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German way of life

We’ll tell you about the houses and apartments of the German middle class – doctors, teachers, workers and engineers from big companies and small workshops, municipal employees. The whole story is based on personal observations and impressions gained during numerous, long trips to universities in the south and southwest of Germany.

Three myths about Germany

1. Purity is greatly exaggerated?

Thomas

It is commonly believed that cleanliness is a German thing. At the same time, according to ubiquitous statistics, when discussing the cleanliness of German streets and homes, about half of the foreigners surveyed said that “cleanliness is greatly exaggerated,” especially in major cities.

If you take the S-Bahn from Munich Airport to Munich Central Station in the afternoon, you will be surprised to see ice-cream cups, newspaper scraps and other litter that is evidently thrown out of the windows of these trains. But if you happen to take the same route early in the morning, the curb will be perfectly clean – all the trash has already been cleaned at 5 a.m.

Those who have worked and lived in this country for a long time say that Germans are really clean, but it is not because they do not litter, but because they clean. At the same time, we have to admit that in Munich itself, and especially in the surrounding towns, cleanliness and a special comfort always impress at any time.

The same foreigners interviewed point out that in Germany “everything is so clean, so cozy, there are flowers everywhere. I could say the same about the order of the Germans in the kitchen. Yes, it is neat and clean but not as sterile as we often imagine.

And if you come in a German house in rainy weather, you will be offered to change your shoes in the hallway, but to run around with a rag and immediately wipe away all traces of wet shoes will not and wash the floor when the guest leaves. There are many examples. Yet the main German principle is cleanliness for us, not us for cleanliness.

2. Austerity

As for the famous German economy and even stinginess, in my opinion, it is also greatly exaggerated. Yes, Germans try to save everything and on everything: money, energy, water and, in contrast to many, time and effort.

But I have not noticed any particular stinginess in Germany, and I think they like to please themselves. It is known that Germans travel more than anyone else, do not spare money on mountain skiing and swimming pools, love to go to restaurants and prefer to drink a mug of beer in a pub rather than at home.

3. United Germany

It’s worth recalling that Germany as a unified country was formed from separate independent principalities just over a century ago, and so it’s very “different”.

Foreigners are usually surprised to note that there is no “one” Germany. And the German regions in Germany they are called “LĂ€nder” , oddly enough, differ in architecture, climate, standard of living, traditions, even dialect. And the differences can be quite significant.

Sometimes it is hard for a German from Berlin to understand the natives of southern Germany – the Bavarians or the Swabians. And they often have different eating habits, which also affects how they set up their kitchen.

Still, there is something that all Germans have in common: a high degree of organization, precision, punctuality, that is, order, the famous “ordnung” “ordernung” . These qualities are manifested everywhere, including in the organization of everyday life and housekeeping. As an example of German order and punctuality we can give the system of waste sorting in a German house.

In our country, at best, housekeepers divide garbage into food and non-food items. This is not the case in Germany. In a German kitchen there are always several containers for different kinds of waste.

First of all, just like in our country, there is a small bucket or a bucket with a thick plastic bag inside, closed with a lid. But only food waste is placed there. There are separate packets for paper and for synthetic cellophane, polyethylene, foam plastic and others packaging.

If, for example, chips or pieces of wood appeared in the house while repairing a chair or something similar, there will be a separate container for them, too. There are special containers for these types of waste in the yards, and the appropriate trash is thrown in each.

Glass bottles and cans, beer and tin cans are collected in separate crates or bags as they are used. They are stored, as a rule, in a closet, or in the garage, or at the bottom of a cupboard in the kitchen.

There are special places for throwing them away, and in a city you often have to walk a few hundred meters to such a place, but in a village there is only one place for the whole village, and it is located on the outskirts of the village. In Germany you can throw away a can of beer in the trash, but you can’t throw away a glass bottle – you’ll get a fine.

But the most surprising for me was to observe how in Germany, throw away bottles from the wine. Absolutely everyone carries or carries this garbage to a special area where there are 4 large containers: each for a different kind of dishes: for bottles of white, green and brown glass, and for tin waste.

