Ten Things on Volksmarching

From my many years in Germany and an occasional volksmarch.....I'll offer you some tips and advice.

First, they typically run about ten kilometers.  There's been a trend to offer up a twenty km volksmarch, but I wouldn't advise you to go beyond the ten range unless you've done it a dozen times.

Second, there are volksmarchs all over the countryside, from small towns to large ones.  Some walks go through urban areas, but most are in rural areas.  They can be on a all-flat surface, although hilly routes might be added for the "thrill-seekers".  The trails are typically a well developed surface or even a paved trail.

Third, weather plays a key part in volksmarchs.  If the temperature is up above thirty Celsius....I'd advise a morning march only.  If you want to march in the heat....carry liquids with you.  Yes, folks can get dehydrated and get the ambulance called out if they start to feel faint.  It's not a pretty picture if you get picked up.

Fourth, there are volksmarchs all throughout the year....even in December.  So wear the appropriate clothing.

Fifth, every single volksmarch has a fest tent set up and beverages offered...especially beer.  My advice is to skip the tent upon arrival and only attend it after you complete the walk.  If you are dehydrated....beer is NOT the best liquid to drink.  Neither is wine.  You ought to know better on that topic.

Sixth, there's a medal or trophy given at the conclusion...hence the reason why you pay some Euro to enter the walk.  So collect your item at the end of the walk.

Seventh, there are stations....typically every two km throughout the walk with water available.  If you think you need it....then get a cup and sip it.

Eighth.  Yes, there are volksswims.  They are fairly rare, but you can occasionally find a case where a village offers it as part of their big weekend.

Ninth, the stamp in the book business.  Some guys are fairly serious about this, so they start up a book.  They note their march that day, and get a stamp in their record book at the end of the walk.  These are typically guys who do twenty to forty walks a year....for their entire life.

Tenth, it's supposed to be fun and simply a day out in the sunshine.  It's not a race....so don't show up and pretend to set a strong pace.

My Ten Odd German Things

Every American….after a while….has a list of ten odd things that you can always bring up in a discussion and rangle some Germans or amuse them. Germans do the same thing to Americans after a visit to the US. Here is my list.

First, this winter-summer car thing. Older Germans, who have a bit of space in the garage and a bit of extra cash…..have this winter and summer car episode. There’s this beat-up ten-year old car in the garage with a license tag display for Oct-Mar. When winter comes….they roll the older car out (complete with winter tires), and drive until April, and then they roll out this really nice newer car (perhaps a convertible type). The sense here is that they didn’t really want to trade in the older car and it was front-wheel drive. So they keep the older car around for another ten years…..driving it with lesser tax…..until the other car is the one for the garage. There is a logic to this system…..but it’s one of those odd things that an American would shake his head at.

Second. Fruity-tasting beer. It’s an odd feeling to walk into a German pub and look over the beer menu, and they have cherry-tasting beer, and at least five or six other such fruit beers. I admit, it’s not at most pubs….but after you’ve tried one or two…..you kinda start thinking over the option of fruity beer. You’d rather not bring up the topic with the small quiet pub you normally attend, but you eventually have a thing about fruity beer.

Third. This east west thing. I know it’s been two decades since the Berlin Wall came down and Germany now exists as one nation….but you continually have these little episodes to occur where one group makes a comment over the other group, and you can feel a bit of frustration over the Wall coming down. It’s like a majority of folks over the age of forty wished the Wall had never come down.

Fourth. This Maut business. It’s been around a decade since Maut started up around the country on the autobahns. Truckers were forced into the black box technology and pay per-km a fee. The general feeling back in 2005 was that all car drivers would be next on the Maut group. Well….it hasn’t happened. And when this generally comes up as a conversation item….it’s about a ninety-percent against opinion that comes out. The government would really like to bring Maut to every single German….but I just have this odd opinion that it’ll never happen.

Fifth. Dogs in restaurants. Frankly, in the beginning….I was acceptable of the idea. I didn’t any big issue with Germans bringing their dogs into a food service atmosphere. Well….as I’ve come to realize…..fleas naturally follow, and this really isn’t that great of a sanitary idea.

Sixth. This German obsession about how much something costs. You go out and buy something…..like an unusual picnic table unit for your back patio. The German neighbor comes over one afternoon, and makes a number of observations…..and eventually asks how much it costs. That big bottle of Jack Daniels? Same story. The new car? Same story. Everything comes with a question over the cost involved.

