German Reacts to "Top 10 Reasons not to live in Germany” | German Girl in America

Top ten

reasons

not to

live

in Germany: YouTuber 'The World According to Briggs' has uploaded a video with that title. So I would say let's look together and I'll let you know what I think about it as a German, which of the points mentioned are true and which are just wrong. Hello Servus and welcome back to my YouTube channel. My name is Felicia and I am a German who has

live

d on and off in Cincinnati, Ohio, since 2016. Top Ten Reasons Not to Live in Germany: That's the title of a video that was uploaded last week to a YouTube channel called The World According to Briggs.

So of course I had to watch it and see if I agree with those 10

reasons

because, as I mentioned in my personal Q&A video 2 weeks ago, there are definitely things I don't like about Germany, but again, none of Those things are the reason I don't live there now. For those of you who don't know, I'm from Munich which is in Bavaria so in the south of Germany I was born and raised there and I also went to university there so I didn't leave Germany until I turned 22. Initially just I came to the US for an exchange semester but then I ended up coming back and now I'm here as a permanent resident but I'm not in the US because Germany is a horrible place to live, Absolutely not, I'm here because personally I wanted a change and because I love American culture, but who knows?

Maybe this person really found 10 reasons I agree with why moving to Germany is not the best idea. Let's watch the video together and I'll share my thoughts with you. Ok, you can't really see that, but I have my laptop here. So I'll be looking at it down here and I'll put it right here. Okay, before we hit play, let's start with the thumbnail. I don't know what this woman is wearing, but it's definitely not traditional German clothing. I think the pants are supposed to look like leather pants, Lederhosen, as we say, but they definitely aren't, they look more like a Halloween costume to me, but hey, miniatures aren't always about accuracy.

What's happening everyone? Welcome back to The World According to Briggs. I hope everyone is safe and healthy. Remember, we are all in this together, take care of yourselves and others now. Let's go back to the barbecue places: this is an international video. Today we look at Deutschland/Germany. Germany is probably one of the 10 most historic countries on the planet. They have a lot of history, both good and bad. The good news is that they have left most of the bad of some 70 years in the rearview mirror. Germany is now an economic powerhouse with a great Oktoberfest.

People... I hate when someone says we have a great Oktoberfest. We have Oktoberfest. Oktoberfest is not a franchise, the real Oktoberfest is held in Munich, but oh well. ...the people are wonderfully welcoming and it is a great place to visit, but like all places on this planet, it has some problems and that is what we are looking at today; Things you may need to know before visiting Germany. Some of these things may make you not want to visit, and others you probably just want to check out. So let's get started: Number 10: High Crime: Germany has seen an increase in crime over the past five years.

The country has an open door policy, meaning anyone can enter the country whenever they want, and has learned that this leads to more crime. When you can't reach people, they tend to do stupid things. The crime rate in Germany in 2018 was 6,710 crimes per 100,000 inhabitants. That's up from 4,200 per 100,000 residents in 2014 and when the 2020 numbers come out, they will appear to be higher. There was a sharp increase in the number of murders committed in Germany, with 901 murders recorded in 2018. This is the highest figure since 2000, when there were 930. Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen had the highest regional crime rates anywhere. the country.

Ask any German like I did and they'll tell you that everything changed in 2015, around the same time hundreds of thousands of refugees began pouring into the country from war-torn Syria and other places like it. The number of murders increased by 14.6% and the unauthorized use of another person's body increased by 8%. Do you know what that is? I can't say because I don't want to be demonetized. Well, let's stop here because there is already a lot of information out there and I have a lot to say about it because a lot of this stuff is completely wrong. So let's go back and review this together: I'm going to throw out some numbers and just to give you an idea of ​​what ballpark we're in, Germany is generally considered a very safe country compared to other countries in the world.

An indicator of this is usually the homicide rate: in 2018 there were 1.1 murders per 100,000 inhabitants in Germany, while in the United States there were five per 100,000 inhabitants, that is, almost five times more than in Germany. Number 10: High crime: Germany has seen an increase in crime in the last five years Well that is not true, since you are talking about the statistics from 2018, 5 years would mean that there was an increase in crime since 2013 and that It is not the case. as you can see here. To be fair, crime rates increased a little after 2013, so in 2014, 15 and 16 increased, but just in 2017 they fell below the 2013 numbers and have been decreasing since then.

