Why Americans Love Living In Germany
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- Опубликовано: 19 июн 2024
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0:00 The Background
1:50 Heritage
6:00 Expectations
10:05 Identity
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Germans are super cool. Young people talk english but old people don’t.
Plus, German is a beautiful country.
I‘m also American and grew up overseas, traveled a lot, but can honestly say that Germany was never on my radar. I came here for a visit over years ago … and stayed. Completely unexpected. Now my kids consider themselves German and though they‘re happy to visit the US, they‘re also very happy to come back home. So low (or no) expectations perhaps is the key.
Happy that you guys are home now. Hope your children will prosper!
Germany is underrated without valid reasons.
Ich bin nicht besonders stolz auf mein Deutschland, aber dann kommt NALF und erklärt mir, was hier so schön ist! Ja, Sie haben recht, es ist sehr schön hier - ich bin zu kritisch mit meinem eigenem Land. Sie sind ein Superbeispiel für perfekte Integration, Ihr Deutsch ist sehr gut (besser als mein Englisch) und Sie beschäftigen sich mit der deutschen Kultur. Sie beschämen mich ein wenig, wofür ich sehr dankbar bin!!! Ihre Videos sind sehr gut gemacht und haben viel Content! - Vielen Dank!
such beautiful country with great culture, traditions, mentality,music, and literature is surely worthy of besonders stolz. so , be proud!!
I always admire Germany for taking in 1 million immigrants from the Syrian war and for knowing how to do job sharing in difficult times.
I hope in the US they keep feeding the stereotype about Germans. That'll keep away weird Americans from coming to Germany.
Ich bin stolz auf Deutschland aber nicht auf die Berliner Bundesrepublik... mark the difference.
Berlin has lost lits deutschtum!
Sometimes your videos make me prouder of my country than one of our chancellor's speeches.
Na ja, Politiker reden viel, während NALF etwas sagt. ;-)
By the way, I forgot Germany's current chancellor's name...
I am German.
At least, I know, Angela Merkel resigned.
@@Andreas-du7eg Olaf Scholz. But I agree this guy has a really low profile and seems colourless
@@lemonycricket3286
oh yes, Mister Scholz!
The man who was a politician in Hamburg at the time.
He was at the private bank, which was supposed to pay a lot of taxes because of shady deals. And after Mr. Scholz was there, the tax office withdrew the claim.
Mr. Scholz can't remember anything.
Exactly, this man is now the chancellor of Germany.
What was his name again, I forgot again...
@@Andreas-du7eghe probably forgot who he is himself
but it's really a disgrace to our country to have such a chancellor who "forgets" what happened with 11 billion Euros
I totally agree with the familiarity statement! I was stationed in England with the US Air Force and visited friends at Ramstein Air Base. Both my wife and I felt like we belonged there, or had been there before…very strange. I’m half German/Austrian and my wife’s maternal side is from Leipzig. Very comfortable feeling as we traveled the country. We plan on returning for a Christmas in Germany vacation next year!
I live in Houston and my wife and I went to Berlin the week before Christmas last year and had a great time. There's something magical about the Christmas markets.
@@mistshaw indeed but there are way better destinations than Berlin for a real German Christmas market experience.
Please come a couple of weeks before Christmas. That’s when the Christmas markets are open. They often close on Christmas Eve.
@@mistshaw You should visite Rothenburg ob der Tauber Christmas Market... but to be sure till one week previously to Christmas. Even if there is no snow it is magic!!!😉👍
Nalf: "Got my DNA test back ... I'm 40% Italian, 33% German, 25% Irish and 2% Czech."
Europeans: " Oh, you are American."
😂😂😂
Na ja - ich bin rein rechnerisch 1/8 Hugenotte und meine roots liegen irgendwann im 13.Jh in Ostpreusen, genauer weiß ich es nicht - ok ich bin ein Europäer.
@@jogi_54 kann man bei sowas schon von einer "Promenadenmischung" reden ? 🤔😉😁
@@karstenbursak8083 Nun ja - wer kann heute noch seine Vorfahren bist ins 14. Jahrhundert zurückverfolgen ??? Ich möchte nicht wissen, ob es auch nur einen einzigen "Urdeutschen" ohne fremde genetische Einflüsse gibt.
Ich finde es ok - wenn vielleicht 50 - 60% theoretisch sagen können, dass sie Europäer sind. Allerdings befürchte ich, dass es kaum reine "Europäer" gibt, dazu waren asiatische Enflüpsse über die Jahrtausende zu häufig.
Ist für Europäer halt nicht ganz so wichtig, da sich die Grenzen sowieso andauernd geändert haben. Wird nur traurig, wenn Amis mit (sehr) langen Wurzeln in Europa hierher kommen und feststellen müssen, dass wir ihnen nicht direkt in die Arme springen. Wobei ich sagen muss, dass ich es schon interessant finden würde, wenn mich mal einer anspricht.
