8 Underrated Things About Life In Germany 

The Holy Roman Empire map! That's a visual explanation of why Germany has 1,200 different types of bread.

Spoken as a german citizen: you really open our eyes having an outside view on things we forgot or take for granted. Thanks a lot for that ! I totally appreciate your videos 👍

As a note on the German rescue alley 'Rettungsgasse': if you don't make space - even if nothing happens - , you can get fined. If you don't make space and there is an actually an accident upfront and the ambulance can't get to the injured people in time, you can be made partly responsible for their death/sustained injury. So the alley is not just cleared out of the goodness of our hearts

As a french who spent 3 years in Germany, I think the way german people are open to other cultures is underated. I wish other european countries would be open to the same level to german culture. Before ww2, Berlin was the city of dada, bauhaus. The cinema industry was great, the blau ritter movement was reinventing painting. After ww2, german photographs, electronic music, krautrock, thrash metal, electro... Germany was the second most prolific country in Europe for hip hop music. And I got to discover japanese pop in Germany...

I can do what no one in the US can do. From my living room window I can see 3 countries: Germany, Czech Republik and Poland.

One thing that I feel is totally underrated is our (German) attitude towards nudity, sex and sex education. I speak as a Health Care Professional and as a father to 3 girls. I grew up in a (probably quite) typical German blue collar family, my parents had no higher education and were certainly not on the cutting edge of how to raise children but I knew organically that mom looks different than dad and it was nothing special. Do not get me wrong, nobody pranced around the house naked but nobody ran to take cover when coming out of the shower either. I heard the proper words, a penis was a penis, a vagina a vagina and this attitude continued into understanding puberty, interest in and respecting girls and how to have fun without getting anyone pregnant or sick. By contrast in the US the Victorian age is well and alive, nudity and sexuality is hidden, denied and ridiculed while the most raunchy porn comes from California. Kids are not taught, parents are uncomfortable and simply pretend their teenager will not do it. I read somewhere that the US has the highest teenage pregnancy rate of all "developed" countries. Germans should be much more appreciative of our more relaxed attitudes in these matters.

The "Rettungsgasse" ist actually required by law, you can get fined with 200€ or more if you dont do it

As a German you usually have a different comparison. So for the US walkable or bike-able might be something standing out. As German you look over to the Netherlands and think "They do it better". Same goes for roads. I still remember as a child when we drove on vacation to the Netherlands and through Belgium and the road first went tot total garbage (belgium), and then absolutely pristine with street lights everywhere (Netherlands). Yeah, might not have been that eco-friendly thinking of it, but still, guess they (probably) do roads better. Same goes for health care, worker rights, and many other things. There is always someone in the neighbourhood who does it better. Well...guess it says something that even then most stuff is done worse in the US (from my / and also an average German perspective)

I'm, from a city in the UK that has a cathedral that is around 890 years old (finished in 1133). The city also has a castle that is 951 years old. To anyone living there, just background buildings. To my american friends visiting, exciting is an understatement. Sometimes you need to experience your normal through other people's eyes to see how special and different it is.

What I think is VERY underrated about Germany is our bread. There are around 3000! different bread types here in Germany. And almost all are really tasty. Never understood why that aspect of Germany is not really talked about.

The Rettungsgasse has an important side-effect: The sooner the rescue vehicles clear the blocking situation, the sooner the traffic flows again. So it is not just a "polite" and "correct" thing, it is self serving too.

I think the Thing with the Drivers licence isnt only the Age but the Training itself . It needs Weeks in Germany to get your Licence and not only Two Ours to get it .

