What The British Really Think Of The Germans

Do the British really just think of Hitler, the war and sausages when it comes to Germany or has the media skewed things all out of proportion?

My Newsletter:

These studies share some interesting results:

Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
01:46 - Alliances
04:18 - International Relations
06:49 - Languages
09:05 - Gender/Age/Political Leaning

#britingermany #culturaldifferences #thebritish

[jackkruese]

I have been learning German for 5 years, as a Brit I love the way it sounds. Viele grüsse aus England.

[MrcWdmnn]

Brits are too polite to be honest. Germans are too honest to be polite. Other than that we are shockingly alike.

[hainsey]

The British and Germans are probably more alike then they'd care to admit. Hence the tension.

[Bellasie]

I'm French. I think we all three nations actually love to hate each other, but really admire our respective strengths and past achievements, and in truth, we are very complimentary. Most of modern Europe was in fact mainly built by either one of our nations during its development. The French equally have a very ambiguous relationship with Germany, but secretly wish we were more like them when things don't work well in our country.
Languages: In France, all students learn 2 foreign languages. English is of course the most chosen language, usually started early on as the "first foreign language", but for a long time, there were also German classes of "first foreign language". These were a kind of hidden way to have one's kids get into the elite classes (or perceived as such), because only kids with good results were directed to choose German as either a first or second language choice. These kids would normally choose English as the "second foreign language" choice in high school later on. Thus, for a long time, English and German were the chosen languages by the majority of high school students, but in the past generation (since the 2000s), the second choice became Spanish, which used to be the less popular alternative. In the late 2000s, the huge popularity of the band Tokio Hotel helped change that trend for a while, and they even got officially recognized for that. The generalization of German language lessons in the French education system is the reason why so many older French people know some German, even though very few are actually able to speak any, unlike the Germans who are usually great at both English and French!

[vpalmer]

My husband served in BAOR, my son was born there, spent 4 years living in West Germany, it was eye opening at the time how efficient and clean it was to someone from the UK.
I wish we would invest money into teaching our children in the UK a European language so they are fluent be it German, Spanish or French.
We should build our future generations up, give them confidence with languages, its vitally important to our future

[peterd]

I was born in Germany and lived in Braunschweig. For the first 9 years of my life I didn’t speak a word of English until my family moved to England when I was 9 in 1972. The British children were always welcoming even if they occasionally laughed at my accent but they did that to the Irish and Scottish kids. My mother never lost her accent and she never had a problem. I sound English when I speak English and German when I speak German. People in both countries find that slightly disarming. The idea that Germany is more receptive to foreign cultures than Britain is complete nonsense. More languages are spoken in British schools than anywhere else on earth.

[albionmyl]

I've been in England many times always had good than this.... I've spoken to many nativ people everybody expressed our common Anglosaxon heritage.... their are no prejudices against Germans it seems.... more against the EU superstate or the french😉which a sense of humor....

[martypines]

Having worked in a multi-national company with many Germans, Spanish, Italians, French, Dutch, Italians and people from the US, it seemed to me all of the Europeans had more in common with each other than any had with people from the US. Not representative as these were all highly educated people who chose to work in a multi-national environment.

Overall I'd say the Germans and the British are very similar - but (again, this is just my persepctive) not as simialr as the British and Polish, who just seem to get each other.

[Astrofrank]

Die Stimme überrascht - und erfreut - mich immer wieder.

[Eyyoh]

"There is no such thing like friendship between England and Germany when it comes to football. During a championship game it's always US or THEM!" (Franz Beckenbauer, 1996)

[leopoldbloom]

It’s kind of frustrating that you just can’t argue against clichés. When Kimmel said in the Oscar show about a German film about Auschwitz it were the German equivalent of a romantic comedy, it was received in Germany as highly inappropriate. Yet, as a German, if you complain about such bad taste, you get answered you have no sense of humour. Sorry, that’s not the point.

[GermanGreetings]

My goddaughter is half British. I was so proud, teaching her the naval traditions of England, when she was twelve.
Thank God, I was prepared best by reading C.S. Forester maybe 40 times, and Admiral Nelson hung at the wall upon my bed, since I visited HMS Victory as a young man. Our common history is so much deeper, than those fiew bloody Hitler-years. Richard Lionheart chose his nephew Otto IV. of Braunschweig (Grand-grand-Father of Ernst August von Hannover, who married Princesse Caroline of Monaco) to follow him becoming King of England. But tha`s only half the way to the eldest common roots: Beowulf is a fantastic source for both langauages today... even back to Stonehenge is on 51°N, the `Scheibe von Nebra` was found on 51° N... but that`s another subject, where science has just begun to discover the borderless ancient roads of Europe. Love to GB !