The country has an open door policy, which means that anyone can enter the country whenever they want. They have learned that this leads to more crime. Well. Germany does not have an open door policy in the sense that people can literally come into our country and stay if they want. We've taken in a lot of refugees, especially in 2015, and I guess that's what Briggs is referring to here, but those people had refugee status. It's not like anyone can come to Germany and stay there forever if they want to. It is definitely easier to immigrate legally to Germany than to the United States, but it is not that there are no rules.

When you can't reach people, they tend to do stupid things. The crime rate in Germany... In fact, in Germany you can locate people. Except for the US, where there is a census every 10 years in which people voluntarily submit information about where they live and other personal information, residents in Germany must register at the registry office. If you move to a new place, even if it is within the same city, you have to go there and register your new address by law and refugees are also registered there with an address. The crime rate in Germany for 2018 was 6,710 crimes per 100,000 inhabitants.

That's up from 4,200 per 100,000 residents in 2014. That's okay. It's just a wrong number. The first one is correct: there were 6,710 crimes per 100,000 inhabitants in 2018, but then it says that it has increased since 2014, which is the year before the refugee crisis, and that is wrong. It says that there were 4,200 crimes per 100,000 inhabitants in 2014, but in reality there were 7,530. So it's actually down compared to 2014. I'm not sure where you got that wrong number, 4200, because I couldn't find it anywhere. And when the 2020 numbers come out. They seem to be higher... That's wrong again, the crime statistics for 2019 were actually released this week, so after he posted the video, but still, the trend had It has been proven that crime rates have been going down in Germany for years and as expected in 2019 Germany had 5.43 million crimes in total which means the number decreased by 2.1% compared to 2018 and it is the lowest number since 1992.

There was a sharp increase in the number of murders committed in Germany with 901 murders recorded. in 2018. It's the highest level since 2000, when there were 930. Berl... Well, sharp increase: I'm not sure if I'd say it like that. First, the numbers you mentioned are for attempted murders and not for people who were actually murdered. I'm obviously not an expert in this field, but I feel like the number of attempted murders could vary a bit from year to year depending on how the cases are handled in court. While the number of people who were actually murdered is definitely not open to interpretation from year to year and that number did indeed increase in 2016 and 17, but it was still much lower than in the early 2000s and by 2019 it is actually the lowest in a long time with 245 people dead in total.

Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen had the highest regional crime rates in the entire country. Ask any German like I did and they'll tell you that everything changed in 2015, around the same time hundreds of thousands of refugees began pouring into the country from war-torn Syria and other places like it. The number of m... Okay. Well, as I just showed you, the crime rate increased a little after 2015, that's true. But from my personal experience, what I actually observed on the streets of society, I actually didn't see more crimes personally. But what I did notice was that the way the media reported on crimes committed by non-Germans, such as refugees and other people who immigrated to Germany, changed a lot.

Again, if you look at the numbers, crime rates increased a little in the years after 2015, but then fell to a new low and are now lower than crime rates before 2015. The number of murders increased by 14.6% and the unauthorized use of another's body increased by 8%. Do you know what that is? I can't say because I don't want to be demonetized. Well, I'm not sure what numbers you're referring to here because I couldn't find them, but again, murders actually increased a little after 2015, but they're now lower than any number listed since the 1990s and what that means with unauthorized use of Someone else's body has actually been increasing continuously for years since long before 2015, but this is something that is always said in those reports and also we all know that more and more cases are being reported nowadays.

It doesn't necessarily mean more things are happening, it just means more things are being reported, which is good, you know, like the me2 movement was in 2017. Of course, most of those cases are still not reported to the state. , but it means that these numbers are not very reliable and not comparable. Number 9 - Graffiti: A walk through the streets of Berlin quickly revealed why it is sometimes known as the graffiti capital of Europe when Berlin... Actually, I didn't know. ...The Berlin Wall fell in the early 1990s, graffiti artists and graffiti artists had to find new places to apply their art.