German roads are heaven. I miss those so much. Also the beer and the food and the scenery.

this is like having someone do a gratitude journal for you, thanks for literally giving me therapy NALF 😅

In Germany it is normal for small groups of children to go to school or cycle alone without their parents. In the school they also have traffic lessons , and in the zone near the school or Kindergarten , the cars have to drive more slowly. In addition there is often a traffic light to cross the street.☺💙

Hi Nick. Great video as always. In regards to the 16 Year drinking beer and the 4 year old's running around with no parents, you should do comparison on growing up in these countries. Freedom to explore and be independent at young ages VS being in a "box" till you are 21. I have grandkids here in USA and some are 17 years old. They cannot do anything! While they do have a drivers license, the issue is that there are no places to meet and have fun. Me, growing up in a village in Germany, we run around the village and forest with 5-6 years old. I walked to my Kindergarten by myself. When being 16, we meet at a local Pizza place as they had a "game room" with Billiards and Arcade games....and beer. Even though I never drink, it was the freedom to do so and hang out with your friends. When being 17, and one was 18, we already went to night clubs as the door man did not check the ID's. It was a blast. Here in the US, once you are 21, you most likely are at college or have a serious job or even a family already. Your life just passed by starting the rat race till you die.

In terms of infrastructure... Have you been to the Netherlands before? I feel like they easily upstage us in that department, their Autobahns, roads and bridges etc. are PRISTINE and very clean. But good to know you appreciate our roads as well ;)

To the point about beer and steer you could also mention how expensive and time consuming it is to get a license in Germany. Or, if you are looking for some cool content, show people the processes involved in getting one. Take some driving lessons and maybe even take the written and driving test yourself. I'd love to see the testers faces. :D The 2nd thing is that kids want to drink beer because it is cool. In Germany the kids get accustomed to it way before they have their driving license. Yeah they might get drunk, but they sure are not driving home. And by the time they finally get their expensive license and their first POS car with the high insurance premiums, they will not want to risk losing those by getting drunk.

"German constructions seem to take quite a long time." Yes, there are a some indications on that, Cologne Cathedral the foundation stone was laid on Saturday 15 August 1248 the completion was celebrated as a national event on 14 August 1880. Sure it is an extreme example and they did take a few excessively breaks, but yes German construction can take quite a long time. And yes the do build to last, the Cologne Cathedral where hit by fourteen aerial bombs during World War II and while damage it remained standing.

Drinking vs driving. Im danish we also drink Way before we drive, another positive thing about this is that you get over the `stupid` drinking before you get a drivers license and therefore you are probally more carefull drinking as you are older and dont go driving drunk. 👍👍

9:41 when I was 7, I regularly took the bus, on my own, to the next borough of our town, about 7km away, to my friends house. No phone, no help. Once the bus had to take a different route and I cried, it otherwise nothing happened.

Although we, the Dutch, tend to do things slightly different every now and then, we do are a Germanic people, just like the Germans are, and so comparisons can be made. Heck even our languages: German and Dutch are developed from exactly Germanic language, just as English is by the way... .You'll be surprised how many of the things you've discussed in your video's also will apply for the Dutch. We are known to be the little stubborn neighbor of Germany, but in the end we are one people, and this is whether we like this or not. And this is for centuries the case, in fact most Dutch families are from German descent and so have German family. Many Germans tend to go on holidays in The Netherlands (No, not Holland, since Holland is like Carolina in the USA: just 2 coastal parts of the entire country ;-) And a lot of Dutch people tend to go to Germany on holidays, since we adore the German country site of forests, mountains, cities and the rich history we share; for example our almost Royal family is half German.

Think about the Rettungsgasse this way: Even if I was annoyed about being stuck in traffic. If I move out of the way for emergencie vehicles, they can get to the crash site quicker. Which not only saves lives, but, form a very egoistical stand point, enables them to clean up the mess quicker and have traffic (which includes hypothetic annoyed me) moving again sooner as well! Yet there are still true beacons of society who don't manage to get out of the way. To whom even a combination of general and personal benefits seemingly isn't enough :(

The "Rettungsgasse" thing ist actually a law. And depending in how bad the accident is the harder you will geht punished If you dont go to the side with your car.

NALF... du bist ein echter Deutschland-Spezialist!!! sehr gut...

