Know Germany better! Major German Cultural Themes
This material has been extracted from the book entitled: Germany UNRAVELING AN ENIGMA (by GREG NEES)*********************************************************************
Major German Cultural Themes
In order to communicate successfully with people from other
cultures, it is important to understand how they interpret a
given situation and what their intentions are. To do this we
must have some sense of their values, norms, and beliefs,
which interact in a complex way to influence all behavior
and communication. For the purpose of brevity I will call
these complex interactions “cultural themes,” because they
run through a culture as a theme does through a book or a
piece of music. Only when you understand the central cultural
themes of any given culture can you accurately interpret
and understand its inhabitants’ behavior, communication,
and way of life. If you don’t understand their cultural themes,
you will necessarily project your own values, norms, and
beliefs onto them, and this projection is one of the principal
causes of intercultural misunderstanding. If, however, you
begin to learn the cultural themes, what before had seemed
illogical or wrong behavior will take on a different meaning.
This chapter offers insights into seven central German
cultural themes in an attempt to explain Germans’ behavior
and their way of life. By understanding how Germans understand
the world, you will increase your chances of communicating
more successfully with them.
Ordnung Muß Sein
Ordnung muß sein (there must be order) is a well-known and
commonly heard saying in Germany; indeed one of the first
things that strike visitors to Germany is its cleanliness and
orderliness. Ordnung is a theme that permeates German society.
Go into a German house and it will be very clean, with
everything in its proper place. Walk into a mechanic’s garage
or carpenter’s workshop and the tools and equipment will be
well maintained and stored neatly. In German offices you
will notice large numbers of well-kept files and special notebooks
that are referred to as Ordner. The old saying “a place
for everything and everything in its place” might well have
originated in Germany. It is certainly a premise on which
Germans like to operate.
The desire for Ordnung is also related to Germans’ strict
adherence to schedules and deadlines. Punctuality is a virtue,
and lateness is seen as sloppiness or a sign of disrespect. Being
late upsets the general Ordnung. Perhaps the country’s railways
offer the best illustration of German punctuality. The
trains of the German railway system are famous for their
punctuality. It is a standard joke that you can set your watch
by a train’s arrival and departure times. Germany has one of
the world’s best public transportation systems, and a major
part of its success stems from the German sense of Ordnung.
This system, which links almost every village, town, and city
in Germany, is a striking example of the German ability to
effectively organize and coordinate complex processes. Like
the transportation system, the rest of the country’s infrastructure
is also well organized for the same reason.
One visible result of this well-regulated society is the condition
of German autos.Germans take their cars very seriously indeed. It
is rare to see a car in Germany that is not well kept and in
excellent mechanical condition. Germans take good care of
all their property, but their cars are especially important
because, more so than in the United States, they are a status symbol as well as a means of transportation. The fact that
they are in such good mechanical condition is in large part
due to the Technischer Überwachungsverein, or TÜV. This
agency inspects all vehicles licensed in the country and is
well known for the rigor with which its inspectors go about
their job. A horn that doesn’t work, broken turn signals, or
rust in a crucial spot are all reasons for a car to fail this strict
inspection. Inspections at a TÜV center are a microcosm of
German orderliness. These inspection stations are spic-andspan,
brightly lit, and operated by inspectors whose uniforms
would be clean enough to be seen in a doctor’s office. While
administrators take care of the paperwork in a brisk, matterof-
fact way, the cars move through a series of checkpoints,
where they are thoroughly inspected. I can well remember
the feeling of apprehension in my stomach as I watched an
inspector walking underneath my elevated car with a bright
light and very large screwdriver. He was intent on finding
any spot where rust might have weakened the car, and he did
this by thrusting the screwdriver with resounding force into
each and every section of the chassis and underbody. Luckily
for me, all rusted areas had been fixed by welding heavy
sheets of metal over them, or my car would have been one of
the many that the TÜV pulled out of circulation.
Germans claim such rigor is necessary because of the large
number of autos, especially on the Autobahn, where there is
often no speed limit and where they put their vehicles through
their paces. This can be unnerving to Americans not used to
aggressive drivers who often come racing up from behind at
over 120 miles per hour while blinking their headlights to
warn you out of their way. And as might be expected, German
drivers know each and every traffic rule and regulation
by heart—the result of strict licensing exams and extensive
and mandatory driver education programs typically costing
more than $1,000—and they expect you to do the same.
Forewarned is forearmed: defensive driving is still a foreign
concept in Germany.
*************************++ NEXT POST . Ordnung: Rules and Regulations++++++++
posted by Mohammad Reza Farzanegan @ 06:39
<< Home