Seventh. This anti-Google-street-view thing. Germans have an absolute dislike of having their house shown on Google map imagery. Plus they don’t like the idea of a street view of their house. Politicians got involved and eventually made a rule that if you complained….your house view was out-of-focus.

Eighth. Just my humble opinion, but if you had to pick a society who really dislikes foreigners living in their country….this would be the all-time winner. I’d be guessing that eighty percent of the population has some issue with at least one foreign society in Germany. It might be Russians, Greeks, Turks, Africans, or even Americans. They usually won’t be confrontational, but as you get to know a German….they will spout off on occasion about this one group they really hate. The odd thing is that the news media will come on and tell everyone how wonderful Germans are at accepting such-and-such society and there will be these wonderful stories told by political figures, but the truth is…..things just aren’t that wonderful.

Ninth. This dramatic discussion which will arise over winter tire and chains. Every year….some TV show will feature a twelve-minute piece to discuss the argument. You might bring it up with the neighbor who then gives you his life experience. People will actually talk over the blizzard of 81 or the terrible ice storm of 1992. Every single German male over the age of forty will have a definite opinion over the chain versus winter tire discussion.

Tenth. That Bahn toilet paper. In 1978, I came to confront my first big trip (two hours) on a German train, and had to use the toilet. The paper offered? It was a number seven sand-paper quality toilet-paper. A guy could bleed from regular use of the Bahn toilet-paper. I admit….over the past decade, there’s been a fifty percent improvement on the paper….but it’s still some pretty tough paper. I’d hate to suggest to folks to carry around a roll with them when they travel via the German railway…..but you might come to feel aggravated over each trip to relieve yourself.

The German TUV

The German vehicle inspection is this odd episode that you might come into contact with as an American….if you were outside of the US military complex in Germany or working for a German company. So here are my comments and observations.

In each German county, there is a local TUV inspection station….maybe even two of them. Their job in life….is to inspect your vehicle and render it approved or disapproved for driving.

When you buy a new vehicle (brand-new)….the first two years are exempted, so no inspection. You can feel good about this. Then comes your first inspect at the 3rd year, and after that….every two years.

Generally, the simple deal is to have a relationship with a local German mechanic, who does TUV inspections. You drop the vehicle off….he pre-checks the whole vehicle and does what repairs are necessary. Then he or his junior guy take the car to the TUV to walk it through the inspection, where typically…..it passes easily (usually 99.9 percent of the time on the first inspection).

The cost? Well….the mechanic will usually charge between 100 and 150 Euro, plus the repairs, and the charge by the TUV for the inspection. Yeah, it can add up. And you can figure two days for this whole game.

Could you take the car to TUV yourself? Yes. The odds of you arguing in the best interests of your vehicle? I’d say fifty-fifty. You would be better off to pay the mechanic.

What ends up being the issues? Well….for any vehicle under six years old….it’s typically the tires that might come up with an issue. Rarely will anything fail on a six year old vehicle. Vehicles around eight to fourteen years old? This becomes interesting. An oil leak. A bit of rust on the undercarriage. A brake issue. A parking brake issue. Lights. Alignment. Tires. The smog test. Muffler issues. Take your pick because something will come up and the mechanic will brief you on the added issues. The least of these is usually the lights….the worst case scenario (in my book) is the rust on the undercarriage (it’ll be the end of that car’s chances).

The window cracks? Well….if you have a small spider-crack at the edges of the front windshield….it’ll usually not be noticed and you can get by. Got a five-inch crack in the middle of the windshield…..figure it’ll be noticed and they will force you to buy a new one.

The older the car…..the higher chance of the mechanic advising you to fix or replace things….especially mufflers. The rust issue? Rust can appear on the hood or doors, and they don’t care much. Rust around the wheelwells and the undercarriage? That’s a big issue. If you’ve got an old junker in the fifteen to twenty year range, and the mechanic says it just won’t pass the inspection, then it’s time to junk it and look for a new one.

The leak issues? You can assume a small leak can be rendered as a non-issue by simply steam-cleaning the whole engine area the morning prior to the inspection and hoping nothing much is noticed. It merely buys you another two years….that’s all. A leak of fair portion? They will force into fixing it prior to approving it for the inspection.

Tires? You can always buy a set of cheap tires for 200 Euro (don’t expect them to last longer than eighteen months). You should schedule this on a yearly basis….replacing the summer tires, or the winter, and it ought not be part of the TUV worry. A word of advice….if this is an eight year old BMW and you drive at excessive speeds, then buy the right tires and prepare to pay 500 Euro. If this is a Audi TT….you might be spending eight hundred Euro for the tires.

