Beyond all the ridiculous stereotypes that present this as a nation of order and serious efficiency, we think there’s a whole lot to love and learn about Germany.
Quiz yourself with these 13 fun facts about Germany, the diverse and exciting land situated in the heart of Europe.
1. Germany, Deutschland, Alemania, Tyskland, Niemcy … which one is it?
Peek in to the town of Heidelberg in Germany/Deutschland/Tyskland/Alemania/Niemcy.
Depending on which language you speak, the land of the Teutons goes by many names, but why?
Like so often, the story sends us back to the Roman Empire, when fancily clad Italians first ventured into the Rhineland in the west of the country. Depending on whom they asked, the various neighbouring tribes to the territory now comprising modern Germany gave different replies.
Among them were names like “Mutes”, “Neighbours” or “People of the Forest” in their respective language of the time. Centuries later, and despite some factual inaccuracy, most countries still hold on to those original terms. If you visit and are ever in doubt, go Deutsch.
2. You can’t be punished for escaping prison
As early as the 19th century, German legislation recognised the “basic human instinct” of wanting to be free and rendered escape from prison in itself not punishable. This does however not include crimes committed in the great escape.
Read more: The world’s best prison hotels
3. “Sie liebt dich, yeah, yeah, yeah!”
The Fab Four keep things rocking in Hamburg. © JLH PHOTO
Most musos know that he career of the Fab Four really kicked off around Hamburg’s red light district, The Reeperbahn, in the early 1960s. Here the band spent their early years allegedly living behind a curtain at a cinema and washing themselves in the adjacent urinals before all but one of them were deported for various reasons.
George Harrison, aka “The Quiet One”, was deported for being a minor, while Paul “The Cute One” McCartney and original drummer Pete Best were thrown out of the country for arson charges related to lighting a condom on fire.
4. It’s home to the world’s first cookshop
Step into sausage Mecca at the Wurstkuchl in Regensburg.
While elsewhere the Inca Empire had not even started to rise yet, a Regensburg tavern, today called the Regensburg Sausage Kitchen (‘Wurstkuchl’), started its run as the longest continuously open cookshop (or fast-food restaurant, if you prefer) in the world – in 1146 AD!
While first documentation of true sausage making in this particular tavern only dates back to the 1800s, the national dedication to sausages – with over a thousand variations – is undisputed.
Read more: The best cities for food lovers
5. They invented an awful lot of stuff
Get on your dandy horse and ride! © Gun Powder Ma
The prolific Germans look back on a long list of game-changing inventions, in some cases even changing the rulebook, like when they somehow transferred the classic square board of checkers to a star-shaped board and had Americans market it as “Chinese Checkers”.
Beyond that and the lesser surprising inventions commonly attributed to Germany, like book printing, beer making, automobiles, bicycles, jet engines, the Zeppelin blimp, insulin, Aspirin, Gummi Bears and kindergarten, they can also be credited with bringing us contact lenses. It was the Marburg-born ophthalmologist Adolf Eugen Fick who, in 1888, invented the very first optical lenses as an alternative to wearing eyeglasses.
6. Broadcast yourself – just not here
More sobering than a good hard look in the mirror after a few days at the Oktoberfest is a trip down the German YouTube rabbit hole.
Despite native music fans best efforts, 61% of YouTube’s Top 1000 videos have been banned from the German version of the site. While the real reason is not officially known, suspicion points towards the German performance rights organisation GEMA and copyright claims. Whatever the outcome, lifelong goals of becoming an online cover song sensation are futile in Germany.
7. Born in the USA?
Famous German people? Levi Strauss: Born in Germany, re-born in the USA. © flickrohit
Born Löb Strauss in Bavaria, the inventor of the prototypical American legwear emigrated across the big pond at 18 years of age. Here he changed his name to Levi and managed to wrangle the patent for applying rivets at the stress points of work pants. In the wake of the Californian Gold Rush this famously turned out to be an unprecedented jackpot.
Despite finding success in his adopted home, he is still loved by the members of his tiny home town of Buttenheim, who, in 2000, opened a museum in honour of the denim demigod.
Not unlike the Strauss family, children’s novelist Judith Kerr and painter Lucian Freud went on a similar pilgrimage and ended up relocating to England where they would later become almost synonymous with British culture.
8. Oh, Tannenbaum
Have yourself a fiery little Christmas in Germany.
Subject to wild speculation, the exact origin of the Yuletide tradition remains debated, being attributed among others to 16th century Protestant reformer Martin Luther. Most agree, however, on the tradition taking origin in early Germany.
It was just a matter of time before people started adding a dose of danger to the festivities, with Germans adding candles and edible decorations to luscious firs soon spread across the world. Most cultures would however go on to refrain from using real candles, leaving a minority of traditionalists in Germany and a few other European countries alone with the looming risk of ending Christmas Eve in an all-consuming inferno of flames.
Read more: Christmas traditions around the world
9. Germany’s stunning nature is somehow easily overlooked
Don’t let the name fool you, the Saxon Switzerland National Park is a German natural treasure.
Not so much a fact as a glaring omission from the known wonders of Germany is its countryside. Between the stereotypical imagery of green alpine meadows and the dense forests of former Bohemia, it is easy to forget about Germany actually being home to some other truly awe inspiring natural landscapes.
Saxon Switzerland National Park being just one of them, with its towering Bastei bridge overlooking the Elbe river and majestic monoliths giving their red counterparts in Monument Valley a run for their money.
10.They are fanatical about football
Germany’s Black and Yellow Army going football crazy! © Peter Fuchs
Besides winning last year’s FIFA World Cup with a squad dubbed by some “the best national football team to ever exist”, German football fans are living the good life these days.
The Bundesliga, Germany’s national league, boasts Europe’s highest average visitor numbers and tickets are priced anywhere between roughly £9-25 – often cost only a fraction of what their counterparts in the English Premier League do. The sight of a travelling Englishman amidst Borussia Dortmund’s infamous “Yellow Wall” of fans dressed in their home club’s colours has therefore become increasingly more common.
11. Brotherly love? It’s a question of sport
It’s the sporting rivalry for the ages: are you Adidas, or are you Puma? © CarbonNYC [in SF!]
Born out of Herzogenaurach, Middle Franconia, hail both the global sports giant Adidas and rival Puma, incidentally each founded by brothers of the same family. Having fallen out due to purportedly false accusations of betrayal during the years of World War II, the Dassler brothers split-up to never reconcile and both went on to build global sporting goods empires on their own. Talk about some competitive sibling rivalry.
12. Beer? Only if it’s clean
Celebrating the anniversary of real beer during Oktoberfest!
Notorious for playing by the rules, you will, of course, have a hard time finding a German beer not brewed after the “Reinheitsgebot”, a purity law dictating the production of the hoppy thirst-quencher.
It was precisely this passion that in 1903 made German settlers at the Chinese Qingdao trade post erect the Tsingtao Brewery as the first thing upon their arrival. Pretty dedicated.
While their love of the sweet nectar cannot be denied, Germany surprisingly only polls in at second place among the countries in the world with the highest annual beer consumption per capita. The biggest “Cheers!” goes to the Czech Republic.
Read more: 10 fun facts about Oktoberfest
13. They invented magazines!
German history wouldn’t be complete without the birth of book printing and the modern day magazine.
Having invented book printing, Germans probably also felt pressured to be frontrunners in magazine publishing. It was in 1663 that the Hamburg magazine “Erbauliche Monaths Unterredungen” (Edifying Monthly Discussions) became the world’s first regularly appearing publication. And still today, Germany is considered home to one of the world’s most thriving magazine industries, so make sure to pick up a few.
