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.
We do jaywalk all the time and not everyone as direct as described in the article. "Love of order" has long been lost. Half of Europe is more orderly than Germany.
I laughed especially hard at this: "It is more important to a German to be honest than liked, honest than professionally successful, honest than rich."
You're living 50 years in the past. Modern Germany has adapted to the American life style and the article is a collection of stereotypes.
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.
On the other hand, when I leave London to visit Vienna or Berlin or Frankfurt and I see a dozen Germanophones standing motionless at a crossing with a red light for pedestrians, but there is not a single car in sight, I think what on earth is wrong with these lemmings, do they have no brain of their own?
There's a balance to be had, and I would suggest neither Germany nor Austria nor the UK has it right.
German road police does also bullie young people in crappy cars alot. And long-haired man. And people with tattoos. If you've living in a country where the police does not do 'random' searches based on stereotypes, please tell me and i'll move there. gg The 'you need to speak without accent to be fully accepted' thing is also clearly wrong. I know lot's of examples for well integrated immigrants who don't speak without an accent and I bet every german who did not grew up on a farm in the middle of nowhere does know at least one immigrant from turkey.
I once got shouted at by a man on Osdorfer Weg for crossing against the red man. I've also had that near U-Bahn Schlump and in Berlin, despite there having been no traffic in sight. Never anywhere else though.
I've found more strong family and friendship units in Germany than in the UK, Australia or the US. I've also found that people are less mobile within Germany than other places, perhaps in part due to the cost of changing accommodation - although that may be a European thing, as opposed to just a German thing.
Of course, these are all simple anecdotes and worth what you paid for them. My feelings about Germany are that it's a great country, and one I like very much. But it does have a very distinct character (similar to southern England in some senses!) and from that, the outrage about politicians faking academic titles is not a surprise.
A friend of mine when I was living out in Berlin was regularly followed and stopped by police, just because of the color of his skin. He said this was mostly due to his neighbors calling the cops on him when he was simply walking down the street to go to work. It's that ingrained into Germans of a certain age, the ultra-susicious racism coupled with an unhealthy call-the-cops mentality.
Absolutely not. I've lived in 2 cities in Germany for 2 years and Germans are the nicest people I've ever met. That's my second immigration and I travel a lot, so I can compare.
I think if people get to know you, they are indeed positively surprised that “despite” being foreign etc you’re actually nice etc. That wouldn’t be my concern so much.
It would rather be the odd skinhead on the bus or in the street. The current government is also quietly accepting such behaviours, as it is their voter base, so the few “bad apples” feel they can act with impunity.
I don’t want to overplay it, it’s not Nazi Germany, but for sure something to consider. Nice place one way or the other.
I find it frustrating that any kind of stereotype is now considered "racist", as if there were no cultures anymore, only a uniform global distribution of individuals. At the same time, how is it better to claim that all Germans have become less focused on honesty in the last 50 years?
I agree that the stereotype is not wholly accurate. German youngsters spend a lot of time maintaining their thoroughly fake Instagram/YouTube personas. Nobody with a love of order would tolerate our terrible trains. But the culture shock I got from visiting Australia and California somewhat resembles the stereotypes in the article.
I grew up in Sweden, traveled a lot across Europe and lived 5 years in Germany.
From my experience, Germans tend to do what they're told without questioning.
They will happily line up at an empty street and wait for the light to turn green, and they get really upset if you mention the Holocaust; because those are the rules.
I have no trouble seeing how these traits contributed to what happened.
I’ve never had the problems you’re describing. I do know the first impressions are powerful (first impressions are why I don’t care much for Köln), but despite the xenophobic graffiti I’ve seen in Nürnberg and Bad Kissingen, despite the anecdotes I’ve heard from a Pakistani coworker, the closest my experiences get to “your German is no good so I will judge you” have been one rail official giving me a useless answer (and even then it wasn’t bad), and one business (legitimately) deciding I couldn’t manage one of their teams (not xenophobic! I agreed with them!), and I’ve cycled the Rhine from the Netherlands to Switzerland and visited Frankfurt (both of them), Köln, Hannover, Leipzig, Nürnberg, Suhl, Magdeburg, Heidelberg, and live in Berlin, an even despite living in Berlin my German language skills are still embarrassing.
> They are heavily overrepresented in crime statistics
Judging from my own anecdotal experiences as someone who "doesn't look like a German", i'm willing to take a wild guess why: Because everything they do is under a microscope.
I got my bags searched, because i "walked suspiciously through the isles" in a store (woman thought i'm a foreigner) and i got a false accusation by a police officer who said he "knew people like me".
Also the German BKA crime statistic shows reported crimes. It doesn't exactly show how many where actually convicted. So i guess i'm also somewhere in the stats from a few years ago.
It may be the case, but you don't know me, and by your own admission have never lived in Germany, so you cannot possibly reasonably ply your cod psychoanalysis on me. I can only speak of my own experiences and describe to you what it is like. It's up to you if you want to simply discard everything I say, blame everything on me and completely absolve German society or not. That would be a very German thing to do, after all ;)
I could talk at further length about it, but I guess I am not predisposed to do so, because it's clear you've already made your mind up, and it's not so enjoyable to discuss German society with someone who has no idea about German society and yet clearly has very strong opinions on it!
While an anecdote doesn't prove much, a distant relative of mine with a more Mediterranean appearance was detained by police in Munchen on allegations that the bicycle he was riding was stolen as he allegedly fit the description of a bike thief. After proving them wrong they mocked him saying something like 'how did someone like you managed to land such a high paying job? Do your colleagues like working with you? I mean you know.. considering... etc.. etc..'. I don't know what happened with his complaints post-factum but it's not the first time I hear about racist/xenophobe behavior by law enforcement in Germany.
Three weeks looking around and always telling yourself "HA, anotherone NOT jaywalking!" is hardly substance.
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