The third and final installment of my series on the naked truth about Germany.
I would say
that the German nation is more private than any other nation I know – but
paradoxically, as you’ve already read, they seem to protect the privacy of
everything apart from their private parts.
Privacy law
is taken very seriously in Germany; much more so than in the UK, where we have
an incredibly intrusive media. Due to historical reasons, privacy law in
Germany is one of the strictest in the world. Under the Nazi regime and in GDR
times, people were under constant surveillance and faced persecution. The
Gestapo and the Stasi used methods that severely infringed people’s privacy and
had a terrifying impact on their personal lives. Memories of this are still
strong and have a massive impact on people’s attitudes and therefore also privacy
law itself. Germany, for example, has 17 official bodies responsible for
enforcing data protection; one federal one and one for each of the 16
Länder/states. Both Facebook and Google have faced difficulties in dealing with
breaches of privacy here. Google have even abandoned Street View in Germany
after huge privacy opposition when they first sent their cars in. Before this, Google were
forced to agree to allow German residents to opt-out of having their homes or
business pictured online by blurring the images; 3% of households chose this
option.
When they
first meet you, Germans will make a point of shaking your hand – establishing
touch, but at arm’s length. This for me summarizes the German attitude – they
will be perfectly polite, but that’s often as far as it goes. Maybe it’s just
me, but if I move house, whether it be into a new building of flats or a house,
I go and make a point of introducing myself to my new neighbours. The Germans,
despite being completely willing to strip off naked and reveal all in a sauna,
generally don’t have any contact with their neighbours – or take a long while
to establish contact – and certainly don’t go around knocking on doors to
introduce themselves. I’ve been living
in my building for almost 3 years now and I still don’t know all my neighbours.
It took at least 6 months before a single
neighbour even spoke to me – and another 6 months before we were invited up for
drinks (and we speak the language). To this day, I wouldn’t be able to tell you
much about this neighbour – they simply don’t reveal much about themselves
(just of themselves in the sauna that
is) and it is difficult, although not impossible, to establish friendships
because of this.
At work,
privacy is also rife. I once shared an office with a guy who used to bike into
work. He would go as far as changing out of his biking clothes into his work
clothes in front of me (and hanging them on the radiator to dry), but otherwise
only managed a “Guten Morgen” and “Tschüss” to me all day long. I once tried
asking him a more personal question to break the ice. “So how was your weekend?”
He looked surprised, looked up briefly, and answered, “Good, thanks”, and that
was that. A colleague, who joined the company from Brazil told me a similar
story. On his first day at work, he went to lunch with his colleagues. He
started chatting and asking questions about their families, and so on. One guy
actually turned around and asked him to stop asking such personal questions.
I like my
colleagues, but I honestly couldn’t tell you anything about who they are. I now
know that it has nothing to do with me and that they are not being rude; they
simply like to clearly separate their work life from their private life. Nevertheless,
I’m sure that if I were to pop down to the work sauna tonight, I would discover
more than I ever wanted to know.
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