I gotta say, the proximity to other countries is 100% a feature I don't appreciate enough! I've travelled a bunch already, but not nearly as much as I should! E.g. The Czech Republic is soooo close, and yet I've never been over there! An absolute crime. Really need to grab my bags and just go :)

3:24 yes! This is why people from Europe seem so worldly to me! How amazing to be so close to all these amazing countries!

#1: I visited California with a colleague in 2000, and Sutter's Fort in Sacramento was one of the places we went to. The tour guide emphasized that ist was "over 150 years old", apparently fishing for some reaction. We were kind of not that impressed. Both of us lived in or near Aachen at the time, which has a 2000+ year history (and more names than any other city I know: Ooche, Aken, Aix-la-Chappelle, there might be more). The central building in Aachen, the Cathedral, is around 1200 years old. While Aacheners are pretty proud of the Cathedral, the town hall next to it is "only" ~700 years old, still in use, and nobody make a fuzz about it. If you ever visit Cathedral in Cologne, try to make a detour to Aachen. The Cathedral in Cologne is much more impressive of course, but I think the one in Aachen is the prettier one. BTW, there is _really_ old stuff in California (eg. Monterey), around twice as old as Sutter's Fort, but that apparently did not count quite as much.

It was like this in the 60's growing up. I rode my bike one day to my school which was 2 miles away. I was 7 going to 1st grande. I lived in a lovely small town of Old Lyme Ct on the shore and it was like Mayberry. We came in when Mikes Mom did the whistle and we always knew to get home when the street lights went out. I love this part of Germany. NWR. Small town life like it used to be,

Thank you so much NALF for reminding me of all the good things in Germany. I shouldn‘t always take it for granted. But I do love the American way of life on vacation in your country❤️

As a German, I like to categorize us into 3 types (from ancient times): Northern Swamp Germans, Mid Forest Germans, and Southern Mountain Germans ^ ^

When it comes to this video's Cyber Ghost section, there is no lessening of the creativity we enjoy in the rest of the video. These sponsorships aren't the dull, static presentations we see on other YT channels. They're imaginative and entertaining. Thanks, Anthony, for the doing such a great, creative job. TSGO

You should visit a small island in the north sea, like langeoog for example. i'd really be interested to see some foreign guy experience such an very german vacarion. If you are lucky, you can experience some stormy weather as well ;) it really adds to the atmosphere if there is a rough sea. for me the charm lays within the solitude and long walks on the beach. it is not about jumping in the ocean. also, there aare no cars on langeoog, which really increases the felt calm.

Its nice to see someones views about your country whos not native. You tend to overlook what you have in your daily life

Hey Nick, you live in Germany long enough to understand my native language: Tolles Video, wie immer, und vielen Dank für deine Sichtweise meiner alltäglichen Dinge, mit denen ich hier in Deutschland aufgewachsen bin. Was wir als Kinder in der Nähe von Karlsruhe erlebt haben, davon erzähle ich meinen Kindern auch noch manchmal. Unser 'Jagdgebiet' war etliche Quadratkilometer groß, mit Bächen und Flüssen und Seen und Wäldern und Feldern. Wir haben Tiere beobachtet oder mit der blossen Hand gefangen (und wieder freigelassen). Der Biologie-Unterricht in der Schule war für uns ein Witz, denn wir kannten so viele Dinge aus eigener Erfahrung. Ja, diese Offenheit in Deutschland hat ihren Ursprung - denke ich - in der Nachkriegszeit. Man wollte alles liberaler gestalten, hatte man doch Jahrzehnte in einem engen Korsett des verbracht. Die Freiheit hat ihren Preis. Wir müssen leider auch damit leben, dass manche Menschen die uns so lieb gewonnene Freiheit ausnützen, unser System für ihre Zwecke missbrauchen. Beispielsweise wirst du als Amerikaner vermutlich lachen über das stringente Waffengesetz in Deutschland, das es trotzdem einem jungen, wütenden Menschen ermöglicht hat, mehrere Anhänger der 'Zeugen Jehovas' in ihren Gebetsräumen aufzusuchen und zu ermorden. Eine grausame Tat, die nach meinem aktuellen Ermessen kaum hat verhindert werden können. Zurück zu deinem Video, ich freue mich jedesmal, wenn mir RU-vid ein neues Video von dir vorschlägt. Vielen Dank und mach weiter so, gut durchdacht und schön umgesetzt. Bleib so natürlich wie du bist. Grüße aus Baden ins Schwabenland!

