American Reacts to My BIGGEST German CULTURE SHOCK 

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This whole trip was incredible man! I’d heard so much about each of these places before BUT visiting them in person was magical as fuck! ❤

Nice how he managed to go full circle.. He went from reacting to content about the country to producing the content people react to. ❤ What a lovely journey.

It's funny that James described Essen as feeling like a small City when it's in the center of a Metropolitan Area with 13 million inhabitants.

privacy laws in Germany (or Europe in general) are pretty strong, so you can't just film anywhere. Public places are ok, but as soon as you film someone specifically or you enter private property, you need permissions.

7:10 That kind of garden is typical for the structure of a (former) abbey. The surrounding gallery is called a "Kreuzgang" (or cloister in English); many cathedrals will also have such a garden, which in former times often served also as cemetery for the "cathedral chapter" (the clerical staff of the bishop and the cathedral). Nowadays they are mostly open to the public.

James says: "show him some love" ♥️♥️♥️LOVE♥️♥️♥️LOVE♥️♥️♥️LOVE♥️♥️♥️LOVE♥️♥️♥️LOVE♥️♥️♥️LOVE♥️♥️♥️LOVE♥️♥️♥️

and the "Schwebebahn" in Wuppertal is more than 100 years old :-)

When there is less noice around us, we feel less inclined to try to talk over it. I'm glad Bray made that experience.

In Germany we are always in biking distance from some nice nature spot, a creek, a lake, a park, something like that. The perfect sunny saturday: go there, make a fire (where allowed), put tasty German beer in the water to stay cool, tasty German sausages on the grill and enjoy with some tasty German bread! Doesn't cost much and is great for teenager groups as well as families with kids.

The same reactions would I have as a German when walking the streets of NYC, San Francisco or Seattle - just to name 3. No matter where we come from, we should explore and expand our horizon.

The TV Tower in Berlin turns the restaurant around 360°

Graffiti are a thing all over Germany and have been for a long time. But it is usually very localized. Mostly around back alleys and near railways and bridges, as those have the biggest concrete surfaces.

Greetings from germany, loved your reaction ❤

James Bray started in America in the military with videos about germany A year ago he was leaving for Korea so he can live in Germany.

At the example of the Schwebebahn, a little physics lesson: if u'r going into a curve, the forces [nur weil ich hier nicht mit "eigene Trägheit" und so anfangen möchte ^^] resulting in u to be forced to the outside of the curve. In a normal train the floor is staying static, so everything just follows this force ... by hanging the train from above u now tilt the floor by the same forces and introduce an incline in the direction of the sum of all forces, resulting in "nullify" the sideways forces with gravity -> "be a bit heavier for high ride comfort" should be their slogan ^^

You might hear of the DSGVO - Datenschutzgrundverordnung | Basic Data Protection Law. It applies in the European Union and regulates the rights to all data related to you, so generally if you get filmed without consent for instance it is against the law. The DSGVO therefor is its very own pandoras box/can of worms

James has some great videos! It's worth to check out more of his content! :) A long time ago, the Wuppertaler Schwebebahn was my daily ride for about 20+ years, as I was born and raised in Wuppertal. I know Düsseldorf very well, too, as this is a nearby city, where I used to work for several years and went to the clubs at the weekends to party, when I was young. It's also know as the "Längste Theke der Welt" (aka. "longest bar counter of the world") as there is a discrict with 260 (!) pubs, bars, restaurants, etc. which are in like one place/street. The weekends are wild there! *party&fun! :)

The Sound thing... 15:08 he is loud bro I mean if he starts laughing you can here it miles out :D

Hi! That was very funny! I saw James` video when he was in Cologne (german: Köln), my hometown! And now I watched James on his second germany trip this year. Crazy to watch this now with you, as you can say. That`s nearly double fun! Thank you!

If you are ever in vienna: we have the danube tower (donauturm). It,s 260m (853 feet) high. The top is rotating with a restaurant inside. And it's not super expensive to eat there.

The feeling of sitting under a tree next to a +800 year old cathedral is quite difficult to describe to an American.

Just subscribed cuz u are just a chill guy with lots of positiv energy keep it up

It is interesting hearing you pointing out that Germans have that cultural pride Americans lack of. There are loads of reaction videos stating Germans have no pride of being who they are. Yes, maybe we don't have that national pride like Americans seem to have with all this showing the flags and “America first“. You would get really strange looks if you would say “Germany first“ in public because of our dark history, WWII and so on. But yes, we do have pride at least in cultural and technical achievements. You are the first one I heard saying this.

As much as I can see why James was impressed by the tower, his Düsseldorf experience could be even more interesting next time. Visit the tower, but do not eat at the restaurant. If you like Japanese food, you are lucky in Düsseldorf. There is a big Japanese Community and lots of good Japanese Restaurants. Visit the Düsseldorfer Altstadt later in the evening and enjoy the special Düsseldorfer nightlife in this beautiful old town - if you can handle to meet many drunken people. 😉

The "Schwebebahn": en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuppertal_Schwebebahn

4:38 The other People can also be filmed and this is the Problem with the data protection (GDPR) !

