German Culture Thread

Well, we recently had the discussion about the difference between British and German culture, which got closed down because the Thread was titled very unfortunately, but I felt the discussion in itself was very interesting, so I guess I started a more neutral version of it.

Full disclosure: I love watching videos of expats who live in Germany, because it is really interesting to see their perspective on the way we do things...sometimes it is just hilarious (apparently German toilets are really, really scary), but above all it helps me to understand some of the stereotypes which are connected to Germans.

In the last Thread there was a discussion about the notion that we are rude...and a lot of what was said in it, is basically correct. This perception is based for a large part on the fact that Germans don't have the habit of doing "small talk". Though we actually do have a world for it..."Smalltalk", borrowed from the English, because we needed some way to describe this (from our perspective odd) habit. But it is also simply a language problem. For example, Germans naturally say "please", but we also use the so called "polite speech" in which the "please" is implied (it's basically one of the three uses of the subjunctive mood). The problem is, that polite speech isn't really translatable into English and it is actually pretty hard to remember to attach a please somewhere to make up for it. Politeness is also transported to a large degree over the tone of the voice.

German efficiency is btw more systemic than personal...meaning, a lot of Germans are actually not that efficient character wise, we can be a chaotic and lazy as everyone else. But we are trained to do out jobs as efficient as possible, because anything else would waste money. We are always trying to find the easiest and fastest way to do something without jeopardizing the quality of the end result, and once we have found it, we teach the system to others in our trade.

Opening this.

My dad for one has always been fascinated with German culture, industry, and especially their food. Heck, maybe that's one reason his first car was a BMW. I suspect that if immigrating to Germany was easier, he'd have immigrated there instead of the USA.

edited 23rd Dec '16 1:56:33 AM by M84

Honestly, it is really hard to spend a longer time outside of Germany, because you really, really miss the food. Less the beer (I actually don't even like beer) or even the sausages, but I am always stunned what passes in other countries as "bread".

I once was in a supermarket in the US...very impressive because that thing was gigantic (and it was even pretty small for US standards). But I find ages to find bread which didn't put me off (honestly, who would eat toast in rainbow colours?), some stuff I could put on it (btw, what is the deal with putting meat in honey? I don't get it) and I had to look through a large shelf full of orange juice in order to find one which wasn't essentially sugary water and actually had a decent among of fruit in it....and that was in the middle of orange country!!!!!! In a German supermarket, most of the orange juice you get is "full fruit" (otherwise you are not even allowed to call it juice in the first place).

I guess part of this is the location of Germany....being in the middle of Europe, there is a lot of influence from different countries. Ie the Döner was invented in Germany, but by Turkish immigrants....but then, the US had a lot of influence from other countries, too, and it is still hard to get a decent slice of bread......

For my dad, it's all about the pork and beer.

Me, I'm all about the bread, pastries, and sausages. And beer I guess, though I'm more of a wine and hard liquor guy.

Agree 100% on the "juice" in the USA. That stuff is pretty much Diabetes waiting to happen.

edited 23rd Dec '16 2:16:45 AM by M84

German wine isn't bad either...it is actually pretty good in its own right, but we are naturally overshadowed by the French in this regard.

It is quite funny, Germany is never mentioned when it comes to the most culinary places, it is always France or Italy. But I guess this is partly because the German cuisine isn't quite as distinctive, and many people somehow believe that Bavarian cuisine is representative for the whole of Germany.

Phillistines don't know what they are missing then.

Swiss bread: all the positives of Germany, France and Italy. Just saying...

Also, the best cold meats, wine and cheese to go with it. Every time Germans get on their high horsies about bread, I pull Burebrot, Zopf or pain aux chocolat out.

edited 23rd Dec '16 2:51:27 AM by Euodiachloris

nvm.

edited 23rd Dec '16 2:47:55 AM by M84

nvm

edited 23rd Dec '16 2:50:35 AM by Swanpride

Yeah, European bread is pretty great. American bread is practically sawdust by comparison. Heck, I'm pretty sure some of it is sawdust. Probably more of it will be if our new administration really goes through with their proposed plans to slash FDA funding.

Yes, that's actually a thing they want to do. And I'm certain it's because Trump is holding a grudge against the FDA's health inspectors who consistently give his restaurants terrible ratings. As in "if you eat and actually swallow any of this overpriced swill, you will die. Vomiting is your best bet. Given how awful most of it is, that won't be too difficult."

So if you ever go back to the USA, try to eat as little food as possible.

edited 23rd Dec '16 3:01:06 AM by M84

Things that would guarantee riots in France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary and Italy — mess with the bread, deny access to coffee, do terrible things to the booze and insist on watery/ flavourless ham or bacon.

edited 23rd Dec '16 3:02:54 AM by Euodiachloris

All of those would definitely have me reaching for the nearest torch and pitchfork. Especially the coffee. Depriving me of good tea would have a similar rage inducing effect.

edited 23rd Dec '16 3:02:46 AM by M84

More a tea drinker myself (though I guess that the Brits shudder over what Germans call tea, with all the aroma added to it). But I think the non-alcoholic drinks which are "typical German" are for one "Schorle" (juice mixed with sparkling water, also possible to do with wine, though the traditional Apfelschorle is a mix of apple juice, lemon and sparkling water), and Milk....we put it into the Coffee, turn it into Kakao, mix it with honey and drink it warm, there is even "Buttermilch", which is...hard to describe, to be honest.

