Culture

From linguistic challenges to travel habits: Comics about German culture

Cash is still king for the Germans

You might be challenged in Germany when trying to get around with just a credit card — many shops and services take cash only. Most Germans are used to it, and carry around a lot of euro bills with them. They feel they can better keep track of the money they spend that way. Plus, paying cash keeps transactions more private...

From linguistic challenges to travel habits: Comics about German culture

Sunday: A day of rest

You're allowed to wash your clothes, but not your car. In most of Germany's 16 states, car washes are closed on Sundays, as are supermarkets and stores. Sunday is seen as day of rest and relaxation in Germany, though cafes and restaurants remain open, so you can at least get your heavenly delights here on earth.

From linguistic challenges to travel habits: Comics about German culture

Safety first

Bicycle helmets are not compulsory in Germany, but many people choose to wear one just the same — and an improvised version might be better than nothing at all. But if a Prussian Army Pickelhaube is easier to find than your usual bike helmet, you probably live in a museum...

From linguistic challenges to travel habits: Comics about German culture

Individual desires

Finally, you get some peace and quiet to devote time to your partner and his secret wishes. How unfortunate if they do not match your own ideas ...

From linguistic challenges to travel habits: Comics about German culture

Car nation

The car has become a national fetish in postwar Germany. But though proud car owners still lovingly polish their vehicles across the nation on Saturdays, the mythic renown of the Made in Germany car has been smashed in the wake of Dieselgate. The climate crisis will also challenge that deep-seated German car love — at least until vehicles go completely electric.

From linguistic challenges to travel habits: Comics about German culture

Friendly fire

The Germans are often conservative and pragmatic. Well, sometimes. Things can also get out of control. During their European Tour 2019, German band Rammstein raised their love of pyrotechnics to a new level as stages across the Continent became infernos, flamethrowers going off around the band. "You do not need a music critic but a grill critic," wrote one music reviewer.

From linguistic challenges to travel habits: Comics about German culture

Another brick in the wall

If you can't stand your neighbor and don't mind a little extra concrete around your property, you might consider building a wall to clearly mark your territory. However, be aware that German municipal laws determine the maximal height and materials that can be used in fences — so don't try this at home without a written permission from authorities.

From linguistic challenges to travel habits: Comics about German culture

Twisted methods of torture

Decades before cartoonist Fernandez played with the idea that a crooked picture is intolerable for the German brain, cult comedian Loriot also showed in one sketch from 1976 how a simple attempt to straighten a painting on a wall can lead to disastrous results. If there's one lesson to learn from the act, it's that sometimes it's safer to simply ignore a crooked picture...

From linguistic challenges to travel habits: Comics about German culture

Do you speak Denglisch?

The German language has adopted so many English terms that the phenomenon has been pejoratively dubbed "Denglisch," which combines Deutsch and the German form for the word English. If you work in tech or advertising in Germany, you're bound to hear more than a few anglicisms — but you'll still need to keep studying German for a while to know that it's DAS Meeting.

From linguistic challenges to travel habits: Comics about German culture

Apocalypse now?

Ahead of a long holiday weekend in Germany — when shops not only close for more than a day, but families are getting together for a series of big meals — you will notice a surreal atmosphere in German supermarkets: People seem to be buying enough food to fill a bunker. But there's nothing to worry about, it's just part of the way things work.

From linguistic challenges to travel habits: Comics about German culture

Save the date!

Couple therapists recommend to actually schedule regular sex dates with your partner to keep the flame alive. The appointments are well marked in this person's calendar — and according to the stereotype, Germans don't mess with their planned schedule. But should we ask how much time has been allocated to the big event?

From linguistic challenges to travel habits: Comics about German culture

Above the lawn

Many Germans see their lawn as sacred — giving the impression that it wouldn't even matter if the police were to show up at the door to evacuate the area following a tornado alert. After all, real lawnmower addicts would never abandon their stretch of grass in a neglected state...

From linguistic challenges to travel habits: Comics about German culture

Absolute ban on night flights

People living near airports want to sleep too. Most of Germany's airports have strict restrictions and curfews during the night — including at the country's largest airport hub, Frankfurt. So even if you're a friendly alien traveling through galaxies over decades, time your landing properly!

