American Reacts to Geography NOW! Germany

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[DaGuys]

There is an unspoken rule: The best beer is always your local beer.

[petrophaga]

Don't ask for the best beer... it could start a civil war!

[pchvgel]

I remember having an american exchange student here, who told me, he would be proud of living in such an old country. He was a bit shocked, when i told him, that the build he stood in was older than the USA

[DontPanick]

Actually, your German pronounciation is pretty good. You said Nordschleife and Nürburgring in a couple videos and that was always really good.

[hermanubis]

We have tornados, but they usually stay small, nothing compared to the ones you have in the USA. There can be very strong non-tornado winds, though, and they can cause serious damage, and there are sometimes floods when it rains over longer periods, depending on the terrain... It can get really cold in Winter, but in the last years, the Winters have been rather mild. We haven't had any lasting snow for ages. When I was a kid, there was snow all Winter, and it would only thaw in Spring. For the brewery, it's hard to say, there are many good beers. But most people drink local beers in the bars.

[tristanridley]

The best beer in Germany is the local one. Every town seems to have one, and it's always the best. (Just ask them!)

[seanthiar]

There are 3000 sorts of bread not only 300. And it's Wirtschaftswunder not Wierschafswunder. Bier is not the only alcoholic drink and another stereotype. Germany is the 7th biggest exporter of wine worldwide and 3rd biggest after Spain and France in Europe. Germany has many other companies that are world leaders in their area but are not so public like Mercedes, VW, Adidas, Puma etc.

[janp]

The most important things that have been left out are the employee protection laws and mandatory health insurance.
The reason tornadoes aren't talked about that much, as far as I know, is that buildings are built to survive almost anything.
(except earthquake) The combination of basement, solid stone walls and roof tiles is usually sufficient for us.
This is partly necessary due to very strict building regulations.
Which makes building in Germany almost unaffordable for a single person.

[caltravels]

As a former machine operator, German built machines last forever, not so much their cars but printing finishing machines are bullet proof, also German machines are known as 'Over Engineered' and very hard to work on.

[stevefl]

We hosted a German teenager as an exchange student for a year from 2018-2019. Was nice hearing about her views on the country, as well as the other German students who were over here, and to go visit it later (spent a week at her house, and another 2 1/2 weeks in lower Germany, Austria, Czech Republic and quick trip to Slovakia). They are definitely hard working, and make really quality products. They definitely do keep a reserved outlook though on history, which is understandable and good in their circumstances. The education system is very good. I do like the split of the high school years into 3 sectors, though it's not all voluntary, you get directed in some circumstances and harder to switch afterwards. I had a good time there and still in close touch to the student and her family. (We send holiday boxes to each other). Some lovely areas of the country, especially in Bavaria. BTW the tornado issues there are quite small, only 10-25 a year it seems. The US gets about 1, 300+ a year (and 75% of all tornados in the world, so you were correct on that). Looking forward to going back.

[MichaEl-rhkv]