@@jogi_54 Viele Hugenotte sind nach Preusen ausgewandert.
I am an American currently studying German with the goal to move to Germany sometime in the next few years. Thanks for your videos, they have been a huge encouragement for me to keep moving forward with my goal.
Really nice comment bro. I wish you good luck to reach your goal. But you will be successful because we need people like you 😊 You are everytime welcome in Germany 😊 If you need help to write a curriculum vitae in German. So contact me. But don't forget the bureaucracy in Germany. In that point you will be sometimes angry if you live in Germany and taxes also 😂 That's not a joke bro. If you need a location than you should prefer the region Cologne Bonn😉
Good luck, much success!!
Don't get discouraged by our silly language. Hope you'll manage. And also what Tom Schulz said: The Rhineland and especially the major cities in the Rhineland like Cologne, Bonn but also Aachen, are some of the most tolerant and welcoming places in Germany even though to newcomers people might seem shallow at first.
Viel Erfolg mit Deinem Studium 👍
Gibt es etwas das auf Deutsch nicht schwer ist? 🤪 Ich lerne seit einem Jahr Deutsch. Es ist keine einfache Sprache! Ich bin erstaunt, wie viele Menschen ihre B- und C-Zertifikate bestanden haben. Viel Glück.
An online friend of mine was stationed in Germany with the US Army for one or two years. He loves thinking back to it and he more than once said he wished he stayed
An Expat living here for 6 years, and we bought our first house here this month. The biggest thing for us is accessibility to the outdoors, art, history, and different cultures. And we don't have to drive to access it if we choose.
Having grown up in the USA I now realize how much of the German culture/influence exists in this area of the Midwest that I never appreciated until I attended Germanfest in Milwaukee, WI for the first time. I am sure the world wars made it so people did not want to openly identify as German. The overall feeling at this festival was definitely der Gemütlichkeit!
It’s funny how Americans living abroad call themselves “expats” and they call every other foreigner living in the US “immigrant” 😂 😉
Expat: someone who lives outside od their native country
Immigrant: someone who comes to live permanently in another country
Just the answer I expected. Yet you see many American “expats” living abroad permanently, even getting citizenships but they’re still “expats” 😉
@@xxxoberxxx so expats might become immigrants when applying for a new passport ?? sounds like ..
@@xxxoberxxx Since the video is about americans loving it to live in Germany and quite a few of them staying there, they should be called immigrants...
@@xxxoberxxxPeople moving outside of their country are emmigrants. Every person who has moved outside of their country, has moved to another country, so they are all emmigrants and immigrants at the same time.
So , in this case, NALF is emmigrant to the USA and immigrant to Germany.
My mother is German and I've been in love with the country since I was very young (we would often go in the summers to visit family and friends there). I know it's weird to say, having lived my life in America, but I feel so at home there. I've extolled what a great place it is to live, or even just visit, to my own American friends and acquaintances my whole life (probably to the point of being obnoxious). No one ever gets it until they go there. We visited in 2010 with my husband and kids; and when he got back he said he finally understood my love of it and confessed that he felt a little depressed when we got back home (to the heat and humidity and concrete sprawl and traffic and no-zoning and strip malls and billboards of Houston TX). I should have requested dual-citizenship when I was 18 but somehow missed the deadline, much to my deep regret.
No… you are still eligible for German citizenship following recent changes to the German citizenship law if your mother is German.
@@G4KDXlive yep, i second that.
I heard the same, although I have dual citizenship (just like NALF).
If I were you, I'd book an appointment at the German consulate in Houston TX and just ask if I'm eligible for dual citizenship.
@@G4KDXlive I looked into it a few years ago and the Germans had indeed changed rules, but they didn't have any sort of grandfather provisions ... In other words, they had specific rules based upon the years that you were born. So, since I was born before 1974, the new rules wouldn't apply to me. I will definitely look into it again though. Hope springs eternal.
100% I'm also from Oregon and have fallen in love with Germany. I love the USA, but Germany just has so much to love. So many small and large things that make life here incredible.
you'll always be an amerimutt
I came to Berlin as a soldier in the early 90s. I always tried to make it back to the States at least once a year, and each year, I felt more and more foreign in the States. I simply cannot imagine living in the States and living the grind.
This is maybe the most beautiful declaration of love to my country I have ever heard! ❤
I am German, but have lived in the US as a high school Student and also experienced US-working culture when working for International companies. I can only confirm the unhealthy circumstances in working world in the US. I Personally also appreciate the "normal" options to spend leasure time (not only adventure parks, but more in contact with nature). Further, I really appreciate the emphasis on local and regional cultural events like concerts of all types, possibilities to get Information on historic or regional events). Last but not least the numerous options for people to contribute to their community outside the reach of churches. In Germany there are thousands of "Vereine" to engage in reasonable and satisfying community-related services. I have not yet witnessed the latter in the US outside of high schools and colleges much.
