COPY LINK

For members

CULTURE

10 weird taboos you should never break in Germany

Moving to a new country and blending in with the locals is never an easy task. So we put together a guide to some social faux-pas that you should do your best to avoid in Germany.

Published: 6 September 2019 15:42 CEST
Updated: 11 September 2020 13:49 CEST

10 weird taboos you should never break in Germany

Don't forget the eye contact! Photo: Depositphotos/ridofranz

Forgetting to make eye contact

Picture the scene: you get to the pub on Friday night and the bartender has delivered a delicious Hefeweizen to you. Just before you take a sip, you raise a glass with your friends and say “Prost!” : But wait a minute, did you give your drinking mates eye contact when your glasses clinked? If not, then you’ve just committed a massive faux pas.

In Germany, eye contact when your glasses meet is essential. If you don’t do it, you will receive puzzled or angry looks.

Why? Well as The Local discussed in an article, the reasons behind this superstition are not 100 percent clear.

If you ask a German they’ll say no eye contact means you’re both in for seven years of bad sex.

One suggestion for the eye contact rule is that it comes from the olden days when you had to ensure nobody had poisoned your drink and you established trust by making eye contact.

Perhaps it’s just, you know, nice to have a little bit of eye contact with your drinking buddy.

Chancellor Angela Merkel with her Christian Democrat colleague Volker Bouffier. Let's hope they remembered the eye contact. Photo: DPA

Once you've realized your mistake, you'll probably start going to extreme lengths to ensure it doesn't happen again.

This can result in staring at your pals in a very uncomfortable and awkward way (for everyone) while you try to ensure that eye contact definitely happens.

Sorry to say, but this behaviour also makes you look distinctly unlocal. The trick is to do the eye contact just as you clink glasses. No staring required.

I’m still working on it.

Wishing someone happy birthday before the big day

When a colleague has their birthday over the weekend, or you’re going on holiday and you won’t see them, it’s tempting to say: “Happy birthday when it comes.” But DON'T do that in Germany.

In the Bundesrepublik, wishing someone a happy birthday before the day is widely considered to bring bad luck. That’s the case even if you say it just a day or a few minutes early.

Germans are quite big on the tradition of “reinfeiern” , literally “celebrating into” the birthday. It’s when guests gather the evening before someone's big day, and wish the person a happy birthday, in stereotypical German fashion, precisely when the clock strikes midnight.

Wait until that moment and not a second earlier to say: “Alles gute zum Geburtstag! (all the best for your birthday).”

Expecting a cake

Remember how in your former country it made sense for you to be given a treat on your birthday? Your friends would buy you drinks or your colleagues would surprise you with a cute cupcake or the like? Well, in Germany, it’s the other way round – you are expected to treat everyone else.

Remember your cake! Photo: Depositphotos/cook_inspire

Buying a drink for your friends in the pub when everyone comes to hang out with you is one way of doing this. You are also expected to provide the cake or dessert. At work it’s often the norm to prepare something for your colleagues, whether that's a homemade cake or just picking up a treat from the bakery.

This can lead to some cultural misunderstandings. Personally, I come from a culture where the birthday girl or boy is spoilt and it would be a little strange to pay for everyone else on your birthday.

But the good thing is that once your birthday is over you can wipe the sweat from your brow, take a sigh of relief and remember that you’ll get a nice bit of Käsekuchen when Lena in accounts turns 42 in a couple of weeks.

Or just take your birthday off work.

Wearing your swimming costume or trunks in the sauna

Us foreigners love debating naked culture Germany, probably because it’s vastly different to where we come from.

For example, wearing a swimsuit or trunks in a sauna or steam room in Germany is considered unhygienic. In other countries, however, it’s thought to be unhygienic to be naked in a spa. It truly is confusing.

Never forget that Germany is the country of FKK – Freikörperkultur – an informal movement that translates to free body culture.

Germany has a tolerance of and, in some cases, a fondness for being “textile free.” Whether it's one of the country's hundreds of spas and wellness resorts, parks or lakes, many people are known for having no qualms about taking their clothes off.

That’s why you’ll likely get disapproving looks (or worse) if you do make the faux pas of wearing clothes in a spa or an FKK designated area.

But take it from me, once you’ve been shouted out by a German for not being naked, you will never do it again.

Photo: DPA

Walking in the cycling lane

Perhaps this is for those of us who are not very used to cycling infrastructure. In the big cities, you really have to look in all directions at every moment when you’re a pedestrian. That’s because there are special lanes dedicated to cyclists or people riding scooters.

And if you accidentally step out onto one, you will hear the “ring ring” of a bike bell very soon. You might also hear: “Fahrradweg!” (cycle lane) shouted in your direction in case you didn't get the message.

It all comes down to rules, doesn’t it? Germans really do like sticking to them and stepping out of line (or into someone else's space) is not on.

