Americans Living in Germany Culture Shocks Part 1 😮🇩🇪 

The cigarette machine actually cards you to check your age, you can actually see what ID cards it accept in the last frame of the video

It is also considered antisocial to not have a Haftpflichtversicherung. You can really ruin someones life with that, if you can’t pay. Everybody should have it.

Regarding the "homeless people": do not mistake people asking for money on the streets with homeless people. Also, if you don't want to be homeless, you can ask the government/society for help - and you will be granted help.

Due to maintenance work our local waterworks had closed the main valve to our street. I had not got the information and was surprised that there was no water when I opened a tap. Then I foolishly tried my shower head ( with a flexible hose) and whatever the reason was I hang it back, facing into the wrong direction and forgot to close the tap. Then I left the house. When I came back the showerhead had flooded not only my bathroom but the hallway and the apartment below mine. And that are the moments when your third party liability insurance comes into play.

haftplichtversicherung you should definetly get, also make sure the limit is unlimited! it safed my niece last year, shes 12 and ran with her bike into a parked car, it was 4k euros in damage, since they had to change the whole back.... so, yeah, they are very cheap but can safe you. you need your id at the cigarette automats to get a pack out, its even displayed on the automat.

I helped my parents in law renovate their house. They got a old tv in their bedroom on a closet, very heavy it slipped as I was getting it down and fell on the foot of the bed. It was an old bed made out of real wood and at the end there was an ornament that broke. Needed a carpenter to make a new one and fix it. Wasn't cheap around 2-3k but the Haftpflichtversicherung paid for it.

If you break your friends chinese vase and he sues you, he's not really your friend.

Besides the mandatory ones like health insurance (Krankenversicherung), a private liability insurance (Privathaftpflicht) is the most reasonable insurance of all. It is usually quite cheap (< €100/year) and covers damages up to approx. € 100.000.000. In my opinion it should be mandatory for everybody. All the other insurances are 'nice to have' or are even unnecessary..... Grüße aus der Südpfalz!

1. Hausratversicherung (home insurance), 2. Haftpflichtversicherung (private liability) and 3. Rechtsschutzversicherung (legal protection) are the ones I recommend and I had to use all of them so far. ad 1. my bicycle was stolen parked in front of my house, through the insurance I was reimbursed, so I could buy a new one ad 2. I tripped and broke a side table at a friends house (so not the chinese vase, but a table), a friend's dog chewed through my leather pants when they were visiting, so I got reimbursed for that. ad 3. somebody I rented from demanded money from me half a year after I moved out for "damages" I supposedly did. You will find out that if you move there might be a lapse where you still have to pay for your old apartment while you are already paying for the new one (as a renter) . So my landlord from the old apartment claimed that I damaged a wall, but when I moved out I had painted everything and the wall was intact (luckily I took photos). In fact the wall got damaged when the new renters moved in (while I was still paying rent) and they removed the tiles from the other side of the wall (kitchen), which caused a rift on the other side of this wall (bathroom side). So I was definitely not going to pay for this. He argued that I was still the renter, so it would be my fault. With help of the Rechtsschutzversicherung I not only not had to pay for the damages, but he also had to reimburse me for 3 months rent because he let the new tenants move in (rent-free for the 3 months I still had to pay), while I was still paying. So this was very useful. If you drive a car insurance is mandatory, so there is pretty much no way around it, but you have the choice of which kind of coverage you want. So basically there is use for a couple of insurances, apart from the mandatory ones.

Basic dental care is included in the normal statutory health plan. If you want fancy dental work (like veneers) an additional insurance may be worth the few bucks a month.

I'm not sure where you've seen so many people urinating, it's really not that common. Maybe at that football game? Yeah, drunk football fans are annoying, like all drunks, and they don't really care where they relieve themselves, and the police have other things to do than to prosecute them while having to provide safety with thousands of fans around... The homeless may be more noticeable for you because train stations are focus points for them. There is way less homelessness in Germany than in the US because the social net and the protection against loosing one's economic base are stronger, but it's usually concentrated around the stations and thus more visible.

The history of the TÜV goes back to the 19th century when the growing number of boiler explosions in the industrial areas shocked the public and alarmed the governments of the states in the "German Confederation", the political body that existed between the Vienna Congress and 1871. The idea was born that all owners of hazardous installations and machinery should unite on a voluntary basis as some kind of cooperative body to have their boilers checked and safety standards to be developed and made compulsary for any other machinery that may risk life and limbs of workers and bystanders. Till the present day the legal basis of the TÜV is a private body that fulfills tasks that are laid down by the lawmaker (parliament/government). The standard of the big German TÜV-organisation is high and no wonder they even check industrial plants abroad as a basis for their insurance companies.