Many Germans feel slightly negative about their own country, so it is great to hear that a lot of Americans feel so well here! We can see regularly that you really made Germany your home, so we'll do our best to make you feel comfortable here for the rest of your life (if you like)!
many feel a little _more_ than slightly negative - however, Bavarians are proud of their _heritage_ - otherwise, not surprisingly - many Germans are _proud_ of their _regional achievements_ - Germany having been unified in 1871 - before that, all cities had their own respective laws - and - walls around their cities....
Why so negative?
@@zeljkokaradzic7894 It really depends on who you ask.
Some people don't like the issues mass immigration brought in the middle of the last decade, mostly the crime related ones.
Most people dislike the level of bureaucracy in Germany, which is massive.
Some dislike a lack of equal rights.
Some dislike the public infrastructure, especially regarding railways and fiber optic lines. But also crumbling bridges for roads.
Some dislike the growing disparity between rich and poor.
Some dislike not being able to achieve their own home, which their parents were still able to afford.
Some dislike the level of action the government takes regarding climate change (the most absurd one, because some say it's too much and others they it's too little, but both groups are almost violent now).
Some dislike things to be so expensive.
There is probably more, but those are the most common complaints I'm hearing, some of which I share.
And it's also a bit a cultural thing to be a bit negative.
^^ This is exactly why we move here. No one is this nice to us in the US.
@@blackroserevolution3989 how long have you been here? Are you American? if not, what is your nationality? I am curious.
I get the feeling (without having been to the US or knowing anyone from the US personally... so basically just from what I see on tv and social media...) that people in the US have the idea that they'll work and hustle as much as they can so they can retire and THEN relax, having earned enough to live comfortably as a pensioner. Here (in Sweden but also I believe in much of Europe in general) we kind of work and relax interchangably. Who knows what the future will bring? You might get hit by a bus the day after you retire... so why not enjoy life right now? Just my five cents...
True, that's the idea that's sold to us as Americans. However, we pretty much know that, unless we're (Baby Boomers) already at retirement age, we will need to work until we die. Pensions are a thing of the past and the older generation is working very hard to take away any government retirement benefits that we've thought we might get. However, even if we were to get government social security, you can't actually live well on it. It's meant to keep old folks from starving at poverty level. Americans have to work constantly and can't afford vacations (unless we're very wealthy) because we need to save every penny in case we become ill or so that we can pay bills if we're one day unable to work. We know there's no relaxing in our future. Fact is, for an American, life will get harder, not easier as we age.
It seems you are hoping for a superb nursing home in your old age. I have not yet seen a superb one in Germany, only in America. There are many nursing homes in America that mimic resorts and have buffets every day and treat the patients as if they are on a cruise.
@@LythaWausW Yes, because people pay as much as on cruises in these "superb" nursing homes. The US offers you anything you want on the highest level - if you pay an arm and a leg for it.
Hahahahah that made me cackle but yeah very true, you might get hit by a bus the day of your retirement (apart from the fact that at 60-70 you are also not as mobile, might have bad eyesight and/or hearing and generally might not be in a position to even enjoy the fruits of your life’s hard work)
@LythaWausW. I think you're describing retirement communities, not nursing homes. Nursing homes have a pretty awful reputation in the US.
Youre the man, NALF. One of the major reasons I want to relocate from CA, USA to DE.
Thanks for the videos!
well, you asked about if we have other experiences: I used to be a German exchange studend and lived in Spokane, Washington. Went to "Ferris High School". It was terrible for a lot of reasons. My "host parents" both worked 2 jobs each. I hardly ever got to see them. Just to survive (no, I'm not kidding), i had to call my parents to send me money (it was 1990, there was no Internet). It was terrible. A few years later my host father died of colon cancer. Of course they did not have health insurance. Today i am 50 years old and i can only look upon that experience as if i was looking on a third world country. Sorry.
You have given us a powerful example of what it is like in my country (the US). People even die before they can benefit from the Social Security that they have contributed to all their working lives. The lack of health insurance for many Americans is yet another tragedy...
I was an exchange student as well in Ohio, I hated it so much. School was ok, but the afternoons were so boring. I couldn't do anything, because I couldn't drive, so I just hung out alone in my host parents house and chatted with my friends from Germany... Only occasionally I was able to meet up with friends from high school and do nice things. There was no freedom at all in the US, I couldn't wear half of the clothes I brought due to dress code regulations prohibiting spaghetti strap tops(which were popular in Germany at the time)
I'm German, as a child I grew up in Kuwait and Mexico. My family has always been spread around the world (my father grew up in Australia, when travilling such distances whith ship was the normal way).
For myself I worked for a small German but very international company. I had ~15-20 business trips to the US and US colleagues, so I'd say I know a bit about the US.
