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figuratively in startups, maybe, yeah. Not that I condone breaking the law, but startups like SideCar, Uber, Lyft and AirBnb wouldn't be around if there wasn't a bit of an appetite for breaking the rules and risking getting in trouble. More of a mentality thing.
Hey, Kim Dotcom(megaupload) is actually German and he surely did risk (and managed) to get in trouble with the law for his startup, so not all Germans are completely risk-averse ;)
Funny story. I'm from the US but during college, I rented a room from a family in Hamburg for a summer job. One day, the home's owner was driving me somewhere and jokingly explained to me that the purpose of the 'star' on a Mercedes Benz was to help the driver target jaywalkers and chase them back onto the sidewalk. What I inferred was that German drivers hate jaywalkers.
One has to understand/learn/remember that Germany doesn't have the same speed limit laws like we do in other countries/cities.
In other words, the more people respect "zebra crossings", the less drivers have to worry about driving 15 bloody mph in some residential area cause the folks there see no problem in just jumping across the street.
What the German example shows us is that: if we all abide by the rules -- with no exceptions -- we can all have nice things.
(like driving your Porsche @150mph on the freeway cause we are actually adults)
Some might call that an environment for progress and innovation :)
there is the letter and the spirit of the law. I think the spirit of the law is what is usually important, and in the case when there is no car in sight and no one is walking across the street, that's what i was referring to.
regardless, it's an example that I saw and thought represented the general mindset, and reflected what I saw and heard from Germans themselves about the state of the startup ecosystem.
I don't find it particularly surprising: You tell your kids to only cross the street when the light turns green (or at zebra crossings), and it becomes habit even for adults.
Of course jaywalking does happen (at least here in Frankfurt, and I'd guess it's the same for Berlin), but it's discouraged (Think of the Children[tm] [1]), and personally I see no harm in waiting the additional minute if I'm not in a hurry.
I know Germany has very strict driving laws. I think you can't use your horn for no good reason, can't give other drivers the finger, etc, or you'll be fined. And I think fines are proportional to the value of the car.
I am not sure how much of this strict and high fine system extends to walking on the street rather than driving. But I suspect this type of system instills respect for the law.
And Germans are rumored to be among the best drivers in Europe.
In contrast Belgians, and most Southern Europeans are rumored to be bad drivers. Usually this is then blamed on culture. However, I think it's simply laws and regulations.
The country I am from does not set fines based on the value of the car, does not fine "trivial" things like honking without reason, and actually the system to collect ticket fines is so broken that most of the time you don't have to bother. Shockingly we are known as bad drivers.
Having the fines go up proportionally to the value of the car would be a hilarious idea, but unfortunately it's not true ;) Most fines have fixed values (typically starting at 10 €), but some are proportional to your income/salary, so for example you can get fined 20 days of salary (20 Tagessätze). Like that it's sure that, regardless of your income, the fine will always be financially painful to you.
Germany has a general speed limit of 50 km/h in cities -- which seems to be pretty much a universal standard world wide --, and 30 km/h in many residential neighbourhoods. In some residential neighbourhoods there's a speed limit of walking speed and pedestrians enjoy permanent right of way. There are some people who're lobbying for the general speed limit in cities to be dropped to 30 km/h (safer, less noise), but sadly we're not there yet.
And crossing a street when there's no light and no zebra crossing is not jaywalking - that's just crossing the street, and it's the legal way to do it as typically there is no light or a crossing around. And of course many people jaywalk all the time. I don't even but the think of the children argument -- if a kid is responsible enough to walk around in public traffic, they ought to be responsible enough to judge whether crossing a red light is safe, otherwise how would they deal with cases where there is no light? But I might be kidding myself there, and I usually don't jaywalk when there's kids around out of politeness if nothing else.
The thing is that not all streets are created equal. On particularly dangerous corners there will be lights, and cars can come around the corner going maybe a bit too fast to stop, so it's important to obey them. When there is no light, that's usually indicative of a less busy street as well, where crossing at your own discretion is safer.
As always, know you routes. It't arguably safe to cross 3rd tier roads with hindsight, yet anything higher in traffic hours is simply not worth it.
For the typical pedestrian commute through Berlin you don't even have to cross a significant number of lights, if any at all, when traveling by means of U&S-Bahn and know which side of the station you have to exit on.