The first aid kit? Well….in the old days, Mercedes and BMW gave away kits and had a secret compartment in each car. You could buy a kit for the equalivent of eight Euro and the TUV guy just made sure you had the kit and a triangle. Around a decade ago….they started to add a small item here and there to the kit, and insist that it was semi-new. The idea of you driving around in a twenty-year old car with a twenty-year old first aid kit…..just wasn’t acceptable. So you have to have the most recent approved kit, and generally….they run near fourteen Euro. You might find cheaper kits…..as long as they have the TUV sticker or label….they will be accepted. The possibility of you being forced to buy a new kit in three years? Yeah, it might happen. Just another layer of cost on your back. 

The triangle? Well….here’s the usual problem. You use somewhere and forget to pick it up when you fix the tire. My guess is that 20k triangles a year disappear like this. So if you lose a triangle….no big deal…just pick another one up at the local parts shop.

Stressful? Germans tend to take care of their cars and usually dump a car before it becomes junker. We Americans…..are often driven to junkers….for some odd fascination over having a cheap car. Don’t ask me why. So we might stress more than a German because it’s a gamble whether the sixteen year old BMW will pass or not…..and just how much Huns wants to fix it for the inspection. My general advice is you tell the mechanic to fix up to 500 Euro. After that…..you need to think long and hard over the issue.

Above all, I always stress this search for a decent German mechanic that you can trust and lives in your local town or village. A guy who readily accepts cash….usually never charges full price. You just don’t ask for paperwork or expect warranty-type situations when cash is the driving force.

Finally, the TUV folks are trying to make sure you have a safe vehicle for the autobahns. They are trying to make your life safe. You may hate the idea of tossing seven hundred Euro into fixing a car for the inspection, but there’s a reason for that.

The German Junker

A junker, as I would classify it in Germany....is typically a car that you pay between 500 and 1500 Euro for. It has a time-limit of sorts....that you hope it lasts for twelve months, but if you can get two years out of it....great. So this is my advice on this option.

First, get it into your head that you are paying a very low price for a almost dead car, and you really are doing it just as a band-aide approach to your transportation needs. You accept risks, and you simply want to save money in the end. 

Second, never buy just based on the price. It has to have some presence of lasting. If the vehicle inspection was just done.....fine. If the inspection was ten months ago.....you might want to ask a lot of questions. You have to figure the car will be at least twelve years old, have some rust, and have a funny smell inside. Smoke coming out the tail-pipe? Walk away. Leaking oil? Walk away.

Third, you ought to have a local mechanic that you trust.....and just have the car looked at for two minutes by this guy on the lift. He'll spot any serious rust (it's not doors or side of the car you really need to worry about). He'll tell you about oil leaks. If he says nothing obvious, then you might have a pretty good deal.

Fourth, rust on German cars is fairly common after fifteen years. So don't get excited about that.  You typically spot it on the back window area, or around the doors....occasionally, the fender.  It snows in Germany, and they use a fair amount of salt.  They will tell you that newer vehicles have better protective coating than thirty years ago, which is true.  Back in 1977....a car would typically be rusted out by twenty years of use.

Fifth, from the top down.....Mercedes and Audi cars tend to last longer and stay in better shape. So a fourteen year old Mercedes might actually be in great shape for its age but down in the junker status. BMW and Volkswagen....probably at the second level.  BMWs always have some weird electrical issue after about eight to ten years.....while they look great and avoid rust for some odd reason.  The VW?  Well.....they run forever, and parts never appear to be a problem.....but if they started out at 20k Euro brand new....figure they hit the 1,500 Euro level by the tenth year.  Opel, French cars, Italian cars, and British cars.....well....a lesser choice for the junker. The thing about Opels is always the body and rust....it's cheaper metal and they all have some element of rust by twelve years.  I would probably shy away from any Italian car that is over fifteen years old. A tip on the Audi brand.....they all burn oil from day one.....typically one can of oil every four to six months....just accept that as part of the deal for an Audi (keeping a can of oil in the trunk).

Sixth, don't worry about the car seats, the carpet, or the interior. Remember, this is purely for getting to work and nothing else.