Some maybe minor but still important things:
- social safety including basic social welfare support if you don't have a job (government pays for apartment), but also "free" health insurance, basically everything is covered very well. Even if you depend on welfare, you still get all medications, operations and additional stuff covered. There is family insurance, so my wife and kid are completly covered over me paying for it. She got a brain stroke and health insurance pays physiotherapy, Ergotherapy, an MRT a year and operations at no additional cost! - no way an illness could ruin you financially
- You mentioned Deutsche Bahn, hey you should also mention the new "50 Euro" Ticket, pay 50 Euros a month and you could ride EVERY and ANY public transport system in ANY city in Germany for free including regional trains (taking enough patience and willingness to change trains you could travel whole Germany). Fast connections are excluded though.
- Free schools and universities, you can go to excellent universities and don't end up with a huge mortage (for low income families there is even financial support from the government called Bafög)
- much safer? Getting a gun needs a reason (such as being a licensed hunter) and guns need to be protected well
My sister-in-law is a licensed hunter. She ownes a sh*t ton of guns but she also have to lock them and the ammo up in seperate safes. Plus, every now and the she got checked if she lock everything in a correct way. And of course she cannot have a gun with her except for hunting.
If you have a disability you can use public transport even cheaper. If you are helpless or blind it doesn't cost anything, if you have a walking disability or are deaf, it's 91 € for a whole year.
FYI, mortgage refers to the loan on a house in particular, not general loans. If you have to borrow money to attend university it is usually called "student loans". The German translation for mortgage would be "Hypothek".
And since I'm writing a comment:
- You should plan one and a half days to travel through all of Germany on Deutschlandticket accessible trains.
- In several states you can even take your bike for free! (Sachsen-Anhalt, Thueringen, Baden-Wuettenberg, Rheinland-Pfalz, Saarland)
- The trains are not slow by any means. They are capable of speeds up to 200km/h! If there are lots of stops between the station you get on and get off, they still average up to 100km/h. But if there are no stops/only one stop, for example near big cities where the small stations are all served by S-Bahn instead, you can definitely travel as fast as a car.
@@EyMannMachHin thanks, we’re aware of it and it’s kind of a compensation for a tough change in life (as in our case).
But that’s a very specific corner case.
A ticket for 50 euro for which you can travel an entire country is pretty cool in my eyes :)
@@timkoehler3669indeed it is. I just wanted to underline the fact that you can judge a society by how it treats it's weakest members.
I must admit, I was never very fond of my own country, Germany, while growing up. I then lived for a year in France which started to slightly change my perspective and make me perceive positive aspects of my home country. But your videos help me even more to realise, that Germany is actually a great country, so thank you!
Sorry, how can living in France making Germany look better? Yes, there are problems... but life in France is more family friendly and has a better work life balance.
Strange opinion after only one year... 🙋🏻♂️😁 Ohhh... and food is in France generally better too. Well, Germany has some other advantages.
That still doesn't mean that the whole world is allowed to come here and live here. They haven't done shit for our country, especially the US. All the US does is being at a constant war with us, they want to drain us of our economy and money, piece by piece. They aren't friends, just like China and Russia and basically the whole world, they wanna exploit us. Why else did they blow up our pipeline? To make us buy their expensive gas of course. And to further damage our ties with Russia - their arch enemy. The US is the most corrupt piece of sh*t there is on our planet.
@@e4y34zdfg 1. I dont live in Elsass. 2. Elsass is France NOW 3. You know nothing...
@@pegamini7582 Pourquoi faux? Les gens démenagent... Et oui, je sais tout!
The beer alone is worth moving to Germany for!
. . . and that's before you have kids! After you have kids, the list grows. It generally involves things like safety, cost and quality of education, healthcare, and becoming bilingual. Also, European countries seem to care more about children, or at least make it more of a societal endeavor. There just seem to be more things for children to do here and society seems to play a more active role in providing and underwriting the costs of activities for children. It starts with much longer maternity / paternity leave periods and goes right on through university education with much more affordable education. It's also great that our teenage boys can go to activities or visit their friends without relying on their parents to drive them everywhere.
Currently in Germany, arrived a few weeks back. Even caught a Unicorn game. That was an experience, loved the Unicorn burger. The quietness for the offence was odd. I do like it much better here. I work remote in the States, Staying with a friend who moved here 5 months ago. I am only able to stay for 90 days every 180 days.
If your employer allows you to work remotely from Germany, why don’t you apply for residency? It’ll be a bit tricky with taxes and health insurance to have that sorted out, but all manageable. Finding a flat shouldn’t be a problem with a secure income, of course, depending on where your friend is living. Go for it! You can always go back! Or maybe you stay forever or end up in Ibiza 😂
Time to catch yourself a German lady =)
Well said - and after 50 years here, I can judge that.
