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GERMAN LANGUAGE

Eight things Germans believe bring good luck

Germans have several ways of bringing good fortune, from breaking things to chimney sweeps. Here's what you can do in Germany to bring yourself as much luck as possible.

Published: 29 July 2021 16:12 CEST
Updated: 7 January 2022 16:02 CET
Eight things Germans believe bring good luck
A group of chimney sweeps hike up the Brocken mountain on German Unity day last year to bring everyone luck. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/dpa-Zentralbild | Matthias Bein

A lot of superstitions about bad luck in Germany are well-known across the world. From lighting a cigarette with a candle to gifting knives, there are a whole load of possible missteps which might end up cursing you and your friends to years or even decades of bad luck.

But no fear- there are plenty of ways to ensure that you get lucky too. Here’s your eight-step guide to getting lucky according to German tradition. 

READ ALSO: Eight strange superstitions the Germans hold dearly

  • Pigs

One popular German phrase is ‘Schwein haben’ (literally ‘to have a pig’), which means that you got lucky. Similarly, ‘Schwein gehabt’ (literally ‘got pig’) is used as an expression of good fortune along the lines of saying ‘lucky you!’ or ‘lucky me!’. 

It is common to gift friends and family with a marzipan Glückschwein (good luck pig) to mark New Year. 

A German girl with her Sparschwein – or piggy bank. Yes, pigs are lucky. But it’s even luckier to have a pig full of money. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Patrick Pleul

Piggy banks (Sparschweine) are also given to youngsters to encourage them to save (because who doesn’t want a pig full of cash?).

Pigs are considered lucky because of their connection with fertility, successful harvest and thus prosperity. Piglets in particular are seen as portending good fortune. It is thought that this custom might have arisen in the Middle Ages, when to own pigs was a signal of wealth and status. 

READ ALSO: German word of the day: Sau

  • Smashing things

Smashing anything breakable, such as glass, china or ceramic is thought to bring good luck in Germany. Loud crashes and bangs from breaking household objects drive evil spirits out of the house, and are thought to bestow a few years of good fortune to the person who broke them. 

The German saying ‘Scherben bringen Glück’, meaning ‘shards bring luck’, was coined for this situation. Around wedding days, breaking porcelain plates is often a part of the celebration. According to custom, the more shards created by the process, the better luck the couple will have in married life.

This tradition is called Polterabend, and while it used to take place until midnight on the night before the wedding, nowadays it more frequently happens either on the wedding day itself or around a week before.

Ulrike and Martin probably smashed things at the Polterabend just before their wedding. We wonder if it brought them luck and they’re still together. Photo: picture-alliance / dpa | Roland_Witschel

So even if you might not be inclined to lather someone with well-wishes after they’ve just broken your favourite plate, remember to give a shout of ‘Scherben bringen Glück!’ to help them cash in on their years of good luck.

  • Salt

Salt (das Salz) is thought to have the power to bring good luck in Germany. Because of this, it’s seen as lucky to give salt and bread as a housewarming gift, and is thought to mean that the person moving in will never go hungry in their new home. 

It is believed that the superstition arose from a time when salt was a valuable commodity and a symbol of wealth and success. Only the richest and most prosperous could afford it. 

However, don’t think about combining superstitions and spilling your salt. Unfortunately, this will bring you seven years of bad luck.

Pass the salt. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/dpa-tmn | Catherine Waibel

In addition, make sure you don’t bring a knife with you to slice the housewarming bread. Giving a knife as a housewarming gift is seen as wishing death on the person you are gifting the present.

READ ALSO: Eight strange Austrian superstitions foreigners should know about

  • Black cats – but only if they’re moving in the right direction
This gorgeous lad is called Arne and he’s at the association Tierschutz Hildesheim und Umgebung e.V, Lower Saxony, if you’d like to check if he’s still available. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Julian Stratenschulte

Although in some countries black cats unequivocally bring bad luck, in Germany the relationship is more complicated. A black cat moving from left to right will bring bad luck, whereas a black cat moving from right to left will bestow good luck on the person whose path it crosses. 

The German saying relating to this superstition is ‘schwarze Katze von rechts nach links, Glück bringt’s’, which means ‘a black cat from right to left brings good luck.’