Hi NALF, for the home, there is a proverb in Germany: To fulfill his purpose in life, a man should build a house, plant a tree and raise a child. So, this home is built for once in the lifetime, and the tree that he has to take care of also bounds him for life, just like the child. And to be honest, compared to building houses in the US, to build one here might take eternity.....

I really appreciate that you always try to include paid ads into your videos in such a fun, creative way. As a viewer, I always get kind of annoyed when you just get hit in the face with ads without any connection. Of course, we all know that RU-vidrs are relying on paid ads, but it's just nice when you try to make it part of the video and does not really interrupt the story 😊 thanks for the extra effort!

Unfortunately, the housing situation in Germany is such that most people can only just afford a house… if at all😅

Highway in America. When I was visiting my sister in Texas and we were on the highway around Fort Worth, suddenly there was a sofa in the middle of the highway. I told my sister, horrified, there's a sofa in the middle lane, and she just said, I guess someone lost it. I asked then is warned about it in the traffic radio and it brought down, as she told me that there is no traffic radio and anyone can possibly use the sofa takes along. On a pickup truck there were 6 young people sitting on the loading bay, my sister said that too is allowed on the highway. Securing the cargo, you don't have to, what we saw there was hair-raising bad. Because there were usually four of us on the road, we were allowed to use the fifth lane, which can only be driven by two people in the vehicle. Yeah, we don't appreciate what we have until we see it from the outside. I'm very happy that we have a law that obliges us to drive right on the motorway, because if everybody drives where they want, it's really messy.

In regards to Nr 4: my family always went on vacation inside the country (during holidays or just weekend day trips) We were quite surprised when many aquaintances only discovered domestic travel during Covid due to closed borders! 😅

even for me as a native Rheinländer ( not only a german) get a huge smile in my face when watching a group of kids doin some stuff without an adult beside with this "now i`m grown up and do what i want) feeling. Even more fun is listening to them , try it when you are in munich next time, just ride a tram at about 1pm when schools out. i priomise a lot of fun! btw. nice video again!

Great video as always Nick. Just wanted to add to your last point, that it's mainly car infrastructure. Pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure are pretty ok but could be a lot better and I guess I don't have to tell you about our train and internet infrastructure.

Regarding the issue with the homes. It is a different thing in Germany because of the costs. A home/real estate in Germany is expensive, and if it is not inherited a family will pay for 20-30 years. And in Germany the mortgage is not on the property, but on the person. So we do not have a thing like walking away from a home and the debt is gone - what is possible in parts of the US(?).

I am a German currently on Exchange in Texas and I got almost the same list as you. I never realized all those things before leaving the country

You're bringing up some interesting points that I wouldn't have thought of myself. 👍👍👍

Very insightful!

I've lived here for 24 years and can agree with everything you've said. The very close relationship teenagers have with their parents has always struck me as well. They talk with each other like good friends even at that age.

1) The driving license in Germany is really expensive as you have to book a number of 30+ driving lessions in a special training car with a certified teacher, as a result drivers here are well trained. 2) From my place I have to travel 300 km or less to reach every place in Belgium, the Netherlands or Luxembourg. I find it awkward that German news tell me about German victims in some abroad events but never mention 30 million people all living much closer to me than Germans in towns being 300-500 km away from here ...

I do feel much better now! Thanks for opening my eyes. Lovely video!

Thank you for the video, so interesting!

Very informative. Well done!