It is, btw, interesting how much culture is defined over the food...or the other way around, food is influenced by culture.

A nice Cola schorle is good in summer too

Add the Nordics to this list, especially if someone messes with the coffee - we're pretty routinely in the top 10 coffee consumers in the world per capita (and IIRC, Finland is currently #1).

France really takes its' croissant seriously. I have heard that Bakeries in France are legally required to organize their schedule like pharmacies so there are always open baleries nearby.

Another thing English people often complain about is that Germans don't go in line. That is not quite correct. We just don't feel always the need to actually built a line, but if you enter a bakery (for example) you usually do allow whoever was already there before you to order first. It looks chaotic to outsiders, but comes quite natural to the Germans.

And yes, we do have humour....we just have slightly different ideas what is funny and what isn't. To understand German humour you usually need an understanding for the culture and the society. For example, Weihnachten bei Hoppenstets is a classic (Christmas at the most German middle class family you can imagined.....) but I really, really doubt that an outsider would understand why the tree is decorated with "fresh and natural apples" while the gift paper is piling in the living room.

Speaking of Christmas, I bet that a very large population spend the last evening watching "Der kleine Lord" (Little Lord Fauntleroy in English, I think), a lot of them will watch fairy tale movies today (especially Drei Nüsse für Aschenbrödel....for a longer explanation, see here: https://swanpride.wordpress.com/2016/12/09/honoring-the-heroine-aschenbrodel/ ) and we don't really care all that much about A beautiful life. I mean I guess it will be shown at one point. But it isn't exactly a German Christmas classic.

Germans don't worry about lines?

That must be nice.

Huh, I've always felt that there should be a thread to discuss things about Germany that are not related to armed conflicts, refugees, despotic leaders, controversial economic policies, and armed conflicts which trigger huge waves of refugees to flee from despotic leaders towards countries already stricken by controversial economic policies.

I'll start off by saying that, just as there are people in the US and Europe who fawn over East Asian cultures, there are East Asians who likewise fawn over Western cultures. Due to the fact that having glowing attitudes for the US tends to have Unfortunate Implications for a person in China, personal interest in European cultures tends to be much more acceptable in that nations such as Germany do not have a popular reputation as a political opponent.

In China, a major impact of this dissonance is of the popularity of Heintje Simons, who is most famously known as a Dutch child singer of The '70s. During The '80s, one of his German musicals was among the first Western films to be screened in China; US films were still treated as suspect and thus a rarity for an average urban citizen to view. As a result, said film's Signature Song - "Kleine Kinder, Kleine Sorgen" - has become popularly known in China by its translation of "Xiao Xiao Fan Nien, Hen Shao Fan Nao".

Bilingual Bonus for those who both speak Mandarin and German, as the Chinese translation expectedly rephrases several words of the original German. Here's an older Simons performing the song in China.

edited 26th Dec '16 1:25:24 AM by FluffyMcChicken

Really? Heintje? I wasn't aware of that...though I wouldn't call the Heintje movies musicals...they are simply movies with some sort of really corny story in which the main character keeps ending up in situations in which he sings for or with people. That was a thing for a while in Germany, to do movies with popular singers to sell their albums better. I wasn't aware that China likes this of all things...though I am aware that German culture actually is popular. A while ago there was a reportage in German TV about students at a Chinese university who are working on translating the work of Goethe into Chinese...it was kind of surreal, because all those students were all over the Werther, which, to be fair, might be Goethe's most important book and was a giant success when it was in released, but in my experience, nowadays German students hate it, due to it being so long-winded and overly sentimental. But I guess I shouldn't be surprised that it strikes a cord with the Chinese.

...Maybe that explains why my dad likes German culture so much. My family roots are in China, though I was born in the USA.

edited 26th Dec '16 2:00:24 AM by M84

x5

It probably helps that Goethe's works are often deemed as apolotical. Schiller on the other hand with his advocation of freedom of speech in his works like Don Karlos might be a bit more problematic for their censors.

I thought you claimed to be Taiwanese?

Or, as a popular adage goes, you're one of those interesting specimens who drink Taiwanese water, eat Taiwanese rice, breathe Taiwanese oxygen, but insist on being Chinese at the end of the day.

Christmas markets a deeply rooted tradition in Germany

Grandparents from China, moved to Taiwan. Parents born in Taiwan. I was born in the USA. Heck, our family still has property in China. The grandparents (on both sides) still have strong ties to Chinese culture, something they passed on to their kids. Including my parents. So it's not inaccurate for me to say my family has roots in China.

I am of course assuming that the fascination with European culture is something that the Chinese expatriates under Kai-shek brought with them from the mainland.

Where Chinese identity ends and Taiwanese identity begins (and USA identity for me) is...blurred. Not helping things is that my grandparents more or less want China and Taiwan to be unified. Or at least think that Taiwanese independence is probably not realistic. Something that — as someone who doesn't like the CCP and likes the idea of Taiwan being its own sovereign nation — I think is probably accurate.

And technically, I insist on being an American at the end of the day even when I eat Taiwanese food and breathe Taiwanese air and drink Taiwanese water.

edited 26th Dec '16 9:56:32 PM by M84