2:45 Actually the Holy Roman Empire consisted only of those kingdoms: The German Kingdom, ruled by the German-Roman King; the Kingdom of Bohemia, ruled by the King of Bohemia (who was 1311-1438 of House Luxemburg and 1438-1457 as well as since 1526 (mostly) of House Habsburg); the Kingdom of Burgundy (or Arelat), ruled by the King of Burgundy (or Arelat); the Kingdom of (northern) Italy (officially mostly ruled by the German-Roman king, actually by local nobles and republics) and 1239-1297 the Kingdom of Sardinia (which was taken by Emperor Friedrich II (who was also King of Sicilia and Neaples and became later also King of Jerusalem) from Genoa as a Kingdom for his illegitime son Enzio, but as Enzio was captured by the republic of Bologna in 1249, Sardinia was shared between the republics of Genoa and Pisa until Pope Bonifatius VIII gave it 1297 to King Jacob II of Aragòn/Spain). The German Kingdom however was split in different Duchies (a Duke was originally the military gouvernor of a province), Margravate, one Landgravate and some Palatinates (the reigns around an Empirial palace) as well as Imperial Free Cities and Imperial Abbeys, the Kingdom of Italy in different Duchies, Margravates, Republics and Imperial Free Cities. The Holy Roman Empire was dissolved due to an ultimatum by Napoleon who then created new titles for his cronies, like the Kingdoms of Bavaria, Württemberg, Saxony and Westphalia and the Grand Duchies of Baden, Berg, Hesse and Mecklenburg.
3:13 That German company was owned by the Welser family from Augsburg and Nuremberg. Their competitors were the Fugger from Augsburg which are more famouy to this day because they founded the first social housing project in Germany (the so called Fuggerei does still exist and follows the same rules), but also because they did not go bankrupt like the Welser, but financed many of the differnet election campaigns of House Habsburg by the revenue of the silver mines they acquired from the same House.
6:25 It is a rather tame "tornado alley" compared to the US, but there are some (however mostly weaker and more short-lived than in the US), and more with every year of climate change.
7:30 The original Wiener Schnitzel (Schnitzel from Vienna) and Munich Schnitzel are made from veal, not pork. Rouladen are Rindsrouladen, therefore made from thin slices of beef. Sauerbraten is nowadays mostly made from beef, but Rheinischer Sauerbraten was originally made from old horses and pit ponies (the meat was marinated for some days in wine and spices to make it tender enough to eat it - that is where the "sour" comes from).
8:02 The Reinheitsgebot or purity commandment was a kind of law decreed by the Duke of Bavaria. It allowed the use of barley malt, water and hops (excluding other spices like toadstools, belladonna and certain ferns), but there were soon given "privileges" to some breweries to use other cereals as well, like wheat and rye (which were used for bread production and therefore considered to be too valuable to be used in beer). Fun fact: Hops is the nearest relative hemp still has, and it provides some related substances to the beer as well.
10:25 The current Standard German (Hochdeutsch or Schriftdeutsch) is based on 16th century Meissen officialese, which was used and modified by Martin Luther for his translation of the Bible and so made popular. It was enforced to the people of Hannover and Lower Saxony after the kingdom of Hanover was annexed by Prussia in 1866 (after the German Federation had lost the war against Prussia and Italy); that's nowadays the only region where they speak a dialect which approximately corresponds to Standard German. 11:10 Actually the original Swabian dialect (also called Low Alemannic) is to be found only in Old Württemberg (the region being Württembergian before Napoleon), while Baden speaks mostly High or Middle Alemannic and Upper Swabia (the region south of the Danube and north of Lake Constance) is somewhat in between. Middle High German (which was Standard German before Martin Luther) is mostly based on Alemannic. I myself grew up bilingual with a mother of Upper Swabia and a dad grown up in Thuringia, but born in Kaliningrad.😁 In Upper Swabia people speaking (lower) Swabian were a few generations back described as "speaking protestant" (because Old Württemberg was Pietistic-Protestant, while Upper Swabia was mostly Catholic or bi-confessional (the cities were half Catholic, half Protestant)).
11:22 Cuckoo clocks are _not_ from Bavaria, but from the Black Forest. They were originally mostly produced for export to the UK - they were made in the winter, and in the spring the clock traders took the rafts to the Netherlands (which used the Black Forest timbers to build their windjammers) and then crossed the channel to Great Britain. A (elder) relative of an aunt of mine was born in England as the youngest son of Black Forest farmers after they gave the farm to their oldest son and opened a clock store in London (that was before WW I).
12:36 Pfiat di Gott - Be cared by God (or: Godspeed!) / Tschüss, adieu - from French à dieu / adé - from northern French for à dieu / adjuus/adjus - from Walloon for à dieu
12:53 is the "short title" of a law decreed by the state parliament of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in 1999 and revoked in 2013. The longest official word was (the "short title" of an internal regulation in the state of Berlin valid from 2003 to 2007). You will find such long compound words only as "short titles" of some obscure laws - German lawmakers seem to make it a sport for themselves. (The long title consists of multiple words.)
14:56 That translation is more than a little weird. Actually "Vergangenheitsbewältigung" means more something like "learning from the past without becoming depressed by the guilt of your ancestors" and aims to create a "sense of responsibility for the future" (which includes sustainability or "Nachhaltigkeit", a tem coined by 17th century German tax accountant and mining administrator Carl von Carlowitz in his study of optimized forest management).
15:25 Germans don't usually wave the German flag., They wave rather the flag of their home town or their state. They wave even rather the EU flag than the black-red-gold stripes. It has to do with the abuse of "national feelings" in WW I and WW II, but maybe also with Nationalism being a foreign ideology at the core (invented originally by the French government and after the Napoleonic wars adopted by an anti-French nationalist movement, but always playing second behind the old sentiments to the pre-Napoleonic home states and regional prouds). Germans however often show pride in the German constitution (a sentiment also called "Verfassungspatriotismus" - constitution-based patriotism) of the Federal Republic of Germany.
16:48 Albert Einstein had the Swiss citizenship before and after he moved to the US. He was born in Ulm (at that time part of the Kingdom of Württemberg in the German Empire), but moved to Switzerland in 1895. In 1896 he forsaked the German citizenship (because he did not want to do military service in Germany), in 1901 he got permanent Swiss citizenship. 1911/12 he was also recognized as citizen of Austria-Hungary. In 1914 he moved to Berlin as professor and member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences, becoming a Prussian and therefore also German citizen. After the Nazis took over he forsaked the German citizenship the second time. He became an American citizen in 1940, but kept his Swiss citizenship until his death. He always considered himself to be a Swiss citizen from Zürich in the first place, even if he lived there only for about two decades of his live.

