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By the Numbers

An Obsession with Statistics

Germans love their statistics. Before you come, be sure you are well-armed. From population to average annual rainfall, your World Cup hosts will want to know it all.

Be sure to brush up on your statistics when in Germany. If you come from a well-known city like Paris or New York, you are off the hook, but should you come from a town or city which your new German friends have never heard of, make sure you know everything there is to know about your city.

Germans love statistics. It is their way of getting a feel for wherever you hail from. The questions usually start with: What's the population of your city? Anything over a million is regarded with respect; anything more than 10 million is unimaginable for the Germans.

Other popular questions are: What is the size (in square kilometers) of your country or city? What kind of political system do you have? Which religions do you have? What percentage of the population follows a certain religion? What is the unemployment rate?

To be fair, Germans are totally on top of their own statistics. I am pretty sure that they can reel them off in their sleep. It's their way of knowing their country. I attribute this in-depth knowledge, in part, to their love of watching documentaries. Do not be surprised if you find a lot of documentaries on German channels not showing the World Cup.

Due to the documentaries, Germans tend to be well informed about things. Unfortunately then try to apply this knowledge indiscriminately, rather than recognizing, for example, intra-country cultural differences. For example, there is a widespread belief that all Americans eat burgers all the time -- and that they all carry guns. It's sort of the rough equivalent of declaring that all Germans work year-round at the Oktoberfest.

But even if a steady diet of such documentaries may not always result in a nuanced understanding of the particular topic addressed, the point is, a ton of Germans watch them. And can thus talk relatively intelligently about a vast array of topics. They expect you to be able to join them.

So study up before you go. Discussions can sometimes feel like a test. And if you can't answer the first couple of questions, you will have failed. Time is running short, hit the books now.

Contributed by Prachi Kadam in Düsseldorf.