See also: if you’re a cyclist riding on a pavement or if you're a pedestrian crossing the road when it's a red light, expect a telling off at the very least – or a fine.

Being too loud on a Sunday

Sunday might feel like a good day to do a big clean up in your flat. But beware that it could raise disapproving looks.

If you're mowing the lawn, vacuum cleaning or putting your bottles into the recycling bin, it's best not to do that during “Ruhezeit” (quiet time).

It's a time when everyone is expected to be calm and quiet. It differs from state to state, but takes place most commonly from 1pm to 3pm, 10pm to 7am, and all-day on Sunday.

Not taking your holiday

If you’re trying to impress your boss in Germany by not taking your holidays and staying late in the office, forget it. This doesn’t go down well with anyone because work-life-balance is very important to Germans.

Germans even have a word for the time after you finish work: Feierabend, which indicates just how important free time is to the culture here.

So leave on time and take all your allocated holidays.

Don't risk burnout! Photo: Depositphotos/Alexshadyuk

Addressing people by their first name

If you speak German, you'll be aware that you have to use the Sie polite form when taking to a stranger, someone older than you or in a higher position than you at work.

That means that it's considered a bit rude to use someone's first name if they are a stranger. Stick to Frau or Herr with their surname if you're worried about putting your foot in it. If they'd prefer to use the informal du form, they'll soon let you know.

Ignoring people in the lift

Germans are hardly known for having a good chat or being very outwardly friendly with strangers, but in a lift it's a different story.

A stranger you've never met may strike up a conversation with you when the doors shut, or at the very least they might wish you a good day (“Schönen Tag noch!”) and say bye.

It can be confusing given that neighbours you've seen for years still don't smile back at you when you pass them in the Hinterhof (courtyard) when you're putting out your rubbish. But it's just something us foreigners have to get used to.

It's also the case in doctor's practices in Germany. Expect a courteous hello and goodbye in the waiting room there, too.

Clapping when you should be knocking

Germans like knocking on the table to show their appreciation. But when do you do that instead of clapping? It can be tricky for non-Germans to know what's best to do.

To clap or to bang the table? Who knows. Photo: Depositphotos/raxpixel

In academic settings it’s common for students to knock on their desks to applaud a lecture or presentation. Clapping is usually reserved for concerts or shows (perhaps when there’s not a table in front of you, the norm is to clap).

Knocking is also quite a common thing to do in German pubs when you arrive.

Apparently if you knock twice, it shows your friends that you aren't the devil. According to legend, the Stammtisch, the regular's table in the tavern, was traditionally made of oak which der Teufel was unable to touch as the tree was holy. Knocking on the table proved you weren't the devil in disguise.

Member comments

Anonymous - 6 September 2019 at 22:41 CEST

“Being too loud on a Sunday” is listed as one of the indiscretions a foreigner might commit. But down in deepest SW Germany where I live the very fact appearing to work on a Sunday can cause offence. Not long after settling in, I was minding my own business quietly clipping my hedge . . . not even on a street but adjacent to a small country footpath bordering our property. An old fellow with a stick walked past and growled at me “Das ist ARBEIT!”. I wasn’t quick thinking enough to tell him “Doch, es ist mein Hobby”.

Become a Member to leave a comment.

10 essential tips for avoiding rental scams in Germany

When it comes to settling in Germany, one of the most stressful and difficult tasks you’re likely to face is finding a place to live.

With the country in the grip of an ever-worsening housing shortage, there aren’t enough rental properties to meet the high demand – especially in big cities like Berlin, Munich and Frankfurt – and the flats that are available can often stretch even the most healthy of budgets.

With renters desperate to find affordable homes, crafty scammers have seized the chance to place fake ads on the market, often in dream locations with lower-than-average rents.

While some of these scams may be easy to spot, others can be highly sophisticated, with fraudsters setting up professional-looking websites and even allowing hopeful tenants to view their properties in person.

Recently The Local reported on a Polish couple who lost around €7,000 through a rental scam in Berlin. The scammers had sublet a beautiful Altbau apartment in the popular district of Neukölln and created an advert for it via a fake letting agent website, then arranged for people to use a key box to view the property while the real tenants were away.

Despite checking the contract over with legal experts from their local tenants’ association, nobody saw anything out of the ordinary – that is, until they tried to access the apartment and found a family already living there.

So, how do you protect your hard-earned savings and steer clear of scammers while looking for a new home?

Here are 10 important ways to protect yourself from rental scams.

1. Be alert to suspicious signs

The key to avoiding scammers in Germany is to be fully clued up on the warning signs. Was the listing for the property uploaded in the middle of the night, is the advert thin on details or written in bad German or English, and does the offer feel too good to be true?