Seventh, a fancy Mercedes 300S series? Well....it could be a junker, but here's the thing. It had a lot of special extras. These tend to break. How much are you willing to pay per year? If you are a true junker enthusiast.....then your general limit of maintenance cost is one thousand Euro per year. This means you ought to repair/maintain the battery, the lights, the muffler, the starter, the generator, the alternator, the brake-pads and the wipers. Transmission issues? Forget it and junk it. Got issues with burning oil? Count the days and figure if you get thirty to forty more days of use....it'll be worth it, and you just junk it. Don't even think about a two thousand Euro repair job.

Eighth, don't put huge expectations on long travel with a junker. Limit your travels to just the local region. Dependability to drive from Frankfurt to Munich is something you don't want to consider with a junker.

Ninth, cracks on the window. It's an interesting topic. You can have a small crack on the window and get by via the inspection system. A crack longer than your hand? Forget about passing. The smaller spider-like cracks? A local glass shop can do some work and maybe fix it enough to pass inspection for roughly 50-80 Euro. New window? Well.....if you want to negotiate with the glass guy....you might get a special deal for 250 Euro but typically....it's a 400-500 Euro deal if insurance was involved.

Tenth, don't worry about fuel efficiency. Junkers aren't important when it comes down to fuel. Figure you get 20 mpg with just about any standard 4-cylinder German car. That's acceptable.

My best junker story? I worked with a guy who paid roughly $1,500 for his French Renault which was around twelve years old. He put some seat covering onto the seats (they were crap), a nice smelly device (mildew was an issue), and then changed the oil faithfully every four thousand miles. The car lasted five years. He never drove it faster than 100 kph and actually washed it once a month. Now, he never drove more than 700 miles a month....stayed local....and typically did most repairs himself. He'd openly brag that he never spent more than $800 a year on total maintenance. He sold the car for $1000 as he left Germany at the end of five years. That was a five-star junker.

My worst junker story? I knew a guy who'd found a terrific Porsche 914 from around the mid-1970s. It was around fifteen years old at that point, and the engine was totally shot. He picked up the car for roughly $1k. He spent around $6k by the end....to put a brand-new engine into the car. Six months later, there was a $2k deal to totally rebuild the brake system. A month or two later....there was $1k for a muffler job. After two years, he'd put almost $12k into the car to keep it operational. The thing was....it did have some rust, and the market value at the end just didn't relate to the $12k and the $1k original price. He sat there....trying to sell it for a fairly decent price, but no one was going to pay for all the repairs he'd done. So he essentially lost most of his investment in the car at the end.

So, if you get to Germany and make this decision about a junker.....just remember, this isn't a car that you want to get attached to or want to put big cash to keep it running. Yeah, you might be able to get that Mercedes 300S that you always dreamed of.....but don't put a lot of faith in a fifteen-year old car.

Germans and Tax Evasion

Well, there is this little thing about Germany and tax evasion.  If you can do it, and get away with it.....then why not?

My prospective is that wealthy Germans throughout the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.....were conducting tax evasion at a sophisticated level.  You swung deals where some part of it was involving cash.  Your associate paid the cash.....you stored it in a safe in the basement....and then you or your associate made a trip to the Swiss Alps for a vacation.  You crossed the border....visited your Swiss banker, and grinned as you avoided taxes on several hundred thousand D-Marks.  It was simple.

Well....(again, my prospective), somewhere in the 1980s....the middle class guys came to figure out that they could play the cash game, and they found dozens of ways of avoiding taxes as well.

This all led to a point where the Zollamt folks (your friendly tax folks) realized how big a mess this was.  Naturally, you can't allow everyone to play this game.

So for the past two decades, there's been some pretty heavy attempts by the Zollamt, to squeeze out the tax evasion crowd....both at the wealthy level and the middle-class level.

An example....your plumber Huns.....does alot of cash-only jobs on Saturdays.  Twice a year, he has twenty thousand Euro to transport over to Luxembourg.  Huns puts the money into a coffee can within his RV trailer and intends to drive across.  Sadly....about 200 meters before the border....the customs folks are set up, and ask to look at the RV trailer.  They find the twenty thousand Euro in 500 Euro bills within the can.  Questions pop up....and Huns has to cancel his vacation while his lawyer tries to clean up the mess.

Some experts will come along and try to talk you along to a Pacific Island "hidden-asset" situation.  You buy some property....funneling your hidden assets to some third-party here in Germany....and eventually, you quietly move off to the Pacific with no one ever figuring out your hidden millions.