Completely agree. Everyone in Germany seems to hate jaywalkers. Once I was in Worms, in southern Germany. I was coming out of a small rail station. There was what appeared to be a one lane road with a zebra crossing and traffic lights. There were no cars visible on that street --and as a brash youth (back then) I crossed the road against the light. What a faux pas! I got the stink eye from everyone within eyesight. Some people do bat eyes.
hm. was in columbus, ohio a few weeks back: if you are at certain places in the US (an like walking) you have no other possibility then jaywalking. cities and especially indudstrial/commerical areas are not constructed in a way to make it easy for pedestriants. you can be happy if there is a pedestrian crossing within the next mile...
What's funny to me is that I found Berlin completely different to all the other cities I had previously been in Germany. One could say too much hype, but I sort of enjoyed it.
Ahh come on, that's just trying to see a lot more in psychology then there really is.
I'm from Berlin and many people DO jaywalk.
BUT they don't (and i don't) when there are kids around. And unless it's night there are kids around more often then not. Is that so bad now?!
As if you can analyze a whole nation by seeing them jaywalk (or not)... pfft.
just trying to illustrate my impression through an example :) obviously I realize that in a country of millions you will have plenty jaywalkers, so rebuttals like "I jaywalk and I'm German" are kind of missing the point . . .
Your mistake was choosing Berlin rather than any other part of Germany. I've lived here (Kreuzberg) for four years, and as far as I'm concerned all the stories about Germans yelling at you for jaywalking are pure urban legend.
I see people doing it constantly, and no one gives a fuck. Not as much as in New York, but it's hardly some profound cultural divide.
Missing the point is that you try to think of an explanation but missing most obvious reasons (like preventing kids to run in front of cars). Beginning the sentence with "The Germans" when you have only been in one city feels kind of offensive to me. Especially since you draw conclusions very quick out of no real substance, imo.
I spent three weeks there, it wasn't an exhaustive study on the psyche of the German people I'll give you that. But it was drawn on substance, I had numerous meetings with berlin tech people, and just thought the jaywalking observation seemed in line from the impressions I got from those meetings.
But there are differences in culture, so I guess if referring to the "Germans" as a whole offends you there is nothing I can do.
I much rather think that the observation "germans don't jaywalk" did fit into your pre-existing prejudices about germans, because obviously all germans are tidy, always on time, accurate, law-abiding and what not ;)
Three weeks looking around and always telling yourself "HA, anotherone NOT jaywalking!" is hardly substance.
It's not exactly hard science to generalize from a three week visit to a part of the City of Berlin, which is the most heterogeneous place it's gets when it comes to trying to define The Germans, yet i think your observation seems to be quite in line with mine, assuming you traveled from and to the trade fair (ICC) and the usual start-up neighborhoods.
It definitely makes a difference where in Berlin you stay. Jaywalking is highly localized and time depended. (The hilarious construction site crossing at Unter den Linden, which many are forced to walk for the lack of an operating U-Bahn is not the norm.)
The red light phases here are actually manageable to wait through, no comparison to feeling the you-shouldn't-even-think-about-walking-here attitude pedestrian traffic regulation radiates in most of the US.
The real equivalent to jaywalking is crossing the red lights by bike, if you opt to going by foot you're not in a hurry in the first place. And yes there are quite a lot of bikers out there, even in the current perpetual winter.
That said Hamburg's comparably long pedestrian red-light phases seem to be way more nerve-wracking to the average Berlin trained pedestrian than I ever imagined.
I lived in Germany for a long time, and have actually been called out by a kid in a stroller who disapproved of my jaywalking (Rotgänger!).
But my favorite story comes from a friend, an American who lived in Germany in the 90s. To paraphrase:
A firetruck is in front of an apartment building where, evidently, there had been a small fire. The scene is basically calm now, the situation dealt with, and several of the firemen are waiting to climb back into the truck and leave. But a firehose still runs from the truck, across a bike lane, over the sidewalk and into the building.
As my friend walks by, she hears crazy, incessant ringing. Turns out it's a man, on a bike, irate that the bike lane is blocked, demanding that his path be cleared.
