German Culture

Lübecker Plettenpudding

October 2, 2018 By germanculture

Photo credit https://goo.gl/8u85Jp

A dessert that really tastes like Sunday. Plettenpudding is a kind of trifle with vanilla pudding and raspberries. This dessert is featured in one of Germany’s most popular novels, the family epic The Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann. The Lübeck-born author won the Nobel Prize for literature for his first novel which he wrote in his mid-twenties.

Ingredients:

250 g fresh or frozen raspberries
2 tablespoons confectioner’s sugar

8 ladyfingers
1/4 cup sherry
1 cup heavy cream
4 egg yolks
100 g sugar
1 cup milk
1 vanilla bean
1-1/2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin
6 macaroons

Preparation:

Sprinkle the raspberries with the powdered sugar and drizzle with 2 tablespoons sherry. Set aside.
Cut the vanilla pod lengthways and scrape out the pith with the back of the knife. Place the milk with the vanilla pulp and the vanilla pod on the stove, stir in the gelatin and bring everything to a boil. Set aside.
In the meantime beat the egg yolk with the sugar until creamy white. Put the still warm vanilla milk in a large metal bowl and continue to heat in a water bath. Slowly stir in the egg yolk cream and stir vigorously with the whisk or, better still, with the electric mixer until frothy. It should be a thick cream. Refrigerate until semi-solid.
Place the ladyfingers in a large glass bowl or four dessert bowls and sprinkle evenly with the remaining sherry. Spread the raspberries on it, set aside a few raspberries for decoration.
Beat the heavy cream until stiff. Stir again the semi-firm cream with the whisk and then fold in the heavy cream evenly. Spread the cream on the raspberries.
Decorate the dessert with the macaroons, crumble a few of them and sprinkle on the cream. Finally, decorate the pudding with the remaining raspberries.

Brathering – Marinated Fried Herring

September 28, 2018 By germanculture

Pronounced /ˈbrɑːtˌheɪrɪŋ/, Brathering is a popular dish from northern Germany made of fried fresh herrings that marinate for several days before serving. Serve for lunch with fried potatoes.

Ingredients:

4 fresh herrings ready to be cooked
salt and pepper
1 tablespoon sugar
flour
butter or oil for frying
1 cup red wine vinegar
1 cup vegetable broth
2 bay leaves
3 cloves
10 black peppercorns
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
8 ounce jar mixed pickles drained
8 ounce jar cocktail onions
4 hot chilies

Preparation:

Salt and pepper the herrings and coat them with flour.
Heat the butter/oil in a frying pan and fry the herrings till golden brown. Let them drain on paper towels.
Combine vinegar, vegetable broth, spices and sugar in a pot and boil. Let it cool off. Put the herrings in a bowl, add the well-drained and sliced mixed pickles, cocktail onions and chilies and cover with the broth.
Store covered in a refrigerator for several days. Serve with fried potatoes.

Cannstatter Volksfest in Stuttgart

September 24, 2018 By germanculture

For almost 200 years, the Cannstatter Volksfest has enjoyed enormous popularity and annually attracts about four million visitors from near and far to Stuttgart, the state capital of Baden Württemberg. People are captivated by the special atmosphere of the wonderful funfair coupled with beautiful festival tents, a colorful flea market and many spectacular attractions. Rich in tradition, the Cannstatter Volksfest is not only the biggest festival in Baden Württemberg but it is also has one of the biggest funfairs in the whole of Europe.

This year the festival takes place on Sep 27, 2019 – Oct 13, 2019.

The Cannstatter Volksfest is an annual three-week Volksfest (beer festival and traveling funfair) in Stuttgart, Germany. It is sometimes also referred to by foreign visitors as the Stuttgart Beer Festival, although it is actually more of an autumnal fair.

The festival takes place at the Cannstatter Wasen from late September to early October, spanning a period over three weekends, ending the second Sunday in October. The extensive Wasen area is in the Stuttgart city district of Bad Cannstatt, near the river Neckar. A smaller variant of the Stuttgart festival, the Stuttgart Spring Festival, is also held each year in Wasen.

Although the Volksfest is not strictly speaking a beer festival, it is considered by many to be the second largest beer celebration in the world after the Munich Oktoberfest. According to estimates about 4.2 million people visited the festival in 2006. The Volksfest begins one week later than the Oktoberfest.

