American Girl Reacts to German Houses VS. American Houses

American reacts to "German Houses vs American Houses, Part One | 10 Major Differences"

Please Subscribe and hit the Notification Bell if you want to see more!
Link to Original Video:

📦 Send some stuff for unboxing videos here:
👍 Amy Coplen P.O. Box 234 Rochester IN, 46975

*Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for
purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and
research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.
Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. No copyright infringement intended.
ALL RIGHTS BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS*

#americangirlreacts #americanreacts #reactionchannel #reactionvideo #americanreaction #reactionvideos #germanyvsamerica
#iwanttomovetogermany #germany #American #Germanytop10

[wora]

You should not believe everything he said. Most refrigerators either have a freezer compartment or you have a separate freezer (often located in the cellar because it is used for long time storage mostly). He is generalizing too much in my opinion.

[mazestitching]

Some of the things he says in his video are incorrect. First: most people have freezers in their homes. They are mostly mounted above or under the frigde and can be opend either together or seperated with the frigdedoor. It depends on the model and if you have something like a called "Einbauküche". The fridge often is "hidden" behind a door that looks like the kitchen cabinets. Freezers ofc also can be bought seperatly. In germany you can either get an "Einbauküche", which pratically means that the whole kitchen is custom made so it fits perfectly into your room and is personalized to your needs and likings (and therefore more expensive) or you get the "standard version" which is the more cheaper variant. Manifacturers just do a couple of differnt cabinets, sinks and appliances in different colors and fronts but in standarized sizes and you then choose and buy what will go together and fit into your kitchen. You will often times end up with not having a perfect kitchen design, but it works, can be moved to another apartment (so the kitchen is moving with you) or house that has a similar room design and is cheaper then the custom made ones. German houses, often even the apartment houses, have basement cellars. If you rent an appartment which has a basement you often get your own little cellar (this is included in your rent) where you can store stuff away outside your appartment. Nowadays a lot of people have additional freezers in their basements. Bigger ones where they store additional food in preperation for the winter, holidays, other occasions or just because they want to have a stockpile for emergency´s. For everyday they use the regular fridge/freezer combination in the house/app. and the rest gets stored away in the basement or seperate room.

The missing door knobs is a result of germans having a strong opinion on safety. Our crime rates (esp. burglaries) are very low in comparison to other countries and this is the result of also having windows and doors that can not be easily opend by everyone. If you rent an apartment you will get several keys. Mostly two for the main entrance which is the front door of the house. Its called "Eingangstür" in german. You will then also get 2 keys for your appartment door (called: "Haustür". "Haus" is the translation for house and "tür" for door). If you got a basement cellar then you will get one or two keys for the basement too. All this keys are different so you can´t just open every door with one key. This means even if someone steals a key from you, while shopping or so, they are not be able to enter your home that easily (if they ever find out where you live). If you need more keys (because you have children or want certain people to have one key too) you can go to special stores that will have the license to copy keys legally. They will do additional keys for you. Often times children get their own key in a very young age (normally when they start schooling). This helps them develope responsibilty (taking care of stuff) and independency (feel free and not unnc. restricted). Its common that children here walk freely to school on their own and if school is off they walk back home and wait at home for their parents to get home from work or there grantparents to come over. We have a great kindergarden and schooling system where children often can be cared for even outside the normal "public" workhours if you request it. But often parents choose to let the kids just come home and relax and bond with friends, instead of staying longer in kindergarden or school. Its also common to store an extra pair of keys somewhere outside the house for emergency cases. Some store it under a plant pot or rock, in the garage or other place they have easy access to but is hidden and save from outside eyes or simply give an emergency key to a friendly neighbor or other relatives. It might take a while to get used to it if you haven´t grown up this way, but if you take precaussions beforehand loosing or forgeting a key isn´t as bad as you might think. And its a lot safer.

Most of the windows nowaydays have outside metall shutters you can open and close from the inside. This helps tremendously to keep your house cool in summer and warm in winter. If shut down it also prevents intruders entering your home easily over night or when you are not at home, since they need to first bypass the closed shutters to gain access to the window itself. Mostly german houses do not have air conditioning, because we did not need it in the last centuries. Our summers arent mostly that hot and quit short compared to other countries. People tend to go to public swimming pools to cool of or have one of their own in the garden. With climate change temperatures gone up here as well, so buying aircon has become a trend in germany too, but we are far away from the temperatures a lot of US staates get in summer. There are also electrical ventilators available. Summers here are more like, we have a regular 20 to 28 celcius warmth, then a one or two heat weeks inbetween, where temperatures reach around 35 to 38 degrees with no rain and muggy air, ending up most of the time with some thunderstorms and heavy rain then rinse and repeat. I would describe it as more mildly weather then other countries in comp. since we almost always get an noticable drop in temperatures after the high heat weeks which makes the summer mostly very enjoyable. Depending on where you live in germany the winters are quite different when it comes to snow and temperatures. But also most of the times we tend to get more mild winters, meaning temperatures will not drop drastically in the - celsius range most of the time.