[skywalker]

Spot on! Thank you for the two surveys reference 😊

[Slipstream]

I'm English and we have a deep respect for Germans. First time I drove through Germany I was in disbelief in how similar it felt to home. Also the modern German flag is by far the most beautiful colour scheme. Oh and the engineering, I have an FW-190 in my profile pic :)

[Hongaars]

Good evening. Trust you are well. Thank you for your ongoing insights. ZZ

[publicminx]

you have to keep in mind that the first decade of the 21. century was different than the situation is today, also the British perception about Germany. While during the 20. century the world war as well as certain stereotypes (between European countries) was much more virulent this changed since the last decade massively (btw, also together with more English skills, more traffic (especially in Germany as center of Europe (which means also more internet traffic, more railway traffic, more car/road traffic and so on - with faster fluctuation. also one reason why the pressure on the Deutsche Bahn infrastructure raised massively and more than in most other European countries - but some have similar problems). Back then in the 20. century and early 21. century all those stereotypes you found also in football and so on. Now since some time this changed especially with the younger generation. This is also the reason why often youtuber are not aware about how to read stereotypes: some are in reality old school and not anymore used, others are still around but younglings dont know where they are from and so on. You also have now less harsh stereotypes from Austrians against Germans (which was very common back then for a couple of reasons which had to do with history: Austria/Habsburg, Bavaria vs. Prussia etc. which led to 'Saupreissn' or 'Piefke'. In football they were rooted always for the opponent of Germany, thats since a decade not anymore the case, its now mixed, often older generations are still a bit more in that). Nowadays the stereotypes are different and already a bit more globalized. The focus changed. Already in the first decade of the 21. century where you had a kind of transition from the 20. century stereotypes with newer EU/Europe 'Germany dominates the EU' stereotypes (especially rom UKIP but later in the finance crises also from Greece and some other countries) slowly changed the perception, also because the focus on pro/con EU in itself separated now ppl in a different way which also weakened older stereotypes and led slowly to a new focus. In other Central Europe countries, especially Poland and further East you still have much more old school war stories and polarized stereotypes, while in more Western Europe even the old 'football rivalry' is not anymore that hot as it once was. Now to the languages: apart from English it makes most sense to learn German in Europe, because its not just the most relevant language in Europe after English due to being spoken by basically the wealthy and most dominant center of Europe, but also its the most populated region in the relevant part of Europe. It actually makes much more sense to learn German than French (which has outside of Europe a greater number but all the regions where it is spoken are irrelevant or you can speak English anyway). Spanish makes outside of Europe more sense, due to Latin America and part of North America (Mexico). But thats not the main reason why Spanish became a thing in UK. Its the combination of the influx of more and more Latin-Americans (especially Mexicans) in the US (which also made the 'Burritos' more en vogue (not because its a really good fast food (its actually not) but because a part of a country always tend to idealize polarized/idealize big migrant groups. And this also is influencing the UK in combination with refreshed old school steroetypes about Southern countries in general nand within Europe about Southern Europe in particula - as idealized vacation spot and retiree lifestyle spot (warm sunny weather, more relaxed lifestyle, warm- friendly open ppl and the other usual bla bla). Such stereotypes are in reality shared between all more wealthy central-northern countries (only that the US has a bit more focus on Mexico and the Caribbean while within Europe the focus is a bit more on Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy and so on ...
Another aspect is that England and France share historically as neighbors with a lot of polarized aspects more 'experiences' and stories - and France is still de facto on the other side of the channel. And: while Germans and likeminded (Netherlands, Northern Europe, Austria etc.) have better English skills (Portugal which sucked in the past just like most Spanish speaking countries still do (Latin America was and is much worse with other languages than the US in this regard (but most bashing is in reality inner-western while most (like scripts without any awareness) follow the political correct code not to bash 'weaker cultures' which in reality means also they get less focus and everyone knows that everyone also idealizes/culture relatives them - especially left wing are most far away from the reality which also leads to a total lack of knowledge about the real cultures). Btw, despite being neighbors, the relation between Germany and France is for ordinary people mostly 'nothing' = more neutral. Not much interest. Most is rather political idealized. Germans 'feel' much more for the Italy, Greece, Spain, the UK etc. ... of course ppl in the border region more, ppl in the region to Poland, Czech or Austria less. The relation between UK and France is still more intense, has among them more focus ...

[raimohoft]

Cor blimey... Carry On, Carry On!!! 🤗

[colinpearce]

Having conducted business with German companies, visited Germany several times, they have identical philosophies. Pay your bills & provide good service & product. In my dealings with the people, they are polite, respectful & amiable. They get irony ( they would tease about U.K. weather & enjoy that my observation that it would soon become theirs ) & could be comedic. A great nation & people.

[linajurgensen]

5:30 to this point, I don’t think Germans prefer Switzerland or Austria for holiday over other European countries like Sweden, Britain or Italy for instance. I never even heard anyone in my friend circle say they go to Switzerland or Austria (other then for apres ski).
But maybe I don’t know about it bc I‘m from the most northern part of the country (Schleswig-Holstein).😅 As far as I know Germans are not really welcome in either of the southern Germanic neighbors.

[paterson]

German should not be hard for English speakers because so many of words and certainly the vowels are the same. The case system is more of a challenge only because Latin is no longer taught in most English schools. Latin helps students to understand inflected languages such as German.