In a time of political strife and economic weakness, Württemberg’s King Wilhelm I and his wife Katharina laid the foundations for what today has become known as the Cannstatter Volksfest by forming the “Centralstelle des landwirtschaftlichen Vereins” – an agricultural organization – in 1817. An agricultural festival with horse races, prizes for outstanding achievements in livestock breeding combined with a people’s festival was, in accordance with the king’s wishes, designed to revive Württemberg’s economy after the damage done to it during the Napoleonic wars.

Everything was then prepared for 28 September, one day after the king’s birthday, in the following year. The original Cannstatter Wasen site has been the venue for the major festival ever since 1818. At the time it was an idyllic though watery meadow on the banks of the River Neckar which was yet to be dammed up. Lying between green fields and vineyards and without any surrounding buildings, the Wasen, as the site is called by the locals, lay within view of the royal Villa Bellevue close to the Wilhelma, the only combined zoo and botanical garden in Germany. It was therefore only a short horse-drawn carriage ride away for the festival’s benefactor who had no intention of missing the ceremonial opening and witnessing the successful start. The original idea of the “king amongst farmers and the farmer amongst kings”, as Wilhelm I was called by his contemporaries, continues today in the shape of the so-called “Landwirtschaftlichen Hauptfest”, a large agricultural show running parallel to the Volksfest that showcases all the latest technology within the farming industry in the state of Baden Württemberg.

The “Fruchtsäule” (Fruit Column) is the emblem of the Cannstatter Volksfest. There has been a towering column decorated with many different kinds of fruit, cereals and vegetables ever since the first Volksfest in 1818. Today the symbol reminds one of the origins of the Volksfest, namely the agricultural festival. Commissioned and funded by King Wilhelm I, the frist fruit column was designed and built by the architect to the royal court, Nikolaus Friedrich von Thouret, the money for the first fruit column was funded by King Wilhelm I.

The “fruit column” is a wooden pillar decorated with fruit, it is 26 m high and weighing 3.5 tons. After World War I, with the beginning of the Weimar Republic, the fruit column was removed from the Cannstatter Wasen as it was considered a relic of the monarchy. Since 1935, the 100th anniversary, it has been back in its traditional place. Until recently the fruit column, the design of which has changed over the years, was dismantled after each Volksfest. Every few years it is redesigned. Since 1995 it has been left in place throughout the year and is thus also on display at the Stuttgart spring festival. In recent years only the tip has been dismantled leaving the lower portion in place housing information stands and the Cannstatter “city can”.

Today, there are seven large beer tents on the Cannstatter Wasen for people to celebrate in. They either have their own name or carry the name of the brewery supplying the beer.

Schwaben Bräu tent of Alexander Laub, remodeled in 2006 and now offering room for about 5,200 people
Stuttgarter Hofbräu tent of Hans-Peter Grandl, room for 5,000
Dinkelacker tent of Dieter and Werner Klauss seating 4,500 visitors
Fürstenberg tent – from 2000 to 2004, Walter Weitmann organized a tent with about 5,000 seats for the Fürstenberg Brewery, which courted the other breweries’ resentment by both its size and the origin (Fürstenberg is from Baden). In 2005, a smaller tent (room for 2,800) run by Peter Brandl replaced Weitmann’s
Festzelt Göckelesmaier – established in 1938 as Maiers Karle, renamed because of the roasted chicken (Swabian: Göckele) served there, seats 2,500, also serves Stuttgarter Hofbräu beer
Festzelt Wasenwirt – room for 2200, Stuttgarter Hofbräu
Arcadia Erlebniszelt – established in 2005, 1,800 seats, an artificial waterfall and Dinkelacker brew

Since 1982 the tents of Laub, Grandl and Klauss have been located by the fruit column. Each tent takes it in turn to host the opening ceremony. The price for a Maß is usually the same in all tents.

Traditionally a parade also takes place at the Wasen, usually on the first Sunday. In 1954 a record number of spectators attended the parade along the route from Stuttgart’s central square to the Wasen site: 300,000.The Mohrenköpfle is a pig in the parade. On the orders of King Wilhelm I, masked pigs (Maskenschweine?) were imported from Central China in 1820/21, in order to improve pig breeding in the kingdom of Baden-Württemberg. This crossbreeding with the “Chinese pigs” was particularly successful within the stocks of domestic pigs in the Hohenlohe region and the area around the town of Schwäbisch Hall.

