Most Interesting Facts about Germany, National Traditions and German People

Nowadays Germany is known as one of the biggest and most successful countries in Europe with incredible achievements in scientific research, sports, technological development and sustainable growth, as well as social welfare. But despite having such incredible achievements, this country has a lot more to offer for every tourist, who decides to visit this incredible country.

Our list of exciting facts about Germany you, probably, didn’t know we will start with a quick video presentation.


Germany: 7 Fun Facts about German Traditions and Best Destinations

#1. Living in Germany

According to a statistical research carried out in 2016, the average life expectancy in Germany may be regarded as one of the highest in the world. In this country women live 83 years on average, while men - 78 years.

#2. Best German composers

German composers have greatly influenced the history of classical music worldwide. Over the years, this country has had a good deal of prolific composers: Johann Sebastian Bach, Robert Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn, George Frideric Handel, Ludwig van Beethoven, Richard Wagner, Johannes Brahms and many others.

#3. The biggest and fastest postal company

Germany has one of the most advanced postal services in the world. There are over 500,000 people working for a German postal company called Deutsche Post AG worldwide. The company has managed to achieve a lot over the years but now they pride themselves on delivering 94% of the letters within Germany in less than 24 hours.

#4. KaDeWe mega-store

The title of the largest department store in Europe belongs to Kaufhaus des Westens, a  department store located in West Berlin. It covers 60,000 square meters of selling space and attracts over 50,000 shoppers on daily basis.

#5. Bicycle as a means of urban transport

People of Germany greatly support the use of alternative energy and the green lifestyle. Over the past years local authorities have created an ideal environment and infrastructure for cyclists in most of the cities.

Thanks to well planned bike paths and adapted traffic lights, many people choose to use bikes as their main form of transportation in cities, even in winter. There are now over 60 million bicycles for 80 million of Germans currently dwelling in the country.

#6. What is a Drachenfutter?

There are many untranslatable words in all languages, so German has some of these too. For example, "Drachenfutter", which literally translates as "dragon’s food" is a gift box with chocolates or a bouquet of flowers, which is given by a husband to a wife, when he feels guilty from something, for example, after returning home late.

#7. What is Reinheitsgebot?

Making beer in Germany is strongly regulated and there is even a special law, which should not be broken by any beer producer. A law called Reinheitsgebot was first adopted in 1516 and since then beer was produced with only four key ingredients: water, barley, yeast and hops.

Water greatly reflects on the quality of the beer but in Germany people get drinking water, the quality of which is currently named one of the highest in the world. So water could be taken directly from the tap and consumed without boiling or additional filtering.

Residents of Germany always get a place in top 5 rating of countries by beer consumption, as every person of this country accounts for 119 liters (31.4 US gallons) of beer annually.

#8. Not guilty

An attempt to escape from prison in Germany is not punishable by law due to a precedent in 1880, when a court acquitted a person, who tried to escape from a prison. In the verdict in was said that the desire for freedom is one of the basic human instincts and punishing for it is wrong.

#9. Car manufacturing giant

Volkswagen Group owns several internationally known automotive brands, including Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Ducati, Lamborghini, MAN, Porsche, Scania, Seat and Scoda.

#10. Book printing history

The first printed book in the world was written in German. In 1455 the inventor of book printing, John Gutenberg, used his technology to print the German Bible, which contained 42 pages. Nowadays every 10th printed book in the world is  written in German.

#11. Nobel Prize mystery

There are several brilliant scientists, who received the Nobel Prize but not for their best work or invention. Let us remind you of #Albert Einstein, who got the prize for his photoelectric effect theory but theory of relativity is undoubtedly the most influential achievement of his.

German physicist Arnold Sommerfeld is known as the unluckiest Nobel prize nominee in history. Although this scientist is responsible for dozens of advances in atomic and quantum physics and was nominated for the Nobel prize 84 times, he never received the prize. Interestingly enough, seven students of Arnold Sommerfeld managed to surpass their teacher and get an award.

#12. The non-stop "elevator of death"

Germany is one of the few countries, where you can find working paternosters. Paternoster is a non-stop passenger elevator system, which moves slowly in a loop.

The elevator chamber sits only 2 passengers and moves at speeds less than 30 centimeters per second. Although it doesn’t sound dangerous, such elevator systems are no longer being installed in Germany or any other European countries, due to their danger to the disabled people, the elderly or children.

#13. Division of Berlin

Although the Berlin wall was demolished in the end of the 20th century, there is still a clear difference between the parts of the city, which were separated by so many years. One of the differences was spotted after analyzing the photos made from space.