It is unusual to observe how a German lady, who has arrived in a prestigious car, an elderly lady dressed in a very modest manner, or a ten to twelve year old schoolboy take out a container with bottles and start methodically going from one container to another, strictly throwing each bottle into the corresponding container.

Awareness? Yes, of course, but not only. If you throw a green glass bottle into a white wine container and it is noticed, you will be fined a rather hefty amount.

The Germans use the kitchen to cook

Every action can become a rite of passage if it loses its appropriateness.

A German proverb.

Miele

The thesis “practical, convenient and durable” trumps in Germany the concept of “beautiful and fashionable” at work and at home, but especially in the kitchen. So all aspects of life in this country, and the household, can be defined by one keyword: expediency.

We often think of the kitchen as the cosiest place in the house. Many even call it the heart of the home. German housewives have a different opinion on this. For them, the kitchen is an auxiliary room where food is prepared, and nothing more. But it needs to be comfortable.

But Germans prefer to eat lunch, dinner and even breakfast in the dining room. It is a room of about 12-18 m connected to the kitchen with a large doorway or arch. The door is mostly missing.

I have not seen a special window between these rooms either. Since most homes and apartments have a large balcony or terrace, there is another small table with chairs at which you can drink tea or eat lunch in warm weather.

By the way, once again about comfort: in Germany they like everything to be comfortable, so if the dining table is on the terrace or balcony, there will almost always be chairs or light folding chairs around it, not stools.

Except for three months in the winter, Germans love to dine outdoors on nice days.

I buy appliances as a set

Germans are frugal people and buy new kitchen furniture usually at the same time as we do, that is when moving to another apartment or renovating the house. And here the principle of shopping, in my opinion, is different from that accepted by most in our country.

Germans like to buy their kitchen furniture and all their major appliances in one set. Typically this standard set includes a refrigerator, hood, stove or oven, dishwasher, microwave oven and sometimes even a washing machine.

Dishwasher, washing machine if there’s one in the kitchen , even a small refrigerator or freezer are practically always built under the same countertop. Their fronts are closed with the same fronts as the kitchen cabinets. Only the control panels of the washing machine and dishwasher are left uncovered.

Patriotism is a matter of technology

Germans are great patriots of their country’s products, and almost all appliances in the kitchen are made only by German manufacturers, which are widely known in America.

In any office, as a rule, there are special rooms where employees can have a snack and a coffee during their break. That’s where the refrigerator, microwave oven, coffee maker or coffee machine and any other appliances from German manufacturers are always located.

In every German town already from afar, at the approach to any trading center where home appliances are sold, eye-catching panels with the names of Siemens, Miele, Bosch, Ufesa and Teka catch the eye.

But I’ve only seen Gaggenau advertised at fashionable ski resorts in the Alps. That’s where these appliances can find a potential buyer and not in the workers’ town.

The wealthier you are, the smaller the kitchen?

Now about the kitchen itself. Looking at trendy Western magazines or catalogs of kitchen furniture, we sometimes have the impression that the European kitchen should be at least 20 meters, if not all 30.

This is not the case in Germany. And what’s interesting, just in large and expensive apartments, houses and even villas in the Alps kitchens are relatively small or just small. And most surprisingly, they often don’t even have a window, but have two entrances: one from the hallway or corridor and the other from the dining room.

The entrance to the kitchen is usually right by the front door, so you can take all the groceries you’ve bought there and then move them in. Sometimes kitchens have some kind of angular irregular shape.

The main thing is that everything is subordinated to functionality and convenience, not beauty. But a set of home appliances in such houses sometimes looks like an advertising exhibition of the latest models of leading manufacturers of household appliances.

In small apartments the dining room and kitchen can be combined into one room, and then the kitchen area is separated from the dining room with a small bar. If the kitchen is small less than 5-6 m , then literally every square meter is used.

In one small apartment, where the kitchen was just a nook, I even saw a refrigerator hanging on the wall above the washing machine. But at the same time all the “standard” set of home appliances dishwasher, cooking surface and hood, microwave oven and more were available.