Hi Beautiful, I want to tell you a story: At the age of 20 or 20 and a half (important!) I went "abroad" with a friend. We were both hoteliers and ended up in Gstaad, Switzerland. Through that, over the years, I met my almost-husband from Napoli and then my only later husband from Buenos Aires. I loved Naples, Ischia, all of Italy, I loved Buenos Aires, the drive from Paraguay over the waterfalls to Brazil, I loved the non-Germany. But after I landed here in Cologne in 1990, I tried to discover my home country; like Switzerland, for example, also French Switzerland, like Italy, like Argentina and so on. So, arrived in my new reality in Cologne, during my streetcar rides to work, I looked into the windows of the apartments, looked at the people walking around, discovered scenes between greengrocers and shoppers, and I had to smile (with love). It let me finally discover my country / town over the years as a really really REALLY nice place to live. Before, however, I would have wanted to live EVERYWHERE - but not in Germany. Born in 1965 as a Second World War child's child, I had previously rejected, critically eyed, doubted, criticized my birth country. ANYTHING was better than being German (so away from here, just away)! But then from 1990 on, little by little, I discovered the beauty of this democracy, this mixed (finally!) togetherness, this my homeland. And my first contacts and reference persons were refugee people from Eritrea, who knew Cologne so much better than I did back then.
2:17 "3. Easier to live a comfortable life"
Very nice video. I am German and when I was young I have been everything but happy to be German. Getting older now I appreciate to live in my country. I have also worked 15 years for a large US based company and enjoyed a lot working with Americans. Germans are often overcomplicating things - looking for reasons why something can go wrong whereas Americans just try and get things done. In the end we can learn from each other.
Best buddy of mine is Canadian...stayed here after his military time has ended.
If I could afford to retire in Germany, I would and I have two places in mind, Kehl am Rhine and Überlingen am Bodensee.
I was in Überlingen for the first time some weeks ago. And I can understand why you would want to live there. The whole region is beautiful but some places are very much overrun by tourists. Überlingen though is just perfect 😊
@@DenzelPF-jl4lj I had worked there in 1982 and just really liked it. My spoken German still has some of the regional dialect.
Bodensee region is fantastic, above all the back country, cozy, tiny villages with taverns with marvellous food and Switzerland, Austria and France is not far away, a great place to live!
@@astara5802 to top it all off, when I arrived, the Stadtgarten was featuring plants from the American Southwest. Thing was, I had been going to college at the University of Arizona in Tucson. My first thought was, as the Stadtgarten was directly across from my bedroom window, “great, travel halfway around the world so I can see plants that are literally everywhere from the city I came from.”
moving to schwäbisch hall in 4 weeks! I'm even more excited since discovering your videos today!
if I'll bump into you I will let you know🤣 keep up the great work
Thank you so much of that positive portrait of my country👍😍. We Germans should be more proud of our home country. So I like the American patriotism and the kindness of American people 🇩🇪❤🇺🇸
I'm planning to move to Munich in January. So excited and nervous!!
I was able to claim German citizenship on the same basis as Nalf was able to claim Italian citizenship. Alas, I only found out about my entitlement about 10 years ago. If I knew it when I was a young man, I probably would have lived in Germany now. I do speak German.
Make it your second home =)
@@StrongKickMan
Sadly, I am too old to move again to another country now.
As a German living in Colorado, I would add affordability to the list. Here in the US it is so hard to vacation or spend a few days in a nice place. There are hardly any affordable (while also decent) hotels here. I miss the German / Austrian Hotel Garnis so much. I also miss, being able to hop on a train just to go for a hike in the mountains. Here everything is cars and the highway to the mountains are so crowded, that it is near to impossible to just go skiing for a day.
I also hate that you can't walk to the store or bike. The cars or trucks are massive and the strip malls suck. There is not even a bike rack at my supermarket. Love to walk European cities and hang out in cafes and have a drink. Here you are sitting on a parking lot with a fenced off patio, because of the stupid alcohol laws
You also live in a top 10 most expensive state. Why would you want to walk?
Seriously?@@TheRockkickass
@@JuergenW-rk5gg seriously what?
After following your videos for years, I eventually booked an extended weekend in Schwäbisch Hall in Oktober. I am looking forward to seeing the lovely old town myself. Although I am living less than 2 hours by car away, I never made it.
Being German myself, that gave me a chuckle... "I've been wanted to go to Germany for years, I can't wait to see... Schwäbisch Hall" is not a sentence most Germans would expect :D
@@RoonMianSee Rothenburg of the Tauber also!😊😊😊
Ja wir Deutschen sind viel zu kritisch und dankbar. would say we are totally spoiled. Hab als Kind in den USA gelebt und war im Nachhinein froh meine Jugend in good old Germany verbracht zu haben. Erst seitdem ich in Spanien lebe (fast 25 Jahre) weiß ich Deutschland zu schätzen. There is good and bad everywhere. Disfruta la vita!
