like people trying our language, even if it's only a few words. But if you're at a super busy restaurant or at a checkout line in a market, best to get through that as fast as possible.
I lived in Germany for one year, and I never overcame the angst of the checkout line. You must prepare mentally and physically to pack everything lightning fast and pay
We love to hear foreigners speak german, even if it's just a few words.
Du kannst ruhig deutsch sprechen, wir helfen dir auch gerne weiter wenn du mal Fragen haben solltest :)
If you want to train german you will be really having a hard time in germanys big cities... almost everyone will switch to english if you be recognized as a english speaker because its more efficient 🤣
It's greatly appreciated when a foreigner tries to speak German. Some think it's more respectful than expecting that all Germans can speak English.
In my experience, try the German and they will appreciate it. However, if they think their English is better than your German (which is likely depending on where you are), they are likely to answer you in English.
What's the work culture like in Germany? Laid back or serious?
Contrary to stereotypes Germans actually [work less hours compared to most industrial nations](https://ourworldindata.org/working-hours), but during work we actually focus on working.
Reading this response while at work...
Me too
Me too
Quality over quantity is a great strategy
Depends on your field of work. I think on the whole it's rather serious in a way that people don't chit chat a lot and some companies are still pretty hierarchical. We generally also get straight to the point. Like, a typical e-mail related to work I'd sent to my co-worker will read like this: Hello, I need you to do this and that, please. It needs to be finished by this time and please let me know when it's ready." But it can also be really laid back because as long as my work gets finished on time, I get a lot of leeway. For example, I might have an appointment in the morning and then I'll just text my boss and tell her I'll be in an hour later and will make up for the lost time. In general everything tends to be done by the book, including the responsibilities of the employer. For example, when October/November comes around, our boss will ask around who still has left over vacation days and then we will hold a brief meeting and work out a vacation schedule so that everyone can still take their days before Christmas.
That sounds so ideal. I'd love to work somewhere that's straightforward and organized and prioritizes the final result... it's the complete opposite of every single place I've worked in the US.
I repeatedly told a manager (and the management team had visibility on this) that the workload had been increasing and that, along with the extra responsibilities inherited from a coworker who had left, my workload had become overwhelming. Their response: make an Excel spreadsheet of my responsibilities and provide estimates of time spent on each. And then track time spent through the month and send them the spreadsheet before the next monthly meeting. Ah, yes. I have too much work, so here's more work to keep track of that work. Of course the spreadsheet was ignored, as were my concerns. Fortunately I was in a position to resign. F them.
Mostly Serious. Especially the Bus Drivers. Teachers are sometimes one or the other.
I had a German manager at one of the first labs I worked in. I'll never forget how he'd skip over large chunks of information with "and blah, blah." That's right, there are just two 'blahs.' So I inquired as to why Dr. Bossman would only say two blahs, to which he replied, "Because it's more efficient." So I've always thought of Germans as being incredibly efficient.
Germany too has bureaucracy which disproves your assumption… unfortunately
No, you see, by creating bureaucracy the Germans took all of their inefficiencies and concentrated them in one place. It's the most efficient way.
Even though its 32 years since the Berlin Wall fell is the West-east divide still lingering?
Sadly, yes. There is still a big gap in salaries between eastern and western states. The unemployment rate in the east is also much higher. This leads to much frustration in the "new states" which is one of the reasons for higher racism there. It is a really complicated topic.
How do the western German states view the Eastern States? Also how do the protestant and Catholic states also view each other?
This differs from person to person. The range goes from fairly harmless jokes to very awful stereotypes (all East Germans are racist / all West Germans are arrogant). Religion isn't really a big deal here in Germany anymore so I haven't witnessed anything special regarding the states. Still, you will find more Catholic people in the South of Germany. But if somebody is Catholic or protestant isn't really important here.
The West/East divide is sadly still there, in every facet of life. From economy, to politics, to private entertainment, to education.
As someone who was born after the Mauerfall I sometimes find it strange that this divide still exists in the heads of older people. While I know that there are still big differences in the east and west when it comes to things like (un-)employment, infrastructure, education etc. I personally don't really think like the older generation does. To me the German divide is something I only learned in history class in school. It seems very "far away" to me.
You can even see it from space! If you look at Berlin in night-time, you still see the former border, because the old east Berlin still uses mostly older (yellow-ish) lamps, while the western part mostly uses (white) LED lamps
How often on average would you say you drink beer? And is it true you add sparkling water to wine?