Now keep in mind; Most of the time they are not artists, they are idiots. Almost any wall or surface of a building has become an easy target for these clowns, a task for... Well, just because any type of building or wall has become a The game does not mean that any type of building or wall has graffiti. Four spokesmen estimated that the material damage caused by graffiti in Berlin amounts to between 35 and 50 million euros per year. The Berlin anti-graffiti task force was not formed until the early 90s. The task force is underfunded and somewhat useless. The average in the German capital is about 15 arrests per week for graffiti, with fines ranging from 100 euros, about 135 US dollars, to several thousand dollars.

What they need to do is chain these guys together in a graffiti removal detail. Can you imagine being chained to other guys cleaning up graffiti you put there a week before all your friends come over and making fun of you? Yes, that will stop him. Well, I didn't check those numbers, so I'm sure they're accurate, but I don't really see why this would be a real reason not to live in Germany. He also mentioned only Berlin, which is the capital of Germany, but it is not very representative for the rest of the country. Personally, I have never considered graffiti to be a major problem in Germany or anything that reduces the quality of life in any way.

I mean, yeah, especially in bigger cities, they're definitely on certain buildings and bridges and sometimes trains, and I'm sure they cause a lot of damage, but I don't really see it as a major problem in Germany. Number 8 - Paid Bathrooms: This one has nothing to do with the red light district, which I'm sure happens there, it's just not what I'm talking about here; You have to pay to use public toilets in most cities in Germany. They are around €50, 55 US¢. Well, you just said it's about 50¢ 55 US¢; It's definitely not €50, it's 50¢ and to pee as my son called it.

A couple of coins ensures that attendees are earning the money they need to make these places worth keeping clean. They are very clean, you have to pay everywhere, from shops at a train station and even to restaurants. Airports... Okay, yes, you have to pay in a lot of places, but especially in restaurants and stores, I feel like it's almost never I see that, if anything, I feel like it's in restaurants and stores that are located in a place where they know that a lotpeople are going to use their bathrooms who aren't actually customers, if that makes sense.

But it is not very common in a restaurant. Let's say you are eating at the restaurant and you used their bathroom, you won't have to pay for it. ...ports are the rare exception to the pay-to-pee rule. If you ever hear someone say W.C or toilet in Germany, they are referring to the bathroom. Veh-tseh is what we call it because it's like the size of a closet and I guess there's water in there or you're making water, who knows? Okay, so yes, paying to go to the bathroom is a thing in Germany and I know a lot of people visiting Germany from other places complain about that, but it's not always mandatory, like I just said.

So, especially at highway rest stops and sometimes at train stations, this is something that really has a system where you actually have to pay. There will be a turnstile and you will normally have to deposit 70 cents to go through the turnstile, but then you will receive a 50 cent coupon that you can use at any of the connected stores. But those bathrooms are always extremely clean, so that's when you come back. However, for regular bathrooms, it is free or there will be a cleaning staff person sitting outside the bathroom with a small tilt plate and when you leave it is a common courtesy to give them some of your change.

And since Germans still use a lot of cash to this day, people often carry change. In very rare cases, they have a sign saying how much they are asking for, but in my life it has never been a problem if you don't have enough change with you or if you don't have any at all. You can still use the bathroom. Maybe just say you're sorry when you leave. Number 7: Long, winding words: German, as with most Germanic languages, gets out of hand with compound nouns. They combine several words into one long word to name or describe something.

This is totally foreign to English speakers, it's almost like they're doing it to screw us. Well, this is true, but I promise we won't do it to screw you over. The reason German words can be so long is that when we form a new word from two existing words we omit the space. So in English, you say police car and you spell it as two words. we spell it as a single word in German. I swear to God, it's 80 letters long, the longest word ever made in German, and I don't even know how to pronounce it, but I'm going to spell it for you.

Fasten your seatbelt What? Yeah, I'm not even kidding, that's a real word. This means the Association of Subordinate Officers, the Head Office Management of Dunaby Steamboat Electrical Services. Yeah, I'm totally confused at this point too. Mark... Yeah, me too and I didn't really know this word before this, but I know you guys probably want me to say this now. So let me try: I did it! So I didn't know this word before, but I looked it up and apparently it was in the Guinness Book of Records until 1996, but then they removed it because it's not actually a real word.