Bathrooms are quite different from the US. Older or I would say, more affordable appartments, often tend to still only have bathtubs in their bathrooms. A lot of germans prefer to have a bathtube and a seperate shower. Its also common in many houses now to have second bathrooms with showers and bathtubs seperated and additional toilets. Why this guy has no shower curtains is simple a misunderstanding of his. Because in germany its not like in the US, where the landlord provides certain things automatically. In Germany often times you rent the appartment aka the rooms and thats it. The rest is up to you. Sometimes there is already a kitchen in that app. or house but often times you simply bring your own (from your last app.) or buy a new one if you intend to stay longer (at least 5 years). The same goes for the rest of the furniture. Germans are practical people but also want most freedom in decorating and creating their homes. So if you want showercurtains and there are non in your appartment, you have to go and get some in a local store. Often times the landlord will help you with installment if you can´t do it alone or they have someone on hand that can do it for you. If you want your rooms to be pink, paint them pink. If you want a new floor you can do that too. But it is on your expense. You deside what you wanna do inside your home but as soon as you move, you have to reinstall the look of what it was before you moved in. Means you give back the appartment in the same state as you moved in, including painting the walls back to white, if the landlords demands it. Its at your landlords discretion to leave in the things he likes, for example you did a new flooring 3 years ago and its a decent color, he most likely will be ok with leaving your floor in when you move. But, like I said, its on his discretion. If you buy a house, then ofc its a whole another story.

I hope this helps you a little. Looking forward watching new videos of you. Just recently found you.

[Muck]

4:30 Oh come on ... just get a little chain / band ... and attach your keys to your trousers. It isnt rocket science.
5:40 The freezer is separate in the basement ... because space is precious and you dont use the freezer every few minutes. Another option is to have the freezer on a "second level" ... which is a different door from the fridge, so you dont waste the cold by opening up the fridge.
9:35 The tank is in the wall ... and this is just one way of installing the toilet. You can have tanks at the back and standing on the floor as well.

[pixelbartus]

Many Germans give a spare key to a neighbour or friend. For me the thought is totally strange, that someone could just enter the house without a key

[lbergen]

In rural areas in Germany, the houses stand on bigger ground plots, like 600-5000 m2 (6500-53000 sqr feet). The toilets have a back tank, but is hidden in the wall behind the flush knob. Same goes for the down pipe. And there are bug screens for the windows. Nice video btw, thank you

[patrickschindler]

In the houses in Germany, it is standard that the front door is secured with 5 compartments to lock it. This means that hooks and bolts anchor themselves in the door frame when the door is closed.

[Beamy]

We do have Freezers. They´re just separate from the fridge in most cases.

[trinaroach]

As someone who's lived in Germany for 45+ years, a lot of times in rural communities the houses will be close together in the village core (most likely clustered around the church or town hall), and the owners' fields, etc., will surround the village. I know that was often the practice when I lived in the Sauerland region, for example. Your house would be pretty close to your neighbors' with just a small yard. Then you might have an extensive tract of land surrounding the village, just like several of your neighbors.

That doesn't mean it can't be different. I've seen many properties set off to themselves, surrounded by land, and quite a bit away from neighbors.

In rural New Jersey/PA where I am from in the States, it was often just the opposite, though. People's houses were in the middle of/at the edge of their property, and further away from their neighbors. So, there was a subjectively more private/isolated feel to the property.

[klaushohmann]

I have no idea how many German houses this man has already seen from the inside, but many of them certainly could not have been.

[Kram]

Plenty of places here (Austria, so I suspect pretty similarly) have screens though it's surprisingly common not to have them, which is weird to me. Relatively cheap feature, huge QOL improvement.
That said, I noticed that screens can seriously reduce airflow. Like, if its hot inside and you wanna have cool air rush in, just sliding the screen out of the way can help a lot!

Freezers are usually their own thing, and often not in the kitchen. Like, ours is in the cellar.

[PropperNaughtyGeezer]

We have freezers too, but seperate. Frozen goods are also very popular here.

[dawatcherz]

the freezer will typically be a seperate thing, often kept in the shed or another room near the kitchen, like where the laundry things are.
they make noise so you'd not want it somewhere where you'd hear it all the time.

[jochenlutz]

Regarding the doorknobs many german doors have gor a litte pin in the doorframe that you can push up. In this case you always can push the door open (you shouldn't forget to push it back, if you want the door to beeing closed).

[geneviere]

Not having a small freezer section in the fridge is very seldom in Germany. Yes, we have smaller fridges as we are just used to live different - but a small freezer section in it where you can store your ice cream, ice cubes and your two/three pizzas is very common. And a lot people especially families have an extra freezer somewhere in their house or cellar.