[TotallyNotAFox]

Tornados are quite rare here still, wouldn't really call it an tornado alley. We have something called "The german special way" in history, beginning with not being conquered by the romans (thanks to guerilla warfare; Battle of the Teutoburg Forest) and a lot of other stuff that went way different than it did for our neighbours

[nettcologne]

I'm not proud to be German, I'm glad to be a German and I don't have to wave a flag for it.

[juwen]

If you're interested in the different regions of germany, I really recommend the 'road trip'-series of "meet the germans". They made 4 of them for the south, north, west and east.
Greetings from Berlin 😎

[amiguus]

Regarding the flag waving (or the lack of it), I'd say it's the same for most of Europe. Outside of a football or hockey championship you do not typically see people swinging flags.

[christiankastorf]

Lower Saxony is called that way as it is nearer to the sea-level. the same distinction is made for the two German languages: Niederdeutsch is the language that is spoken in the lower areas towards the sea and Hochdeutsch is the language that originated further away from it.

[domiiinik]

Barby did a video on German states (Bundeslander) too so I would recommend to watch it, it's great
Also Geography Now Poland is worth the watch

[Gandorhar]

First of we really don't have these giant tornadoes like in the US, my favorite beer is "Franziskaner Weissbier", I am not proud to be German because of the past but I am happy of what Germany has become but stuff like Patriotism will always remain an absolutely foren concept to me.

Nice reaction, I hope you have a good day!

[JimbalayaJones]

Greetings from 🇩🇪!
You can't name ONE beer that's the best. Each region has its own beer preferences. It depends on what tastes good to you. A bitter beer, a light beer, a dark beer, a wheat beer... There are too many to name just one.
🤷😁

[dzzope]

Not about the best beer.. it's about tasting them all and finding your favourite XD
Also, I saw a great video yesterday showing how you can read High German with only English language skills. It's actually really easy.
USA and Germany are polar opposites on the whole national pride / boasting