The TÜV has no longer a monopoly for the mandatory inspections, there are other licensed inspectors too, like e.g. Dekra and GTÜ. But you have to take such an inspection every two years (in case of new cars the first is after 3 years), and the next due date is shown on your license plate (by a plaque indicating month and year, which is designed to be decipherable for cops in a police car following you).

I'd say that personal liability insurance is the most important of all non-mandatory insurance policies in Germany. People aren't generally that sue happy, but it just gives you a good feeling that you're covered for life's little accidents that can out of nowhere require you to pay a good sum of money to somebody as compensation. It can also save a friendship or two.

For me, being on time is a sign of respect. Cause i value your time just as much as my own. So being late would be disrespectful.

The government would pay the homeless people an appartment and even when they live on the streets they have the right to receive a monthly amount of up to four hundred Euros. The reason why they are living like that is due to mental and health issues like drugs and alcohol.

Germans (and other Europeans) won’t sue you for breaking their vase. The personal insurance is not for legal fees, just for damages. Paying for a Chinese vase may not destroy your finances for life. Causing an accident where someone gets disabled will.

You should have a Haftpflichtversicherung. The people won't sue you, but their Haftpflichtversicherung will ;-) And the insurance is about 60€ a year.

About haftpflicht: I remember when I made my... whatever the english term for ausbildung is. a coworker drove the two of us to work because we lived nearby. the seatbelt got stuck between the door and the car, i didn't realize and tried to close the door. bill to repair the damage (which was much more than one would've thought o,o) was paid by my haftpflicht. no suing necesarry, coworker led the damage looked at and got an prize for the repair, i told my haftpflicht what happened and what i "owe" him and they paid. super easy.

I miss the culture shock of not having a "neighborhood" or zoning as you have it in the US. What I mean is that there are zones in the US that separated housing from commerce and from industrial zones. In Germany there is a shop in every area where poeple live, not so in the US. Didn't you notice?

Private liability insurance is probably the most important insurance. It covers damages that threaten the existence of the policyholder. This is not about the accidentally destroyed Iphone of the friend but about health damage that you unintentionally inflict on another. Treatment costs in the hospital and the replacement of income if the injured party can no longer work can cost millions of euros. About four out of five people in Germany have liability insurance. The second most important insurance is occupational disability insurance (Berufsunfähigkeitsversicherung). Never being able to exercise your profession again due to illness is also considered a threat to your existence, because you can lose everything you have achieved so far. Until the mid-90s, this insurance was state-run. Due to necessary savings, these benefits were cancelled and the population was asked to insure themselves privately. Although there is a state disability insurance, it only provides benefits if you can no longer work at all and the benefits are so low that the insured person has to limit himself financially.

Yes, there are and always have been homeless people in Germany. But so far it has been limited. For some years now, however, there has also been an increase in immigrants to Germany due to the admission of several Balkan states to the EU, people who had already failed in their previous homeland and who think they can get by better with casual work and begging here. These people are sometimes put on trains home. But they come back. They can hardly or not at all be integrated into German working life because they lack all the prerequisites for this.

I was glad to have liability insurance, when my daughter damaged a glass door and when my son also as a child completely broke a friends expensive glasses. She would never have sued, but with this insurance, she could replace them without problems. And the door was fixed, also without being sued.

Thanks for the video! It was very interesting to listen to all the culture shocks. Being aware of all the specific ways they have of doing things and following all the countries rules made me a bit nervous haha 😅 While rules are important, understanding and compassion are more valuable to me. The personal insurance to help someone out in case anything goes wrong is a very thoughtful consideration. And the bike lanes look wonderful, I enjoy riding my bike and being out in nature and it looks like Germany is perfect for that lifestyle! My family immigrated from Germany,Poland, S Korea, and Jamacia to the USA. And those of us who are the children have picked up mannerisms from different countries. I feel more tied to Jamacia with its one love and laid back lifestyle, my dad and sisters seem to have more of the German being punctual and knowing what to expect puts them at ease. Fun video and Much love to Germany ❤

Hey, cool video! I didn't hear you mention what city and state you're located at in Germany? Depending on location it can be a totally different experience. I live in Hamburg, GER second largest city. Incompatible to i.e. rural places in the south west, etc.

