CULTURE OF GERMANY: TRADITIONS, CUSTOMS, GASTRONOMY - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The culture of Germany has been formed through the millennial history of the country, developing a series of very distinctive customs and traditions that are easily recognizable throughout the world.

With their reputation for being serious, meticulous and orderly, the Germans have made their mark on world history, offering outstanding contributions to art, science and technology, among other areas of human social development.

German flags waving Source: pixabay

Located in the center of Europe and with Berlin as its capital, Germany is made up of 16 states, governed by a Federal Parliamentary Republic, under the figure of a Prime Minister.

Its official name is the Federal Republic of Germany and it is currently home to 82 million people, making it the most populous nation in the European Union. The country also has a powerful economy that allows its population to maintain a high lifestyle, accompanied by a good social security system.

German customs

German personality

- Germans have a great attachment to privacy, punctuality, hard work and organization.

- They tend to plan their future, including their vacations, well in advance.

- They are usually reserved in their behavior and are not so affectionate when meeting another person, so it is possible that there are no kisses involved when greeting.

- They may not seem very friendly, but they have a highly developed sense of community and social conscience.

- They are lovers of recycling and, therefore, they use four different containers in their homes to dispose of their garbage.

- They show a love for nature and animals, to the point that pets can enter shops and restaurants.

Social

- They have the custom of bringing a present if they are invited to a house, such as a bottle of wine or any item that could be consumed during the evening.

- They tend to take off their shoes when entering your home.

- Usually the tip is included as part of the bill, but it is common for diners to leave something extra on the table when they get up.

- They wear western-style clothing, but each region has traditional costumes that they wear at events to celebrate their culture.

Rules

- Drinking alcohol on the streets of Germany is allowed, although there are certain rules that must be followed.

- It is forbidden to photograph or record a person on the street without their consent.

- If someone escapes from jail, this is not considered a crime, since German justice understands that trying to break free is a basic human instinct.

Traditions

Despite their reserved ways, Germans love to party for almost any reason

Oktoberfest

Oktoberfest party. Source: muenchen.de

It is celebrated in Munich in honor of beer. Its origin dates back to 1810 on the occasion of the celebration of the wedding of Prince Louis I of Bavaria with Teresa of Saxony and Hildburghausen.

On that occasion, citizens were invited to the public festivities held as part of the royal bond, which continued to take place year after year to this day.

Currently, and for approximately 18 days, thousands of tourists and citizens of Munich celebrate Oktoberfest, enjoying its inaugural parade, changing rooms, typical dishes, concerts and, of course, liters and liters of beer.

Berlin marathon

This is one of the most important marathons in the world, bringing together German and international athletes over a 42 km route, and the performance of which has become a tradition for more than forty years.

The event is highly respected by marathoners around the world, proof of this is that it is part of the Abbott World Marathon Ma j ors, a competition that brings together the most important marathons in the world, including those in Boston, Chicago, London, Tokyo and the Berlin itself.

German unification day

It is a national holiday celebrated every October 3 to commemorate the reunification of the country, which occurred after the signing between the German Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic in 1990.

To commemorate the occasion, events are held in Berlin, as well as a city festival held each year in a different city in the country.

Cologne Carnival

Virgin, prince and peasant. Cologne Carnival. Source: Wikimedia Commons

This is an event that takes place in several stages. The official start is celebrated on November 11 at 11:11 am

The activity acquires much more notoriety in February, during Carnival Thursday, when women go to work disguised and carrying scissors to cut the ties of men who cross their path. That day, a group of women also receive the keys to the city.

The peak day is Carnival Monday when, now, everyone dresses up and takes to the streets to accompany the parades of floats and comparsas.

This carnival has other peculiarities, since the organizing committee chooses the figure of a virgin, a prince and a peasant, who become the representatives of the carnival. As a curious fact: all these figures are played by men.

Festival "Rin on Fire"

Rin festival on fire. Source: guiadealemania.com

The first week of May, the inhabitants of the city of Bonn attend a pyrotechnic show that has already become a tradition for more than thirty years.

The event begins in the morning in Rheinaue Park, where attendees enjoy music, typical dishes and drinks, and then give way to the parade of boats across the Rhine, from where fireworks are fired to the amazement of those present.

Gastronomy

There is consensus to affirm that pork is the meat most consumed by Germans, however it should not be generalized, since each region has its own traditional dishes that include a variety of cuts of meat and various vegetables. Here are some of these German dishes:

Klöße

Klöße, one of the typical German dishes. Benreis. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

These are round, stuffed and boiled doughs that can be served as a main or side dish. They are made with potatoes or bread and filled with meat and pieces of bread.

There are many varieties and fillings. In fact, there are also sweet versions of this dish that includes plums in syrup.

Bretzel

It is a loaf-shaped bread with a salty taste. Also known as a pretzel, it is part of the common imagination about German food.

