Lifestyle in Germany

What Germany is famous for

• German Beer, i.e. “Paulaner” or “Warsteiner”
• The Oktoberfest, where many people from around the globe come in order to see a traditional festival with plenty of beer and plenty of traditional clothes
• “Weisswurst” – a sausage mostly eaten in a southern state of Germany called “Bavaria”
• Cars like Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Porsche and Volkswagen
• Germany favours green energy and tries to get rid of atomic energy until 2020

Germany’s cities

Basically there are 16 states in Germany of which three are cities: Berlin (the nation’s capital), Hamburg and Bremen, each of them with a population more than a million. Furthermore every of the remainder 13 states has a federal capital of which you might know a few:

• Berlin
• Munich
• Stuttgart
• Hannover
• Dresden
• And plenty of others

It is important to mention that every city has a unique character with sights, which are worth visiting. If you want, you can use the highway and visit several of them within a week.

The highway and the cars

Germany is famous for its highway with no speed limit. Yes, it is true. On quite a few parts of the German highway you can drive as fast as you want. However, you definitely need to take care of the other participants on the road and strictly abide certain rules. Otherwise you need to pay huge fines.

Besides Germany is well-known for its cars. You certainly know BMW, Mercedes, Porsche or Volkswagen. The latter one is by the way world’s second biggest car manufacturer worldwide right after GM (US). During the last decades the Germany’s car industry has shaped Germany’s reputation and is one major economic growth factor.

Culture of Germany

Germans are often described as serious and structured. Indeed, this is true. Many international people, who work with Germans can confirm both of these traits and you can rely on the fact that there’s no corruption. The CPI (Corrutpions Perceptions Index) ranked Germany on world rank 13 and is therefore one of the countries with the lowest corruption.

However, if you consider Germany as a boring country, you’re wrong. Just take a look at the Oktoberfest in Munich – a festival starting at the end of October and ending two weeks later at the beginning of October. You can drink a lot of beer, eat huge bretzels or have a ride on the rollercoaster while wearing a “Lederhosen” - a guy’s traditional dress - or a “Dirndl” – the famous dress for girls. Millions of people attend this event and a large amount of visitors come from abroad.

Germany’s nightlife

Every major city in Germany has bars and clubs. Especially in cities like Cologne or Dresden you find many students who want to enjoy their student life on the weekend. In Hamburg and Berlin on the other hand you find many bars, which are comfortable to sit in, have a chit-chat and drink a beer or wine. However, you should know that Germany is the country of beers and not miss the opportunity to drink a cold one.

German

If you expect somebody in Germany to speak English with you – don’t be too shocked because they tend to be a bit shy. Usually Germans are quite good in English because they start studying it from the fifth grade. However, they prefer speaking German and hence they’re a bit shy when it comes to English. Nevertheless it is always worth giving a shot because most of the time it is seen as a practice for them to improve.

Germans and their religion

Most of Germany’s population belongs to the religion Christianity. However, it is barely seen today that Germans go to Church on a regular basis and more and more Christians decide to leave Church because they don’t believe in it anymore.