Many insurances are kind of a moneymaking scheme, but private liability is rather cheap and worth its money. The case of breaking someone other's antique chinese may be rather rare, but breaking something by accident can happen anytime, and it is far less troublesome to have your insurance adjust with the insurance of the other person than to go to court (or pay it yourself). If you drive a car or a motorcycle or any motorized vehicle able to be faster than 25 km/h, you'll also have a mandatory traffic liability insurance, but that will not necessarily cover anything.

In Germany there is the following compulsory insurance: - Statutory pension insurance. - Health insurance (at least the statutory health insurance) - Motor vehicle liability insurance (for car owners) - Professional indemnity insurance (for the self-employed) - Business liability insurance (for companies) - Hunting liability insurance (for hunters) - Animal owner liability insurance (for dogs, cats, horses but also cattle) No compulsory insurance but extremely useful: - Personal liability insurance (private Haftpflichtversicherung) is one, if not the most important form of insurance. It not only protects you but also third parties through your own misconduct in the event of property damage and personal injury. While the Chinese vase among friends is remarkable, it is less important than, for example, the health of a third party. Liability insurance includes a very social idea, namely to compensate for the damage to an innocent person as best as possible. For example, if I culpably cause an accident, this can have serious, possibly even lifelong, consequences for someone. For example, he could become paralyzed as a result. Private liability insurance covers immense damage. We're talking millions here. So it's an amount that the average person could never raise on their own. The person responsible may have to file for personal bankruptcy, while the person concerned would never be adequately compensated for his damage and would receive no help. Without these insurances, both lives are ruined. Due to this fact and the subsequent widespread use of this insurance, it is itself quite financially clear. - The second important insurance is home insurance (Hausratversicherung). Contents insurance protects against damage caused by fire, mains water, storm/hail as well as burglary, robbery and vandalism after a burglary and can be supplemented individually. These are all damages "due to force majeure", i.e. not caused by third parties as above. Example of tap water damage: In an older house, at some point the water pipes have rusted through or connectors are defective. Water leaks from the tenant's furniture and floor coverings, the damage amounts to around €4,000 - €5,000. There's no one to blame for this, so you have to pay for it yourself...or you have home insurance. If the neighbor in the apartment above them had drilled into a pipe, then there would be a culprit and it would be his liability insurance. Second example: A short circuit in a defective electrical appliance causes an apartment fire, the entire apartment is affected, the damage quickly amounts to €40,000 - €80,000, depending on the size of the apartment and how many people live in it. The rule of thumb is: €500 to €750 per square meter of living space.

Mandatory health insurance should be with a "Krankenkasse" of choice (not private!). You need this from day one if you are not a tourist.

Hi Mike and Becca, awesome videos :), its always nice to learn from others' perspective.🎉 I am a Mexican living currently with my husband in Germany. Even thou we appreciate many things of germans' culture, we still have struggle to adapt 100%. We now have the possibility of moving to Wiscosin next year, as my husband has an offer for a postdoctoral possition in UWM, but we can also to stay here in Germany. We are struggling in deciding either to move or stay. For instance, Germany offers a work-life balance and social security, with in the US is not the same... but also I'm personally afraid of staying and doing my life here, and never feeling like fitting in and feeling homesick all the time, as until now. It would be really interesting a video comparing the lifestyle between US and Germany from your experience... do you also see yourself living for the long-run in Germany? Thanks ❤

A Haftpflichtversicherung is not only in case a friend is suing you if you break his/her stuff but to pay the stuff you broke accidentally. So sometimes it‘s just a cheap vase and sometimes it‘s the new expensive 120 inch OLED -TV for 40,000€. Haftpflicht is one of those Insurances you probably never need but when you need it you‘re glad to have it paying for you. 😉

Do you find that smoking is more or less prevalent in Hannover than Madrid?

I love that under every single culture shock video about germany, there is an army of Korrigiertiere to correct or add anything that we feel should be in this Video. Like a collective mission, a search to find out, how people are looking at us. How much the know about our inner spiesser, hidden underneath a blanket, staring at them and their comfort and joy, quietly mumbling to our selfs "why can't i be so free and careless running around without the proper insurance packet."

