Tomalin - Culture smart! Germany : [the essential guide to customs et culture]

Copyright 2015 Kuperard
Revised and updated edition 2015

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted or reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior permission in writing from the publishers.

Culture Smart! is a registered trademark of Bravo Ltd.

ISBN 978 1 85733 711 2
eBook ISBN: 978-1-85733-712-9

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue entry for this book is available from the British Library

First published in Great Britain
by Kuperard, an imprint of Bravo Ltd
59 Hutton Grove, London N12 8DS
Tel: +44 (0) 20 8446 2440 Fax: +44 (0) 20 8446 2441
www.culturesmart.co.uk
Inquiries:

Series Editor Geoffrey Chesler
Design Bobby Birchall

: Lueftlmalerei, traditionally painted building faade, Georg Lang House, Oberammergau, Bavaria. Alamy

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Reproduced under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license: Gizmo23.

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Germany license: Bild:Sven Teschke, Germany Steschke/Logo: Martin Bauss, Bdingen.

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license: Peter Mooney.

Image on pages Shutterstock.

v3.1

BARRY TOMALIN is an English writer and trainer with a B.A. in Anthropology and Linguistics from the University of London. He is an expert on the business culture of Germany, having worked as a consultant with five German companies in Munich, Berlin, and Hamburg. The author of many books on culture and on cultural training, he is currently a module leader on the M.A. program in Media, Technology, and Culture Studies at the University of Westminster in London.

The Culture Smart! series is continuing to expand.
For further information and latest titles visit
www.culturesmart.co.uk

The publishers would like to thank CultureSmart!Consulting for its help in researching and developing the concept for this series.

CultureSmart!Consulting creates tailor-made seminars and consultancy programs to meet a wide range of corporate, public-sector, and individual needs. Whether delivering courses on multicultural team building in the USA, preparing Chinese engineers for a posting in Europe, training call-center staff in India, or raising the awareness of police forces to the needs of diverse ethnic communities, it provides essential, practical, and powerful skills worldwide to an increasingly international workforce.

For details, visit www.culturesmartconsulting.com

CultureSmart!Consulting and CultureSmart! guides have both contributed to and featured regularly in the weekly travel program Fast Track on BBC World TV.

The Culture Smart! guides are written for people who want more than just the nuts and bolts of where to stay, what to see, and how to travel. They deal with the richly rewarding human dimension of foreign travel by telling you about the beliefs and attitudes of the people you will meet and about situations you may encounter. They help you to understand what makes people tick, the values they live by, and the kind of behavior they will reciprocate with goodwill and hospitality.

Germany is a powerful country that in many respects, despite superficial appearances, operates very differently from the USA and Britain. Understanding the nature of the differences will help you to achieve good relationships with the people you meet.

An informed and sympathetic approach is particularly valuable if you are visiting Germany for more than a few days as a casual tourist and need to understand how the Germans live and work. With chapters on core values and social attitudes, and a detailed and practical business briefing, Culture Smart! Germany offers a valuable introduction to the German way of life. It tells you what treatment to expect, what pitfalls to avoid, and how to build rapport and credibility with German people.

While German history is more than a thousand years old, the German nation-state is relatively new. Sir Christopher Meyer, Britains Ambassador to Germany in 1997, wrote in his valedictory comments to the British Foreign Office on his retirement in 2003, This is a complex and multilayered country. I have visited eleven Bundeslnder and only scratched the surface. Germany has astonishing variety and regional differences. It is like having sixteen Scotlands, plus the complexity of having proportional representation. The most stultifying conservatism sits alongside a strong radical and anarchist streak.

The beauty of Germany and the hospitality of its people make it a magnet for visitors from all over the world. This volume sets out to show you how to be a good and sensitive guest. The German people have a strong sense of social responsibility, and the guidelines given in these pages will prepare you to fit in with the social rules and regulations they live by in order to ensure a secure and harmonious lifestyle.

Culture Smart! Germany will help will open doors for you and will, we hope, lead you toward a lasting relationship with this culturally rich, varied, and inventive people at the heart of Europe. Enjoy the journey!