Rinderroulade

This is a meat that is sliced ​​into slices, stuffed with bacon, pickles and onion, accompanied by potatoes.

Black forest cake

This is one of the best known desserts from Germany. It consists of several capable of brownie, dipped in chocolate and cherry liqueur, interspersed with whipped cream and cherry jam.

Pork knuckle

Pork knuckle. Clemens Pfeiffer, 1190 Wien. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

It is a dehydrated pork that is roasted in the oven. Its best companion is pea puree.

Goulash

It is a stew of beef, tomato, pepper and garlic. It can be made with or without broth so that it is drier, everything will depend on the taste of the diner.

Sauerkraut

This is a well-known side dish in Germany made with cabbage and fermented in water and salt.

Bratwurst

Bratwurst sausages. Source: pexels.com

Sausage is, without a doubt, one of the most recognized typical German foods. One of the most famous is bratwurst, which is usually pork and is generally accompanied with the aforementioned sauerkraut or potato salad.

Beer

Source: dw.com

It is the German drink par excellence, they serve it in glasses that go from a traditional to extra-large measure and consuming it is already part of the German identity.

Contrary to what might be believed, the Germans do not usually drink hot beer but at room temperature, the top fermentation ones are served directly from the barrel, but there are others that due to their softer nature are consumed cold.

There is a variety of hot beer, but this one contains fruit additions such as cherry, as well as cinnamon and ginger, and is consumed in winter to appease the cold.

German inventions

Over the centuries, the Germans have developed a series of ingenious artifacts that have contributed to the development of the human being. Certain inventions have had the ability to change the way we see the world and the Germans are responsible for several of them. Here are some of the most prominent German inventions:

Print

In 1450, Johannes Gutenberg invented the first movable type printing press. This made the process easier and closer to the public. Without this invention, communication in the previrtual world would not have been as effective.

X-rays

The discovery of x-rays falls on the German physicist Wilhem Conrad Röntgen, who in 1895 discovered electromagnetic radiation, which was capable of passing through opaque bodies that were printed on a photographic plate.

Aspirin

The aspirin component, which is none other than acetylsalicylic acid, was discovered in 1897 by the chemist Felix Hoffman, who managed to synthesize it in the laboratories of Bayer, a company that later obtained the patent for the product.

Helicopter

Model of the first helicopter. Source: Wikimedia Commons

In the 1930s, aviation pioneer Heinrich Focke began work on a prototype. By 1932 it already had a scale version and in 1936 it presented the world's first controllable helicopter.

MP3 music

Compressing music to the point of being able to move thousands of files and share them with other devices was an achievement of the German Karl Heinz Brandenburg, who in 1987 gave the world of music a revolutionary way to store and listen to it.

Scotch tape

This is the seemingly small kind of invention, but it became a useful item in everyday life. Adhesive tape was invented by apothecary Oscar Troplowitz, who is also credited with other inventions such as band-aids or band-aids, in addition to the well-known Nivea cream.

Air bag

This was an element first placed in 1981 on cars of the German brand Mercedes Benz. Nowadays, the fact that all cars have it has become the norm.

Other inventions are also attributed to the Germans, such as toothpaste, gummy bears, the modern recorder, the thermos, the airship, contact lenses, among other elements of importance in our modern world.

Germany in detail

- Your capital has changed seven times to date. Among the cities that have had the honor of hosting the seat of German power are: Aachen, Berlin, Nuremberg, Regensburg, Frankfurt, Bonn and Weimar.

- There are in Germany more than five thousand types of beer, three hundred varieties of bread and a thousand of sausages.

- They have second place in beer consumption, only surpassed by the Czechs.

- Football is their passion, as demonstrated by the four FIFA World Cups they have won and the more than 25,000 registered clubs across Germany.

- They have more than 150 castles.

- The Berlin Zoo is the second largest in the world. Germany is the country with the most parks of this type in the world.

- On the subject of faith, the majority religion in the population is Christian (52%).

- The tradition of placing the typical Christmas tree was born in Germany, where in some homes it is still customary to decorate it with real candles.

Science, literature and philosophy

It is difficult to think of Germany without mentioning great thinkers such as the poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the philosopher Immanuel Kant and even the physicist Albert Einstein, recognized as the most famous scientist of all time.

To the comp

German culture is linked to its music and the way of perceiving the world, expressed in masterful works of art.

Composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Richard Georg Strauss, Gustav Mahler, Johannes Brahms and Richard Wagner are some of the most prominent representatives of classical music from the Teutonic country, who crossed borders and became a cultural reference in the world.

References

1. Traditions, festivals and events in Germany. (2019). Taken from guiadealemania.com
2. Step into german, (2019). The 40 most important inventions. Taken from goethe.de
3. German Culture: facts, culture and traditions. (2019). Taken from livescience.com
4. The history of the Oktoberfest. (2019). Taken from muechen.de
5. German Culture. (2019). German People, traditions and facts. Taken from expatrio.com