I'm visiting Deutschland this coming summer. Anyone from the Bundesrepublik: What should I know?

How to drink beer

Well you should learn German so you don't get lost.

Also, what Kimsland said about drinking alot of beer.

and also...you should know that Autobahn + fast car = real fun.

You should also check aout what areas are off limits. There are still a few areas that are pretty rough and they don't like Americans. It'll save you a lot of grief.

where will you go and what will you do there?
every city/region is different and people act/react different there.
I can give you some advice if you tell me some more

cheers, mscrx

LEARN GERMAN! I went there last May, and I was always taking the wrong trains. It's very easy to get confused with the trains because they're so incredibly on time. They seriously arrive within seconds of the time it says on the ticket.

Here's an example:

You wait 20 minutes for a train that comes at say, 10:30 AM. A train comes at 10:27. You get on, assuming this is your train. An hour later you get off in a totally different location than you meant to.

Here's what happened:

The train that came at 10:27 left at 10:29, and the 10:30 train came in right after it left, right on the dot at 10:30.

Hopefully you can understand what I mean... that exact thing happened to me numerous times, just because I couldn't read the signs that explained where the trains went, all I knew was the time MY train left.

i knew germans were punctilious but i couldn't imagine they are [I]that[/I] punctilious

and the advice to thebaronjocelin: avoid any nazi jokes

don't know where that was but the "deutsche Bahn" is everything but in time!
maybe the 10.30 train was the train that was supposed to arrive at 10.00.
well for the train station case you don't need to learn german. all you need is open eyes and the ability to read a name - the name of where you want to go.
you can also ask people, preferably between 20 and 40 years of age. they speak english (at least school english).

you don't need to worry about nazi jokes! nobody else makes more nazi jokes than the germans. thats because 90% of the germans did not take part in the war which is more than 60 years ago now. plus there is 20% foreigners living in germany...
but that doesn't mean they will love you if you make nazi jokes all the time!

well, depending on were you are in germany people act different and of course speak different dialects. something might sound angry but it wasn't meant to. something might sound funny but.. you know the game.

best practice is to be yourself and if you don't understand something just ask and learn.

from my experience americans have good chances in germany. their way of saying "thank you" and "appriciate that" is more than germans expect. germans find that very polite!


so, I am open for questions because I am from germany and I work for an american company and see americans all the time

Well two things I have to say... When I went to Germany, those trains were just ridiculous. I can't believe how well timed they were... maybe it was just the part of Germany I was in...

And also, I would have read the names of the locations, but the trains don't say what city or town they're going to, just the name of the station, which I cannot read, because I don't speak German. Maybe I just wasn't looking at the right signs.

Make sure you know a thing or 2 about Michael Schumacher

Under no circumstances should you dress up as Hitler and goose-step down a Munich street.

Not even under the pretense that you are a member of the Prince Harry fan-club

Lol! Nice one Finchy.

I promise you: people would have a quick look at you, smile and go on...
I lived 8 years in Munich and still work there... believe me Adolf sponsors so many jokes here. and as I said before, more than 60 years after the war people see this topic as history, not as their life.
the only thing germans do not like is to get blamed by others for what their grand parents did (not often as free will) and to still pay others a huge amount of money year by year for the same bs.

Becareful of old german ladies. By old german ladies i mean my grandmother who is the crazy type who you just may see if you have mighty luck if youvisit at the same time