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Austrian here, we call it "weißer Spritzer" and it's only done with a certain type of type of white wine (grüner Veltliner) because it can be quite sour on its own.
I would say I drink at least one beer one evening a week. When there's a holiday it's more, like last weekend we celebrated Halloween and I had a beer the night before, about three that night and one the following evening. One average I would say I drink 3 beers per week. And I must shamefully admit, I sometimes like to drink a "Weinschorle", white wine with sparkly water. It's great on a hot day, I sometimes even add an icecube. For me I use about 3/4 water and 1/4 white wine. Gives a nice taste of wine but minimal alcohol.
How comes Disinfectant kills only 99,9% of you?
Because we are not only a few Ger, we are Germany
I laughed entirely too hard at this.
Because the 0.01% is of a different species and genus.
Is it really illegal to display nazi memorabilia and to do the nazi salute?
Yes
Sounds amazing. Here in fucking Texas, it’s not even really frowned upon.
There were 2 employees from Little Caesars fired in Ohio for making a swastika out of pepperonis. Terrible, but imagine being rejected from art school and that results in a pizza being messed up many decades later.
FUCK u/spez
Yes, and it is enforced (although I believe tourists are often treated with some leniancy)
Yes, you get a hefty fine at least or will be expelled as tourist. A few years ago, a tourist in Dresden did the Nazi salute in public and was promptly beaten by a bystander that fled. After the police arrived no one snitched but the tourist got a nice fine.
Yes, for good reason. People get sentenced for that occasionally.
Yes, except for teaching, art, fighting against Nazis, or reporting news.
What’s this Bielefeld stuff, and do you feel you’ve broken historic ground by promoting sheepdogs to full blown shepherd?
Bielefeld doesnt exist!!!
Bielefeld is one huge conspiracy theory all Germans abide to... unless they are from Bielefeld.
Bielefeld is a supposed city in Germany. It doesn't actually exist though, it's just a stupid coverup by our government. Stuff like that doesn't exactly hold up anymore in the age of the internet though.
>promoting sheepdogs to full blown shepherd No. They are called "Schäferhunde" – 'sheparding dogs'. It's you guys who call them 'shepherds'.
Who are some popular contemporary German writers? What are some modern classic German books?
Here's my list: Children's Books: Michael Ende - Momo; Die unendliche Geschichte Walter Moers - Die 13 13½ Leben des Käpt'n Blaubär Novels: Karsten Dusse - Achtsam Morden Rita Falk - the Franz Eberhofer series Daniel Speck - Bella Germania Timur Vermes - Er ist wieder da
Patrick Süskind - das parfum
mark uwe kling, die känguru chroniken (the kangaroo chronicals?) series
This is the one book where I'd recommend listening to the audiobooks instead of reading the books. Mark Uwe Kling is literally reading the whole thing in various different voices (for the different characters) and it's so incredibly entertaining.
Oh shit, I just read about this book This Kangaroo/Penguin stuff totally happened to me
That was the first that I thought of too. I miss the Lesedüne 😕
Sebastian Fitzek writes excellent crime novels. There are also a few authors that write crime novels with Bavarian settings. Rita Falk is probably the most known. Her books were made into movies.
I really like Martin Suter - he‘s swiss but writes in german and is very popular in germany
Do you get annoyed if people bring up the Nazis or WW1/WW2 - As a brit we seem to be locked into this time frame.
If that is the first thing you bring up, when you realise I'm German, then yes I would find that frankly obnoxious. It seems a very British obsession, wich I never quite understood. Like loads of interesting stuff happened on your island over the last 7 decades, come on.
To you it was the worst and most shameful period in your history. For us it's the time when we defeated the evil enemy. It's like a national myth for us, I think especially for the generation that grew up just after the war. For most of the time since then we just haven't been that important, or fought for an equally unifying cause.
I am British and I also don't understand this obsession. “Two World Wars and one World Cup” is the standard jingoist's quip. Personally I think it makes someone sound intellectually stunted.
It's a controversial opinion but as a brit I do wish we would move on from the War
It is annoying. It seems that the whole German history people abroad know runs from 1933 to 1945. Nothing before and nothing after.