It has no real meaning, it's just made up. Mark Twain expressed his views bluntly in an 1880 essay: he said that the German language is horrible. He argued that a talented person could learn English in 30 hours, French in 30 days, and German in 30 years. Ok, German is definitely hard to learn, but I wouldn't say it takes 30 years to learn it, definitely a few years and then a pretty big commitment to become fluent, but I know a lot of Americans or I don't want to. I say a lot: I know Americans who speak German fluently and don't even have an accent, so it's possible.

Number 6 Brutal taxes: Germany's strong public services, employee protection, health services and being a welfare state come at a cost. Taxes here are some of the highest in the world and those earning just over €52,000, which is equivalent to about US$58,000, pay around 42% in income tax. It has a Social Security payment and a 19% value-added tax rate. Professionals should be ready to say goodbye to almost half of their salaries. Your mandatory security contribution may cost you more than rent. In addition to this, there is a solidarity surcharge, which is a 5.5% tax to cover the ongoing costs of integrating the former East German states as many... ...in other countries, Germany allows a variety of deductions that can reduce your total taxable income, but it's still pretty brutal.

In addition to the various forms of income tax, there are also a number of sales taxes that significantly affect both individuals and businesses. Now get this, this is a great idea; In fact, they tax churches, you know, that's a travesty. I mean, it's great if you don't want to tax churches, but too many churches are taking advantage of this, it's kind of a joke at this point. In total, there are approximately 30 different types of taxes, including inheritance taxes and also motor vehicle property taxes. What I'm trying to say is that Germany is like my cousin's ex-wife.

It receives half your money and has doubled in size since the fall of the Soviet Union. Well. Well, it's true that Germany has really high taxes. So I guess it's actually a valid reason not to live in Germany, but you also get a lot in return as a resident, like free education for example, a good and affordable healthcare system, good infrastructure, etc. And yes, churches are paying taxes in Germany, but not only churches, but also residents if they are registered as church members. Do you remember that in my video 5 things, part 2 I mentioned that in Germany they never ask your degree on the forms?

Well, what we do have, although that doesn't happen in the US, is that sometimes they ask your religious denomination on the forms and if you are baptized, you automatically register as a member of the Catholic or Protestant church in Germany and there are to pay ecclesiastical taxes. If you don't want to do that, you have to actively leave the church, so end your membership, but if you want to get married in a church, it is a requirement that at least one of the 2 partners be a member of the church. . Number 5: Germans love their cash: Anyone who is used to carrying a wallet full of plastic should know this;

Many stores in Germany only accept cash payments and when you offer them the debit card, they will simply shake their head and say no or point to one of their ATMs where you will get the cash and hand it to them and the ATMs. , as we all know, have quite high rates. This is changing somewhat, but they are far behind the United States and most other industrial countries. Germans simply find it easier to track their spending when using cash. One study found that the average German wallet contains around 103 visible euros (around 115 US dollars), more than 3 times the figure in France.

Cash remains a means of payment in approximately 80% of point-of-sale transactions in Germany. The thing is that the Germans... ...don't trust a lot of technology, apparently their privacy and the state government, they're just very against those things, so they like to use their cash and save their money. transactions for themselves. . Of all purchases made in Germany in 2018, only 20% were made by card. It is the lowest level of any country. Well, first of all, if you are interested in this topic, you should definitely watch my video on money and pay differences linked in the info box below. It is true that Germans still pay mainly in cash for everyday purchases, such as in a store or a restaurant, but it is not true that we do not trust technology.

We definitely use cards a lot less, but larger payments like rent, bills or mortgages and things like that are almost always done through online banking much more so than in the US. Making a large payment in Cash would actually seem incomplete to us and checks are hardly necessary. -existing in Germany. It is also not true that you can almost never pay with a card in the store. You can usually do it. The only exceptions would be small kiosks or bakeries or things like that, and in restaurants it's often not possible at all or there's usually a minimum purchase requirement.

Number 4: Winters are too cold: The German winter is notoriously long, gray and cold. The average daily temperature is around 0 degrees Celsius, which is 32 degrees Fahrenheit. It is also rainy and windier due to the Atlantic Ocean and cold air masses from Russia. They also get these cold snaps from Siberia, where temperatures can drop as low as -20 degrees Celsius, which is equivalent to -4 or 5 degrees Fahrenheit in much of Germany. Summers are pleasant and it is a good time to visit Germany. From mid-May to September you may forget how bad winter was. December is one of the coldest months in Germany, with relatively good chances of snow, like every day, and sub-zero temperatures for most of the month.