Essen isn't that small either. Essen has almost 590,000 inhabitants and is located in the middle of a conurbation where one city follows the other, with a total of 5.1 million people (Ruhr area). I think the big difference to the USA is that no matter where in Europe, you will come across centuries or even millennia-old buildings everywhere in the cities. The city of Cologne, for example, is 2000 years old .

He is in the US Air Force and actually deployed to South Korea .... i think that is his second trip from SK to germany and the next one to Hamburg is close ahead.....

Düsseldorf ist the Capitol City of NRW (Nordrhein-Westfalen) the Tower ist a Part of the Parliment area. But Colone have 300.000 Citizens more.

18:39 its a magnetic monorail located in a City in the middle of germany

In America, nobody is prepared to do more than they have to. That's why things are simply left lying around. An example: in a car accident, the police clean up small parts. So that there is no danger for the other cars. The vehicle is taken away. The road service takes over the cleaning. The costs are sent to the insurance company. Unfortunately, this is not possible in America. The police have to organize the towing. The company then has to claim its money. The garbage is left lying around. The car is insured, according to the law. Why are the costs not covered? Then the road would be clean and safe.

It's weird that americans just can film you and put it on the internet.that's crazy.

28:25 he is in the military airforce stationed in south korea

I'm not an expert when it comes to the topic of graffiti, but it has been present in Germany in the form that we know since the early 1980s. I can still remember that during my childhood in the 1990s, graffiti was at its peak everywhere. Trains and walls were covered with it, even in smaller towns. Today, it seems to have become less common. There are still hotspots in Berlin and other major cities, but apparently, today's youth is no longer interested in it. New surfaces that used to be painted immediately now remain clean for a long time. You can still occasionally see it on trains, but there is much stricter surveillance, and the graffiti is quickly removed. The heyday seems to be over. Probably only a few people are still engaged with it, but they are deeply immersed in the graffiti culture.

Thank you for your content^^

I get u. I'm living in Würzburg which is a franconian tourist hotspot in germany. We got a castle and a palace, as well as mountains and vineyards. To me its just an everyday mundane thing. Even after working in the castle and palace it did just not impress me since it felt so everyday. But it's always fun to see people experiencing the sights for the first time with wonder and awe. It's sad the feeling gets lost on us natives that see them everyday.

You are not allowed to film other persons even in public. It is only allowed, if they are not clearly visible. For example, if you film a church and the persons are only visible as a crowd. This is called "Recht am eigenen Bild" (right of your own image) in german. Privacy is a big thing in Europe. See for example the EUs GDPR legislation.

Ty for your Content 😅

Permit: He is on privat property (Train stations are owned by the Train Company) and so he needs (theoretically) a permit from the property owner.

I would like to point out as Czech - mideuropean - my town (Hradec Králové) is just 100k people. But! The first settlement was established at cca 800 bc. We just count the time differently. It is about perspectiv. Great video ❤ I love another viewpoints and sincerely you guys are so pumped by "every day things" that it makes makes me to step back and appreciate where i live.

Raspberries and blackberries... one of THE most resistant bramble bushes you can find. Once they've settled in somewhere... or rather ANYWHERE... you just won't get rid of them unless you excavate the ground several meters/yards deep and sterilize it. They grow damn deep roots and they recover so fast. But its awesome if you like picking fruits in the wild. Obviously they have to be ripe, otherwise both are quite sour/tangy/tart. The whole area, Dortmund, Essen, Düsseldorf, Wuppertal, is called the Ruhrgebiet. the Ruhr is a small, shipable river that connects all of these cities. It was Germany's iron, coal and natural gas mining central back 120 years or so. The underground is riddled with deep mines, with hundreds of kilometers/miles of mine shafts that have virtually all been closed down. However, this made the entire area very unstable, and it happens relatively regularly that houses settle down quite a few inches as the ground slowly, or even almost instantly, may give way. Not that it happens constantly, but sinkholes do open up at a fairly high rate when compared to many other areas around the world. The Schwebebahn (literal translation: Floating Train) is a regular public transport in Wuppertal. Just like light rail, steet cars, trams, subways, busses, etc in other cities. But it definitely is iconic. It is also quite old, and the very first such public transport system built in the world. It has been refurbished multiple times. It has an incredible track record (pun fully intended) as there has been exactly ONE tragic accident when one of the trains got derailed. It resulted in 5 deaths and 47 injuries. But that's the only accident during its entire existence with any deaths. In over 120 years.... that does seem like an incredible track record, if I may say so.

