Germany is a bold and unique country full of polite and orderly people. The population is large, the history is wide and the culture is deep and in turn there are many interesting facts of Germany.

I’m going to list some food facts about Germany and then some other unique facts about Germany I learned for myself while travelling there. This is in no way an exhausted list. I imagine the amount of fun Germany facts is as full as the German dictionary!

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Things to Know About Germany & Fun Facts On Germany Food and Drink

After only previously going to Berlin in Germany, I recently spent over three weeks exploring Erfurt, Weimar, Munich, Eisenach and Nuremberg.

While there, we spent a lot of time with our German friends and therefore got to learn a few things about their culture, the German food culture and language. A big shout out to our lovely, Erfurt friends who taught me everything I know about their homeland.

Fun Facts About Germany Food & Drink

Here are my favourite German food facts and drink culture!

Germany Facts About Food

Popular German food includes bratwurst, spätzle, potato dumplings, sauerkraut, schnitzel and strudel.

Don’t forget that in Germany, beer is food and there’s lots of options to choose from. I’ve even tried beer with banana flavours.

German sausage known as Bratwurst is the most popular German food and the best street food sausage you’ll ever have! Try it multiple times. And add mustard for the real deal.

It’s common to see hollandaise sauce and broccoli on pizza and call it a ‘dutch pizza’ (but it’s not found in Holland and is definitely a German thing).

German bread (brot) is good. Try the onion bread from a local bakery. In Erfurt you can only get this on a Friday or Saturday!

One of the best fun facts about German food is that in the run up to Easter, you’ll see lots of coloured eggs in the supermarkets and these are just normal chicken eggs but painted different colours in celebration. 

Döner Kebabs are extremely common in Germany and extremely delicious (pronounced dur-nuh).

German supermarkets have some good chocolate. Did you know Kinder is German? But my favourites are Pick Ups and Knoppers. Yum!

Fun Facts of Germany Drinks

Everyone drinks beers on the street. There are bottle shops all over called ‘spät’ which translates as ‘late’ because they are open late. They are found everywhere and you get a beer to walk with or hang out on the street with. It’s a really enjoyable activity and one of the cool facts about Germany is that walking with a beer has a name called ‘wegbier’.

Mint liquor such as ‘Luft’ in Berlin and another one called ‘feffy’ (although not sure how this is spelled) in Thuringia is popular. Verpoorten egg liquor is also popular and is often taken as a shot from a chocolate cup which you eat after the shot!

Iced coffee has ice cream in it and cream on top which is delicious.

One of the best Germany facts about culture is that you recycle bottles at local supermarkets and get money back for them. If on the street, people leave them outside the bin not in the bin for someone else to recycle.

‘Cheers’ in German is ‘Prost’.

Germany’s wine capital is Mainz and wine tasting is one of the most popular Mainz things to do.

A ‘radler’ is what we call a shandy in the UK as it’s beer with lemonade.

Biergartens are welcome-places for everyone, especially in Munich, but seen all over Germany and the world. In places like markets they are the communal places where you buy the beer at the bar but bring your own food.

When you order one drink, you raise your thumb. When you order two drinks you raise your thumb and index finger and for three drinks it’s your thumb, index finger and middle finger. This was famously portrayed in Inglourious Basterds starring famous Austrian-German actor, Christoph Waltz. 

If a German person likes coffee, they love coffee. And it’s always made from a press never the instant stuff we have in the UK.

Interesting Facts About Germany

Here are some facts about Germany to help you before visiting that will answer questions and prepare you for the German culture.

Cultural Facts About Germany

Germany in their language is ‘Deutschland’ and the population is over 83 million.

Everything is closed on Sundays in Germany including supermarkets so get your groceries in on time. Although this is one of the pros and cons of living in Germany, it’s something you get used to.

Uber isn’t in Germany besides Berlin yet (correct at time of writing).

Cash is King. Almost everywhere prefer Euros over the plastic and some places don’t even take card.

It’s known that people smoke in Europe and Germany is no different. In terms of bars/restaurants in Germany, some people can get a licence for their premises to allow customers to smoke inside though this is uncommon.

They love rules and punctuality. The traffic rules are strictly abided by so don’t ‘jaywalk’ or you’ll be looked down on.

Some of the best inventions are from Germany such as the printing press, contact lenses, aspirin and bicylces. Super German brands include Lidl, Aldi, Puma and Adidas. Both Lidl and Aldi are owned by brothers and Puma and Adidas creators were brothers!

Football is huge in Germany! The German football league is called ‘Bundesliga’.

Interesting Facts on Germany Literature and Language

There are words for everything and often really long words like ‘Justizvollzugsanstalt’ which is the word for ‘prison’. Not as long as this word in the Welsh language though 😉

Two of the best German words are Eichornchen for Squirrel and Glockenspiel for ‘playing of the bells’.

The English language has adopted a few German words such as Doppelganger and Poltergeist!

My favourite fun fact about Germany is that everything is dubbed so Germans would not recognise Daniel Radcliffe’s voice as being Harry Potter at all, but they would recognise the actor who has Dan’s voice.

You will hear ‘ach so’ EVERYWHERE! It roughly means ‘I see’ or ‘ahh okay’.

Another word I love because of its literal translation is ‘Schildkröte’ which is the German word for turtle but literally translates as ‘Shield Frog’.

While Brothers Grimm are famous German writers who gave the world fairy tales like Hansel and Gretel and Snow White there’s more to German literature. Some of the most famous German writers are mostly unknown to foreigners but if you learn and mention the likes of Goethe and Schiller, your German friends will be super impressed.

After learning about Goethe I seen him crop up a few times during my travels such as in the Writer’s Museum in Edinburgh where he said Sir Walter Scott was ‘a great genius who does not have an equal’. I also heard of his famous saying about Naples, when he proclaims everyone can ‘see Naples and die’.

Funny Facts About Germany

Apparently if prisoners successfully escape from prison, they will not be punished because it is German belief for humankind’s want to be free.

They call mobile phones ‘handys’ in Germany and Angela Merkel has been referred to as ‘Handy-Kanzlerin’ because she is an avid text-er.

You may get stared at if you wear a t-shirt or shorts, or both, in March. I’ve also experienced this in Italy in March!

The Disney Sleeping Beauty castle was inspired by the Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, Germany.

Which is your favourite facts on Germany?

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