Yes, you are right! My husband is American and we both never want to life in the States for all of these reasons.
NALF: Americans expect Germans to be weird, creepy and unfunny and when they come here and find out this is not really the case, they are pleasantly surprised.
Also NALF in every other video: Germans stare at you all the time and they always get close to you and leave you no personal space. 😉
😂
Because they are
Staring is such a luxury. If you do that in the USA, you'll get a smack in the face. That's why they don't do it there. We can be proud of being able to stare without being beaten up. 😁
@@kaylaread8048 if you do that in the US you risk being shot
I lived in Germany for 22 years, and I can say with confidence that Germans have a very limited sense of humor in comparison to other cultures. They take themselves very serious and don't have the capability to laugh at themselves. Give me a night out with the Irish over a German invite every time. I had to change how I typically interact with people to avoid my girlfriend, now wife, from getting upset.
Not only vacation days and holidays.
We also have Saturdays and Sundays.
Really liked the editing of today´s video and the rest was of course great as usual. Keep it up!
Very interesting perspective and fortunately a bit off the beaten track. And very well presented - as usual!
Glad to see you back.
There may be 120,000 Americans living in Germany presently, but there was a time when over a half million were! During the Cold War, over 250,000 American miitary and their families swelled the number up to one half million. I was one of them. I spent 3 of the best years of my life living in Darmstadt. Here, I began my study of German, which ended in me getting a BA in German. I also met my German wife, which was a relationship that lasted 50 years until her death.
I have an interesting perspective, as I have visited Germany regularly over 60 years and have seen the gradual changes in that country. First, German's who were conversant in English were not all that common in the early 60's. Certainly, those students who obtained their Abitur in school were conversant, but it was not all that common in the other levels of the German school system. A second observation is how the complexion of Germany has changed. The Germany of the early 60's were of basically ethnic Germans. Sure, there were some Italian and Spanish Gastarbeitern, but overall, Germany was full of Germans. The Germany of today has become a melting pot of Europeans and other farther afield ethnic groups. My wife's home town of Darmstadt now looks as varied as any American big city! Most notable, because of the head scarves that the women wear , are the Muslims. Darmstadt now has a couple mosques! In the 60's, if you saw a black person, it was an American G.I. Today, the black person is probably a student at the technical university in Darmstadt.
Darmstadt is a fair seized cosmopolitan city of 250,000, just 30 kilometers south of Frankfurt. Perhaps the Germany of smalls towns has not changed as much.
I spent two years in Darmstadt. I was going to comment on the familiarity being influenced partially by the sheer number of Americans who lived all over Germany. However, you conveyed it aptly.
As a side note I went back in 2019, and was astonished at how easy it was to find my way around. The trains and Strasse were even easier to utilize. The town has the same landmarks of course, but not much construction that would change the view in the last 30 years, so I could still navigate, even if the store fronts had changed a bit. Sadly, as you know, CFK is all but gone, but Lincoln Village is expanded. I never made it over to Kelley or ELK. I think there might be a new small Kaserne out by Eberstadt? Interestingly I ran into a guy I was stationed with back in 1990, just walking near the Luisenplatz. Small world.
I was last back in December of 2016. My niece was dying of cancer and we made a special trip to see her. My German wife had died 2 years before.
Darmstadt had pretty much remained Darmstadt, but the appearance of the people had changed markedly.
Only a couple buildings remain of the old Cambrai-Fritsch. The headquarters building by the main gate was spared. I was surprised that most of the Lincoln Siedlung buildings have been torn down for new buildings. This was not done as of 2016, but I have followed developments on the developers website and via other You Tube videos.
One thing for sure, the Darmstadt that I first encountered in 1962 does not exist anymore. The physical characteristics and the composition of the people have definitely changed.
Germany, and European countries in general, have a problem: they are not reproducing themselves adequately. Were it not for immigration, the population of Germany would be shrinking. Germany now has a shortage of skilled labor, as the post war baby-boomers are retiring.@@michaelmmcintyre
Greetings from Darmstadt
@@michaelmmcintyregreetings from Darmstadt
Und einen Gruss zuruck aus Portland, Oregon!@@naimapeukert8575
Good video. It's been fourty (!) years since I lived in Germany, but I still fondly remember my time there. I think your points are all good ones. Keep up the great content.
I'm going there in a month for the first time for Oktoberfest in München. Hopefully, I will be transferring to TUM to finish my bachelor's degree next year
How was it?
@StrongKickMan It was an amazing time! I highly recommend going to it, just set up flights and a hotel in advance! I drank 7 liters each day and spoke to people from Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and more U.S. folk too!
@@zfarrell0507 Sounds awesome hehe.
Was the beer as good as advertised?