How many Germans play the evasion game?  Well....you just don't know.  The Zollamt will give you a figure but if you really ask them how they arrived at this....it's simply an imaginary number that they play with.  They know how many people they bust at the border.  They have a fair idea about hidden accounts in Switzerland.  To them.....there's some stats they feel good about.

A comparison between the Germans and Greeks?  I've been to Crete and spent two weeks on vacation.  I kinda know the small gimmicks they use, and I've spent a fair amount of time reading up on general Greek business operations.  My humble impression is that seventy-five percent of all Greeks will perform some type of tax evasion in their life.  No, I can't prove this via statistics....it's just an opinion.  Greeks will evade taxes because they really don't think the tax rate is fair, and the tricks they use are fairly simple.   It doesn't take a Greek rocket scientist to figure out a way to hide a thousand Euro in profit over a July weekend with his little bar on the beach.

Germans?  The bulk of Germans go out and generally play fairly on taxes.....mostly because they don't fall into business areas where you can cheat.  Plumbers, roofers and carpenters?  They have the ability to work evenings and weekends.... accumulating extra cash which is under the radar of the authorities.  The small business man?  Same story.  Millioniares?  It's a bit tougher, but they can sort out 300k Euro here and there.....and move it quietly out.  Tens of millions in a year by one guy?  No, I would seriously doubt that.

The thing about tax evasion is that people do believe that they are paying too much, and they can't convince any political figure to go along with their understanding.  The politicians use the money to hand out various social programs and make people happy.  They can only make happiness....with money collected.  Lost tax revenue, denies people their happiness.....it's a political logic.

So evasion.....in Greece, and Germany.....is going to continue.  As smart as the Zollamt gets....the tax evader team will just shift their tactics around.  Eventually.....some Russian Mafia guy will figure out a way to run a nifty Swiss-style bank in Russia and offer to transport evasion money into Russia....creating numbered accounts there, and the Germans government will have virtually no way of getting at the Russian banks.  I'm not saying this is a smart thing.....but it's going to be the end result in twenty years.  My humble analysis.

The Passing of the Ballerina

Around eight days ago....there was this side note in most German newspapers of Silvia Seidel passing.  If you went talking to any German under thirty....they really knew little to nothing about her.  If you talked to people who were in the teens around 1987.....they remember everything.  

There around Christmas of 1987....the German state channel....ZDF....produced this mini-series called Anna.  There were six episodes to it....each around fifty minutes.  For some reason, everyone got hooked on the series and Silvia....the kid working herself up to the local ballet company....it attracted national attention.  You might call the series geared toward teens and grandmothers, but it worked.  It was a major success on German TV.

The series won awards, and was the major talk in January of 1988.

Silvia Seidel ended up trying to launch herself into the US in 1989.  Nothing much happened.  Whether it was bad luck, limited help by the agent, or just no real vehicle to fit for her style.....that 1989 trip was mostly a failure.

So Silvia came back to Germany.  Over the next two decades, she found a short acting spot in various German TV series and hooked up with a number of theater roles.  None were connected to long-term stability or economic success.  They simply paid the bills for that year.  She had to keep launching herself at new small roles to ensure some stability in life.

The awards and dynamic future?  Well....they all kinda ended by 1989.  For someone reaching a dramatic success by her late teens....there was probably this great lofty goal established, but nothing really shown for all the work.

So each year passed, and Silvia just never got back her luck or major presence.

Down at a local pub in Munich around the first week of August....the locals noted that she wasn't showing up for her customary drinks.  Cops were called, and busted down her apartment door.  She was dead, from a suicide (the note kinda laid out the issues confronting her).  She just wasn't going to get ahead in life off the minor work she was doing, and she had figured that out. There wasn't a plan "B" or way to get stability.

You can write a thousand lines over this story.  Young girl discovers fame and fortune, then falls into a valley of sorrows and woes.  The problem with the German entertainment industry.....they only have X number of channels and X amount of money to toss around.  If you can hook up....even as the number six player on some five-year contract for a TV detective series....it pays a regular check and you can keep your face in public view.  After five years.....maybe another five-year TV show contract will pop up and keep you with a regular check.  After that.....it's not much to brag about.

So, you are left with this great fantastic story that started around December of 1987, and you end up with this sad ending in 2012.  There should have been something better to end on.....but this is the way of life.

