German writers have been among the most influential in European history.
Work in Germany. 5 Reasons.
Germany has some of the strictest labour laws in Europe. The country has gone to great lengths to try to ensure that workers rights are enshrined in law. This makes it a particularly attractive place to live and work in.
YouTube comments:
“Bildungsurlaub” / educational vacation is limited to 5 days per work-year, but you can combine the educational days of two years to a total of 10 days. In most cases you will have to book a surveyed course to profitize on this regulation. Sick leave with payment through your employer is limited to 7 weeks, after that you will receive “Krankengeld / sick-leave-payment” through your health-insurance which is only 70% of your salary.”
“There are laws for everything. I work for myself. Imagine you earn 200k in a year. More than 40% is going to the gouverment. You also have to pay more for health insurance if you earn more. Same thing with investments like rental objects. And 1000 other things. And now? Energy, food almost everything is getting more expensive. life was good a few years ago.”
Germany and the Love of Privacy
This unwillingness to discuss private time with colleagues reveals both the German distaste for small talk, but also the German desire for privacy.
Germans have a clear and robust sense of what should be in the public domain and what should not, and although there are exceptions for good friends, finding out what your colleagues get up to outside of work requires military grade interrogation techniques.
With waterboarding out of the question, I am left with little recourse other than to linguistically trap colleagues into giving away small details of their lives. The excruciating process of trial and error can last for years, until one day a colleague feels comfortable enough to actually tell you directly what they get up to when not at work.
One sentence. Twelve German dialects.
German is a difficult language to learn as it is, but there are more than 12 German dialects spoken within the country. Some don‘t sound like German at all. If you‘re studying German, think twice!
YouTube comments:
“Fun fact: Plattdeutsch is so far from Hochdeutsch that it is considered as a language of its own. Also, there are many variants of Plattdeutsch itself – some of which I cannot understand, although I grew up with Plattdeutsch. Often, it takes less than 50 kilometers to find a place where you hardly understand the dialect.”
“As an American who learned hochdeutsch fluently. It took me forever to understand what people were saying in Bayern.”
“As someone who can speak the dying Lorraine dialect, I appreciate the inclusion of Letzeburgisch. It is not exactly the same, but closer then any other dialect.”
“Fun fact. In Baden we alone have dozens of dialects, sometimes significantly varying from village to village.”
Police Have Too Much Access to People’s Data, German Court Rules
The Constitutional Court said that the current laws did not do enough to protect personal privacy in the digital realm.
July 2020. BERLIN — The German police and intelligence agencies have excessive access to citizens’ mobile and internet communications, the country’s Constitutional Court said on Friday, ordering the existing laws to be tightened.
It was the latest decision by the court to support personal privacy over public security concerns in the digital sphere, which, taken together, have made the country a world leader in protecting personal privacy.
Critics charge that the string of court decisions could hinder the ability of security services to prevent crimes and terrorist attacks.
The German Federal Goverment
Structure and Tasks.
The eternal know-it-all of Western Europe
Berthold Löffler lived in Poland for a long time. He explains how Eastern Europeans think of Germans
The Weingarten professor is an Eastern Europe expert. In an interview, he explains why countries like Poland and Hungary see the EU on the wrong track.
“Professor Löffler, when it comes to taking in refugees, Germany is usually alone in the lead. The countries of Eastern Europe refuse this humanitarian act. Do you understand that?”
“Absolutely, because politicians should first and foremost represent the interests of their own country. This is exactly what the governments in Warsaw or Budapest are doing. But the Eastern Europeans also have Europe in mind. From this point of view, too, they consider Angela Merkel’s policies to be naïve and without prospects.”
Know-It-All: dealing with Dr. Clever
Every company has them, nobody particularly likes working with them and they can drive every colleague to the brink of despair: know-it-alls. They have to give their two cents on every topic, have a different opinion on everything and no matter who makes a suggestion, the know-it-all will certainly have a better idea ready in his eyes.
You can certainly imagine how quickly this behavior overstrains the nerves of colleagues. But what can you do to defend yourself against the constant know-it-all attitude? Which colleagues tend to be particularly know-it-alls and how you can deal with a Dr. Bypass smartness in your department?
The Data Vice No One Talks About: Data Hoarding
One of the more peculiar subreddits (on a site full of them) is r/DataHoarder. The subreddit’s moderators describe the community as a forum for those suffering from the ‘digital disease’ of data hoarding, the practice of retaining, to an extreme degree, all forms of data.
With more than half a million members, the community prides itself on enabling those who suffer from an inclination to hoard data. One of the top posts is from a verified user who claims to have 87 TB of storage, at a cost of approximately 5,000 dollars.
Moralizers and know-it-alls – German arrogance
If Europe were a school class, the roles would be assigned quickly. There would be the notoriously offended, the rioters, the bullies, the followers and model students. And there would be the know-it-all: This is Germany. Not only does he know everything very well, he also likes to teach his classmates. And he thinks he’s highly moral: sometimes he thinks he’s something better.