According to the last things you said, people overseas tend to say EUROPE. Its a continent and every single country couldnt be more different to the other. Bulgaria, and most of eastern europe is much more poor and underdeveloped. It cant be compared to Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands and the scandinavian countrys. Germany is the 4th largest economy in the world and ofc we are much more well off as the eastern and many southern countrys. And you feel it, you see it. Iam glad to be born in the blackforest southern region of germany. We are wealthy compared to the very most parts of the planet, we are safe compared to the very most parts of the planet and nature and technology are going beside each other, not sacrificing nature for modernity. I have a fucking forest behind my home and still have a 1 gigabit internet connection, an IMAX cinema, Lasertag and VR Arena and stuff... Yes even subway, mcd and bk if you wanna conider them modern. I prefer the local brewery restaurant ;)

Schönes Video ! James Bray is in the US Air Force and is currently stationed in Korea.

You can record everything and everyone in a public space in Germany too. It's just that we have a "right on your own picture" law, which is a copyright law, that prevents you from publishing pictures or videos of people without their consent. You have to blur peoples faces out then. But there are exceptions of course. You don't have to blur peoples faces if they are just part of the background or scenery when taking pictures of a church or something for example. People also have no expectation of privacy and a right on their own picture if they are attending a protest or are doing something that could be categorized as a "document of history". And you don't have to blur peoples faces if they are putting themself in front of the camera. Like when you are filming in the corner of a restaurant without bothering anyone and then suddenly a Karen walks up to argue with and shout at you. You are then allowed to document that and publish it.

I understand you completly. A city without old buildings and places to sit around are without soul. We have very few cities in Germany that do not have an old city center and nobody wants to stay there.

Actually the Berliner Fernsehturm is the more popular one which also have a restaurant.

You don't need a permit to film in Germany. This person was a "Karen". You have only to respect the privacy of people by not directly filming them or by blurring out their faces before you publish a video. In some special cases you would also have to respect architectural copyright rules. You could however need a permit if you are making a professional movie with a whole crew, at the one hand for the authorities to be informed what's going on, at the other hand to avoid e.g. traffic disturbances or generally disturbance of public peace.

Like there is no idiots in the US acting stupid. Just because one dude ask for permit

A lot of Germans are crazy, but i think a lot of Americans too 😉 But over all i think you would love Germany and Austria (and Switzerland)

There's a lot of graffiti in Germany and for many decades. We even have some Roman buildings here with thousand years old graffiti scratched into the walls. That's super cool of course. Older people hate modern Graffiti but I'm a fan as long as it's decent and not on historical buildings. But some idiots scribble ugly nonsense on centuries old buildings. That's sad of course but on plain grey concrete walls for me personally it's an upgrade. And many cities even allow street art on certain walls because they rather have actual art on the walls instead of ugly scribbling.

Here some facts: Essen means in german eating, but the city of Essen was called after Esse (chimney or forge). Essen is a city in the so called Ruhrgebiet (Ruhr area), there where coal mining and steel factories. It's also called Kohlenpott (coal pot). Wuppertal is in a small valley, they could not install a tram. They build the Wuppertaler Schwebebahn instead. Düsseldorf is the capital of the state of Nordrhein-Westfalen (Northrhine Westphalia).

yes we say über den tellerrand kucken

Funfact: Essen is the City and essen is eat.

What a joke. Essen means eating in german. So essen in Essen is funny. But we have something even funnier in german. Essen is the hometown of iron works Krupp, you know the guy who made all the cannons. So there is that saying in Germany: "We are in drinking, what Krupp ist in Essen". That is funny.

dont even think its amaricans them self who dont have pride in their place its cary lovvyists and polititians and city planeers lot of old amarican town that where build the european way where bulldozed flat for highways and parkinglots instad of at least preserving the city center an building the speed ways around everything was torn down and that is incredibly sad

Filming in public is allowed, but there is a constitutional right (sth like fourth amendment) of all citizens to control pictures of them. You don't need to ask to film in puiblic, but who have to have consent with the persons vou might film, to be filmed.

Hi im from wuppertal...since the 1980 is graffiti a thing...today not so much and more controled and with the town leaders or house holder...greetings from Wuppertal 🤘

The Schwebebahn my Friend is from 1901 so nope it isn´t new. But we Germans wheren´t Germans if we didn´t had something similar with slighlty diffrent technology wich is newer. The Düsseldorf Airport Skytrain Shuttle. But wait heres more because everyone here knows that we germans also are idiots. The Shanghai Maglev Shuttle is the former German Transrapid wich we ditched after one single accident at the Test Loop. By the way fault by the maintenance Crew.

Essen is near from my City, go to the train Station at night, than u See the ugly side of Essen 😂

Since we have tougher data protection laws in Germany, and especially laws that are supposed to protect privacy, pretty much everything that involves taking pictures or filming in public has been banned or severely restricted. Some people go completely crazy in this respect. As a photographer in Germany, it's just a horror. Control and prohibition state we have become, because of some morons!

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I am from Switzerland. We don’t like the way you do this, I can barely see the Video..

The Schwebebahn is more than 120 yrs old and it's unique. More informations en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuppertal_Schwebebahn