What gets me about that story isn't that the man is batty, not at all. In fact it reminds me of lots of similar experiences I had in Germany where someone's iron-clad, inflexible attachment to rules and order created a totally absurd situation.
Actually I don't care about traffic lights all that much while walking/on a bike. Except, you know, if kids are around. The attitude I see here is that you really don't stop 'for the sake of it', but (and isn't this, if we want to talk stereotypes, kind of american) you .. think of the childen.
In all seriousness: You _will_ get nasty looks/comments if you're ignoring a red light while small kids are watching and the scenario you described sounds perfectly fine (and my moral compass says that you did something baaad too).
And seriously, keep out of the bike lanes ! We are not going to slow down just because there are drunk tourists standing oblivious in the bike lane. It's just common sense.
It's sort of a grass-is-greener thing to me. I'd be the last one to suggest that the American approach to jaywalking ('just do it') is a good idea. Especially in NYC, ugh.
Thanks for the write up! Its always hilarious to read about experiences others made in the country I grew up in.
Here are some reactions:
Jaywalking - I definitely do that and in Berlin of all cities, I saw folks jaywalking all the time. But yes - generally, there is more discipline to wait for the green light, like in Japan, Korea or China.
"multimillion dollar round was not given in one big check".
This is what I heard is common practice in the valley as well. When a company raises 10 million, my understanding was never that the VC just transfers 10M cash to their account but that this investment would be rolled out. We should definitely review/discuss this.
Also, I agree with the appreciation with something fitting into a puzzle. That probably stems from system thinking, growing up in a European community where Germany is only a part in the whole of the continent and its political and economical bodies.
Who owns data... mhhh. I think that depends on the industry. Oeffi (http://oeffi.schildbach.de/) for example leverages the public transport schedules of public local agencies as well as Deutsche Bahn. Pretty awesome!
On the other hand, data can be very proprietary in the States too. Take for example movie showtimes. There is NO public, free API for that you could build apps on. But yes, overall, you might be right.
In in case you want to see other impressions, US-Americans have in Germany, I totally recommend this blog:
http://www.nothingforungood.com (seems it got hacked but hopefully will be up again ;-).
I'm an American that's lived in Berlin for the last 7 years, and run a startup here. This post is mostly correct; in fact, it's pretty impressive that the author soaked up the vibe that much in such a short span. But there are a couple points worth clarifying:
The jaywalking analogy is stretched. Like, the source of it is partly true, but it's a pretty boring social convention. There are enough places where Berliners proudly flaunt the law that make Californians seem like straight-laced prudes.
However, what the argument gets right is that the issue is more cultural than structural. There are a lot of things that come together to make German startup-culture somewhat tamer than the US variety, among them less of a drive for polarized go-big-or-go-home attitude, the historical strength of the German Mittelstand (medium sized companies) and less tolerance for risk.
Also, the thing on data and Google Maps seems off. I'm not sure why Google Maps has only recently started to integrate Berlin's subway data, but there are excellent apps for Android [1] and iOS [2] that accomplish the same (and are not published by the local transit authority, and I can't imagine that solo app authors have more clout to get at the data than Google). It seemed a bit lame to assume that since Google Maps doesn't have the data that it must be the city's fault.
OTOH people smoke spliffs in bars and drink beers while bicycling. There's a strong hacker mentality here. Its anti corporate and there's a distrust of American style funding and bullshit valuations. Lots of open source people here.
Many people here work at music technology firms, and those lead the world. Ableton and Native Instruments employee 400 programmers total. Emagic was from Hamburg. Soundcloud of course. Somehow these are never mentioned in articles about Berlin.
There's a lot of activism. wiki leaks has or had many core people here. We protest and riot without permission. The squats are slowly being evicted one by one.
Good article overall but anecdotal evidence is anecdotal
> Standing at a street corner I was shocked that no one jaywalked. There wasn’t a car in sight, yet Germans young and old stood there obediently, waiting for the green walk signal.
I am from Berlin and I jaywalk all the time :)
I think people who were actually raised in Berlin are very likely to jaywalk. Looking as to how you visited ITB I suppose many people you've seen were not originally from Berlin (also many startup founders are not originally from Berlin but from all over Germany)
ITB was for the first week, the second two weeks I was working in the same environment most other berlin startups work in.