Screens on the window... If you do not live next to the field you actually do not really need it. We do not really have any harmful insects around, if you do not let food lay around you will not attract too much flies either. But - who wants to sit inside near an open window with light in the summer or who gets bothered by single flies or the occasional visited of bees - there is screen solutions for windows in Germany, too, that are pretty cheap. Same with shower curtains.

Why would I want to have a build in cabinet? There is all kinds of nice cupboards/wardrobes you can buy that you can choose for your own needs.

[althelas]

I have one spare key at work in my desk, that way I can still can get in my flat if I forgot my own keys inside, but you get used to taking your keys with you. The story about the freezers is not true. Usually the fridge in the kitchen has a small freezer compartment and the big freezers are in the basement or the pantry, if you have one. Nowadays a lot of households have bigger standalone fridges with a freezer compartment that can be as big as the fridge. We also have bug screens, but they are not installed, but if you want to have one, just go to the local hardware store to get them. I love to live in attic apartments the "kniestock" that is the part of the wall before it starts to tilt inwards is perfect to place a sofe or a bed.

[johnah]

Hey Amy!!

True, homes are in a close community BUT some homes have small yards and some have big yards to give to the feel of roominess. I'll try to tag you on Discord. They have fences but not like 6-8 foot privacy fences.

Yes, homes are typically 2-3 floors in Germany.

I've seen a lot of non-attached carports in Berlin. And then a shed in the backyard for gardening tools, etc.

Door locks. Ok, like the windows, some of the door lock keys have different settings. You turn the key to open the door, you turn it further (like 1 full revolution) and it disables the lock and the door opens using pull down handles. Go all the way around in opposite direction to lock door.

All the homes I was in used the radiator system. PLUS, newer homes have heated floors!! Lots of people like the idea of warm tiles in the bathroom and warm wooden floors throughout the house. German homes usually do not have wall to wall carpeting. No central air and no air conditioning.

The German homes I've been in had "French style" refrigerators. A small fridge like that on top but a small freezer on the bottom with it's own door you pull out like a drawer.
Oh, homes and apartments do not come furnished with kitchen appliances. You have to buy it all separately, unless you buy your "kitchen" from the previous tenant.

I love the rouladen shutters. 1) Complete blackout window when fully closed. 2) Window protection from hail or debris blown by strong winds. 3) Home security. They are metal so home is secure when they are down when at work or on vacation. 4) When closed during Winter season, keeps heat in better. Top opening the window for the first time FREAKED me out. I thought it was going to slide down on me. Few homes have screens there.

Okay, that's for the top floor only. I've been in German homes/apartments where one floor has 8 ft. high ceiling and main floor is 12 ft. high with vaulted ceilings.

I have a video about German toilets I can send you.
Also, some German homes have a seperate shower as well as a tub.

[mweh]

Well, the point is: It all depends - there are houses which front doors need to be locked to have it really closed, but this is more common in rural areas especially in nothern Germany. But you can get really used to it - e.g. hide a secondary key at a good place, give it to the neighbors or there are some special safes with a number combination to open which you can hide e.g. in your sched, and a sched key is hidden under a stone etc etc. I have had an issue with that.
We have a huge fridge, well for German point of view, and a big freezer in the basement. We don't have screens, but we use some special kind of tissue with put into the window frames from spring to autumn to keep the flies and mosquitos outside. But there are not too many.
Germany has a quite mixed weather: The summers are not as hot as in the south of the us - more compare to the big lakes like Michigan etc but the winters might have some really cold days, but freezing is rather the exception that the norm, so is snow. Watching the McFall case, it is different, they live in the mountains, but 90% of Germany have normally less then 10 snow days a year I'd say. But: Winter normally means a lot of rain (if the days are not so cold: the clouds also make the warmth stay) or cold and then maybe sunny. But the cloudy/rainy days are numberous in winter, so maybe you won't see the sun for a month.'
Having no mobile internet in the grocery store is an exception I think, because they live in a village. But mobile coverage is sometime an issue, especially in very rural areas. But is is really finally getting better.
Having no closets also makes room more flexible - you can decide where you put your wadrobe, so you have more free walls to decide on. And also the size of the wadrobe is up to you, not to someone else who built the house.
What he did not mention: AC is also very uncommon in German homes (heating only), but also the window blinds (keep the sun out) and the massive construction from stone and concrete makes it very acceptable (and you don't use so much energy). But also the truth: Energy is very expensive in Germany.

[Brainreaver]

i forgot my keys 1 to many times when i left i flat and locked myself out... since then, when i come back home, i put the keys into the lock and lock 1time... so if i want to leave, i have to take the keys into my hand to unlock... and since then i never have forgotten to take my keys with me

[joergfro]

yes, we have specialists to open the door again!
but that's expensive, up to 500 euros that's 550 dollars

[boerbenlp]

German "Toilet Engineering" is just awesome :)
And my American friends always liked the "window magic" we have and what they called "Blast Shields" on our windows xD