WHAT??! | Alcohol Culture GERMANY vs. USA (American Reacts)

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[BlackRose]

What happened to the so-called "land of the free" dude?

[swanpride]

I think the alcohol culture partly reflects a different philosophy in raising children in general. In the US, there seems to be the believe that you have to keep "danger" from the children (this is also reflected in the design of the playgrounds), while in Germany the idea is to allow children to test their limits under supervision to ensure that they know them as an adult. Consequently German children often have already tasted alcohol before they are even of drinking age, and once they do drink on their own, they have a pretty good idea how much they can handle.

[DougBrown-hn]

Didn't know about the public drinking thing. I can't believe ADULTS aren't allowed to hang out with their friends in the park/beach etc. with a bottle of wine or a few beers! For me, it's one of the great joys of a lovely summer day. Being treated like irresponsible children in the land of the "free"! Oppressive Puritanism.

[nfreye]

On the topic of drinking and driving because of being spread out and in a rural area: I grew up in quite a rural area in Germany but for us it was an absolute no-go to drink and drive. Instead, we would drive together with our friends to the club on weekends and rotate on driving duty. The driver would be invited to all their non-alcoholic drinks by the rest of the group. Drinking and driving was just out of the question.

[dansattah]

There's also a fun superstition in Germany:

When clinking glasses, always look the other person in the eyes.
The punishment for not doing so are 7 years of bad sex.

[tranquilthoughts]

When i was a child my parents gave me three simple rules regarding alcohol.
1) Know your limit
2) He who vomits is he who cleans it up
3) If you can drink in the evening you can also go to work in the morning.

[tarmok]

As a german I can't even count how many times I came home when the sun came up 4-5AM was normal and so was doing that at 16-18

[mlambrechts]

I'm older (from Belgium, Europe), but I know my children (20-25) start going out at 11 pm and come back in the morning. I know that they usually have a couple of drinks with friends at +-10pm before going to a club (to save money). This is common among students at university. My son is now a civil engineer and my daughter is a doctor, so it's not like something only done by people who have no responsibilities.

[Attirbful]

I never understood why there isn’t more upheaval in the U.S. about the fact that at 18, you can be drafted, you can be sentenced to death, you can - at 15 or 16 - drive a car (which can be a deadly weapon) and, of course, to buy pretty much any weapon you want - but you can - under no circumstances - have a beer until 21… Ridiculous!

[danym]

haha yes. I'm from Germany and we had so many nights at the club where we left at 6/7am 😅 the best thing about that is getting breakfast from a bakery on your way home 🥐🥯🍮🥧

[memento]

I remember back in university years I had a flat share with a US-American guy. The first weekend we went out clubbing together we had pre-drinks at home as is common here in Berlin. At about 11pm he got nervous and was like: "Shouldn't we be headed out? I don't want to miss the party." - "What are you talking about? This club opens doors at midnight. And we don't want to be there the first hour" I explained. He was still convinced we were way too late when we got to the club around 1:30 am but then he realized that is when local parties are just starting to shift into full gear and we ended up going way into the late morning hours.
Another weekend I took him to a techno club at sunday brunch hour and we stayed till monday morning because 30+ hour raves are just a thing here. Berlin partying is on a very different clock. 😁

[simi]

Phases of when you come home from partying in Germany:

16-17 years old: 1am... (or however long it takes you to get home from the club after being thrown out at midnight)
18-26 years old: 7-9am (basically however long it takes you with one of the first trains to get home in the morning)
27-30 years old: 2-3am (because you luckily managed to catch the last train... in fact, you were already eyeing the watch from midnight on, thinking up an excuse for your friends why you can't stay that long, but in reality you just want to sleep enough before Monday rolls around... and maybe clean the house on Sunday)
30+ years old: lol, who are we kidding. you're not staying out longer than 11pm. unless you are single and still looking for a partner, you've become by now an expert of thinking up excuses why you have to get an early start the next day (in fact you'll just sleep or browse the internet) and you LOVE people who cancel plans more than anything

[pixelbartus]

An other interesting aspect that shows, that german beer culture is more about taste than about alcohol: alcohol free beer gets more and more popular in germany.
What i like about our legal ages is, that most germans are done with experimenting with alcohol, when they can have a drivers licence. Also our laws have the effect, that teenagers don't have to hide alcohol from adults. So parents often know, what their kids are doing, can talk to them and have a chance to teach them about resposiblity, instead of just forbid drinking. And kids also speak more likely to their parents when they had to much instead of hiding that they have done something forbidden.

[DJKLProductions]

The thresholds for drinking alcohol in Germany are not linked to the alcohol content, but to the way in which the beverages are produced: any alcoholic beverage that owes its alcohol content solely to fermentation, i.e. brewing and vinification, can be purchased by sixteen-year-olds. Any drink that owes its alcohol content to (additional) distillation may only be sold to eighteen-year-olds. This means that strong beers and (sparkling) wines with a high alcohol content may also be purchased by sixteen-year-olds.

[martinaklee-webster]

When my sons were about 16years old, and started to go out with friends (Fasching, Club or Band battles), we Parents always made sure, someone would Pick them up. Sometimes early in the morning, so they would Not Drink and Drive. It worked out fine.

[biankakoettlitz]

A bit of 'fun' from Norway:one of our covid restrictions was that restaurants weren't allowed to sell alcohol and like the German people we like our glass of wine with dinner. Even though the restaurants were allowed to be open, there were so few customers due to the rules they chose to close anyeay😄

[KevinFeegers]

On the subject of fake IDs: Here in Germany, my mother always brought me certain alcohol (when I was 13 or 14) when I wanted some. Sometimes, when I was 14 or so, I could get some myself without being asked for ID. It varies depending on whether it's a big city or a village. I lived in a village, so of course you knew everyone - even the cashier. He always grinned and sold it to me anyway because he knew that my parents allowed it.

[kaninma]

In Czech Republic, where we have the highest per capita beer consumption by far, we have a limit of 0 for driving, including bicycles.

[johannesstolt]

We say in Germany:Beer is not alcohol, beer is a staple food😂

[raiklitzenberger]

Tbh I am a german, just got 22 and I have not gone out for around 2 years anymore, because I'm from the countryside, and there its normal to start drinking around 13 to 14. You can go out in places called 'jugendraum' -> 'youth room' where mostly people out of u village in the agespan from 13-25 are hanging out, drinking beer to liquors and you are more or less granted to get a taste from everything you want to drink. Its more of a chilled athmosphere than clubs, but as mentioned in the video you can go to one at 16 to 18. So yeah a lot of us stop drinking/partying actively and just drink on family events or birthday partys around the age of 25-30, or on gatherings with their friends.