From linguistic challenges to travel habits: Comics about German culture

Not greedy, efficient!

Germans on vacation, especially those on flat-rate tours, are notorious for their extremely high proficiency in stacking up edibles on tiny breakfast and dinner plates. Some take the famous "battle of the buffet" a bit too seriously: elbows, knees and cutlery are wielded as weapons, implemented with the goal of claiming as much booty as possible.

From linguistic challenges to travel habits: Comics about German culture

Nail clippers come in handy for many things

Germans are known around the world for their accuracy. And, as they say in German, "order is half of life!" What better way to keep things tidy than to use nail clippers to cut your grass?

From linguistic challenges to travel habits: Comics about German culture

High fashion chic

White socks and sandals, the bum bag and the souvenir t-shirt purchased at the last package holiday on the Mediterranean: Although the Germans cannot compete with French haute couture, they definitely have their own distinctive and well-traveled style.

From linguistic challenges to travel habits: Comics about German culture

Unsubtle humor

The Germans are not known for their humor. As the American writer Mark Twain observed nearly 150 years ago, German jokes are not suitable for laughter. And when they do try to show their funny side, it is invariably overplayed.

From linguistic challenges to travel habits: Comics about German culture

Spot on

In Germany, you'll often hear the saying, "Five minutes too early is on time; on time is late; and late is unacceptable." The man in this cartoon perhaps hopes to be fashionably late — by getting to the meeting right on time.

From linguistic challenges to travel habits: Comics about German culture

The German national anthem: Hm, what is that again?

National pride has been officially frowned upon in Germany since the Nazi era. That's why young people don't learn the national anthem at school. You usually only hear the German anthem before international football matches and other major sporting events — and even then it is not always played flawlessly. "Looking for freedom" might even be the better choice...

From linguistic challenges to travel habits: Comics about German culture

That's what happens when you spoil them

Everyone who has a dog knows the temptation, but maybe Germans are a bit weaker when it comes to their furry friends? The new masters of this household definitely know everything about the consequences of being too permissive...

From linguistic challenges to travel habits: Comics about German culture

Travel light

Germans might like to boast about their country's beer or bread and how their national specialties are better than anything they'll find abroad. But if a suitcase gets lost or delayed on a trip, then they'll rather long for their belongings.

From linguistic challenges to travel habits: Comics about German culture

Never too early to get things straight

Germans love to go to the hardware store and add all kinds of tools to their collection. According to the stereotype, they'll also have an exaggerated tendency to insist on always having the right tool to do things properly, otherwise you shouldn't even start working on a renovation project. This child knows how it goes.

From linguistic challenges to travel habits: Comics about German culture

A perplexing language

Three genders, the interplay of prepositions, cases and adjective endings — German grammar is undoubtedly complex. "Deutsche Sprache, schwere Sprache," ("German language, difficult language") a saying goes. In his 1880 essay "The Awful German Language," American writer Mark Twain confirms "a person who has not studied German can form no idea of what a perplexing language it is."

From linguistic challenges to travel habits: Comics about German culture

Stick to what's familiar

The many restaurants in Europe's tourist hotspots that offer German bratwurst, schnitzel, fries and beer show that German tourists abroad like what they know and will happily choose familiar food over exotic local cuisine.

From linguistic challenges to travel habits: Comics about German culture

Territorial pissing — Teutonic style

German tourists are infamous for marking out their territory on the beach in the early morning with a towel, and then heading off for breakfast. Here Germany's most famous dog seems to have inherited this territorial trait.

From linguistic challenges to travel habits: Comics about German culture

Tendency to gripe

Too sunny, too rainy, too hot or too cold — Germans are known for their tendency to complain. They will find the fly in the ointment, and go on and on about it. But that doesn't mean they are unhappy: According to a 2017 survey by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), overall satisfaction levels are at their highest in Germany since German reunification.

From linguistic challenges to travel habits: Comics about German culture

Nudism faux-pas

Not everywhere is Freikörperkultur (or FKK, literally "Free Body Culture"), as widespread as in Germany. Here naked bodies are not only found on the beach, but even in the English Garden in Munich, or among the venerable oaks in Berlin Tiergarten.

Author: Suzanne Cords (sb, eg)