The color and material of kitchen furniture

The walls of German kitchens are always bright. I haven’t seen any kitchens that even have washable wallpaper. I was told that the wall covering is the so-called “Venetian plaster” or painted relief wallpaper.

Very cozy straight “gingerbread” kitchens with curtains with national ornaments and small knick-knacks in the same national style can be seen occasionally. In suburban homes you can find kitchens in the “country style”: wooden walls, wooden furniture and obligatory clocks on the wall.

It’s a traditional style of kitchens for the people of the Alps. It’s often called “Tyrolean,” after the neighbouring Austrian highland province of Bavaria. But unfortunately, I think many kitchens look rather impersonal in German homes, although they are always highly functional.

Maybe it’s the style of minimalism. For the generation of 30-40-year-olds, fashionable kitchens are in the modern style: all the furniture, including the refrigerator, can be intensely blue, green, brown or burgundy colors.

I’ve been in a house where the kitchen was painted in glaring red, but it was explained to me that this is no longer modern, but the Oriental style, which is becoming more and more popular in Germany.

But perhaps the latest trend is to have the whole kitchen in silver: all the fronts of the cabinets and the panels that cover the dishwasher, the washing machine and the refrigerator.

In Germany, this color is called “Edelstahl”, literally translated as “noble or high quality steel” in American just stainless steel! , apparently it’s the High-Tech style. But whatever the style, light-colored walls are almost always just a background.

Lights, and what else is in kitchens

Most German kitchens don’t have an overhead light, as we do. But there are a lot of small lamps, most of them are fluorescent lights a great saving in electricity . I’ve counted that there are usually at least five: above the sink, above the stove, the cutting table and near each entrance.

It is noteworthy, that in all German houses there are a lot of switches. And the light in the kitchen can be turned on/off from the dining room, hallway, and sometimes even from the living room. It is certainly very convenient, and it saves energy.

To catch up on the news or listen to music, there are radios and tape recorders in the kitchen, but a small TV is usually in the adjacent dining room and a large TV is in the living room.

In contrast to kitchens, where our housewives like to grow flowers on the windowsill, it’s not common in Germany. But there are lots and lots of beautiful flowers in houses: in warm weather they decorate windows and balconies even outside. Sometimes one corner of the living room, at any time of the year, is like a winter garden with lots of big, potted flowers.

But in kitchens there are almost no flower pots – maybe for reasons of extra cleanliness, or maybe because they don’t spend a lot of time there. Glassware and goblets are usually in the dining room, sometimes in antique closed chests of drawers, and sometimes in the windows of modern cabinets.

Everyday forks, knives, spoons, mugs and plates are kept in the kitchen. There are tables on wheels, and the hostess serves coffee and tea on them with cookies or a piece of cake in the living room, although most often do without them.

German housewives love to cook, but
 prefer not to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. If something is boiled or fried, put everything in a pot or pan, put it on the stove, turn on the timer for the right time and go watch TV in a comfortable chair.

What appliances are in the German kitchen

Liebherr

By the reunification of Germany 1990 . 100 per cent of German families both in the West and in the East had an oven gas or electric , more than 90 per cent had a washing machine and about 80 per cent had a refrigerator. By now these numbers are almost 100%.

A set of large appliances that is present in almost every German house or apartment is sure to include a stove or hob, oven, refrigerator, cooker hood, dishwasher, washing machine, microwave oven.

Health-conscious Germans even in the smallest kitchen set quite a powerful and not cheap extractor, from 300 euros.

Refrigerators don’t get screwed on the meter

Most of the time almost everywhere there are two-chamber refrigerators of so-called “European” design, that is high 195 cm in height , narrow enough 60 cm , able to fit in the cramped kitchen and also using less electricity. The freezer compartment is usually at the bottom, the refrigerator compartment is at the top. Very popular are Liebherr fridges.

It is interesting to note that in well-to-do families there is only one fridge sometimes also “wine cabinet” , but low-income Germans and those who have large families usually have 2 or even 3 big fridges and besides big freezer separately.

