As the whole world believes, Germany is a country of order, of diligent and law-abiding citizens
As "Russkaya Germaniya" notes, one of the main disappointments for a foreigner in Germany is precisely the lack of one hundred percent order. Trash lies around on the streets of big cities. Public transport is shamelessly late. Citizens jaywalk on red lights. Police turn a blind eye to minor offenses (during the coronavirus quarantine in Berlin's red-light districts where drugs are sold, the police only made sure that drug dealers maintained social distance and did not hand goods to buyers hand-to-hand). What is happening, Lord, where is the country heading?
The phrase "Ordnung muss sein" has indeed been inscribed in the history and culture of Germany for many centuries: it belongs to the father of the Reformation, Martin Luther. 500 years ago he wrote: "Ordnung muss sein unter den Leuten" – "There must be order among the people." According to Dr. Wolfram Pyta, head of the Department of Modern History at the University of Stuttgart, the great monk-reformer meant only that one should obey the higher authority, observe divine commandments, and not schedule all worldly life from morning to evening according to rigid rules. But the laity also "caught up."
"Order is a Prussian life value," says cultural scientist Christina Röttgers. "It is associated with equality, with responsibility, punctuality, work, and honesty that are mandatory for everyone, from king to peasant." Röttgers emphasizes that rules can also be unwritten: among Germans, they are so ingrained in everyday life that there is no point in specifying them separately. This often surprises new immigrants who have yet to master the local way of life: they find it hard to understand life laws that are nowhere written down but are considered self-evident.
Luther's saying gained new popularity in the early 1930s: the last president of the Weimar Republic, Paul von Hindenburg, loved this phrase and often used it in political debates. In 1934, Time magazine put Hindenburg's portrait on its cover with these words. However, by 1934, Germany had already been ruled for a year by another man, and he intended to spread his new order to the whole world…
After the fall of the Third Reich, Germany underwent a powerful and painful process of denazification. Its goal was not only to eradicate Nazi beliefs at the root but also to change the very psychological structure that allowed what happened to happen. This included excessive diligence and law-abidingness: after all, Hitler's inhuman orders were also carried out diligently and obediently.
According to many researchers, this trait of the German character was then sought to be erased: they say, learn to think for yourself, even if you have a law or an order, think for yourself whether it is worth carrying out. And the Germans – yes, obediently – began to learn to think for themselves, whether all rules should be obeyed.
The subsequent waves of immigration – Polish, Turkish, post-Soviet – diluted the German population and brought an additional note of relaxation. As a result, the degree of law-abidingness and inclination to order in German society seems to have noticeably decreased, while the degree of carelessness has increased.
But not entirely.
A foreigner renting an apartment in Germany for the first time will be shocked by the number of rules in the rental agreement. Trash must be sorted; in the kitchen, there are at least three garbage bins – for plastic, paper, and food waste. Noise is allowed from 8 am to 8 pm (until 10 pm "quiet noise" is permitted; after ten, be quieter than a mouse), and you also have to observe a quiet hour in the middle of the day.
Even dogs are required to maintain order: there is no separate law on this, but there is a precedent – a court ruling that a dog has the right to bark "no more than 10 minutes at a time and no more than 30 minutes in total per day." For violating community rules, neighbors may call the police: this is not "snitching" but "responsible citizen behavior."
However, in reality, life in Germany offers options for every taste. And it's not just that "the severity of laws is compensated by the non-mandatory nature of their enforcement," but also that in Germany you can actually do everything or almost everything. The main thing is to find the right place. And you can find one for almost any whim.
Want to walk naked? In parks, there are specially designated areas where nudists sunbathe, and on the sea coast and lakes, there are nudist beaches where, on the contrary, a person in swim trunks will be looked at with surprise. Want to write an obscene word on the remains of the Berlin Wall? At your service is a specially designated section of the wall where you are allowed to write and draw anything. Want to use drugs and have sex with anyone? Any nightclub will provide you with such an opportunity, just have fun in the rooms designated for that.
"Ordnung ist das halbe Leben" (Order is half of life) – says a German proverb. But it has a continuation: "Unordnung die andere Hälfte" (And disorder is the other half). Germany has a rich history of revelry: the golden 1920s with their hedonistic parties, the student revolts of the 1960s, and the early 1990s, when "poor but sexy" Berlin was a haven for impoverished and cheerful musicians and artists.
Today's Germans are not so much obedient as pragmatic: they treat order as a convenient way to organize public life. And as for going crazy – go crazy as you like, as long as it doesn't bother others.