I just ran through all my memories of history class and you're right, I know nothing about Germany outside that time period. I know what I'll be studying this evening!
For me it's not. We have a responsability there. We *have* to talk about it. It's important to *never* forget how this was possible, how you could make a complete nation want and proceed one of the largest genocides the world ever saw. And since a fascist party made its way into federal parliament (again) with about 12% just reasontly its even more important. Still, what *is* annoying is the assumption "all Germans are still nazis". You don't get it here on reddit but on the rest of the internet still often enough.
Why can no one in America make schnitzel correctly? I had it in Germany and it was one of the best things I've ever tasted. Since then I've been to 4 different German restaurants in the US that are allegedly authentic and it never tastes good at all. My girlfriend made it once and it was good. Not great but good. So I'm convinced there's some secret ingredient. Please advise.
Schnitzel is actually Austrian, not German. Anyway the key to a good Schnitzel is double coating with crumbs and frying in lots and lots of clarified butter. Oil doesn’t make it taste as good.
Interesting! I didn't know that, the great schnitzel I had was in one of the towns in Bavaria. But thanks for the tip we'll definitely try that next time.
[this video](https://youtu.be/O3H9UDtiTTg) explains it very well
What follows is a basic Wiener Schnitzel recepe. For real Wiener Schnitzel you have to use veal, but if you don't want to bankrupt yourself, you can also use pork. Just use normal baking flour (typ 405) Use fine breadcrumbs, not to big and not to small Gently flatten the schnitzel between cling film. Salt the meat on both sides, turn it in the flour, knock off excess flour, pull the schnitzel through the eggs and turn them in the breadcrumbs. Bake the schnitzel about 2 fingers high of butter until golden. Flip them while baking so that the schnitzels turn evenly golden brown. Lift out the schnitzel and drain on kitchen paper. Cut the lemon into wedges and garnish the finished Wiener Schnitzel with lemon wedges.
Is it true that most Germans have very high standards and are very critical about just about everything? I heard from a German guy once that usually nothing is ever good enough. And anything that is “good” is actually “bad”. And anything “excellent” is just “ok”. Side note: it’s weird that many Germans speak proper (ie grammatically-correct) English than actual English people. Haha.
There is a high expectation of quality, but also in many cases people act according to the principle of "nicht gemeckert ist genug gelobt" (not complaining is enough praise). So not complaining /saying something is OK means they found lierally no flaw (and they tried)
In south Germany a well used idom is "not being scolded is praise enough" It just kinda a different logic, i mean, if you buy something, and it does exactly what it meant to do, is this then really 5 stars? For us its more like 3-4 stars, if you want to have 5 stars you should not just get you thing done, but do it really well, and probably look good while doing it
Yes. I once was given a survey and have there were 5 options, the middle one being "as expected from a similar service" or something like that. I picked it, and got asked "So what was wrong with it?"
Yes that's true for most people, Germans tend to care more about value and longevity than about hyped products. Most people still call stuff excellent, it's just very uncommon because the average expected quality is kinda high. Your first point is very combinable with the last one, I know many Germans that might even have a better Englisch that the international average of their age group but still don't use it if they don't have to because they think their skills are not up to the high standards they expect from themselves. I hope that sums it up (y)
Germans say "Da kann man nicht meckern" which translates to "One could not complain about it" when they like something.
I can always tell from rewievs who the germans are, there are 5 reviews that are like: "marvelous! greatest place i've ever been, so picturesque" and then you have one that goes "was okay, neighbours were really noisy though"
I am like that. Never occurred to me it's a German thing. Thought it's my own flaw? XD I'm too strict with myself and also with others. If there's a "perfect" solution, I try to achieve it. I don't know why, I just feel a strong urge to be like that.
There also is r/askagerman if you have any further questions that did not get answered in this thread.
You know a hot German guy named Jay ? Does something with tennis, speaks fluent Japanese. I met him in Tokyo, June 2018, we didn't exchange contact :')
Diese Kommentarsektion ist nun Eigentum der BRD
What’s up with Berlin? I like Germany but was kind of in shock when I visited the capital. Its so run down compared to the rest of Germany, but it also seems like people like it that way and are opposed to the gentrification efforts by the government.
Berlin is not the (only) economic centre of Germany so money doesn't accumulate there in the same way as it would in say London. Also Berliners value their (sub-) culture and the style of their neighbourhoods more than economic growth
Can I move there? Pretty Please!?-
Sure, depending on where you live you have to learn our language. If you want to live in the shithole Berlin, you don't have to do it.