As always.... great video content and entertainment :D luv from munich

Thank you so much for an actual depiction of life in Germany. I am a german currently living in Pittsburgh and this is hands down the best description i have seen ever. It made me nostalgic and tear up. So thank you.

Important side note: To get the license is way harder in Germany than anywhere else in the world.

we also tried to construct the new Airport BER to perfection

Very good video and you are right, most of these things are underrated or go unnoticed by most people

Hi Nick. Great video again had to post it on FB for my relatives in the US.

Thank you so much! You help me appreciating all those "little" things!

Tks for this great post. I lived nearly all my life away from my home (Munich), spent time in the US, England, Scotland and ireland (North and South). Never thought about the road conditions in Germany compared to them I lived in most of my life. Great Post and I really appreciate it after seeing your Video. Thumbs up - keep doing what you feel here, there and everywhere.

Ja, da muß ich Dir Recht geben. Oft weiß man nicht zu schätzen womit man aufwächst, weil es leider dadurch normal wird. Erst wenn man von Außen einen Blick darauf werfen kann, merkt man wie besonders viele Dinge sind. Dank Dir und Anderen kann man einen neuen Blickwinkel kennen lernen und seinen Horizont erweitern. Das geht Euch bestimmt auch so mit Leuten, die in eurer Heimat solche Feststellungen machen. Danke für Deine Beiträge 🇩🇪👋🏻

love this video so much, helps me to be thankful to have grown up here! really nice change of input from the news currently

The driving license is also way harder to get than in the us

As a German I had the luck to visit quite a few foreign countries (the US too). And my result of comparing all of it is: I appreciate and value the differences and varieties of people and their behavior. I love not knowing and therefor having to learn how to behave properly in a foreign region. And I especially like people who try... so thank you for your videos. I just discovered your chanel and will be watching more.

That was maybe the best video I've ever seen of you. You've become really good at this, I'm sure there's a second carreer here. Ich drück die Daumen. ;)

Thank you again for your Video. Love to watch it.have a nice weekend

Many thanks for creating this video ! Feels so good to my german soul!

While driving in Germany, I was dumbfounded when I encountered a temporary stop light, set-up on a two lane road, in the middle of nowhere. I stopped (luckily) and learned that road maintenance ahead forced the road down to one lane, and the light had me stop while oncoming traffic used the open lane, and then stopped them and gave me the green light, so I could proceed. Not something I’d ever seen or heard of.

About the "home for life" mentality in Germany: Yes, there are many people who build a new house, but many just continue living in the houses of their parents or grandparents for generations, so those houses are also hundreds of years old. You'll mostly see that in rural areas of course, also multi- generation homes where everyone from little children to their great- grandparents live all under one roof. In cities/ urban areas, there are mostly flats and single family homes for rent or buy. And of course it happens that if your parents die, you inherit a house, too.

Nice to hear this from you😁

Great video!👏

Great video. I have to agree with the roads. I think it helps when you have a more moderate climate. Here in North Minnesota we are beginning to have the spring thaw (actually, not yet, but hopefully soon). The roads take a real beating while the frost is going out of the ground. It breaks up the pavement and there are patches, potholes, breaks everywhere. Even newly paved roads stay good for only 1-2 years and the patching begins. Concrete doesn't stand a chance. I agree too about the drinking verses driving ages. If the government allowed younger people to have a beer it would demystify the whole "alcohol/party" thing and when it came time to be able to drive, as you put it, the brain is more developed.

The home-for-life mentality in German is because if you take out a mortgage for say 30 years and want to sell the house after 5 years the bank will impose a penalty. That penalty is usually that you have to pay the full amount of interest for the whole 30 year loan. We sold our flat 1 year early in a 10 year loan and the penalty was 18,000€. We were lucky because we still made a good profit.

Thank you for your perspective on germany. I enjoyed it :-)

Great Video, interesting observations. As an Austrian, I enjoyed watching it.