But yes, it's anecdotal evidence, observed continuously over 3 weeks. And it's an impression, that's all, never claimed to have done exhaustive research :) Like I mentioned in other comments, I obviously realize there are plenty of people who probably jaywalk, in a city of millions that much is certain. But I thought that particular observation reflected a lot of what I had heard from Germans themselves.
Talking about anecdotal ITB observations, two weeks ago the streets around the travel trade fair at ICC looked like some 2nd row parked open air museum for diplomats car choices made in the eighties, with the number of exhibits in the triple digits (Not including the chauffeurs). That's not the norm :)
I actually thought it was Americans that didn't jaywalk - the whole reason for the introduction of the term being the need to concisely inform people that they're not allowed to do it ;)
In the UK at least this rule is sometimes commented upon as a notable characteristic of America. You can cross where and when you please in the UK, I think, and indeed everywhere I've been to in Europe the same rules appear to hold. (UK English has no native term for jaywalking. You just cross the road without using a designated pedestrian crossing.)
The usual disclaimers about generalising from large diverse groups apply.
Thanks for the write up. I've been working for a start-up in the Silicon Roundabout(London) for the last two years. I am not surprised by some of David's observations about the investment culture in Berlin. The German word for Venture Capitalism is Risikokapital - the word in itself already encapsulates German investors' attitudes towards start-ups. The tech scene is picking up dramatically is becoming shinier and a lot more exciting than where I am right now. ...
Berlin may not be the best representation of Germany as a whole right now. It is somewhat of an anomaly and may be the least German city in Germany right now due to attracting a large number of foreigners (which I'm not saying is a bad thing). Anecdotal evidence: Last time I was walking through Kreuzberg on a Saturday night at least half of the people on the streets seemed to speak English. However, as a German I have to say that he has a point. People not jaywalking is a symptom of a certain mindset in Germany with regard to rules and respect for authority. Along with this comes a lack of individual initiative and risk-averse behaviour. Being self-employed or starting a company is not seen as something to strive for but to avoid due to its inherent risks. People will actually give you funny looks when you tell them that you don't have a 9-5 job and they may actually pity you. When I quit my job to go freelance, everyone always pointed out the risk of not being in steady employment but interestingly nobody pointed out the benefits. This is curious as our social security system is rather extensive (expecially compared to the US). Even if you fail and fall, you're not going to starve or end up homeless and it'll be a comparatively soft landing. In theory this should benefit risk taking, but it does not. In fact, studies show that numbers of companies being founded and people going freelance go up in times of economic distress (e.g. '07-'09) and go down in times of a booming economy. When asked, the people answered that the did it out of necessity and not out of genuine desire to be independent. So we can conclude that Germans do prefer a 9-5 over the risk of being on their own despite the social security net. My interpretation of this is that most German's perception appears to be biased towards seeing the risks and not the possibilities even when the risks are objectively much smaller than perceived. Coming back to jaywalking this may mean that saving a minute or so may in their perception not be worth the risk of being run over or stopped by the cops however unlikely that may be in reality.
I also think that this mindset is a bad thing and has larger ramifications in a world that appears to be changing at an ever increasing pace than most people realise yet. Germany as an economy is highly dependent on the ability to export innovative premium products due to the relatively high costs of labour. Mechanical and chemical engineering are two of the main contributing sectors when it comes to exports. The extent of this becomes obvious if you take a look at the 30 stocks in our DAX index most of which stem from these sectors. What is also obvious is the distinct lack of IT companies. There is SAP and then there's Infineon, that's it and those are neither new nor particularly innovative companies. SAP is a 40 year old enterprise software company. I've never used their products but everybody I know who has, hates it. They may be very well on the forefront of companies ripe for disruption in the coming years. Infineon is a chipmaker that was spun off by Siemens (yes, THAT 165 year old Siemens). They have been struggling for years and had to spin off some of their departments which subsequently filed for bankruptcy to save themselves. There is really no company in Germany that would compare to the likes of Apple, Google or Microsoft in size or innovative potential and this looks like a major deficit in our economic structure to me. What I find notable is that nobody in Germany seems to be noticiing or even talking about this. Given that in the future IT will probably become even more important, this may very well come back to bite us.
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