"Germany - A Foreign Perspective" Germany by antistar

People who have lived in Germany all their lives can obviously give the most detailed information about the country, but sometimes it takes a foreign perspective to see what is most interesting and different about the place.

Germany has been my home now, on and off, for nearly two years. I never planned to come here, and while I had visited twice before these visits were for friends and family, not through any great desire to see the country. For me Germany lacked a certain something, a spark for my desire to travel, and this is something the Germans recognise themselves, and can be seen through the complaints about the build up for the World Cup in 2006. Here, a showcase for Germany if ever there was one, the traditional views of Germany being staid and conservative are being reinforced rather than broken. The dull mascot for the competition seems to emphasise this point particularly: a badly proportioned expressionless brown lion, Pille, and his inanely grinning sidekick ball, Goleo.

Compared to the chic of France, the boisterous pop-culture of Britain and the art of Italy, tourists to Germany seem to be gripped by the stereotypes of fantasy castles and chocolate box houses, neither of which inspire to the same degree. This view of Germany is unfair, and far from the mark, for while Germany has grand palaces and medieval towns in abundance, it also has a lot else besides. The stereotypical view of the staid and conservative German is also untrue, and the myth can easily be broken with a night out in any of Germany's major cities, where some of the most outrageous clubs and bars in the world can be found. The Kit-Kat club in Berlin, for one, would disabuse anyone of the conservative stereotype of Germans.

In a way Germany's tourism is crippled by its past. For most countries its history is a huge selling point, for Germany it is often an uncomfortable embarrassment. Many of the sights that many tourists would love to see in Germany come from their memories of German war movies, like Colditz Castle and the Nuremberg Rally Grounds. Obviously these are not aspects of German history that most Germans want to remember, so they don't go to any great lengths to make these accessible or known to passing tourists. Germany is also a very new nation, only forming in the 19th century, and its history since then has been blighted by misfortune.

The First World War, the Nazi Era and the Cold War division have all left their mark. The last two in particular have scarred Germany immensely. The bombs fell disproportionately on Germany in WW2, flattening many of its greatest cultural achievements, and the Socialist government of East Germany did much to destroy the past, either through inaction or deliberate policy, leaving many East German towns and cities with an ugly concrete socialist legacy. In some ways, however, the East German regime actually helped preserve some of Germany's heritage. While West Germany was gripped by the economic miracle, knocking down old houses to replace them with brand spanking new office blocks, the East Germans left many of the smaller towns to their own devices, meaning you can get a much more "old world" feel in former East German towns like Naumburg and Stralsund.

Coburg, my first German home.

Germany today is a country of huge contrasts; between the wealth of Bavaria and the poverty of Berlin; between the conservative attitudes of the old and the brash adventurous attitudes of the young; between the wind swept rainy shores of the north and the dry plains of the interior. Germany has never really been a whole country, more of a mish-mash of independently minded German speaking states. It took a lot of effort to bring them together, only to have them split again after the second world war. Today you will find great differences between the states, in looks and in attitudes, especially between the old East and West nations, and between Bavaria and everywhere else.

Bavarians see themselves as being true Germans, and Bavarian the most proper form of German. For many tourists this is also the case, as many people's stereotypical views of Germany actually have more in common with this state than the rest of the country. On the whole Bavarians tend to be more conservative than other Germans, and extremely proud of their state. They are also extremely well off, not only compared to other Germans, but other countries. Germany may well have picked up the moniker of "the sick man of Europe", but the poor growth and stifling unemployment are not felt in Bavaria. If Bavaria, and its 20+ million population, were taken out of the German nation and considered on its own, it would be one of the richest countries in the world.

For the states of former East Germany, on the other hand, the picture is much gloomier. The years since the country reformed have not been good for them, despite the dreams and the billions of Euros invested. Unemployment in the eastern states averages 20 percent. The lack of progress leaves the Ossies (East Germans) embittered and disillusioned, and the Wessies (West Germans) feel a growing anger at having to pick up the tab through the "solidarity tax" while their eastern counterparts seem to them to be spending their time collecting money from the government and complaining about their lot. East Germans, deprived of the many years of indoctrinised feelings of war guilt, and instead having the blame for the war placed firmly on the Allies, have seen a resurgence in Neo-Nazism.

Germany is most keenly divided when it comes to their own language. Each state has accents and dialects that differ greatly from the next. This makes understanding other Germans problematic for native speakers, and a nightmare for foreigners. Thankfully the Germans have been sensible enough to adopt a common and standard version of German called "High German" or Hochdeutsche. However, as mentioned earlier, Bavarians often think that Bavarian is proper German, not Hochdeutsche. An example of their attitude can be seen in a story my German teacher told me of her first day in Coburg. Being originally from Hamburg, she didn't understand the Bavarian dialect all that well, and when her landlord asked her something she didn't understand and so asked him to speak in Hochsdeutche. The indignant Bavarian responded by bellowing in clear German: "I am speaking proper German!".

For foreigners attempting to learn German, Hochdeutsche is the way to go. Often I will find that when attempting to communicate with Germans my first attempt at understanding them can fail miserably. This, I am assured, is down to the fact that they will usually be speaking in their regional dialect. Once they recognise you are a foreigner, most Germans will switch into Hochdeutsche, which is more universally understood. Germans are generally very good and patient with people trying to learn their language, and very appreciative of any attempt made. I find that the more I am able to speak German the more smiles I get from the locals. It's definitely worth learning a few words and phrases before coming here, as Germans are not exposed to much English, like the Scandinavians, and have all their TV and film dubbed.

Frankfurt, my new German home.

Things I Loved

Munich, Nuremberg, Bamberg, the Bavarian Alps, Bavaria in general, Berlin (especially Alexanderplatz), the beer, the almost complete lack of crime and the relatively low costs compared to the UK.

Surprises

Weimar, Bamberg, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Frankfurt not being a den of crime an iniquity (don't listen to the Germans - they don't know what crime is) and the music (some of it is really good when it isn't trying to be black or American).

Disappointments

The food, the incessant smoking, Worms, the towns on the Rhine and East Berlin's ugly suburbs.