The deal is that authorities used fluorescent lamps for lighting up the streets of West Berlin (whiter glow), while in the part of the city, which was under the jurisdiction of East Germany the sodium vapor lamps were used and they have a yellowish glow.

#14. Voice acting for the "Terminator"

Arnold Schwarzenegger personally wanted to make the voice dubbing for his character in the version of the Terminator, which was planned to be released in Germany. However, the producer considered his soft Austrian accent to be inappropriate for the character and invited a different voice actor for the job.

#15. The most unusual mail delivery

In first quarter of the 20th century, at the time of rapid development of development of rocketry, the most bizarre uses for rockets were proposed. For example, in the 1930s, rocket enthusiasts in Germany, #England and even India developed programs for using rockets for mail delivery. Despite successful deliveries and efforts to adapting "mail rockets", the technology was rarely used and was unlikely to be used often, due to its relatively high cost.

#16. Why is it called Baden-Baden?

In the 18th century modern city, known today as Baden-Baden, was just called Baden. But later, when the region became popular among tourists as a vacation resort, travelers started calling it Baden in Baden (it meant Baden in the Baden region) so not to confuse with Badens located in Austria and Switzerland.

Gradually, in the colloquial speech the preposition was lost. The colloquial name became so popular that it was officially approved in 1931.

#17. Octopus and football

During the Euro-2008 (European Football Championship), an octopus named Paul from the aquarium in Oberhausen, showed his unusual talent – he could predict the outcome of football matches of German national team.

The zoologists put two boxes, labeled with national flag of opposing team, filled with tasty treats for the octopus and Paul somehow managed to correctly pick a box with the winner in 4 out of 6 cases during the 2008 European Championship.

#18. Story of a shoemaker family

In the first quarter of the 20th century, talented shoemakers, brothers Adolf and Rudolf Dasslers created a company, which has quickly became one of the world leaders on the market of sports shoes.

But after arguing a lot about their professional future, they decided to go their separate ways, so Adolf called his own firm called Adidas (after Adi Dassler), and Rudolf founded a company called - Ruda (after Rudi Dassler), however, it was later renamed to Puma. This is how two incredibly powerful modern brands were born.

#19. The Bach family

Johann Sebastian Bach was not the only talented musician in his family. The Bach family tree has at least 50 famous musicians and outstanding composers. Johann Sebastian, however, managed to become the most recognized talent, especially after passing away.

#20. Sustainable city of the future

Vauban neighborhood in German city named Freiburg is known for its very unusual rule – no cars are allowed to enter the neighborhood. Visitors have a chance to leave their cars in special garages, before entering Vauban. The dwellers of this neighborhood walk on foot or use bicycles.

Despite this unusual transport regulation, the real estate in Vauban is selling very well. For the record, Vauban was started as a sustainable model district, where residents greatly rely in eco-friendly technologies and green energy (it should be stated that the infrastructure of Vauban produces more energy than the residents can consume, so they earn money to selling a portion of it).


Other fun facts to know about Germany:

- Contrary to popular belief, Ulm Cathedral is the tallest church building in the world. It reaches the height of 161.5 meters or 529.8 feet (Cologne Cathedral is only 157.4 meters or 516.4 feet in height).

- Germany was the first country to adapt the Daylight Saving Time. This practice was first used in 1916 in an attempt to reduce the coal consumption.

- Muller is a very widespread last name in Germany and it also appears to be one of the most common surnames in the Europe. There are approximately 320,000 people with last name in Germany.

- German is regularly used on the #Internet and the number of websites in this language in continually growing. About 7% people on the Internet use German and now about 12% of all Google search queries are made in German.

- German is used by 105 million people as a native language and it is used as a foreign language to about 80 million people worldwide.

- German grocery stores sell over 300 types of bread and there are even several museums dedicated to bread and bread making in this European country.

- German highways (Autobahn) are the only road infrastructure network on the European continent, where there is no speed limit for transport.

 - Gummi candy, which is favored by kids all over the world was invented in Germany. The creator of this #incredible invention was Hans Riegel and we should be grateful to him for this.

- Fishing in Germany is permitted only to those, who have a special license or a permit. These types of documents can be obtained only by attending special fishing courses in an angling club.

- Due to differences in various dialects of German languages, some television programmers are shown with subtitles and additional closed captions.

Image credits:

1) www.media.coindesk.com/2013/09/germany-map.jpg