Around the world and back again

Do’s and Don't’s in Germany

So you’ve decided to travel to Germany and are now planning your trip. If you’re anything like me, you’ve got all your guidebooks spread out around you and are trying to figure out where to go and what to do and, very important, how to behave so you won’t offend anybody. Don’t despair, I’ve put together some advise for you in regards to my country that I hope you’ll find useful.

When in Germany, DON’T…

…just travel to the Oktoberfest.

When I’m abroad and people learn that I’m German, half of the conversations that follow are about the Oktoberfest. To be honest, I rarely contribute to those conversations. Getting drunk with hundreds of people is not my idea of fun so I’ve never been there. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t visit the Oktoberfest. I’m sure it’s an amazing experience. But if you travel to Germany, it would be sad if that was the only thing you saw of my beautiful country.

I feel like most people stick to the south and maybe do Berlin as well. The south has stunning scenery, Berlin’s amazing with all of its history. But what about the rest? The historic town centres that you can find all over the country? The North Sea and the Baltic Sea that you can both visit in one day (if you don’t mind spending an hour or two in the car) and that are so different from each other, that you’ll feel like you’ve come to a different country? What about the old industrial ruins in the Ruhrgebiet, a conglomeration of cities in the west?

What I’m saying is that there’s so much to do and see that it would be a pity if you stuck to the beaten path. Go out of the way and you’ll discover unique places and have a much more pleasant experience than if you walked with hundreds of other tourists.

…do the Hitler greeting in public.

I was wondering whether I really had to include this, but from what I’ve experienced, I do. The Second World War is still a sore topic for many Germans. First time I learned about it was at school, I was maybe eight or nine years old. What followed were yearly lessons about Hitler. There was never a time when we didn’t talk about it in at least one subject at school (I think the only subject where that topic never cropped up was mathematics – my teacher was creative but not that creative). Since a young age, I’ve been taught the awful things that Hitler did, how history must never repeat itself and that I should never, under any circumstances, be proud of my country. Being proud of our country is how Hitler started.

Now you can imagine my reaction when we had a couple of exchange students at our school and they raised their hand to the Hitler greeting in the middle of our schoolyard. In Germany, it is unthinkable to do such a thing. I’ve heard of tourists getting arrested for trying this in public. Your best bet is not to mention Hitler at all, but if you must, be respectful. Most of my generation, being born centuries after the war, is fed up with how foreigners either seem to joke about it or hold them responsible for what their great-grandparents did.

So if all of the above is true, you wonder, why have you seen people with German flags dancing in the streets?

You must have been here during a soccer world cup. Those flags are a recent development of the last years. You can only see them when Germany is playing. Soccer is our main sport so that’s how we show that we still like the country we live in. But don’t worry, scientists are already complaining about our irresponsibility of waving those flags once every four years.

…greet everyone with “How are you?”

Yes, I’m serious about this one. If you go to the bakery and greet the woman working there with, “How are you,” she’ll give you a strange look. If you’re lucky. If you aren’t, she’ll start telling you exactly how miserable her life is, leaving you to wonder what you did wrong.

When I first travelled abroad, I was perplexed at the words that Canadians greeted me with. How polite, I thought – until I realised that it wasn’t really a question meant to take seriously but a greeting, one that you should usually answer with, “Fine, thanks.”

Germans can be reserved when you first meet them. It isn’t in our nature to greet each other with kisses on our cheeks (do yourself a favour and don’t try this either). A hand shake is perfectly fine, not more. That does not mean we don’t want to get to know you – on the contrary. And once you’ve gotten to know someone better, it’s perfectly fine to greet them with “How are you”. If you’re interested in an honest answer, of course.

…leave your shopping until Sunday.

Sunday is holy. It’s the day where you go to church and rest. Now, most of us don’t take the part about church seriously anymore. However, we do like our rest on Sunday and that’s why almost all shops are closed that day. Laws prohibit them to open, so the employees can enjoy a day with their family. You must have your groceries done by Saturday evening or it’ll be a long time until the supermarkets open again on Monday.

There are some exceptions, of course. Shops at a train station, for example, or some touristic shops close to the sea. I never quite understood those exceptions and I’m sure that most Germans don’t either, so don’t rely on them.

When in Germany, DO…

…travel outside the main season.

Let me start with a very important advise I’m about to give you. Always try and travel outside the main season. Spring and autumn are best.

But what about summer, you may ask. What if I want to have great and hot weather?

Well, that’s exactly why I’m telling you to travel outside the main season. It is summer right now and we’re all drowning from the constant rain we’ve had for the past couple of weeks. We did, however, have an amazingly hot Easter weekend. German summers can be hot but most of the time they’re cloudy and rainy so you might as well avoid the tourists and come earlier or later.

Besides, prices drop once the summer holidays are over. Chances are that in spring or autumn, you’ll have the place to yourself, pay less and also have the better weather. So what reason is left to go when everyone else does?

…try our bread.

There are supposed to be 300 different types of bread in Germany. Germans eat an average of fifty to sixty kilograms of bread per year. The most common sentence from a German who’s been abroad is, “The holidays were wonderful, but the bread there was really awful.”

I’m not exactly sure why we love our bread so much. Fact is, it comes in all shapes, sizes and colours, varying from pitch black to completely white and all shades in between. Wouldn’t it be a shame if you came to Germany and had not even tasted one of our amazing breads?

The same goes for beer. The more I travel around my own country, the more amazed I am at the huge variety of beers. Almost each region produces their own. Maybe it results from the many small states that once existed instead of Germany. Each region had their own ruler, their own traditions, their own bread and, of course, their own beer.

What I’m trying to say is that you should try local food and drinks. Ask people about seasonal dishes. Asparagus, for example, is very popular in late spring and most good restaurants will have it at that time – usually prepared in the traditional way with potatoes, ham and sauce. And never forget to taste a different type of bread. Who knows? Once you’ve gotten over your first shock of seeing black bread, you might even like it.

…recycle your bottles.

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed an English sign in our small shop at the train station, trying to explain why the costumer had to pay more for his bottle of water than what was labelled. Unfortunately, the English was so bad that if I had not known what they were talking about, I wouldn’t have understood.

That’s where I come in to help you.

In Germany, when you buy a drink in a plastic bottle, you pay for the bottle, too. Depending on the kind of bottle, it can be up to 25 cents. That’s why, when you go to pay for your drink, you’ll be asked for a different price than what’s on the label.

But don’t worry, this is not some scheme to rip you off. We Germans like to recycle, as you may notice when you come into a household and see the many bins in the kitchen. This does include bottles. There are special machines for those at the super markets. Too bad we are lazy, too, so the government tried to come up with some kind of incentive to make sure we’d dispose of our bottles in the right place. You pay for the bottle and get the money back when you bring the bottle back. Easy, isn’t it? All you have to do is to keep your bottles. Remember, which each one that you throw into a normal bin, you loose up to 25 cents.