@StrongKickMan For sure, it was great there! My first beer, I bought at a roadside stand for €5 and was walking, drinking that in public, which was different. You can't do that where I'm from haha
@@zfarrell0507 How about the University? Did it work out?
People used to ask me what I missed most when I moved back to the US. Food!!! I never missed the food in the US when I lived in Germany.
Thank you for that interesting and appreciative video !
You made very good points!
Hey Iove this video!! I'm age 21 and did gymnastics for 14 years. I was born in Ukraine but adopted and raised in rural USA. I'm also naturalized American thank you very much. This summer I met a German college student at the 24/7 gym who is a bar athlete. We bonded over abdominal training and pull ups. He's invited me to visit Germany and his bar athletes back home. I can see maybe why living there is great.
"We bonded over abdominal training and pull ups. " love this ^^
Thanks Nick. It is always a pleasure to see your videos .. love your sight of the world... you do a great job. Have a nice summer comeback.
Great job, dude!
Danke für diesen Content. Wir können so viel voneinander lernen.😊
Great video!
Great video, as usual from your channel, Bro.
Greetings from neighbouring Stuttgart. ^^
Loved living there and miss it so much.
I absolutley love Germany. In the next year I will move back to the country. I lived there for 17 years while in the Army.
I really enjoy your Videos, thanks :)
It’s almost like having a strong social aspect toward the citizenry creates a better place to live.
"High Budget Background". Love it! 😆
I watched my father-in-law follow the american prescription for being devoted to his company and work so that at age 65 he could have a good retirement. Unfortunately he developed an incurable debilitating condition a few years before retirement age and his retirement turned out to be doctor visits and a nursing home. I took that as a lesson and decided to expand my bucket list into my middle age (maybe even a little earlier). There has been a little bit of chaos as a result, but also many dreams come true.
I have visited friends and their families in germany and see thay are living comfortably but not lavishly as germans, and felt that I could be happy as part of german citizenry.
Did his incurable and debilitating condition also completely eat up any retirement arrangements and all of the wealth he had accumulated over his career to enjoy in retirement, leaving him ill AND destitute? Because that would make his story quintessentially US American.
He died in the nursing home. His widow was well cared for and lived an active life, but he did not get to share in this. @@RoonMian
I love visiting Germany. When I get home, I really miss the bread. I also feel peace there.😊❤
8:35 It's funny how he says he is complaining about the train, but just calmly stating what happens instead of ranting or being furious about it :D
Great video, I never have been to Germany but sure seems awesome. As to working in corporate USA we never did get much time off. I normally worked my days off as the job was so demanding. I found myself working 6-7 days a week 12 hour days and it still was not enough.
ONCE again - Well Done. Gut gemacht . Mister Alferi Liebe Grüße aus dem Sauerland 🌲⛰️🌲
On point 3. I think its pretty telling when folk from the US introduce themselves the first parft of the conversation is what do you you do? What's your job? As its a big part of how their identiy is formed and how they are able to form an idea of who a person is. I've lived in Germany 3 years and I'm really close with my sports team (training 2+ times a week, away games, holidays together etc) but I'd struggle to tell you most of thier jobs. For most its just not a big part of their identity.
Some fair points were made in this video.
Thanks for another great video. It´s interesting - me as a German have the same "foreign yet familiar" feeling when I visit the States. After 10 hours of flight every time I somehow feel at home 🙂
I've been living here, in Germany, for over 2 decades now, there are a few things I miss from living in the UK, but there is no way I would want to go back.
I love your view on germany, Like it, love it😭
Because it's a chill place to be livin' in.
Wow, ... great video!
12 National Public Holidays (full pay) in Australia plus various public holidays in different states within Australia. If employed, you get 4 weeks (28 days) paid leave/time off + 20 days of sick leave (medical certificate if you take more than 3 sick days in a row). BTW, a medical certificate, signed by a Dr or pharmacist is either free or up to $10
You are right on the money with your assessment
I never really thought about that feeling of familiarity Americans experience here,
thanks for the great content! :D
In my opinion that Phrase "Americans live to work, germans work to live" applies a lot better to french people. Or any other roman language speaking country like Italy or Spain. It might not be as bad as in the US but germans still have a very strong drive to be productive.
Germans think so, but that isn' the case anymore.
Familiarity I think is huge. I’m an American living in Portugal and struggled with lack of familiarity in Portugal and many Americans leave because they can’t adapt or refuse to. Only about 10k of Americans here so I was surprised to hear so many live in Germany. I’m adapting to Portugal now and have no plans on leaving but will definitely spend some time in Germany in the next year.
I went to Germany in December 2016 to visit a friend and I fell absolutely in love with Germany. It was about a week before Christmas (Weihnachten). The okd architecture is amazing. There are no 800 year old churches here in the us. I'm a huge fan of classical music especially Bach so staying at my friend's in Leipzig was outrageous. I would love to live there, but now that I'm 70 paying for insurance is unworkable. Too expensive. I went back in 2019 and stayed with a friend for nealy 2 months. I so wanted to stay that I cried when I left.