Obatzda – German Cheese Dip

September 22, 2018 By germanculture

A classic biergarten food, Obatzda, also spelled obatzter and obazda, combines a few simple ingredients to create a brightly colored cheese spread with surprisingly complex flavor. Typical accompaniments for Obatzda are Bavarian pretzels, rye bread, rounds of red radish or spiral-cut white radish. Perfect for the Oktoberfest party!

Ingredients:

500 g ripe Camembert
40 g soft butter
200 g cream cheese
80 g finely chopped onions
Salt, pepper
Paprika, caraway
2 tbsp of chopped chives
60 g finely sliced onion rings
6-8 tbsp of beer to taste

Preparation:

Mash the Camembert with a fork and add the butter, cream cheese and onions.
Season with salt, pepper, paprika and caraway to taste. Add beer gradually and stir.
Spoon a portion of Obatzda onto each plate and garnish with onion rings, chives and caraway.
Serve preferably with rye bread, wholemeal bread and radishes.

Recipe source: https://goo.gl/MeDVwG.

Weißwurst, German White Sausage

September 20, 2018 By germanculture

A Weißwurst, literally white sausage, is a traditional Bavarian sausage made from minced veal and pork back bacon. The Weißwurst was created in Munich on February 22, 1857, and has since become a very important part of Bavaria cooking and lifestyle. Legend has it that the Weißwurst was invented by mistake in 1857, when an innkeeper in Munich ran out of sheep casings for his Bratwürste and in order to feed his hungry guests, used tough and chewy pork casings instead. It is usually flavored with parsley, lemon, mace, onions, ginger, and cardamom, although there are some variations. Then the mixture is stuffed into pork casings and separated into individual sausages measuring about ten to twelve centimeters in length and three to four centimeters in thickness.

As they are very perishable, Weißwürste traditionally were manufactured early in the morning and prepared and eaten as a snack between breakfast and lunch; there is a saying that the sausages should not be allowed to hear the noon chime of the church bells. Traditionally, Weißwürste may only be served until midday because preservatives are not used, the meat is not smoked, and hence the sausage is made fresh every day. Indeed, they are sometimes called morning sausages. Before modern refrigeration technologies, in summertime the sausages would go bad before nightfall. Even today, most Bavarians never eat Weißwürste after lunchtime (though it is perfectly acceptable to have a lunch consisting of Weißwürste at, say, half past one).

The sausages are heated in water—well short of boiling—for about ten minutes, which will turn them greyish-white because no color-preserving nitrite is used in Weisswurst preparation.

Ingredients:

36 g salt
600 g lean veal meat (“veal stew meat”) at refrigerator temperature, cut into 1 cm cubes
300 g lean pork meat, cut into 1 cm cubes, partially frozen
400 g pork fat (pork belly without the skin, etc.) at refrigerator temperature, cut into 1 cm cubes
300 g ice
100 g pork skin
½ tsp dried lemon peel
¼ tsp white pepper
pinch of dried ginger
pinch of freshly grated cardamom
pinch of dried mace
10 g onion (don’t chop!)
20 g parsley, chopped
sausage casings (hog)

Preparation:

Prepare casings per instructions (soak in warm water until pliable, rinse outside and inside). Set aside.
Bring 1 liter of water to a boil. Simmer pork skin and onion for ca. 15 minutes. Remove from water, run through meat grinder, set aside.
Combine lean meat (pork, veal), spices, salt and half of the ice. Blend in the food processor until you have a smooth mix. Set aside, refrigerate.
Blend pork fat in the food processor until smooth.
Blend in lean meat mix.
Blend in remaining ice until the mixture is smooth and no ice clumps remain.
With the food processor mix in ground pork skin and parsley, blend just enough to distribute evenly.
Stuff 16 sausages using a sausage-stuffer or a sausage-stuffing attachment. Do not overstuff, when twisting the links, leave a little room for expansion in each link. If necessary, remove large air bubbles by piercing the casing with a skewer. Tie off the links.
In a large stock pot heat up water to 80°C. Check with thermometer.
Place sausages in hot water, leave in for 30 minutes, adjust heat to keep temperature constant at 80°C. Check with thermometer.
Remove from hot water, place in cold water to cool. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
To serve, heat up with some fresh parsley in hot beef stock (or salted water). Do not boil or it may cause the sausages to split.
Serve with fresh pretzels and sweet mustard (“Weißwurstsenf”) and a tall cold glass of Weißbier.