  • Chimney sweeps 
Consider yourself blessed with luck! Photo: picture alliance/dpa/dpa-Zentralbild | Matthias Bein

Seeing a chimney sweep (der Schornsteinfeger) is meant to bring good luck in Germany – particularly on New Year’s Day or on your wedding day. This is thought in part to be because traditionally chimney sweeps would collect the fee for their services on the first day of each new year, meaning they were often among the first to wish families a happy new year. 

There’s a lovely story behind the main photo on this story, and the one above. It’s a group of chimney sweeps from Saxony-Anhalt who hiked up the Brocken mountain on the 30th anniversary of German reunification in October 2020. The group of 16 meet once a year and want to bring luck to everyone. 

It is thought to be even luckier if you turn one of the silver buttons on their uniforms, get ash on your face from a chimney sweep or if you see a chimney sweep in the presence of a pig! 

Alongside the marzipan pigs often gifted on New Year, you can also often find little chimney sweeps modelled out of marzipan. 

Befriending a chimney sweep can be seen as having good luck on demand, as inviting a chimney sweep to almost any social event will, according to tradition, ensure that it runs perfectly smoothly.

READ ALSO: Friday the 13th: Eight strange superstitions that the Germans hold dearly

  • Knocking on the pub table

Having a pint in a German pub might seem like a more raucous occasion to you than you’re used to, particularly if you notice your friends knocking their fists against the table as you walk in. However, this tradition isn’t just about greeting your pals and preparing for a fun-filled evening: it’s actually a way of communicating to them that you’re not the devil in disguise. 

Did these friends knock on wood before the Germany played France on June 15th during the Euros? (France won 1-0, sob).

Traditionally, pub or tavern tables were made out of oak because it was seen as a holy tree that the devil was unable to touch. By knocking on the wood (Holz klopfen), the people sitting around the table are able to prove that they haven’t been possessed by the spirit of evil. 

But be sure to make eye contact as you’re clinking glasses in the pub and saying ‘Prost’ (cheers), or according to German superstition you’ll be cursed with seven years of bad sex. 

READ ALSO: Why do Germans make eye contact when they clink glasses?

  • Putting a coin in a new wallet

Gifts are a tricky business according to German superstition, and it’s easy to accidentally slip up and buy something that could leave the recipient silently cursing you for condemning them to years of bad luck.

A wallet is always a versatile gift for a good friend, but one thing to remember is that if you’re buying someone a new wallet for their birthday or Christmas, you should remember to slip a penny or another coin in it for good luck. This should mean that the person you are gifting it to will never be poor.

Everyone wants a bulging wallet. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/dpa-Zentralbild | Fernando Gutierrez-Juarez
  • Hanging up a horseshoe

Before the dawn of technology like social media and text messaging, lovers would send love letters which were delivered by horse and carriage. Waiting for word from their significant others, they would listen out for the telltale sound of horses trotting up to their houses. Finding a horseshoe (das Hufeisen) was actually seen as more lucky and desirable than receiving the letter itself. 

“Good luck! feel free to grab a horseshoe,” tweeted one person after finding a ton of horseshoes last year. 

Traditionally, horseshoes are hung from the front door to bless visitors with good luck, though there are mixed opinions on which way they should be hung. 

It was thought that when a witch saw a horseshoe hanging over a door, she would have to ride every single road touched by that horseshoe, deterring her from bringing wickedness to the house in question.

However, if you do have a lucky horseshoe, you are running the risk of bad luck too – misplacing or losing it is thought to bring bad fortune.

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TECH

How Germany is ending its 40-year long love affair with the fax machine

With a tear in the eye and a fond farewell, the German government will wave goodbye to its most beloved piece of technology - the fax machine - next year. We look at why it's taken them so long to break away from this relic of the 1960s.

Published: 17 November 2023 17:14 CET
How Germany is ending its 40-year long love affair with the fax machine

Though foreigners never tire of talking about the sad state of German technology, it’s rare that the situation is summed up as well as it recently was on X: “In Germany,” one user wrote recently, “5G is a brand of fax machine.”