Alas, stuck here in America.
My favourite TV German joke is from Modern Family. Cam and Mitch are talking to Lily's fearsome elementary school teacher, who is correcting copybooks.
Cam: Oh, frowning face stamp, I didn't know they made those.
Teacher: I had them specially ordered from Germany. 😂
I've never heard of that 'mathematical' equation of happiness but I'm totally stealing that.
Like it, nah, love it.
The whole video is an awesome insight. Keep it up.
Would never life in any country without vacation day.
Went in spring to Tuerkey for 5 days, Summer 3 weeks to Bosnien and will be to Greece for 10 days in Fall.
Nick, I really love your videos. Your long lost cousins are happy to have you here. 🙂
I wish I had never left Schwäbisch Hall. You're Blessed.
Somehow i got the tune of Mad TV in my head 🎵Lowered expectations🎵 Good point of view..you found the words no other spoke out yet. You get the expected, and then some plus or minus..but well balanced. And when you complain about DB for a delay..your are baptized germanized
you could have mentioned Friedrich Martin (of Martin Guitars) when you showed Levi's.
Nice! More than 45 seconds😊
Funny, every time I find myself missing your posts, a new one is popping up 🙃 Telepathy? I really enjoy watching your videos.
How nice to see our Stadium in your videos. In Frankfurt we say EINTRACHT! Hope you experience that in Germany!
I would say less guns and shootings and no tent towns or situations like in Kensington Philadelphia.
Yes! And you are obliged to take at least one contingent two week period off work per year. It's called "Erholungsurlaub": "recreation/recuperation/regeneration holiday".
That equation is interesting.
Hearing that Germany has a bad image is weird, because for basically all the rest of the world, Germany has an unrealistically good image. And thus expectations from many, especially also those coming from Africa, Asia (India etc.) and the Middle East, are crazy high. Which in turn makes for a hard fall when you realize not everything is the perfection and effectiveness many think of.
Mind you, we didn’t want this image. I think it would be very, very, very nice to return to a more underdog image. If that’s economically or in the World Cup, in both it would be equally beneficial to not be considered a top dog but rather more of an upper midfielder
Germany is more relaxed but also still modern. Its a safe place with a cost of living that is low compared to most European countries. Its also not that far from the US via flying. Flying to a place like Australia is way more intense.
Tolles High-Budget-Hand-Ständer-Mikrofon 😁
I am German. When young, I have wished to be anywhere else than in Germany. Now growing older, I appreciate my home country and cherish doing vacation in Germany. So I recommend everyone to visit places like Eiffel, Mosel, Harz, Sächsische Schweiz, Bayerischer Wald, Thüringer Wald, Wartburg, Fichtelgebirge, Erzgebirge, Ostsee, Rhön, Sauerland, Mecklenburg, Ruhrpott, Chiemsee, Allgäu, Ostfriesland, etc. And believe me, maybe not the most beautiful place in Germany, but Saarland is a great place to live. It has a tight-knit community. The people have each other's back there. Kaiserslautern and Rammstein are not far away, when searching for U.S.A. connections. The French border is nearby, so that even shopping in the next French supermarket some miles away from Saarland feels like a vacation.
It's nice to hear about positive experiences for a change. I recently read that many expats don't feel very happy in Germany and leave again. The explanation about low expectations sounds realistic. 😀
As both of my grandmothers were German, I grew up in the USA enjoying German-style cooking. (As opposed to, say, French, Italian or Chinese) Thus, I'm entirely comfortable with the menus in German restaurants.
Again you really nailed it. You seem to analyse very well how the relationship between Americans and Germans has developed. Impressive how you speak out what many people feel, but have a hard time verbalising. Thanks
My wife and I lived in Germany for almost 3 years while I was in the Army. After we raised our family we spend 4 months a year in Europe much in Germany. Can’t wait for July.
Oh really? Do you think you are still welcome here after your gov destroyed Nordstream? For us, you are more of an occupier and destroyer of our economy then a well liked guest.
Es ist schön auch mal wieder von den schönen Seiten Deutschlands zu hören. Diese geraten in unserem Alter sehr schnell in Vergessenheit
120,001 on October 1st. I can't wait :)
Willkommen in deiner neuen Heimat 👍😉
Unless you're loaded with money, you're in for a bad surprise. It's not picture perfect at all. Most of the comments here are from the military people. They live in their own bubble there. The reality is different. Millions of immigrants and refugees came to Germany, so there is a shortage in medical staff, qualified personnel, etc. Inflation hit hard, so the government tries to keep it down by printing more billions which results in more inflation. Finding a decent and affordable place to live is like winning the lottery.