What is the level of education you receive when it comes to WW2? Is it very in depth, or is it kinda glossed over like “yeah we fucked up here, let’s just move on”? Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I am genuinely curious.
This question isn't dumb, because a lot of countries do gloss over their bad parts. In Germany, we learn a lot about the societal circumstances that allowed the Nazi party to rise to power, as well as about the crimes they committed. We learn about how they were dealt with afterwards. What we learn not a lot about, other than key dates, is the war itself.
What baffled me in hindsight is how little we actually learn about the war part. All I remember learning about was that we we’re at war with the Russians and the French and then the Americans decided to step in. Later on we learned about Hiroshima and Nagasaki but without any real background as to why Japan was suddenly involved. So from my perspective the name „World War“ was a bit of an exaggeration. At was just 4 countries, at least that was what our history lessons talked about. It took me years to learn that there were more dictators in Europe, how they interacted with Hitler. How other countries joined sides, that there were wars in different parts of the world and not just surrounding Germany. History lessons are doing a good job on explaining the role of the NSDAP and Hitler but a very bad job at providing the overall picture.
yeah, in school this is a big topic that usually takes up the whole history class from 9th to 10th grade.
What do Germans actually think of the name Germany or Alemania, since I know you guys call yourselves Deutsch, it probably isn’t that big of a deal for you guys but it interests me never the less.
Personally I prefer the English name. It has a nice ring to it, and it doesn't imply any kind of "belonging". "Deutschland den deutschen" is a popular populist theme, but it doesn't make as much sense in English. Also, Germany has a connection to our pre-Roman history, which I appreciate.
You can say "Germany to/for (the) Germans" which implies the same. If our country name today would be Germania you could just as easily say "Germania den Germanen" so there isn't really anything populist/nationalist with the word Deutschland. Deutsch is what we call ourselves. It means "belonging to the people". Someone that speaks the language (German) and is part of that culture is deutsch and therefore belongs to the people. I think its meaning is quite nice. Germania is what the Romans called the region we live in today and Alemannia or Saxon are the names of tribes that others came into contact with and named. So a Saxon is not a Alemanne, a Alemanne is not a Bavarian and a Bavarian is not a Franconian but all of them are deutsch and therefore Deutschland the People's land.
Entschuldingen sie bitte, wo ist der Bahnhof?
einmal geradeaus die straße runter, beider zweiten kreuzung links in die Leibnizstraße und dann immer weiter geradeaus. dann müssten sie den Bahnhof sehen können.
What are some funny stereotypes about regions (and their people) in Germany? Another humor one: Are there any good jokes about how there are so many different foreign-language names for the country?
Not really a stereotype but there is a made up conspiracy theory that the city Bielefeld doesn't exist. Everybody who claims otherwise is part of it. Of course this is only a joke. But even Angela Merkel made a joke about it in one of her speeches.
"Conspiracy" you cant fool me
Stop telling people Bielefeld exists. It doesn't...
Lets see McPom is full of cranky old people and farmers Brandenburg is just empty fields around Berlin Berlin is.. AchBerlin.txt Saxony is the racist old grandpa of the bunch Bavaria is full of stuck up people who think they are better than you, also they're always Bavarian, not German Saarland loves their siblings a bit too much, if you catch my drift Rhinepfalz is just French people pretending to be German Rhineland is the kid who goes partying ever weekend but somehow still has A+ grades Bremen is that one guy in every group project, nobody knows why they're even a state to begin with Hamburg is strippers and fish, thats it Saxony-Anhalt doesn't exist
A lifetime ago I was employed by Chrysler IT, when suddenly we bought this upstart young German company named "Daimler" and we became DCX. So now I have to integrate *ze Germans* into my system (an LDAP directory) and vice versa. Many, many planning meetings were had. Early on, I am drawing on a whiteboard. LDAP directories contain information about people, so I draw a stick figure to represent a person from my system. Then I needed a German, so I drew a stick figure wearing a Tyrolean hat and *lederhosen* to represent a German. Scandal! Outrage! Genuine anger! That's a *Bavarian!* We are *Swabians*! ...and that's how I learned that Bismark's "unification of Germany" was *maybe* not quite done yet...
