If you sat and asked non-Germans to assess German culture and identify ten descriptive words....I think these ten would be the most recognized: efficient, punctual, traditional, consumed, disciplined, academic, competitive, knowledgeable, cultured, and prosperous.
On this last term....prosperous....you see this on a daily basis.
The German who has built a small business up....wants a house to show his status in life. He or she wants a car to fit their 'landscape'. This is the German who vacations off in Thailand, or takes a 3-week cruise around the Pacific, or lounges on some Brisbane beachfront. This is the person who buys the 20k Euro kitchen. This is the person who pays 200 Euro for two tickets of a musical show in Koln, after dining in a 200 Euro situation with his or her spouse.
German society has thrived under the umbrella of prosperity. They took risks...put the extra hours in....fought with various banks for the best loan rates....looked long and hard for success....grumbled publicly about taxation....continually looked for innovation and the cutting edge....and only admitted defeat when all options were exhausted.
If you go travel around the world, there's always this aura of prosperity existing in most countries you visit, but the place where it flourishes...is Germany.
You go into a neighborhood and kinda notice that it's neat and tidy. You notice that houses have a color scheme and not dull gray (like you'd see in France). You notice that home landscaping is a priority with most German property owners.
So here's the thing. For decades, this model of society has worked. You could make the statement that 'happy Germans' kept society on track (don't ask where this track leads onto). This new threat after the election....of higher prices, longer recession, higher taxes, and lesser prosperity coming? It's not exact a positive thing.
If you were asking me about the one part of German society not to mess with or corrupt....it'd be the prosperity angle. If you can't be prosperous....then that landscape is awful bleak.
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