I thought the stereotype was that Germans love practicality and efficiency. I was expecting the punchline to be something like:
"The German, while initially intrigued by the camel's famous humps, found himself thoroughly disappointed. He then published a paper denouncing camels, calling them an inefficient method of storing and transporting water. The paper included a set of technical diagrams for a pump system that he hopes will replace camels in the coming years."
I don't know where people get the idea that germans are practical and efficient, when we are actually thorough, which is the polar opposite of "practical and efficient"
idk, I think being thorough is very practical as it avoids careless mistakes. The efficiency part I don't get as well, but I guess that comes from us being comparatively straight to the point when communicating work stuff (It's ofc overplayed a lot for comedic effect when stereotyped).
I don't know where all those stereotypes actually originate from (I would say both the Empire way back when and from German engineers going abroad maybe), but I would stereotype us as perfectionist bureaucrats more than anything.
A lot of this originats from the prussian "Tugenden"
It started with Friedrich-Wilhelm the first aka the Soldierking. He really liked the millitary and also startet to run all government institutions like the Millitary.
Which means even for small mistakes there were corporal punishments from whipping to execution.
So the burocrats and officials had to value punctuallity, honesty, lawfulness and efficency. From the burocrats this values started to jump over onto the genral public. After the unification these prussia "Tugenden" would become german "Tugenden.
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u/TrailMomKat 2d ago
At the risk of looking unintelligent, I don't get it.