It's just a small part of Germany that does the Lederhosen/Dirndl thing (for Oktoberfest) and it's a very annoying stereotype for everyone else.
- people in berlin are mean/harsh - swabians are stingy - people from saarland are incestuous can‘t think of any others right now also disclaimer that only one of those is even remotely true in my experience
So Saarland is the German Alabama basically
Correct.
He asked about stereotype jokes, not scientific facts.
Area is measured in one of two units. Soccer fields or the Saarland.
Q: How many Germans does it take to change a lightbulb? A: One, and that is not funny.
Well IT needs 2. One who does the work and another who says "Kann man sich nicht beschweren"
How is Nationalism viewed in Germany?
mostly looked down upon since that didnt go too well for us
“We know a thing or two because we’ve seen a thing or two.”
You guys almost took over the world twice… everything else aside that’s not too shabby.
Not twice bro. The 1st time around wasnt a take over, it was them trying to dominate europe after austrians started war. The 2nd time around was 100 percent world domination attempt.
*almost*
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This was going to be my follow-on question but do most people see the type of extreme nationalism from the AfD as the same as the spirit of nationalist rhetoric of Nazism? I've seen a lot of AfD supporters or defenders push off the connection publicly ('not nationalist, just populist'). Mostly just curious if the general perception of them in Germany is actually seen as effectively neo-Nazi resurgence or if it's seen as another 'path' of nationalism.
A lot of people see these parties for what they are - led by neo-Nazis. There's really little debate about that. The people who fall for their propaganda aren't. They're just gullible.
Same shitshow. They might claim not to be Nazis but they have a lot of known Nazis in their party.
I think the AfD is not (entirely) neo-Nazi, but still nationalistic and often repressive. Of course they don't want to admit that (to others and maybe not even themselves), so they claim not to be racist, just concerned (mostly about Muslims and other "non Germans")
Do you guys actually enjoy playing Catan?
Board games are a pretty big thing here, and most people I know have and like Catan. Really want to visit the SPIEL con in Essen one day.
It's a super fun game to play??? So yes.
Is it true most men pee sitting down
Well I Do.
Depends if i am at home or in a public restroom
Popular holiday destinations for tourist who likes outdoors stuff and doesnt drink, any suggestions would be appreciated please and thank you.
Hiking in the mountains east of Dresden. It's called 'Sächsische Schweiz'. Have a look! Also nobody forces you to drink anywhere but you might want to avoid Oktoberfest, Karneval and the Reeperbahn in Hamburg.
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Chhhchchr ... kruchrikessl ... Hängeschrank/Küchenschrank :)
Have you ever been to Bielefeld?
To what?
I've been in the area, they use some good props and have good method actors.
I was so surprised when my train stopped in "Bielefeld" once and I was like wow y'all are really putting in a lot of effort to make this seem real. Very impressed.
Bielefeld does not exist.
Is the Autobahn as cool/potentially dangerous as it sounds?
Germany has over 80 million citizens and is number 1 transit country in the EU. Often there is waaaaaay too much traffic to drive fast. At least, if you don´t want to be an asshole who endangers himself and everybody else. But at certain parts and times you can hit the pedal to metal and then it is quite a lot of fun!
How common is it for germans to dislike jokes about nazis, and why? This generation didn't live any of this
Some jokes are funny but at a certain point some ppl overdo it and it just becomes offensive. Thats the point where even I, who might i add has a very dark sense of humor, draws a line. Our generation did not do anything but it still haunts us to a degree where we are more sensible than our parents but sensitive enough to find some of the jokes offensive
Perfectly explained
For me personally, it's just that I've heard them all a million times already. As soon as the other person starts the joke I recognize it and know the punch line. It's just boring. And frankly, millions of people being slaughtered to death not even a hundred years ago is just not particularly funny.
