The portrayal of German culture and the problems that come with it.
So this post should explain our modern German culture (1989-now). If you need to write, or want to write a German character that grew up in modern Germany, this might help you. You can also just read it if you’re intrested in it. I hope you enjoy my post and get a bit of information out of here.
First of all some basic information about Germany.(In red) I will keep it short but you can skip it if you want. We are a country in the middle of Europe and can be divided into 16 little states called Bundesländer. Every Bundesland has it's own mini culture. They have dialects, special dishes and some even traditions of their own. But don't picture them as totally different from one another. We are all a bit different, but still the same, if that makes sense. (Most bavarians would disagree but I don't care) Our Country has been reunited only in 1989. The wall that seperated west- and east-Germany fell. Since then our capitol is in Berlin again and we are the big democracy you know today. We have healthcare for every german citizen and social support, that gives money to the people that need it. Yes we had Hitler. The war was horrible and should never happen again. We still have some people around that lived during that time and it is still a sensitive topic here. Many of this people lost family members, were tortured, captured by other nations or lived through other trauma. But we are not silent about it. Schools teach it in grade 10 a whole year. Even in primary school it gets mentioned but only briefly.The last school I was on even has a programm were pupils go to Ausschwitz and face the crimes of their ancestors. It's disturbing. Many cry or question themselves. It changes you a bit and shows the real extent of it. So we are not Nazis any more and work actively against it. So please don't call us that anymore. Not even as a joke. It is not a joke.
DIALECTS: We have them and even inside the same Bundesland there are often many different ones. But we can all speak "high German" this is a fancy name for universal/basic German. So it's not like we can't understand eachother. But if a person from Cologne speaks their dialect completely (we call it Kölsch) I can only understand bits even though I'm from the same Bundesland. So we will speak high German with eachother. Most younger people don't even have heavy dialects. So it's more a thing with older generations. A common myth I encounterd is that Germans, Austrians and Swiss couldn't understand eachother even though all of them speak german. That's wrong. They have accents but you can understand them just fine and if you can't there is still high German. The most common Dialect I see in TV-shows or Films when portraying Germans is bavarian... this brings us to our next point.
BAVARIA IS NOT GERMANY AS A WHOLE: Most of the time it is like that: bavarian culture gets portrayed as being Germanys culture which is wrong. Lederhosen, Dirndl, Pretzels this stereotypes come from the Oktoberfest in Munich. No one just runs around in a Dirndl or Lederhosen if it isn't for the Oktoberfest and even there not every German wears it. It's traditional German clothing but not everyday kinda clothing. Only for the Oktoberfest or carneval sometimes. And we also do not all live in the Mountains or green fields. We have huge and modern citys. North Rhine-Westphalia, the Bundesland were I'm from is actually the most populous one. Why don't we exsist if foreigners write Germans? I don't know why it's always only Bavaria. But stereotypes suck.
WW2 AND THE TRACES OF IT: Not only we as a nation are marked but also our language, citys and system. Some words like "Führer" or "Totaler Krieg" are not used anymore in everyday language. We only use them if we speak about WW2. They are tainted through the Nazis. In most citys you can find memorials for the fallen and victims. And our graveyards are full of solider graves without names. You can visit bunkers and museums about it. Also we learn a lot about it in school. Our political system is structured that way, that something like a total takeover by a party isn't possible. And we have SOOO many parties. I don't even know why we need so many different ones. Most of them are never in the Bundestag because they are tiny and don't get enough votes. But they are still there.
RUDENESS AND SERIOUSNESS: Especially Americans often say that we are a bit more rude and serious, but are we? We are not quiet it, but we are different. We are not as extroverted and we do not beat around the bush as often as them. We do not normaly start small talk with strangers, we aren't making so many compliments. But when we do we mean it. Our Waiters for example won't start small talking to you. They will only question you about you order ect. Americans are different and other cultures are as well, so they mistake our professionalism and more introverted nature as being rude. That's not the case. We don't want to make you feel bad or be rude to you. It's more of the opposite, we want to make you feel welcome and leave a positive impression of our country.
GERMANS AND CRESTS: A long time ago I read that all Germans have a family crest or something like that. We don't. I don't know where this comes from. I just wanted to state that it isn't like that. Some may have it, if they are some leftover noble like a baron or count. But the nobility was abolished in Germany so we do have nobles but their titles don't mean anything. Citys do have crests in Germany and the Bundesländer have it as well. You see them on the jacket of policeman or judicial officers. We do not live in the middle ages anymore.
That's all I have to say for now. This are just a few things but they might help a bit. Other Germans or people that know German culture well should feel welcome to comment on this and tell more about it.
I will probably write another one about stereotypes but I don't know when I will publish it. I didn't think that this post would get as much attention as it got. I want to thank all of you for your kind comments and for reading my posts.
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