Kultur 9

Germans absolutely love their bureaucracy.  Living there for three months last summer required going to offices that I could not have imagined existed.  I lived in one district over from the place where I worked, so there was the initial issue of figuring out which district's office I had to go to.  For work-related things I had to go to the offices in Koblenz, but for living-related things I had to go to Mayen-Koblenz offices.  This was very frustrating.

It is somewhat surprising to see that a culture that is so organized refuses to modernize.  Technology has made the need for paper obsolete, or at least it has for me.  Therefore, I was very disappointed to see that Germans had not embraced this technological advancement to make their daily lives easier.

No that I read about it, I never did see a German flag outside of official buildings and national landmarks.  Being a WW2 buff, it is very interesting for me to learn about this and the reasons behind it.  While they can be mislabeled as cold and evil, Germans are not so.  While talking to many of them about the war, they simply said that it was a terrible evil done to others, and that it so happened that leaders were German.  That s not who they were now.  Therefore, I do think that this belief is slowly dying.  Will it affect patriotism?  Perhaps...