The Circle Business

Years ago when I first started driving in Germany.....I had two worries.  One was driving at high speeds (like 90 mph) on a regular basis.  Most Americans are trained to readily accept 65 to 75 mph, and it's no big deal.  But if you get on an autobahn....90 mph is a bit different.  You need absolute concentration, and you have to pay attention to signs and cars in front of you.  I eventually got used to the idea, but I rarely if ever.....drove at 90 mph.

The second worry, which I've never gotten over....is the traffic circle business.

Here's the thing, if you have only one circle in front of you.....you have to pay absolute attention to the options.  If you have a double-circle (like in the photo).....there better be a second person in the car.  Generally, you just won't be able to comprehend the amount of data presented in the seven seconds you have before reacting.

If you screw up?  Well....that means you have to re-enter the circle yet again.  And your stress level is maxing out by this point.

I will admit....after a while, especially in small towns where circles are part of the atmosphere.....it's a terrific device and I'd suggest to bring it into the US.  As for high speed roads?  No.....it becomes a problem because you really have to know where you are going and get yourself into the right lane.  Trying to stay in the far right lane to make the third turn-out?  Well....that's illegal (by the German book).  So read up on circles and make sure you grasp the simple rules.

The Martin

The European Pine Martin is this nifty little creature that you might bump into via some unusual circumstances, while living in Germany.  

For Americans....he's about the size of a squirrel....generally friendly, but you don't want to pet him or try to house-train him.

Here's the thing....he loves cabling on cars.  He'll chew on just about any type of cabling that you can find.

So you walk out of your house....to your two-year old car, and discover that it won't start.  The ADAC guy comes out....eventually after thirty minutes....he points to a cable which has been chewed on, and says "Martin".  So now you know what the heck he is referring to.

What can you do?  Well....parking your car in the garage is recommended.  If you can't do that.....then visit your local car parts store and discuss Martins with them.  They generally have a spray, which you spray around the bottom of the car, and for a couple of weeks...it'll work.  Yeah, you might eventually need a bottle every two months.

Generally, you don't have them unless you live near a forested area or a farm region.  Living in the 'burbs'?  Don't worry....it's doubtful that they will ever show up.

Don't blame every car issue on the Martins.  You can still have a bad battery or a cable that just plain broke.  But once the ADAC guy or the Mechanic says Martin.....you better get smart on the little creature.  He will return.

I should add....the ammonia trick and the Louisiana Hot Sauce trick.....work to a lesser degree.  I've known people to try both.  The Hot Sauce idea tends to be expensive....even if you mix in a fashion of twenty percent hot sauce and eighty percent water.

Libertarians in Germany?

Zeke Turner put out an interesting article in the SFGate....which brings up the topic of libertarians in Germany.  Frankly, if you walked around a decade ago....it'd be awful hard to find anyone who could even describe a libertarian, let along....say that they might be of that political persuasion.

Over the past couple of years, with economic upheaval and some pretty heavy discussion over politics, business, and economics.....there is this small trend building over libertarians.  Some Germans are finally getting around and asking stupid questions of banks, businesses, and politicians.  The answers aren't making them happy.

In 1957 when Atlas Shrugged came out....the public came face to face with a book which posed some interesting scenarios, and triggered people to think about what was going on around themselves.

To be honest, I have the prospective that most Germans are firmly entrenched into political stance A, B, C, or D.  There's around forty different political cookie "forms" in existence in Germany....with six of them substantial or national.  The rest?  Minor league operations, but if you were truly unique in your political thought process....you'd likely find a party in existence....who'd welcome you to their monthly meetings and perhaps even make you a village representative for the party.

The concept of being a libertarian would be a problem in Germany.  The chief thought of a libertarian....is that there ought to be almost no government at all....or the just basic functions at best.  Anything beyond that....simply isn't required, if you believe in the concept.  For a German.....that's asking a lot.  Germans want rules, laws, and standards.  It'd be almost impossible to conceive of a local government having only limited rule and almost no standards.

How would you build bike paths?  How would limit noise for beer fests?  How would you limit teenagers out on the street after ten at night?  How could you allow farmer markets to operate by just throwing open the local park?

The other side of this thinking might interest Germans.  For example....with all the rules that existed.... economic and bank failures in 2008 still occurred.  With the thousands of pages of safety regulations for the autobahn....a thousand-odd folks still die by some violation of the regulations.  With all the gun control rules that stand in place....nuts still come to acquire guns and shoot innocent Germans.

My guess is that Germans could come in some small numbers....maybe five percent....to embrace libertarians ideals.  A political party out of this?  I kind of doubt it....if you already have forty parties, why invent yet another party?