Progressive Laws, Outdated Mindsets: The Cultural Clash in Germany
Unravel the contradictions of German society as it grapples with modern laws but clings to traditional values—what's really at stake?
A Letter from a frustrated German Person….
Ah, Bargeld—Germany’s unshakable love affair with cash, transcending generations, persisting like an ancient ritual. It’s 2024, and while much of the world taps their phones and watches to pay, Germany clutches its EC-Karten and Girocards like artifacts fr
om a simpler time. The obsession is so ingrained that even trying to pay digitally in some rural parts feels like pulling out alien technology.
Take my recent dinner at a modern Vietnamese restaurant. The meal was great, the atmosphere perfect. When the bill came, I confidently tapped my Apple Watch to settle up. But the machine blinked with disdain, rejecting my MasterCard debit—“Other card, please.” Cue the confusion, as my friends stared like I’d tried to pay with a library card. “How do you not have an EC-Karte?” they asked, as if I had just announced I don’t believe in gravity. I felt like I’d landed in the Bermuda Triangle of payment methods—trapped between old-world traditions and modern convenience.
And it’s not just this one incident. Everywhere I go, it’s the same story: “Nur EC-Karte oder Bargeld.” My international banks stopped issuing EC-Karten years ago. In most other places I’ve been—hell, even in the Kalahari Desert—I could pay for goods with my Apple Watch no problem. But here in the heart of Europe? Nope. I return from Hannover—a relatively forward-thinking city—to Einbeck, where the local Sparkasse ATM at Rewe just closed permanently. Cash still rules in such places, making it feel like I’m traveling back to a different era every time I head home.
It’s not just the convenience issue. It’s about the mindset—a deeply ingrained paranoia about anything that isn’t paid for with cold, hard cash. A few days ago at the supermarket, after paying with my watch, the person behind me remarked, “Oh, letting everyone track your purchases, huh?” Like the government cares about my organic apples and mineral water. It’s almost absurd how much Germans trust cash to safeguard their freedom. Meanwhile, in countries like Kenya, you can pay for groceries and bus tickets with a tap on your mobile phone, no fuss, no drama. Here, Bargeld still symbolizes a sense of privacy and control, even though the reality is quite the opposite.
But it doesn’t stop at payments. Germany’s relationship with technology feels stagnant in other areas, too. For example, I regularly travel between Einbeck and Hannover, a short 56-minute train journey. And yet, for 10 minutes of that ride, I lose cell service entirely. Let that sink in. I lose connection within Germany, while I stood in the middle of the Kalahari Desert—hundreds of miles from any civilization—with full LTE signal. In Southern Africa, I had 5 bars and could stream, download, pay, anything I wanted. But on a modern German train? Forget it.
It’s ironic, isn’t it? Germany is known for its engineering prowess—a land of innovation and precision manufacturing. And yet, when it comes to digital payments and connectivity, it’s like the country hit pause in the 1980s and forgot to hit play again. Girocards—a relic of European banking from decades ago—are still hailed as cutting-edge. It’s hard not to laugh when you think about the contrast: in places like Southern Africa, a region often stereotyped as ‘developing,’ they’re leaps and bounds ahead when it comes to embracing the digital world.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I appreciate tradition as much as the next person, and I can see the charm in using cash from time to time. But when it becomes a requirement, it feels less like a quaint habit and more like an unnecessary burden. The rest of the world has moved on. So why is Germany still stuck? Is it a fear of losing control, a love for the old ways, or simply resistance to change?
And speaking of change—while we may be lagging behind in digital payments, there is one area where Germany is seemingly ahead: its laws regarding gender self-determination. I carry an X in my passport for non-binary identity, something that was a product of legal progression. The Federal Constitutional Court recognized the inequality and gave the government a deadline to fix it. And so, it happened—no fight, no struggle. And yet, socially? It’s as if nobody got the memo. Germany may have progressive laws, but society hasn’t quite caught up. It’s a strange juxtaposition—legally forward, yet socially lagging, much like the contrast between Bargeld and the modern world.
And that, right there, might be the heart of the matter. For all its modern laws and technological advancements, there’s a deep cultural resistance to change in Germany. Whether it’s paying for your Brötchen with cash or adapting to gender diversity, it seems that many people prefer to stick to what they know, even when the rest of the world is speeding ahead. Laws can change, but they don’t instantly shift the way people think—or treat each other. And that, my friends, is the real challenge.
Despite the much-celebrated progressive laws, like Germany’s forward-thinking self-determination act, the reality of daily life here—where people struggle with anything beyond their beloved EC-Karte or outdated mindsets—makes me want to leave not because of the laws, but in spite of them.
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As a fellow German I could only smile and nod and think Yep, you're right. I love traditions and don't need everything to be digitalized and high-end tech -- but the point is...a country like Germany is falling behind...if it doesn't catch up quickly.