So Germans are punctual, humourless, drink beer and are world champion travellers? We’ve subjected seven stereotypes about Germany to close scrutiny, and made some surprising discoveries.
But appearances can be deceptive: compared with the rest of Europe, Germany’s only in eighth place for car density. Seven countries have more cars per person – in first place comes Luxemburg, followed by Italy and Poland – and by global standards Germany’s actually quite a lot further behind. Things are different with regard to cycling: Germany ranks third in the world for countries with the most bicycles per person, a figure exceeded only by the Netherlands and Denmark. Around 90 per cent of all Germans have a bicycle – but only a little over half own a car.
However: in a global comparison, Germany only ranks seventh for beer consumption per head. The undisputed winner is Czechia, followed by Austria, Lithuania and Romania. And the title for the biggest brewing nation doesn’t go to Germany either – but to densely populated China with an annual beer output of around 360 million hectolitres. Nevertheless the world’s largest beer festival is still the Oktoberfest: it draws six million people a year to Munich, making it the country’s biggest tourism event.
But wait until you hear this: Berlin is in fact nine times bigger than Paris! You don’t believe it? In terms of area, of course. And we’re only talking about the city centre. The metropolitan district of Ile de France, which includes all the suburbs as well, is significantly bigger. Incidentally, Berlin also has more bridges than Venice: around 900 in number, while there are only just over 400 in Venice (even that doesn’t make it the German champion – the port city of Hamburg has a huge total of around 2,500).
Generally speaking, Germans enjoy holidays and travel a lot. In 2019, the last pre-covid year, the country’s 80 million people went on around 70 million holidays. France, Italy, Greece and Portugal – to name but a few – are familiar with the deluges of German tourists too. One thing that seems quite incredible is that the Germans prefer to holiday in their own country, with the North Sea and Baltic coast being particularly popular. However their favourite travel destinations abroad are in fact on the Mediterranean – including in Mallorca.
It’s another matter if you consider whether or not these times are observed. The German rail network, Deutsche Bahn, seems intent on single-handedly dismantling the German punctuality stereotype: the fact that travellers are already complaining about such a momentous delay by 14:38 does not deter the train company from continually triggering this sensitivity. According to the 2022 delay statistics, when it comes to punctuality Germany is actually far and away the worst performer in Europe: just 65.6 per cent of intercity trains were on time. Whilst that might depend on the varying definitions of delay, it’s more than just that. Incidentally Switzerland is the European frontrunner, while first place worldwide goes to Japan: the largest rail operator here claims that trains are on average 50 seconds late – which already includes delay caused by natural disasters.
You might be surprised to learn that if you ask the citizens of the barbecue nation what they really like best, they’ll tell you: salad beats schnitzel. And potatoes beat salad. And in first place comes pasta! In fact according to the nutrition report published by the German government, pasta is the clear winner. Spaghetti, spätzle and other types of pasta are the favourite dishes of Germans, with potatoes and vegetable dishes trailing well behind. And Italian cuisine comes out tops for food delivery too: pizza accounts for around three-quarters of all online orders. Another thing confirmed by the report though is that meat-eating is a male thing. Meat is eaten daily by nearly half of all men in Germany – but only about one-quarter of women.