14 Fun Facts You Didn’t Know About Oktoberfest

September 17, 2018 By germanculture

Oktoberfest has gathered international recognition and status and is celebrated in areas outside Germany too. Nevertheless we’re listing the fun facts for you. Here are some interesting facts and traditions surrounding the world’s most famous beer festival.

1. It’s not a beer festival

Contrary to popular belief, Oktoberfest – or “Wiesn”, to the locals – is not a beer festival, but the anniversary celebration of the wedding between Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig and his wife, Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen. When they got married in 1810, the royals commemorated the event with a public party where not a single drop of the liquid gold was spilled!

It wasn’t until 1819 that the horse races were replaced by beer vendors. Despite their initial prudence, you’ll still find doting monarchists today raising a stein in honor of the old lord and lady who made it all possible.

2. Munich beer only

Oktoberfest is, above all, a celebration of Bavarian traditions, so the only beer you’ll find during the festival is brewed within the city limits of Munich. Only beers that fit this criteria are considered Oktoberfest Beers.

3. No drinking without consent

You’d think that this behemoth of a beer celebration would be a bit of an anything goes affair, but you’d be wrong. Drinking at Oktoberfest can only commence when the master of ceremonies – the mayor of Munich – cracks open the first barrel of beer, proclaiming ‘O’ zapft is’ (‘It’s tapped!’).

4. It doesn’t start in October

What’s in a name? Not much, it seems, as this legendary autumn event doesn’t even start in October! Over the years there’s been a shift to an earlier, hopefully sunnier mid-September start, with the whole festival starting around the middle of September and finishing in early October, when 12 riflemen will sound a salute on the steps of the plainly named Bavaria Statue.

5. They’ve cancelled it 24 times

You can’t stop beer pouring! In 200 years, Oktoberfest has only been cancelled 24 times. The causes were mostly due to the war and cholera epidemics.

6. Beer prices start at €9.70 / £8 / $11

It’s the price for one liter of beer. Not for those looking for a low budget festival.

Tip: Beer can be bought in the tents from 10 am to 10:30 pm on weekdays, and from 9 am to 10:30 pm during the weekend.

7. The beer is specially brewed for Oktoberfest and it’s extra strong

One mug of beer here is equivalent to 8 shots of Schnapps. They’re specially brewed for the festival and they have at least 6% alcohol.

8. There are 14 large beer hall tents

The most famous one is Schottenhamel because it’s where the mayor taps the first keg and the biggest one is Hofbräu-Festhalle which seats almost 11,000 people.

9. There’s a wine tent

Besides 15 different types wine there’s also champagne and sparkling wine in the Weinzelt – wine tent.

10. The lost and found office is a proverbial treasure chest

Naturally for such a huge event, the Oktoberfest Lost and Found office is stuffed every year with thousands of abandoned goods, including passports, wallets, mobile phones, bags and rucksacks, and cameras – there also happen some more peculiar finds, such as wedding rings, hearing-aids, sets of false teeth, and even Segways.

11. It’s a kid-friendly zone

Over recent years, organizers for the festival have tried to steer away from the image of the world’s most popular watering hole to a more family-friendly extravaganza. The carnival aspect has always been a big deal at Oktoberfest, but now it’s bigger than ever, with a Ferris wheel, roller coasters, games and traditional Bavarian parades open to people of all ages, shapes and varying degrees of drunkenness.

12. Despite the international appeal, it’s still a surprisingly local affair

Only 19% of the visitors aren’t from Germany.

13. Einstein worked there

Albert Einstein, once worked as an electrician and helped to set up one of the beer tents in 1896.

14. Oktoberfest has its very own post office

They send around 130,000 postcards and gifts every year.

Reinheitsgebot

September 16, 2018 By germanculture

The Reinheitsgebot, literally “purity order”, sometimes called the “German Beer Purity Law” in English, is a series of regulations limiting the ingredients in beer in Germany and the states of the former Holy Roman Empire. The best-known version of the law was adopted in Bavaria in 1516, but similar regulations predate the Bavarian order, and modern regulations also significantly differ from the 1516 Bavarian version.

