It's not any more bureaucratic than the US. With the significant difference that German bureaucrats usually stick to the law, while the US ones occasionally feel like making shit up. (Especially my friends at CBP.)
Sad to hear. It's annoying when you get a bunch of new regulation that is self-selected-enforcing and only the law-abiding citizens and companies will follow it while others ignore it without consequences.
It's spotty in Germany, since it's set up at the state level and depends on where the company is located. In my experience, Hamburg's DPO is terrible, slow and mostly unwilling. Berlin's is very slow but not incompetent. Hesse's is quick and responsive and feels like they have a good understanding of tech and want to get things done.
Germany has about as many cases in total as NY, yet less than 1/2 of the deaths. The death rate seems high in NY, maybe because hospitals could not cope?
>spending a very small amount of time in Germany, is that in Germany the rules are the rules, whereas in America it is not quite like that
That's the impression you'll get as a foreigner who spent a little time in Germany, but if you're long timer deep in the system you'll realize that "rules are rules" is only true for the little guy whereas the wealthy elite and old-money individuals and companies can and do bend and break the rules with the help of regulators, politicians and courts all the time who kindly look the other way because they are directly or indirectly invested in those companies or tied to the individuals who run the companies.
High level corruption in Germany is rampant and the scandals are numerous. VW, Wirecard, Deutche, Axel Springer, real estate giants, basically pick any rich big German company, chances are they have powerful friends in politics greasing the gears for them making sure the regulatory authorities are always looking the other way.
I don't think that it is overdone. It's bad everywhere, and it's much worse in Berlin.
If you've experienced anything like a modern bureaucracy, Germany is infuriatingly backwards. The article is painfully accurate down to the minute detail.
The level of scrutiny you're describing sounds unusual for most parts of the US, but the broad answer is that the relevant enforcement authorities are more aggressive in the US than they are in Austria and Germany. This leads to inflexible policies so that the establishment's lawyer can more effectively defend against prosecution for any failures.
I don't know what the situation in Germany is, but as I only ever hear about those issues from the US, I assume its something ridiculously bureaucratic, which might actually be a plus in this case?
As someone that haven’t ever been to Germany or interacted with any German government, but works with different governments a lot, it has really become apparent that Germans love telling the rest of the world how bad their bureaucracy is, then go on to describe something that sounds entirely common. It’s like New Yorkers telling you how good and unique bodegas are, and it turns out they either grew up in New York City or some one-traffic-light town and just haven’t had any worldly exposure.
Your personal anecdote as another commenter pointed out says much more about your lack of consulting and general workplace experience than it does about German bureaucracy. It all sounds very typical and again what I’d expect as someone that can count on one hand the number of people in Germany I’ve talked to professionally.
Ok, however the context of this thread is the intersection of a multi-national American business with European courts, so basing one's opinion on the German experience exclusively to claim the obvious necessity of regulation is a bit German-centric.
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