My uncle was stationed in Germany for about six years, I think, and he said he'd never seen winters like that, just bone-chilling, bone-aching winters. Well, this is actually quite far from the truth: Germany is not known for its wonderful weather, obviously, and it rains a lot, but I have lived in Germany for 22 years of my life and what you just described is not what ours are. winters. they're like. In Munich, which is about an hour from the Alps, we definitely had very snowy winters when I was a kid, but there is less snow every year. In recent years, winters there have almost always been exactly the same as here in Cincinnati.

So if you know what winters are like in Cincinnati, you know what winters are like in Munich. In January 2019, Munich had so much snow that trees collapsed and streets were closed and things like that, but last winter there was no snow and it snowed almost every day in December. I mean, I wish we hadn't had a white Christmas in Munich for years. I honestly don't even remember the last time we did that. It's usually been very hot at Christmas these past few years. Regarding the numbers Briggs mentioned, the average winter temperature in Germany is definitely not 32 degrees Fahrenheit (not sure where he got that number), the actual number is 4.1 degrees Celsius, which is about 39 degrees Fahrenheit, which is actually about the same average winter temperature as in Tennessee, for example.

In Ohio, the average winter temperature is a much colder 30 degrees Fahrenheit. And yes, I have actually experienced temperatures as cold as -4 degrees Fahrenheit in Munich, but that was maybe like twice in my life and I have experienced it in the US as well. So it seems that Briggs' uncle must have lived in Germany decades ago and apparently in a region that is especially cold and I'm guessing he's probably from a warmer region of the US, I'm not sure. Number 3: Air conditioning: Germans are very environmentally conscious and would avoid using an appliance that consumes so much electricity.

Less than 10% of all European homes have air conditioning, compared to 90% in the United States. Yes. That's it, it's official, I will never live in Germany. I love air conditioning like a sailor loves rum. In fact, I found myself wanting to write poems about my air conditioning during hot summer days. European air conditioners are already among the most efficient in the world and these people still don't use them. Meanwhile, at home I look for air conditioning that uses more energy. I find it difficult to communicate properly when it's hot, I don't know what that is, I need it cool and I could never live in Germany during the summer.

The energy consumption of air conditioners was one of the reasons cited when German officials rejected proposals to install cooling systems in schools. Well. This is true, we normally don't have air conditioning in our homes. If you want to know more about this topic, you should watch my video on 6 Things America Can Learn from Germany because I actually talked quite a bit about air conditioning and windows in that video. And it's not just that the air conditioning needs a lot of power for the Germans, but for some reason they don't like it as much. Sometimes it can definitely be exhausting in summer without air conditioning, but German summers are not that hot or that long, it's usually only hot for a few weeks.

Additionally, our houses are usually built with bricks, which means they are much better insulated and therefore do not heat up as quickly in summer. And also what we do is open the windows a lot at night, when it's cooler, and let the fresh air in. But yes, if you need air conditioning in your life, Germany or Europe in general is definitely not the right place to move to. Number 2: theSundays everything is closed: Sundays are the day of rest for Germans and most of the shops you will find are closed. It has nothing to do with religion, it's more of a tradition.

There is a law that restricts loud noises such as vacuuming, drilling, slapping, or playing loud music even in your own home on Sundays, especially between 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. :00 hours. Set your things too high at that time or get weird, you will get a visit from the man. Now this goes for tourists and hotels don't make noise on Sundays. With the exception of shops, most shops at gas stations, train stations and airports are closed on Sundays. There is a store closure law that was implemented in 1956 that makes it a legal requirement that people have Sundays off.

They don't really like overworking in Germany, which is good if you're a resident, but it sucks if you're a tourist, you know, looking for something on a Sunday. Ok, so this is true, most stores are closed on Sundays, but places like restaurants and movie theaters and those types of places are open and it definitely had religious reasons originally, not so much today. So that's true, it's not that Germans need that day off to all go to church on Sunday, that's not really what many Germans do. I agree that it can be very inconvenient, especially if you are used to the circumstances here in the US or other countries where you can always go shopping and it requires some planning, but on the other hand it can also be very nice because it can be a day where you just spend some time with friends and family because the vast majority of people in Germany won't have to work that day.