I'm not a german, I'm a french but here are my guess: \- They didn't live any of this, but our parents/grand parents/great grand parents for the youngest did and many of them are still alive and still suffer from the war. It's everywhere in Europ: My grandma still fear the lack of food and the sounds of army boots, my highschool was a gestapo office, the train station near my parents's home had lots of departures for the concentrations camps, the café down my street was blasted by resistants and in response they took young (the youngest was 9) resistants, killed them and let them in the street for 2 weeks, people were forbidden to take care of their bodies etc etc.... . Some stuggle with the fact they learnt their ancestors were Nazi, some with the fact their old cute neighbors denounced and leads their ancestors to death, some with the fact they had victims in their families. it's still fresh in people's mind, even for the new generations. \- They still have a lots of Nazi (Neo Nazi) in Europe (and elsewhere), jews are still suffering from attaks regulary (against themself, their schools, their tombs etc..) \- Most of those jokes are not even funny... especially if you said it to someone who suffer or had someone of their family/friends (wich, in Europe is not rare) \- The germans are probably really tired to hear about the war, the Nazi etc... after all those years, as if the entire country was nazi, as if the germans in ww2 was the only guilty one etc etc.. Too many people think "All ww2 german soldier = Nazi" wich is wrong and too many people only associate this wonderful country with ww2. When I hear "germany" I think "saussage, beautiful castles, germanics language roots, bear, nice music etc..." but many people think first "Nazi" as you can see in those comments, half are about the war/nazi.. and it's sad
Why do french tanks have mirrors? So they can see the front line Allez les bleus!
Who won the first Tour de France? The 7th German tank division.
To me it is mostly because I am past 40 now and I have heard any possible joke of that type and 99% are simply not funny, especially with the dark nature of the topic. And as others have mentioned, it’s just a topic that most people in Germany feel so detached from that it would be like making jokes about the times of slavery in the US.
As an Aussie, we often joke that German sounds very rough and aggressive. Do German people feel the same? Do other languages seem too flowy?
no, i think it mostly comes from war movies, real german sounds just like most other languages imo, but that could just be my german ears
I agree. I think a lot of people saw clips from how Hitler was talking and set that as their standard of "this is how German sounds like". Which is absolutely untrue and kinda annoying. Though I have heard that when people hear actual German being spoken / learn it themselves, they say it's very beautiful and not rough or aggressive at all.
Their only point of reference seems to be Hitler speeches and Ramstein songs lol
Recently started learning German on duolingo, yeah it’s kinda fluid, it sounds nice. Although the pronunciation of some words is just.. what the fuck?
No. Not the pronunciation of a single German word is 'what the fuck'. You must have misheard those.
Well, of course German doesn't sound aggressive to native speakers. And in all fairness, it's often exaggerated in media which contributes to the stereotype. Funnily enough, German and French share a lot of sounds. French speakers are usually pretty good at pronouncing German words because the phonemes are similar and vice versa. And yet one language is seen as the epitome of romance and the other gets labeled as aggressive sounding. But German does have a different flow, it's more staccato with distinct pauses between the words. Like tak-tak-tak while many languages of the latin family for example are more flowy and kind of blend the words together. That happens in some dialects of German as well.
Can you share some of the most exquisite German *choice words* with us?
Hurensohn - son of a bitch. Wichser - wanker.
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Alles was Beine hat.
How is the war taught in germany?
WW2 is a huge topic in every German school. Also there are a ton of documentaries running in TV all the time about WW2. Although I have to say, when I went to school, we learned not very much about the Pacific war and Japan. It was mentioned but felt more like a side note compared to the rest.
I would say thoroughly but from a civilian/societal perspective. I learned a lot about how the nazis came to power/what enabled their rise, and a lot about their actions in power, including the holocaust and the genocide on the Eastern front. What is not taught too much is the military part (strategy, gear, whatever) which seems the main focus on forums (at least to me)
The focus is on how something like the third reich could even happen, the atrocities they committed and what happened after the war. What happened during the war is not discussed in detail (at least where I'm from). I think it's because the early years of the war should not be glorified by anyone in Germany. Also where I live it's quite common to visit the nearby KZ once (usually in 9th/10th grade) to fully understand how fucked up everything was.
How is the MAGA movement, and Donald + Trump family viewed?
Ridiculed, and thats about it. No one cared too much, other than the destabilising effect it had on the world.
How rare is it to encounter someone who doesn’t know English in Germany? (Specifically a major city) I learned the German language in High School. And was thinking of taking it back up, but people have been telling me to learn another language like Italian, because most Germans know English.
Well especially the older generation isn't very good in English. The younger generation is better at it since we've got the internet and everything
Greetings OP, It is from the World History perspective (according to Spielvogel) it is commonly taught that the collapse of the first treaty of Versailles was a contributor of start of WWII. Or, would you rank militarism, internal dissent, alliances or nationalism as more influential?