The most influential predecessor of the modern Reinheitsgebot was a law first adopted in the duchy of Munich in 1487. After Bavaria was reunited, the Munich law was adopted across the entirety of Bavaria on 23 April 1516. As Germany unified, Bavaria pushed for adoption of this law on a national basis.

Nowadays, according to tradition, during Oktoberfest only original Munich beer which is characterized by a long tradition, much experience in brewing and and the strict adherence of the Reinheitsgebot.

The regulation says several things:

– It says what can be part of beer, and what can not. Beer may only contain water, barley, and hops.
– It gives a price to beer. This is important for taxation.

Some people talk about the Bavarian Reinheitsgebot, or the German Reinheitsgebot. They all mean the same thing. There are similar acts in the other states which later became known as Germany.

The Reinheitsgebot is no longer part of German law. It has been replaced by the Provisional German Beer Law , which allows things prohibited in the Reinheitsgebot, such as wheat malt and cane sugar, but which no longer allows unmalted barley.

Yeast was not a part of beer until Louis Pasteur discovered what it did during fermentation. This was around the year 1800. Brewers (the people brewing beer) usually re-used some of the sediments of the fermentation. They took some sediments of an older brew and added those sediments to the next brew.

Hops were added as a method of preservation (to stop the beer from going bad quickly). Hops were allowed to stop other things (like adding certain mushrooms to the beer, which was done in the Middle Ages) being done to preserve beer. Other herbs, like stinging nettles had been used. The stinging nettle is part of the same plant family as hops.

A brewer who broke the Reinheitsgebot was punished: the beer barrels were taken by the state and destroyed and he/she did not receive any money for the loss.

Even today, many brewers are proud of the Reinheitsgebot; most German breweries say they follow it. Some only use it as a marketing tool. The Reinheitsgebot says that beer is made of barley, so all wheat beers were not allowed by the original Reinheitsgebot).

The text (translated) of the 1516 Bavarian law is as follows:

We hereby proclaim and decree, by Authority of our Province, that henceforth in the Duchy of Bavaria, in the country as well as in the cities and marketplaces, the following rules apply to the sale of beer:

From Michaelmas to Georgi, the price for one Mass [Bavarian Liter 1,069] or one Kopf [bowl-shaped container for fluids, not quite one Mass], is not to exceed one Pfennig Munich value, and

From Georgi to Michaelmas, the Mass shall not be sold for more than two Pfennig of the same value, the Kopf not more than three Heller [Heller usually one-half Pfennig].

If this not be adhered to, the punishment stated below shall be administered.

Should any person brew, or otherwise have, other beer than March beer, it is not to be sold any higher than one Pfennig per Mass.

Furthermore, we wish to emphasize that in future in all cities, market-towns and in the country, the only ingredients used for the brewing of beer must be Barley, Hops and Water. Whosoever knowingly disregards or transgresses upon this ordinance, shall be punished by the Court authorities’ confiscating such barrels of beer, without fail.

Should, however, an innkeeper in the country, city or market-towns buy two or three pails of beer (containing 60 Mass) and sell it again to the common peasantry, he alone shall be permitted to charge one Heller more for the Mass or the Kopf, than mentioned above. Furthermore, should there arise a scarcity and subsequent price increase of the barley (also considering that the times of harvest differ, due to location), WE, the Bavarian Duchy, shall have the right to order curtailments for the good of all concerned.
— Bavarian Reinheitsgebot of 1516 (emphasis added), Eden, Karl J. (1993). “History of German Brewing”. Zymurgy. 16 (4).

The Bavarian order of 1516 was introduced in part to prevent price competition with bakers for wheat and rye. The restriction of grains to barley was meant to ensure the availability of affordable bread, as wheat and rye were reserved for use by bakers. The rule may have also had a protectionist role, as beers from Northern Germany often contained additives that were not present in Bavarian beer.

Religious conservatism may have also played a role in adoption of the rule in Bavaria, to suppress the use of plants that were allegedly used in pagan rituals, such as gruit. The rule also excluded problematic methods of preserving beer, such as soot, stinging nettle and henbane.