Though it would be nice to believe there are still cheap flats to be found, finding an attractive property at an overly reasonable price is usually a red flag.

Hamburg

Modern apartments in Hamburg. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Daniel Bockwoldt

If someone claiming to be a landlord contacts you out of the blue, that’s also your cue to run a mile. With so many people looking for housing, most letting agents and landlords will have more than people looking to rent their properties without needing to get in touch with people themselves. Anyone who does is more than likely to be a scammer.

2. Rule out landlords who say they live abroad

One of the major warning signs to look out for is a landlord who claims to be renting the property from abroad, or who says they are out of the country for other reasons, like a last-minute business trip.

That’s usually a scammer’s way of excusing the fact that they won’t be able to meet you personally or even show you the property before you rent it.

“When the country the landlord lives in appears then I would say there’s a really big chance this is a scam,” said Kuba Rudzinski, one of the victims of the Berlin-Neukölln rental fraud.

Even if the excuse seems plausible, your best bet is to ignore anyone who tries to sell you a story about living abroad and simply move on with your house hunt.

3. Do your research online

Before committing to anything, take time to do some thorough research to scope out the property, landlord and letting agent.

Running the pictures and text used in apartment listings through a search engine like Google will help you quickly identify stock photos and text stolen from other listings. For pictures, this is known as a reverse image search.

A laptop

Photo by 2H Media on Unsplash

It’s also worth checking that any websites you’re sent to are fully functional and not copies of other letting agent sites, and that any email addresses match the website domain.

4. Visit the property and ask around

Never agree to rent a property without seeing it in person first. Arrange a viewing and take the opportunity to ask questions about the property and the neighbourhood.

Kuba also recommends speaking with the neighbours in the building to check if the property is genuinely being rented.

“Go to the place before and ask the neighbours, is this flat really for rent? Because these people generally know,” he said. “You’ll need to convince yourself to do it of course, but just ask in the building, ask on the floor where the flat is.”

5. Don’t transfer the full deposit in advance

Advance payments for anything, whether it’s furniture, a deposit or getting a chance to view the property, should be considered a major red flag.

Under German law, you are usually only expected to pay the deposit by the start of the agreed rental contract – and certainly not several months in advance.

Euro notes lie next to some house keys on a table.

Euro notes lie next to some house keys on a table. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/dpa-tmn | Andrea Warnecke

You are also legally entitled to pay your three months’ deposit in three instalments on top of your first three months’ rent after moving in, so definitely be cautious of landlords that place pressure on you to transfer a large lump sum.

If you’re really concerned, look into alternatives for paying your deposit, such as Kautionversicherung (deposit insurance) or a Mietkautionssparbuch, where you open a bank account and pledge the amount to the landlord, rather than transferring the money directly.

6. Insist on meeting the landlord or letting agent in person

If a landlord or letting agent refuses to meet you in person or insists on conducting all communication online, they’re probably not who they say they are.

Insist on meeting face-to-face to verify their identity and ensure they have a legitimate connection to the property.

7. Avoid sending documents straight away

Not all rental scams are about getting money from you directly: many scammers are simply after your personal details for the purposes of identity theft.

Be wary of providing personal documents or sensitive information before you’ve verified the legitimacy of the rental agreement, especially when it comes to things like passport scans or other forms of ID.

8. Seek legal advice from experts

If you’re unsure about any aspect of the rental agreement or if something seems suspicious, seek advice from legal experts or tenants’ associations.

However, be aware that this isn’t always a cast-iron guarantee that a tenancy is legitmate. Over the past few years, fraudsters have become increasingly sophisticated, even down to producing water-tight rental contracts for would-be tenants.

An estate agent hands over keys to an apartment. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/dpa-tmn | Christin Klose

According to civil lawyer Emilia Tintelnot, becoming a member of a tenants’ association can be a good way to get affordable legal advice, and it can also be helpful to set up legal insurance to ensure you can access help when you need it without having to pay lawyers’ fees up front.

9. Be wary of stereotypes

Avoid making assumptions based on stereotypes or preconceived notions about someone’s gender or nationality, as this may cause you to overlook things you might otherwise see as warning signs.

In Kuba’s case, the fact that the fraudsters were German made them appear more legitimate in his eyes, as Polish people tend to see Germans as law-abiding and trustworthy.

Be aware that scammers can come from any cultural background and may use a variety of tactics to deceive unsuspecting renters.

10. Keep an extensive paper trail

Document all communication, agreements, and transactions related to the rental process, including phone numbers and any bank details provided.

According to the Berlin police, this type of evidence can be crucial for an investigation if you do suspect a scammer.

While evidence can differ across cases, “pictures, contact details used by the perpetrators, original documents, bank details with payment receipts” are particularly helpful for investigators, and could help the police stop the scammers for good.

SHOW COMMENTS

Url copied to clipboard!