I always think, when I heard of all the "shocks" you get, what do you think, what all the other people get, which are not americans, when living in the USA? Nobody expects that living in another country, is the same as in your own country, you have to find out the good things and the bad things. Maybe, we as Europeans are more used to our cultural and language differences, and not so shocked, if we are in another country. Where I live, it is only half an hour distance to France or Switzerland.. But if you just go across the borders, around the USA , say something like Mexico, you just know, there will be - for US Citizens-a shocking difference in their life, compared to your life.. it is a good thing, that people from other country's point out, what it is maybe wrong or needless in other country's. But there is often a reverse, which you should think of, things that are different in your system, which might be wrong or needless, but you take it as given. It is part of getting sometimes to the hard facts in life, which exist in every part of the world. Maybe you think of Montana, which is a little bigger than Germany.. and 80 million people will live there, it will be all crammed up, you will see all things crowded in this little space, and you have no zones, that will separate you from seeing or living with industries or homeless people just side by side. There is not such space to take enormous parts of land just for all the separate houses, like in the USA. You are right, it is a big difference between travelling and living in another country.

Hi, great video! You in need of a Krankenversicherung and , if you drive a car, Autohaftpflichtversicherung. You should have a Haftpflichtversicherung, because if you make damage to things or persons, this insurance pay this. this cost just about 40€ (depends on what conditions you excactly want) per year.

Not everyone can buy cigarettes at the machine , you need a ID to get some!

A personal liability insurance you do not get because of the small stuff you can break at your friends but for the big damages you could cause e.g. as a pedestrian or biker. You overlook somebody or do not keep the balance and injure a kid - in worst case, when the kid is handicapped then and cannot work for all their life that can get really expensive for the next 50 or more years of your life. The personal liability insurance in my eyes probably is the most important insurance - especially as in that case you influence the life of third people with it - and you can get it for an apple and an egg... Every other insurance - apart from the ones you have to have like e.g. the car liability insurance - are something that you have to know yourself.

The lack of old cars is ot due to the TÜV. If you sell a cars that is older than 10 years, it will be almost certainly be bought by foreigners exporting them to eastern Europe or Africa.

the cigarette machines always get me but have you also seen any of the condom machines yet?!

Personal liability insurance is very important, If you work for a company and they give you a key for the whole company. You can open almost all doors with this single key. Now Imagine, how manny doors there might be...What Happens, If YOU are the one to loose that key? Yes, all the locks would have to be changed, new keys for all people that had one before..... very expensive.... This is only one thing your personal liabilyty insurance would cover...

"Pünktlichkeit ist die Höflichkeit der Könige." By being on time you are being polite, you show your opposition that you value their time as much as your own and dont waste it unnecessarily, so it is a sign of repsect. That's at least a german cultural thing and for some it doesnt even matter if you are one minute late, ten or an hour - late is late, so you f'd up. But if you are going to run late and then call in advance to notice that you are going to be late because of e.g. traffic or something germans wont be as mad at you anymore.

Spain adopted the TÜV called ITV.

not sure if i overheard it, i think you said everyone can buy cigarettes on these "vending machines", which is not 100% correct. you have to scan your driving licence/bank card/ID to proof your age before getting any cigarettes. idk the actual law, but i guess you are allowed to smoke when you turn 16 (at least it was when i was a teenager). i could apply for my ID when turning 16 (before that you had a "Kinderausweis"), my bank card for my "Giro-Konto" i opened when i got the first job and driving licence ofc with 18. so for some1 under 16 it's not that easy to get cigarettes on these machines.

I‘m really curious where you live because as a Swiss person who has visited Germany hundreds of times I have only ever seen homeless people around Frankfurt main station and they were there more or less by choice (drug addicts who fail to meet up with social services) als the public urinating is also something I haven’t seen often.. maybe drunk men after partying..? In Munich I have only ever seen a few people asking for money but all of them were Gypsies. Whereas in the US I haven’t been to a single town without homeless people. It was shocking to see. It’s like huge camping sites. In all the countries and continents that I have been to, nothing was comparable. Not even town ships or ghettos in third world countries (which the US isn’t !!) So that this of all the things caught your eye is astonishing to me.

a) I think a liability insurance is a good thing as you wouldn't sue your friends when getting your China damaged, but you don't have to argue about money which makes it a lot easier. And it's reasonable cheap. Other than that I am very suspicious about insurances either as I think they're just there to make money (oh, and I have a bike theft insurance... ok) b) Public urinating might be more common than elsewhere but is nowhere as accepted as you might think. It's pretty gross ... c) Zigarette machines need an ID to show you're at least 18 years old... and fortunately they are getting rarer and rarer. When I was a kid, they were a lot more common and without ID check

Haftpflichversicherung is mandatory I would say. You know, it doesn't have to be a chinese vase, but who wants to pay thousands, when you can fill out an insurance form and let them pay for it??? also important. Zahnzusatzversicherung. Without it, you have to pay for new teeth, with it not or much less. Pro Tip: You have a bigger thing to do on your teeth set, then book a trip to Budapest and let their dentists do it for a fifth of the sum you'd pay here and seeing Hungary's capital while getting them done. ;-)

Funny that you did not see the Altersnachweis requirement. But then again he you do not speak german!

