10 INTERESTING AND WEIRD FACTS ABOUT GERMANY
10 Interesting And Weird Facts About Germany
Thought you knew Germany, didn’t you? Thought that all there is to Germany are sausages, beer, a strong economy, and a football team that won a World Cup, didn’t you? Think again.
Whilst to the uninitiated Germany seems like a perfectly normal country that most of us would consider visiting for a nice, quiet break, it is actually a country that is home to some weird and downright bizarre secrets. Germany is certainly a country where there is much more than meets the eye. So join us as we uncover everything weird and wonderful about our Bavarian cousins.
Everything In Germany Is Closed On Sundays
Well, except church and pubs. And brothels as well. But we won’t go into brothels – at least not yet. But Germany is still a surprisingly religious country that adheres to certain religious precepts, such as Sunday being set aside for a day of rest. So if you happen to go on vacation in Germany and decide that all those souvenirs you planned on buying can wait until Sunday, you might want to rethink that plan.
In Germany There Are Fake Bus Stops
There is a good reason for Germany having fake bus stops. Because Alzheimer’s causes sufferers to lose correct cognitive ability and functioning, it can cause them to wander off without telling anyone where they are going. Unfortunately, sufferers aren’t sure where they are heading to, but more often than night they try to catch public transport, such as buses. To help carers and family members to track down the sufferer, fake bus stops were erected. The hope was that the sufferer would make their way to said bus stops, and would thus be easily located. Naturally, for anyone who isn’t German, unwittingly standing at a fake bus stop could turn into a huge source of frustration, disappointment and anger! You could literally be standing there for days.
The Government Is Allowed To Ban Baby Names It Doesn’t Like
Germany is really strict when it comes to naming your child. Unlike in America, where you can name your kiddie-wink Dakota, the civil registration office refuses outright any name that does not hint at the gender of your child. This means you can’t name your kid after your favourite German city, such as Monchengladbach. Shame!
So yeah, your kids name has to indicate their gender, such as Lucy for a girl or Martin for a boy. But as well as this, there are also well-known names that are banned outright, including Judas. Yep, that’s right, everyones favourite traitor is banned in Germany and if you christen your child Judas, you’ll be forced to change it something plain, such as John.
German people really love beer!
Germans are know to love beer, and on average, they drink around 150 litters per year, per person, probably it’s because they consider a beer to be a basic food.
Germany Is Home To Exploding Toads
Australia might be home to an array of man-eating spiders, whilst Africa might be home to plagues of locusts, but Germany are home to exploding toads. We can’t decide what’s worse, but we’re going to go with randomly exploding toads because that’s pretty, um, gruesome.
The reason that toads occasionally explode in Germany is because clever crows began poking inside the toads to eat their livers. As a defence mechanism, the toads would puff up. Unfortunately, because they by now had a hole, they, um, exploded. It isn’t exactly a great sight for anyone on the beach at the time who was building a sand castle.
Toad for dinner, anyone?
In Germany, Brides Are Kidnapped
Okay, the bride isn’t always kidnapped, but according to rural tradition, the bride must be kidnapped by friends before the wedding. What then happens is the groom has to hunt for her. His quest is made harder by the pesky fiends (sorry, friends), moving the bride from tavern to tavern.
Moreover, at each tavern the groom stops at, he has to buy a drink for himself and his friends. By the time he finds his bride, he is a drunken mess and slurs his way down the aisle. It’s certainly a strange ritual, and we can’t see it catching on in the cities but you never know. Stranger things have happened. Like exploding toads, for example.
The German Language Is Populated By Some Crazily Long Words
Until last year, Rindfleischetikettierungsueberwachungsaufgabenuebertragungsgesetz was still a German word. Roughly translated, it meant ‘law delegating beef label monitoring.’ We’re not sure how often German’s drop this word into their conversations over a few beers, but thank God they decided to abolish it altogether. Still, there are a number of ridiculously long words that exist in their dictionaries, including kraftfahrzeughaftpflichtversicherung, which means ‘automobile liability insurance.’ Basically, German crosswords are very difficult, and take up 10 pages of the newspaper.
Oktoberfest Doesn’t Actually Begin In October
It begins in September. Those original Germans, huh?
German Garbage Men Are Sticklers For Organisation
In America, folk just toss their garbage into a bag and left the garbage men take care of the rest. In Germany, rules are much stricter because these guys are very serious about recoiling. You cannot simply get away with just tossing your garbage away. Instead, you are given six different bins and have to place each particular type of garbage into the designated bin. If you get it wrong, you will have to pay a fine, and a garbage man leaves you an angry note. Sometimes they refuse to pick up your garbage, and instead leave it there for weeks.
Hmm, we’d be a bag of nerves on garbage day in Germany!
Berlin is way bigger than Paris
Berlin, the capital of Germany, dating back to the 13th century, is actually 10 times bigger than Paris and it spans a 891.8 km².
Do you know other interesting facts about Germany?
Stay happy!
from Beauty And Tips Magazine
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