The love-hate affair between Germans and their rules

When I made the decision to move to Germany, someone “warned” me that Germans are, among other things, inflexible and in love with rules (or something similar to that – it was almost six years ago, so I paraphrased it). The warning was only partially correct. It is more accurate to say that Germans are inflexible and in love with rules, as long as those rules do not interfere with their comfort levels.

For example, two Deutsche Bahn conductors, in two separate occasions, essentially left two young teenagers stranded in rural areas far from home because they forgot their tickets at home. I understand that there will always be those who free-ride and ruin it for the rest of us. On these two occasions, however, an exception should have been made. The conductor could have taken note of the teenager’s address and DB could have clarified the situation afterwards – similar to the procedure when charged with a speeding ticket. I, myself, would also be infuriated if my 13-year-old was left stranded almost 50 kilometers away from home by an inflexible, rule-hardy conductor. At least one of the conductors have since been suspended, in addition to an apology from DB.


On the flip-side, you have the one rule that many Germans love to break: the non-smoking rule. It does not matter where you are – a subway station, restaurant, etc. – there will be someone smoking. What’s worse is that those people will argue the life out of you if you decide to point out that they are in a non-smoking area, which I often do. My favourite stand-off occurred inside an elevator on the way up to the train platform. Just as the doors closed, some nutcase lights up a cigarette and breathes out smoke into the faces of two of my children, both of whom were sitting in their STROLLER coughing! I pointed to the big non-smoking sticker on the wall beside him, and asked him if he really needed to blow cigarette smoke into the faces of my then one- and two-year-old children. He shrugged and said that it doesn’t matter because we were going to be in open air in a matter of seconds. I reminded him that the smoking ban also applied on the train platform. That was when I crossed the line. “Why do you people always try to take away our right to smoke!” he bellowed, before he huffed and he puffed all the way to the other end of the platform. Funnily enough, he continued smoking beside another non-smoking sign.

NB – Smoking is a passionate subject for Germans. They used their veto power in the EU to prevent a smoking ban from coming through. The non-smoking ban has been reversed for traditional Kneipen (corner pubs).

Yes, Germans can be very inflexible. I want to make it clear, though, that it is a stereotype, and that not all Germans are that bad – thank goodness!