Okay so nobody needs to sue if you break a vase. You simply tell your insurance and they pay it. No suing. I don’t get why anybody would sue in this situation. Maybe if the culprit doesn’t want to pay? But if you have an insurance, why wouldn’t you tell them. Some landlords want to have proof of that insurance, helps with finding a place to live

You need your ID card for the cigarette automat. You do not need all of the insurances, and it is unlikely that a friend would sue you - but it break your friendship, so a liability is one of the few I have (besides the obligatory ones). The other one is a life insurance to protect my family just in case.

That public cigarette machine is shocking!

What do the people if they have to wait 20 minutes 3 or 4 times a das? Thats lost of livetime.

Key insurance...

Apparently you've met someone who sells insurances for everything. I have health insurance. That's all.

Peeing in public and the possible legal consequnces in the US is just insane. The german law makes reasonable distictions of circumstances and locations and the police is rather lenient in such cases when a person pees into a bush. Nobody in their right mind would connect such an act automatically to a sexual thing. What is about this strict public decency thing in the US? Similary to censorship on TV. I thought it was the country of the free. Allowing everyone with two hands carrying a gun but not allowing to carry perfectly sealed alcohol on a backseat is a weird priorisation of public safety. One thing i can imagine is that some people once thought: "well guys, if every lunatic is armed, its probably a good idea to limit public consume of alcohol" But i promise you, drinking freedom is much more fun and much less dangerous than shooting freedom... haha Btw i also heard that the social supression of such activities for teens is one part of causes for much more excessive use of hard drugs and alcohol in college age. Young people dont learn what they are dealing with and the chance getting addicted is much higher.

The Music ist much, much too loud and aggressive!

Insuances often offer a High provision to their "independent" sellers. Normalyyou Do not Need all this insurances. Hide for a Time, don't open unnesesary mails and so on. Never ask google for,, never give them your mail adress, if not nessesary and hope they forget you

Pretty much every US immigrant in Europe or other countries reports about their culture shocks. Honestly, I don't like to see it anymore. It never occurs to people that the American way of life has gone off the beaten track. There are so many things about the US that are unimaginable for the average European, from Trump to the Republicans to the lack of unions or the desolate school, university and healthcare systems. The culture shock would not have to address the conditions in other countries, but the grievances in the United States. Then it makes sense, and only then.

The friend's Chinese vase is a rather stupid example. Think of causing a traffic accident as a pedestrian or cyclists. A bodily injury could cost a million.

Noone will sue you,you have Insurance

Nordstadt ist Mordstadt

A Haftpflichtversicherung IS mandatory.My sonst damaged a Car by accident, by riding a skateboard, and broke a schoolwindow.Without insurance, IT could bei expensive.

Is this a typical American mindset??? You wonder if a friend will sue you if you break something valuable to him? In Europe, decency dictates that you pay for the damage you do to another person. In order not to get into debt for life, there is liability insurance. This insurance covers all areas of private life, no matter whether you cause damage to a friend, your landlord or a random person.

Where the f is everyone?

I don't have a "Haftpflicht" (Liability). I don't have a Household-insurance. I only have the insurances that are legally required (car / rented home) and some Life-insurances to build up wealth. Better save your money in an special account for the future. Those "homeless" aren't real homeless people most of the time. Most of the time they are just beggars for sure. Be aware that you don't show the plates of the cars. This can be fined (hefty). To buy cigarettes on the vending machines you need an european ID-card / drivers license or credit card that says that you are 18+. Good to see, that you chose Hannover as your home and not Freiburg or the Pfalz region ;-)

I can't hear the word "culture shock" anymore. We are not a developing country. Just because things are different in Germany than in the US is no reason to get a culture shock. Be surprised, or curious, but stop talking culture shock here every time just because things aren't what you're used to. If they were like in the US, you could have stayed at home.