You can get your drivers licence at the age of 17 in Germany, but there has to be an adult sitting next to you until you are 18. The most likely lower rate of accidents in first 12 months of driving a car may as well be influenced by the mandatory driving school on a much higher level in Germany and the overall safer traffic conditions. Cars are checked on a regular basis, streets are in mostly better shape etc. Plus: if you learn how your body reacts to alcohol, you need some time, ti find your limits. So DUI is a smaller problem here, as most people know the limits when they start driving.

Excellent assessment. I wish I had grown up in Germany. Life would have been sooo much different, to my advantage. Be happy you now realise all this culture and keep on advocating.👍

...many thanks for this really very well observed (somehow self-) summary!

Hey Nick, very nice the vlog. Very good to show us what we as germans can priciate

American Shows pics of bavarian Tracht " All germans wear that!" Northern German: No!

Thank you for a GREAT video. I especially enjoyed this one! Germany is a beautiful country. Hope to visit...soon. Stay safe 😀

11:49 oh that is some amazing footage😮 Oh I love those roads..not in winter, but you can see the skies so nicely when you drive along there..looks like a 80- 100km/h road

Nice aspect ratio. 👍 Thanks.

Thank you for this excellent video. All those little things you mentioned which are underrated so easily but gives you so much worth of living here. 👍👍👍

Some very good points in this! Familiarity makes one just kind of ignore things after a while. Like living in a major city and not having gone to the zoo or museum since you were a kid.....until someone from out of town shows up. I got that way myself. Castles and cathedrals are cool, but there are SO many of them that they lose their attraction after awhile. When you come back to the US you will miss a lot of things from Germany. I still do, and it has been years since I lived there. The #1 thing I miss are the windows. Sounds weird, but it is what it is lol.

thx ... much appreciated ... and wholeheartedly agree ...

I like your point of view THX

I want to add to #8. Being allowed to drink at the age of 16 also helps to be more responsible with alcohol. You are actually allowed to drink "soft" alcohol like beer at the age of 14 with an adult present. That way you get to test your limits which helps later on. The exchange students at my University that came from th U.S. were drinkig like teenagers because it was their first time drinking legally at the age of 18-20. They got hammered within an hour while the other exchange students were much more mature with it.

Awesome video! But the blockbuster hat....AMAZING! Lol Hi from California 🙂

All very well described!! :)

Just want to mention that I really appreciate how much the quality of your videos has improved. Big shoutout to NALF - you’re doing a wonderful job here on RU-vid. Greeting from Hamburg 🫧

Thank you Nalf for letting us know 👏

Especially with home-buying stuff - it's important to consider that most people who buy a home (which already have to be fairly fortunate in life) take on up to 30 years of debt for said house. People can use House 1 as a security to finance a House 2, but that is only a sneeze away from bankruptcy ^^

The most underrated and barely known fact about Germany by Americans is, that its coast line is longer than that of any US State with the exception of Alaska. Longer than Florida's, and nearly twice as long as those of California or Hawaii. Most Americans know Germany only by its southern half, where there is no coast line at all, and don't realize that Germany actually is a beach country in its north, with lots of islands and some major harbors. No fishing to speak of anymore, though.

This is a fantastic video - maybe your best!

Buing a House really is an elder folks thing in Germany. Nobody can afford this anymore. I am 20 y o and i will probably spend my entire life in a rented flat

Talking about the roads: As a kid, we visited neighboring countries or drove to Greece for holidays. Whenever we would pass the "Bundesrepublik Deutschland" sign at the border when entering back into Germany, the quality of the roads suddenly and noticeably improved. It was always kind of this "we are back home" emotional feeling. A cherished memory.

Thank you!

yeah you right. thanks for your video

Great observations! Makes me think about how things can be different, and better, here in the US.

This is so correct. Having spent my teen years and most of my 20's living in Germany via the US Army, . I can appreciate every point that was made. Most notably the road conditions. I live in Colorado and I believe that Colorado has the worst roads in the US.