What he said about the law that you can't make noise on Sundays is actually valid for the entire day of Sunday and also for any other holiday. What he said about the nighttime thing about not being able to make noise from 10:00 p.m. 7:00 am. (or I think it's actually 6:00 a.m.) That's true for every day, not Sunday. So I guess it's even more extreme than what he said. Here we go, number one: And Nazis number one still exist: Germany still has Nazis. This time the government doesn't pay them, that's good. Since 2015 there have been more than 4,000 attacks on foreigners, some with Molotov cocktails, always nice.

I read about these strange books from the 1940s that may have helped spawn this kind of mentality. The books say that mothers should ignore their babies' emotional needs. Now here's where it gets weird: Joana Haarer (I think that's her name), a doctor whose books were written during the Nazi era, urged women to distance themselves from their young children. Here in the United States, we don't do that until they are around 30 years old and don't have a job. The books have achieved almost biblical status in some nurseries and child care centers over the years. The national intelligence service estimates that in 2017 there were 12,700 violent right-wing extremists in the country.

Yes, that is not good at all for Germany. Keep that in mind if you're visiting or moving there, but I found that avoiding our children's emotional needs is strange. I agree, that's strange, but okay, there was a lot of stuff there. So where should I start? So, it is true that there have been many attacks against foreigners, especially since the 2015 refugee crisis, but also before, but fortunately most Germans do not identify with this at all. So it's not like you go to Germany and the first thing you see are Nazis. Yes, there are neo-Nazis in Germany and there is a political party called... which has a lot in common with the original Nazi Party... but it is very small and is not represented in any of Germany's state parliaments or the Federal Parliament.

In the early 2000s, there was actually a series of murders in Germany carried out by a Nazi group called... The trial was very prominent in the German media and I think in the international media as well, so maybe You may have heard of it, but unfortunately, there are neo-Nazis in almost all European countries and also in the United States. Now, the book Briggs mentioned is no longer used in German nurseries and nurseries. She said the books have achieved a biblical status or something. Well, that was during the Third Reich and after World War II, but that was over 60 years ago.

Those books haven't really existed since the 1970s or 1980s at the latest. Personally, I had never heard of the book he mentioned by Johanna Haarer, I looked it up of course, but yeah, it hasn't really been around since the 1970s. I'm sure neo-Nazis read those books. I'm sure you're right about that, but neo-Nazis do not represent modern German culture at all. Now, what he said about more than 12,000 violent right-wing extremists in Germany in 2017 is actually true. However, that figure refers to people who are willing to use violence, which means that not all of them have actually been violent and I am not saying that this is not a problem for Germany, it definitely is and so is the increase in another right-wing party, the AFD in Germany, but 12,000 out of 82 million is still a fairly small number and this is definitely not something you see in every corner of Germany.

So I'm not sure I agree with your ranking here that this is really the number one reason not to live in Germany, but to each their own. Alright, that's today's list. I hope you enjoyed it, I hope you gained some insight. You might want to stay away from Germany, at least know what you're getting into before you go there. Anyway, don't forget all the links below. If you like what we do here, subscribe and give the video a thumbs up if you liked it. Everyone have a great day and be kind to each other. Be nice to each other, okay?

This was a pretty long reaction video, but I hope you learn something and who knows? Maybe you agreed with him a lot more than you agreed with me, but I have to say that, of those 10 reasons not to live in Germany, I think I only really agree with two of them as valid reasons why I really think that would be a reason not to live in Germany and it is the high taxes and the weather in Germany, although your description of our winter was a little wrong, but the truth is that the weather is not the best in Germany, yes it rains a lot, it's not very reliable, so I'm very glad to be rid of that.

Other than that, I'd say maybe the air conditioning would be a valid point, but I personally only missed it when it's really hot. days in German and whenever I want to work out at home, and, when you're used to how convenient everything is in the US, it's definitely annoying that stores are closed on Sundays in Germany plus normal business hours. stores is much shorter, too. So what did you guys think? Would you still live in Germany or at least visit it or did this video scare you quite a bit? Let me know in the comments below, and also like this video, if you liked it, subscribe to my channel for free, if you like what I do here, activate the bell to receive notifications of new videos uploaded and follow me on Instagram.

Thank you all so much for watching and I hope to see you next time.