Because of strong German consumer preferences, labeling beer as being compliant with Reinheitsgebot is believed to be a valuable marketing tool in Germany. German brewers have used the law to market German beer internationally, including a failed attempt to have the law added to the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritages. Some breweries outside Germany, such as Gordon Biersch in California, Red Oak Brewery in Whitsett, North Carolina, Olde Mecklenburg Brewery in Charlotte, North Carolina, Schulz Braü in Knoxville, Tennessee, Namibia Breweries, Penn Brewery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Bitte Schön Brauhaus in New Hamburg, Ontario also claim to be compliant to the Reinheitsgebot as part of their marketing.

Top 100 German Verbs

September 14, 2018 By germanculture

This verb list comes from Randall Jones & Erwin Tschirner’s A Frequency Dictionary of German. Core Vocabulary for Learners, which lists the 4034 most commonly used words in German. Here are the 100 most common German verbs along with their English translations. You just have to learn these verbs to start studying German because they are used very often.

1. sein to be
2. haben to have
3. werden to become
4. können can, to be able to
5. müssen must, to have to
6. sagen to say
7. machen to do, make
8. geben to give
9. kommen to come
10. sollen should, ought to
11. wollen to want
12. gehen to go
13. wissen to know
14. sehen to see
15. lassen to let, allow, have done
16. stehen to stand
17. finden to find
18. bleiben to stay, remain
19. liegen to lie, be lying
20. heißen to be called

21. denken to think
22. nehmen to take
23. tun to do
24. dürfen may, to be allowed
25. glauben to believe
26. halten to stop, hold
27. nennen to name, to call (a name)
28. mögen to like
29. zeigen to show
30. führen to lead
31. sprechen to speak
32. bringen to bring, take
33. leben to live
34. fahren to drive, ride, go
35. meinen to think, have an opinion
36. fragen to ask
37. kennen to know
38. gelten to be valid
39. stellen to place, set
40. spielen to play
41. arbeiten to work
42. brauchen to need
43. folgen to follow
44. lernen to learn
45. bestehen to exist, insist, pass (an exam)
46. verstehen to understand
47. setzen to set, put, place
48. bekommen to get, receive
49. beginnen to begin
50. erzählen to narrate, tell
51. versuchen to try, attempt
52. schreiben to write
53. laufen, to run
54. erklären to explain
55. entsprechen to correspond
56. sitzen to sit
57. ziehen to pull, move
58. scheinen to shine, seem, appear
59. fallen to fall
60. gehören to belong
61. entstehen to originate, develop
62. erhalten to receive
63. treffen to meet
64. suchen to search, look for
65. legen to lay, put
66. vor·stellen to introduce, imagine
67. handeln to deal, trade
68. erreichen to achieve, reach
69. tragen to carry, wear
70. schaffen to manage, create
71. lesen to read
72. verlieren to lose
73. dar·stellen to depict, portray
74. erkennen to recognize, admit
75. entwickeln to develop
76. reden to talk
77. aus·sehen to appear, look (a certain way)
78. erscheinen to appear
79. bilden to form, educate
80. an·fangen to begin
81. erwarten to expect
82. wohnen to live
83. betreffen to affect, concern
84. warten to wait
85. vergehen to elapse; to decay
86. helfen to help
87. gewinnen to win
88. schließen to close
89. fühlen to feel
90. bieten to offer
91. interessierento interest
92. erinnern to remember
93. ergeben to result in
94. an·bieten to offer
95. studieren to study
96. verbinden to connect, link
97. an·sehen to look at, watch
98. fehlen to lack, be missing, be absent
99. bedeuten to mean
100. vergleichen to compare

The Amusing German Language

September 3, 2018 By germanculture

Germans are universally known as a rather serious lot, lacking any sense of humor (disclaimer: NOT TRUE). However, German language bears so many pitfalls, leading to an array of funny situations.

The way German speakers are unintentionally funny is priceless and an invaluable way to break the ice in awkward situations. Just imagine all the business dinners and formal gatherings that were instantly alleviated by a simple mechanical linguistic mistake, which inevitably cracked a smile on every face. It is so human, kind of endearing and brings people together.

Indeed humor can be found everywhere. Did you just hear that reliable businessman (yes, the one in the cutting edge designer suit and its respective ten-thousand-euros watch) saying he was becoming a steak?! He most probably meant he was getting a steak for dinner, but the direct translation from German to English tends to play surrealistic tricks too often.