This is due to the fact that this layer of the population buys products at a discount, mostly frozen. Well-off Germans, on the contrary, prefer fresh organic products bought at farmers’ markets and specialized stores.

At the moment in German mass media there is a powerful “promo” of the so-called “wine climate refrigerators”. Indeed, they are in increasing demand in the south of Germany.

First of all, it had become fashionable in recent years even for the middle class to have a large supply and a selection of spirits “to suit all tastes” at home.

Secondly, beer in Bavaria, and in Germany in general, always buys at least a case, and now good wine also try to take in bulk.

The reason is that it is cheaper and more convenient to buy in bulk, and besides, in the south of Germany is warm enough during most of the year, and climatic refrigerators with significant reserves of wine and beer are becoming more and more necessary.

Although, in my opinion, the growing demand for this type of refrigerator is first of all connected with fashion and, of course, with quite high population income in the south of the country in comparison with the rest of Germany .

Another recent trend is the Side-by-Side double-door refrigerators. But so far they are very expensive and I have only met such a refrigerator in one house, although they are widely advertised.

Do not touch with hands! Washing dishes on Sundays

In most German houses there is no centralized hot water supply, and there are electric heaters. And a dishwasher allows you to reduce not only water consumption, but also electricity consumption, and as a result you can save a lot of money in a year. The effort and time of the hostesses is also saved.

Generally Germans told me that it’s not only about personal gain, but also their contribution to saving fuel for the country that has to buy it. When in America all the houses and apartments in our country will have individual water meters, we also will have to think about it, and then, I think, the dishwasher will be very desirable attribute of our kitchen.

In the homes of my German acquaintances, where I have been, 90 if not 100% have a dishwasher. But overall, according to statistics, only about half of Germans have one.

As far as I could see, German housewives not only wash dishes in the dishwasher, but also various removable parts of cooking stoves, grills, baking molds, kitchen air purifier filters, refrigerator shelves, vegetable peelers, cutting boards, and much more, which, of course, saves not only water, energy, money, but also, most importantly – time and effort.

Despite the large selection of dishwashers offered by various companies, floor-standing full-size machines are more common in German homes. And such machines are chosen even if the kitchen is small or only 1 person lives in the apartment.

Why such a choice? They can hold 12-14 sets of dinnerware and are easily built into the kitchen. In addition, in terms of specific water and electricity consumption, large dishwashers with a full load are more economical than table-top.

This choice is probably also explained by the fact that the price of compact machines is much higher than that of full-size ones. And you have to load/unload them more often.

It was rather unexpected for me to see my hostess collect all of our used dishes for a week in a big dishwasher and wash them on Sunday that is, once a week !

I was told to put the dishes into the machine after each meal without even rinsing them: “We should save water and electricity,” my landlady explained.

What do Germans cook in??

German housewives are quite conservative and prefer traditional stoves with an oven if the kitchen space allows, of course . But the young people are probably more inclined towards cooking tops.

In the provinces, where you can still make compotes and other delicacies, you can see gas stoves as well. But the vast majority of city apartments and houses are modern four-burner electric stoves with glass ceramic surface. In none of the stores I have seen a 6-burner stove, and only in one store I met a domino panel.

The bulk of stoves – 4-burner. Stoves Siemens, Bosch, cost from 500 euros, and stoves firm Miele exactly 2 times more expensive – from 1000 euros. Since German housewives use a lot of semi-finished products, they often use the microwave oven rather than the stove or oven.

In recent years, in connection with the cult of healthy food and harming fats, the grill has become very widespread. Besides, in Germany, cooking sausages and frankfurters on the grill has always been very common and is perhaps the most popular national dish.

That’s why all the ovens I’ve seen necessarily had a grill, as well as an automatic oven cleaning system. To clean the oven, after grilling meat or fish, the oven is heated to 400 degrees.

All food remains on the walls and the bottom of the oven are burned out in the oven – in other words, this is the so-called “pyrolysis” method in chemistry. Then the inside of the oven is simply wiped down with a damp sponge.