It may have been a joke, but to people living in the Bundesrepublik, the jibe rang uncomfortably true: no matter if the year is 2003 or 2023, the fax machine has truly become a symbol for everything that’s wrong with German digitalisation. 

Though fax was invented in the 1960s, this handy telecommunication device didn’t truly take off in Germany until 1980s and 90s, where it became a mainstay in companies and public offices. But after cementing its status, it never quite loosened its cast-iron grip.

Like the pillars of the Brandenburg Gate or the peaks of the Alps, the fax machine has remained an intransigent part of German life through thick and thin.

But now, as the world races towards superfast internet and embraces the potential of AI, the government has decided that it can no longer straddle two worlds.

From June 30th 2024 “at the latest”, all fax machines will finally be banished from the halls and offices of the Bundestag, thanks to a new resolution from the Budget Committee on Thursday. 

READ ALSO: How the pandemic is bringing German bureaucracy out of the 1980s

By then, the government hopes, so much progress will have been made with digitalisation that fax machines are no longer needed.

Reading between the lines of comments from Bundestag MPs, you may also get the sense that having fax machines in the seat of power of Europe’s largest economy was getting a little embarrasing.

“In the age of digitalisation, they are completely superfluous,” FDP MP Torsten Herbst told Bild on Friday. “And always cause astonishment among visitors to the Bundestag.”

It may not seem like an especially drastic step, but in its move to end the use of the 1980s-style device, the central government is going one step further than the authorities in Cologne.

According to the Green Party faction in one of Germany’s most populous cities, faxes in the city administration will be phased out “by 2028”.

So what does this mean for Germany as a whole?

The fax of life 

As the second-hand electronics shops rub their hands with glee, it’s hard not to ask whether the Bundestag’s move to dispense with their fax machines could possibly be the beginning of the end of fax in the Bundesrepublik.

But a glance at some recent stats suggests that ridding Germans of their fax machines for good is going to be a long and arduous journey.

According to a recent survey, 80 percent of German businesses still use fax machines for office tasks, along with one fifth of doctors’ surgeries.

The obsession with fax and generally outdated technology was something noted by readers of The Local when they were asked about the culture shocks they’d had in Germany. 

German Bundestag debating chamber

The debating chamber of the German Bundestag in Berlin. Fax machines are still used throughout the Bundestag. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Michael Kappeler

Siva Prasad Tripuraneni, 28, from India, said he appreciated “technological advancement” whenever he goes back home, having experienced the complete opposite during his time in Germany. 

Even at the height of the pandemic, when medical staff were struggling to cope with an influx of patients, hospitals in Baden-Württemberg would dutifully fax data on patients in intensive care over to the health authorities – and so, of course, would the high-tech testing labs. 

READ ALSO: From nudity to sandwiches: The biggest culture shocks for foreigners in Germany

In one particularly revealing anecdote, a political party that was barred from taking part in the 2021 Bundestag elections found it had just a few days to appeal the decision in writing. The party ended up resorting to a fax machine at a Hamburg copy shop to get its appeal to the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) in time. 

Of course, when the BGH attempted to respond, that correspondence was sent to the copy shop as well – causing no end of confusion for all concerned. 

Safe and secure

There are countless anecdotes like these, but the last one gets to the heart of some of the issues associated with Germany and its undying commitment to fax: legally, many bureaucratic processes need to be done in writing, but culturally many Germans are suspicious of digital communications.

Most revealingly, the resolution from the Budget Committee notes that services like email today offer encryption options “that guarantee the secure transmission of information”. 

For that reason, it claims, fax machines are even superfluous from a security perspective.

For years now, experts have been warning of the dangers of sending sensitive information via an insecure means such as fax.

Nevertheless, this ancient technology still seems to be held up as a bastion of security, much like the insistence that cash is somehow safer than card.

READ ALSO: Ask an expert: Why is cash still so popular in Germany – and is it changing?

With these attitudes in place, it seems like the Bundestag’s move – though significant – won’t move the needle significantly when it comes to digitalisation. 

And despite the best efforts of parties like the Free Democrats (FDP), it may be a good few years before the fax machine is gone entirely. 

Until then, foreigners will have to keep doing what many savvy folks have long since learned to do: sending all their comms in Germany via a fax app on their phone. 

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