A very common mistake regarding dinners is the so called invitation issue. Just watch the face of your German business partner when you cheerfully say, “Thank you for inviting me”. In German to invite means “to pay the bill”. The confusion and then the acknowledgment “Oh, you don’t mean I have to invite you, but, of course, …” is simply priceless.

And what would you answer to: “Excuse me, do you have fire?” Bet you would come up with something original, while that girl only asked for your lighter. But wasn’t it poetic?! You are intrigued on so many levels, aren’t you?! Maybe you would even consider “to make a party” with her after all! Oh, the Germans, they “machen” everything! They don’t just “party”, they “machen Party” (make party). They also “dress up” to go jogging. If only they could see the images that come to the average Anglophone mind at this point.

All these translation affairs also work the other way round. When an English speaker intuitively translates “I am warm” to “ich bin warm”, the German person in front of them takes it as a slang confession they were gay. And if occasionally you are “heiß,” than you have just said you are horny.

Back to German speakers: have you already heard that your sister’s roommate’s sister is “getting a baby?” Undoubtedly the Germans are a progressive breed, but believe me, they still “have” their babies just like all of us.

And then people will tell you Germans weren’t funny! How many people do you know who refer to their boss as their “chef”?! Or, when they call you to reschedule your “date”? That is more than certain to bring a smile to your face.

Public Etiquette in Germany

August 23, 2018 By germanculture

Sometimes, when coming to Germany, visitors have the stereotype of dour, rigid, and humorless Germans firmly lodged in their mind. Fortunately, this cliché regarding German customs and behavior is exactly that – just a cliché.

Germans tend to be rather reserved with strangers, business partners and casual acquaintances.

Meet and Greet

In order to describe German customs and social interactions, intercultural consultants like comparing Germans to coconuts. Both have a hard exterior shell, which may take some time to crack, but are soft and sweet on the inside. Practically speaking, this means that German customs generally impose a certain formality when interacting with strangers and casual acquaintances.

Most first meetings in Germany are characterized by a great degree of reserve. Germans will treat you politely, but not warmly, and they may not appreciate levity, joking around, or ironic wit. This is probably where the preconception of the dull German devoid of humor comes from. Just give them a little time. If you are gradually getting to know them better, they will eventually relax and prove that Germans do know how to have fun.

Proper Forms of Address

When you meet a German for the first time, polite German customs require you to err on the side of conservatism: Make direct eye contact with your new acquaintance; shake hands briefly, but firmly; use a formal greeting such as “Guten Tag, Herr Schmidt” or “Guten Morgen, Frau Müller. Es freut mich, Sie kennen zu lernen.“ (”Good morning, Ms Müller. It’s a pleasure to meet you“). German customs place lots of emphasis on the correct form of address and a person’s title, particularly if you interact with business contacts, a person you have never met before, the elderly, and people entitled to your respect (e.g. your superiors in a business setting or an academic context).

Make sure to use the polite way of addressing Germans at first (“Sie”). Also use Herr/Frau (Mr/Ms) + title + last name: for instance, Herr Doktor Meier. The word Fräulein, which is often quoted to be one of the more important among German customs, is even more outdated than the English “Miss”, and younger women in Germany often regard it as patronizing.

First names and the casual form of address (“Du”) are reserved by German customs for friends, family, and younger people like university students. However, when your new acquaintance, neighbor or coworker offers you to talk on a first-name basis, courtesy in German customs dictates that you accept: They are trying to be particularly friendly. In young-skewing, international, or “trendy” businesses, though, most people will be on a first-name basis immediately – just see how they introduce themselves and follow their example.

On the Phone

Erring on the side of formal politeness is also recommended when making phone calls in Germany. Don’t phone people at home late at night or early in the morning, during lunch hours from 1 to 3 p.m. when stay-at-home parents with children like to rest, or on a Sunday, a day reserved for quality time with the family and meeting up with close friends.

Always remember to say your full name when answering the phone (“Hallo, John Smith am Apparat.” – “Hello, this is John Smith speaking.”) When calling someone who is not a close friend of yours, treat the person on the other end of line with formal courtesy, even if it’s “only” the receptionist offering to forward your call. (“Guten Tag, hier ist John Smith. Könnte ich bitte mit Herrn Doktor Meier sprechen?” – „Good afternoon, this is John Smith speaking. Could I talk to Dr Meier, please?“)