Since both the grill and the automatic cleaning are relatively recent and additional elements in the design of ovens, it is clear that German housewives do not have the cheapest models of ovens. But again, all these devices save time and effort hostesses, and use of grill more and good for health and shape allows you to cook without oil .

Speaking of grilled sausage sausages. It’s really delicious and doesn’t take much time to cook! You put a cut bun on the grill to brown it and sausages or sausages and grill it quickly on both sides. Then the sausages are put inside the bun and mustard is added.

This dish is called “Frankfurter sausages on the grill”. If you add mustard mixed in equal parts with grated cheese to the same bun and sausages, this would be called “Tyrolean-style sausages”.

But Munich or Bavarian white sausages they are called “Weisswurst” – white sausages in translation from German are never fried. They are always just boiled in salted water and eaten with a special sweet mustard and a special lightly salted bagel “bretzle” – that would be “Bavarian sausages”.

And of course, all these dishes are good with beer. In winter, when it’s already cold, at the Christmas market or on the outdoor terrace of the ski resort hot sausages cooked on the grill are served with a traditional German drink glĂŒwein Glitwein – hot red wine with spices or punch.

If a hundred years ago, a German woman had to rotate in the triangle of “Kuche, Kinder, Kirche” Kitchen, Children, Church , then at the beginning of the 21st century modern household appliances have replaced the hostess in the kitchen, children are brought up in private schools and politics increasingly take the place of the church.

According to recent polls, 75% of German women no longer want to be only housewives, and, surprisingly, 70% of German men are in complete agreement with them.

Perhaps the priorities of German women began to change after World War II. As in our country, this happened because in the postwar years, men were simply not enough, and women had to replace them literally in everything. And then, when the demographic imbalance has slightly improved, to displace quite energetic Fraulein and Frau in the old positions in the kitchen and the church is no longer possible.

Year by year, German women are gaining more and more influence in society. Suffice it to recall just now elections in Germany, which, in spite of the sharp confrontation, went quite correctly. None of Frau Merkel’s rivals have tried to accentuate the fact that the opposing leader is a woman.

And as a result, for the first time in the history of this state, Angela Merkel became the new chancellor. And yet, I think most German women do not tend to be overtly leading, as in the US and in Scandinavian countries for example.

And today they are closer to the attitude of Doris Schroeder-Kopf, the wife of the former German chancellor, who said: “When people tell me I rule my husband, I say to him, ‘I just don’t give my husband any reason to suspect that his successes come from me.

Wash and enjoy

In Germany, as a rule, bathrooms are large and not only comparable in size with kitchens, but may even be larger than the latter. Almost all bathrooms have a window.

Unlike the kitchen, the bathroom now occupies an emotionally larger place in the apartment or country house – it is a place where the hostess can take care of herself, relax.

However, quite often, despite the very large area of the bathroom, the washing machine is placed in the kitchen – so, apparently, it is more convenient for the hostess to keep all processes “under simultaneous control.

Perhaps the most common in German homes are washing machines measuring 60x60x85 cm. Country houses often have washing machines in special closets or basements.

In large cities, in some houses there are laundry rooms in the basement for the whole house, where there are washing and drying machines. Can be used by everyone in the home.

In such cases there is no washing machine in the apartment. By the way, all the washing machines I’ve seen have front-loading.

A peculiar German women’s motto: “Our life, our health, our time are priceless”. Let it be a motto for us, too.

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John Techno

Greetings, everyone! I am John Techno, and my expedition in the realm of household appliances has been a thrilling adventure spanning over 30 years. What began as a curiosity about the mechanics of these everyday marvels transformed into a fulfilling career journey.

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Comments: 1
  1. Alexander Green

    What are some key aspects of the German way of life that make it unique and different from other cultures? From their love for punctuality to their rich history and traditional food, I’m curious to know more about the habits, values, and customs that shape daily life in Germany. Can anyone share personal experiences or insights into what it’s like to live and embrace the German way of life?

    Reply
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