Why I'm embarrassed to be German

Using Britain as a reference to a well-functioning nation from a policy/leadership perspective is kind of wild.

You know Germany has gotten bad when the Germans start joking.

I've been working in a German company now for 6 years. The biggest issue is that achieving goals is not the priority, but following a process. And when something is performing poorly, you like better adding more process rather than thinking what is the best way to achieve the goal. At the end you work for the process.

I visited Germany in August 2023. I bought one month train subscription, a mistake happened and it ended up taking from me the price of 2 months instead of one. I emailed the transport company, 4 times and they took 6 months to answer me!! 6 freaking months! The issue got solved and closed in June 2024! Almost 11 months after my first email!! There is something seriously wrong with whatever is going on there!

Calling the UK a “healthy country” was a lesson in the finest sarcasm.

The character pointed at a broken elevator sign and said "this is the empire declining". The person he was talking to thought he was exaggerating, but he went on to explain: if low cost but highly visible repairs are being neglected, what do you think happens to the high cost invisible ones? If infrastructure is decaying, the empire is already falling. From Asimov's Foundation.

I've lived and worked 6 years in Germany as a construction engineer. I had to flee for a thousand reason

As others have said it is not just Germany. I am in the UK and with all the delays it took me 11 hours to travel 100 miles on public transport. At one point the bus driver announced he had to stop for 45 minutes as he had reached the legal limit he was allowed to drive for. This of course resulted in missing the next connection and thus another hours delay waiting for the next bus and so it went on...

I used to work for a German company. They closed 2 factories in Germany and 1 in Poland and opened new factories in India. And they boasted that they "reduced emissions".

You walk from Germany to Czech through the woods. How do you recognize that you have reached Czech Territory? Your phone has network.

Of course, this is your opinion. My opinion is that I am a Brit who came to Germany 50 years ago and I'm still here. I am shocked when I visit my working-class family because of the stress they live under and the lack of many of the comforts I have in Germany. My brother commented on the fact that all the walls in buildings in Germany are solid and not just wood and plaster. So it is really just a question of where you look and whose company you keep.

As a german: THX for calling out the idiotic idea to shut down nuclear energy in a situation, where we DONT have enough substitute energy... Its like destroying the own home and then realize "oh, we didnt build the conplete new home yet. Just the basement and half a wall..."

As an American, seeing a German referring to the UK as healthy is mind bending.

I’m American. When it comes to embarrassment, you are amateurs.

The problem in Germany is over bureaucracy, lack of speed in taking decisions and acting

The "electric highway" sounds like someone wanted to make a electric freight train but of course had to be car centric

We thought that us Italians would eventually catch up with Germany. Turns out they are catching up with us.

I'm afraid Sabine isn't loud enough. Not only Germany, but the whole of EU is reacting far too slowly to global developments.

I am a german living in Austria. In order to obtain a new passport, the geman consulate asked me to provide a "Meldezettel", a kind of registration certificate. So I went with a certificate to the german consulate that was generated by an electronical process carrying a signing number on it. I showed it to the clerk, and it was rejected.... They wanted me to provide a registration certificate with stamp and signature - without words.... When I showed up in the municipal administration and asked for it, they laughed at me.

I'm still moving to Mecklenburg/Vorpommern. Freaking mesmerized by that country. Dysfunction is universal.