All this thread has done is proven yet again how biased Americans are.

OP will need to purchase some kind of hiking sticks.

Anonymous wrote:Make sure he keeps his lederhosen above his wiener schnitzel.

Schnitzel, nein. Bratwurst, ya.

Make sure he keeps his lederhosen above his wiener schnitzel.

Seems a lot of German men and women are neurotic but maybe that's true everywhere. The number of people confirming the fastidious anal (no pun intended) punctual stereotype is surprising. Normally stereotypes don't get confirmed so unanimously. I cannot comprehend punctual people. I actually find it rude when people arrive at my house on time for a party or dinner invitation LOL since I'm always running late.

My German boyfriend told me that when he was in his early adolescence in the 70's, his mother would often serve him his breakfast with her robe partially open revealing her teutonic bosoms clad in a satiny slip. He was very titillated by this but also ashamed but always was weak for women in slips and panty hose.

This has been a great, funny read. I come from a culture that is almost a polar opposite. A German guy and I … we'd probably kill each other, at least figuratively, out of frustration!

Pretty unbelievable all the stuff that has been said in this thread. I am German, born and grown up in Germany. Germans (men AND women) are punctual, reliable and have strong ethic values. Germans work hard. They value family and traditions. Men do NOT expect women to stay home with the kids these days - women can have careers just the same as men. Actually German men are very family oriented. Usually the weekends belong to the family as in Germany nobody works on Sundays and very few people work on Saturdays so those two days are for family time. All of this is only true for the well educated ones...

Anonymous wrote:Engaged to a german man but we ended it before walking down the aisle. He was uncircumcised, well-educated, sporty (enjoyed hiking and skiing), spoke multiple languages (German, French, Spanish, [b]Russian, English).[/b] He was punctual and inflexible. Not very creative but very mathematically inclined. His parents were unintentionally racist. I'm not white and they said a few hmmmm things to me but always acted really kind and sweet too. They were a little provincial and had not travelled much outside of Germany.

I dated a German who had been in North America on a work transfer for 3 years for 6 months last year. All the bolded was true for mine, mid-30s. My family background is also German/Hungarian (dad born there, and the above are also true of many of my family members). For my ex in particular, he had some pretty rigid ideas he had no problem informing you of, but was more scattered/spontaneous and immature than maybe you'd expect from a 'typical' German. I'm not one to go around flinging diagnoses, but I thought more than once that he had some ADD-type characteristics. He also had a kind of love/hate relationship with America - he really liked his lifestyle here, but was occasionally pissy about some American cultural norms and had no problem telling you how Americans wouldn't be happy in Germany, or the aspects (not that he thought it was all aspects) in which Germany was superior.

All in all, our problems and the reason we split I think had more to do with who he was as a person, than him being German, but again, as someone from that cultural background myself - some of it wasn't foreign to me.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YfdLh0MHqKw

Kuche, kinder, kirche or something like that. Refers to women. Kitchen children church.

During the summer of 1978, I was 17 years old and out in the backyard and I saw my german grandmother bent over on her knees on the ground, weeping with a trowel in her hand. I came up behind her and asked her what was wrong. Without turning around, she said: "Charles Boyer has died". I couldn't help it; I laughed, as teenagers do. She rose up to her full 5'2" and whirled around and round-house slapped me in the face so hard, I fell backward into the dirt. Lesson learned. Germans love their french romantic movie stars and they will hit you if you laugh at them.

You just won the internet, PP.

Expect lots of nudity, they love being nude. And usually not in a sexual way. It is just more efficient, etc.

My husband is French, so there is a bit of bias, but what he says about our German friends sounds exactly like what has already been described. Germans are thrifty (to a fault often), a bit dry (not too funny), athletic, pushy/proactive, super organized (in clothes, homes, work, etc) and rigid. Germans are also nice people, but very matter of fact. Most EU countries have a bit of chauvinism, until you get as north as the Scandanavian countries.