Ask ze German

[Alex K]

I don't remember if this has been covered, but since you have spent time in the U.S., what do you think the biggest misconceptions are that Americans have about Germans?

Hmm. Depends on where you go. So, when I spent time in Midland TX, people, especially the uneducated ones, had the craziest ideas about Germany. A substitute teacher asked me in all seriousness whether w'all got TeyVey or Refrigerators. People had told me stories about that level of misconception before I went, but I had assumed they were exaggerating. In the same category, not everyone was quite sure whether we were all Nazis. Oddly, in west TX, people would not have minded as much as you'd think.
Actually, a bunch of them thought I was russian.  Germans apparently don't look exactly as they expected, possibly bc of weird hollywood casting decisions.
But those are low hanging fruit.

Others think Germans are often inflexible and have no sense of humor. While that is not true for many individuals, I believe there is something to it.

The college crowd in NY was not so much wondering about Nazis and Refrigerators, but was more interested in the prevalence of scat porn - which is arguably not as high as the average frat boy would like to think.

After 9/11 and the whole freedom fries thing, many Americans I encountered were afraid that they would be hated in Germany. In reality, most Germans while pissed off by Bush, (at least secretly) love America. The very large numbers of Americans who were stationed there until a few years ago were generally welcomed and are dearly missed economically.

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Ok how about this, you guys write what you think which stereotypical properties Germans have, and I and, as an objective observer, the Austrian guy, comment on it?