13 Unexpected Facts About Germany

According to the German Federal Office of Statistics (Destatis), Germany‘s main trading partner in term of exports is the United States. Bookstores are of course full of travel guides and business books, but they rarely talk about cultural differences you might encounter when you do business with Germans (or the French, Americans, etc.).

As someone who was born and raised in France, I had to deal with intercultural challenges when I moved to Germany as a young adult. Twenty years later, I once again had to adjust to a new life in the US. Since 2014, I’ve shared my observations and explorations in many articles (check “All about German Culture” to know more), but today I realized that I never gave you hard facts about Germany.

Can you believe that the most-read article on this blog for years was “Nightmare washing machines in the US”? It was finally pushed out of the top spot after the German tourism office shared “Do you want to know why Germans are so blunt?” on their Facebook page.

When I checked my editorial calendar for this week’s topic (Why do the French love paperwork?), I didn’t feel very inspired. Instead, and because my objective is always to help you understand German culture, I’ve decided to present you with 13 unexpected facts about Germany. Feel free to share!

13 Unexpected facts about Germany

1. Prostitution is legal in Germany
In 2002, a law eliminated the legal concept of “violating moral principles,” making prostitution completely legal. Sex workers are official employees of a business, and as such, they get health insurance, pay into company retirement plans, and pay taxes.

2. The legal drinking age is 16
Yes, it’s 16 but only for beer and wine. For spirits, one has to wait to turn 18.
Underage drinking in private is also not regulated by law. At 14, children can — under the supervision of a parent — drink beer or wine. In real life, most parents supervise the first sips of their offspring in the safety of their own homes.

3. Germans love to sunbathe nude
According to a report by Expedia, Germans are the nationality the most likely to sunbathe naked. Twenty-eight percent of Germans surveyed claimed that they have spent at least a day at the beach completely naked. Surprised? Then read my article about German saunas!

4. German chancellor Angela Merkel has a Barbie doll made after her

“She is tall, blonde and curvy, has cornflower blue eyes and implausible anatomical proportions. Meet Angela Merkel, the Barbie doll.” Merkel has been the German head of state since 2005.

5. A Berliner is a jelly-filled doughnut
“Ich bin ein Berliner,” (I’m a Berliner) proclaimed John F. Kennedy in Berlin during his famous Cold War speech in 1963. He couldn’t have known that a “Berliner” was a jelly-filled doughnut. But the audience didn’t mind. They understood that he only meant to show his solidarity with the city.

6. Turkish people form the largest ethnic minority group in Germany
During the German economic miracle of the 1960s, 4 million people entered the country to work in factories and coal mines. During that time, immigrants came from Turkey, as well as Greece, Portugal, and former Yugoslavia. According to several estimates, the total number of people living in Germany today who originated from Turkey is at least 5 million people.

7. The first printed book was in German
In the 15th century, a German blacksmith named Gutenberg invented the printing press. A bible in Latin is considered to be the first book ever printed. Out of the 180 originally printed, 49 are still in circulation. Two of them are part of an exhibition at the Gutenberg Museum in Mayence, Germany.

8. Germany will have decommissioned all nuclear power plants by 2022

After the Fukushima disaster in 2011, chancellor Merkel, a physicist by training, decided to ban nuclear power from the German electricity grid. At that time, nuclear power supplied 22.6% of German energy. Instead, the government made a commitment to develop renewable energy.

9. Germany is 3 times bigger than Pennsylvania
It is slightly smaller than Montana, around the same size as California, and about 2 times smaller than Texas.

10. Germany shares borders with nine European countries
Germany shares border with Poland and the Czech Republic in the east, Switzerland and Austria in the south, France in the southwest, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands in the west, and Denmark in the north. Only China (14), Russia (14), and Brazil (10) have more neighboring countries than Germany.

11. Germans don’t sing the whole national anthem
The music was composed by Haydn, the lyrics coming later. When Hitler came to power, his regime misused the first verse, “Germany over all, Germany over all in the world,” to stress their superiority. After the defeat of WWII, the first verse was banned. http://www.dw.com/en/us-tennis-association-apologizes-for-playing-incorrect-german-anthem/a-37516126

12. The German government can reject silly baby names
The Standesamt (Civil registration office) will refuse all first names that don’t comply with a law stating that “a person‘s gender must be obvious by first name.” I don’t know which law is applied when the registration office rejects first names like “Osama Bin Laden.”

13. Oktoberfest is held in September!

Each year in September, Munich holds the largest beer festival in the world. But since 1872, Oktoberfest in Munich has started in mid-September and ends the first Sunday in October. It can be pretty cool in Munich in October! Do you want to know more about the Oktoberfest? Check “Eat, Drink, and Be German: Oktoberfest in the United States” or “Oktoberfest, an annual loss of control?”