

Germans and Jaywalking: An American's Perspective on the Berlin Tech Scene - dlitwak
http://www.davidlitwak.com/post/46005218783/germans-and-jaywalking-an-americans-perspective-on

======
wheels
I'm an American that's lived in Berlin for the last 7 years, and run a startup
here. This post is mostly correct; in fact, it's pretty impressive that the
author soaked up the vibe that much in such a short span. But there are a
couple points worth clarifying:

The jaywalking analogy is stretched. Like, the source of it is partly true,
but it's a pretty boring social convention. There are enough places where
Berliners proudly flaunt the law that make Californians seem like straight-
laced prudes.

However, what the argument gets right is that the issue is more cultural than
structural. There are a lot of things that come together to make German
startup-culture somewhat tamer than the US variety, among them less of a drive
for polarized go-big-or-go-home attitude, the historical strength of the
German _Mittelstand_ (medium sized companies) and less tolerance for risk.

Also, the thing on data and Google Maps seems off. I'm not sure why Google
Maps has only recently started to integrate Berlin's subway data, but there
are excellent apps for Android [1] and iOS [2] that accomplish the same (and
are not published by the local transit authority, and I can't imagine that
solo app authors have more clout to get at the data than Google). It seemed a
bit lame to assume that since Google Maps doesn't have the data that it must
be the city's fault.

[1]
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.schildbach....](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.schildbach.oeffi&hl=de)

[2] <https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/berlin-brb/id409357982?mt=8>

------
crucialfelix
OTOH people smoke spliffs in bars and drink beers while bicycling. There's a
strong hacker mentality here. Its anti corporate and there's a distrust of
American style funding and bullshit valuations. Lots of open source people
here.

Many people here work at music technology firms, and those lead the world.
Ableton and Native Instruments employee 400 programmers total. Emagic was from
Hamburg. Soundcloud of course. Somehow these are never mentioned in articles
about Berlin.

There's a lot of activism. wiki leaks has or had many core people here. We
protest and riot without permission. The squats are slowly being evicted one
by one.

And yes, we jaywalk. Maybe not up in prenzlauer.

~~~
buster
MUCH more accurate picture of Berlin.

------
_this
Berlin may not be the best representation of Germany as a whole right now. It
is somewhat of an anomaly and may be the least German city in Germany right
now due to attracting a large number of foreigners (which I'm not saying is a
bad thing). Anecdotal evidence: Last time I was walking through Kreuzberg on a
Saturday night at least half of the people on the streets seemed to speak
English. However, as a German I have to say that he has a point. People not
jaywalking is a symptom of a certain mindset in Germany with regard to rules
and respect for authority. Along with this comes a lack of individual
initiative and risk-averse behaviour. Being self-employed or starting a
company is not seen as something to strive for but to avoid due to its
inherent risks. People will actually give you funny looks when you tell them
that you don't have a 9-5 job and they may actually pity you. When I quit my
job to go freelance, everyone always pointed out the risk of not being in
steady employment but interestingly nobody pointed out the benefits. This is
curious as our social security system is rather extensive (expecially compared
to the US). Even if you fail and fall, you're not going to starve or end up
homeless and it'll be a comparatively soft landing. In theory this should
benefit risk taking, but it does not. In fact, studies show that numbers of
companies being founded and people going freelance go up in times of economic
distress (e.g. '07-'09) and go down in times of a booming economy. When asked,
the people answered that the did it out of necessity and not out of genuine
desire to be independent. So we can conclude that Germans do prefer a 9-5 over
the risk of being on their own despite the social security net. My
interpretation of this is that most German's perception appears to be biased
towards seeing the risks and not the possibilities even when the risks are
objectively much smaller than perceived. Coming back to jaywalking this may
mean that saving a minute or so may in their perception not be worth the risk
of being run over or stopped by the cops however unlikely that may be in
reality.

I also think that this mindset is a bad thing and has larger ramifications in
a world that appears to be changing at an ever increasing pace than most
people realise yet. Germany as an economy is highly dependent on the ability
to export innovative premium products due to the relatively high costs of
labour. Mechanical and chemical engineering are two of the main contributing
sectors when it comes to exports. The extent of this becomes obvious if you
take a look at the 30 stocks in our DAX index most of which stem from these
sectors. What is also obvious is the distinct lack of IT companies. There is
SAP and then there's Infineon, that's it and those are neither new nor
particularly innovative companies. SAP is a 40 year old enterprise software
company. I've never used their products but everybody I know who has, hates
it. They may be very well on the forefront of companies ripe for disruption in
the coming years. Infineon is a chipmaker that was spun off by Siemens (yes,
THAT 165 year old Siemens). They have been struggling for years and had to
spin off some of their departments which subsequently filed for bankruptcy to
save themselves. There is really no company in Germany that would compare to
the likes of Apple, Google or Microsoft in size or innovative potential and
this looks like a major deficit in our economic structure to me. What I find
notable is that nobody in Germany seems to be noticiing or even talking about
this. Given that in the future IT will probably become even more important,
this may very well come back to bite us.

------
subpixel
I lived in Germany for a long time, and have actually been called out by a kid
in a stroller who disapproved of my jaywalking (Rotgänger!).

But my favorite story comes from a friend, an American who lived in Germany in
the 90s. To paraphrase:

A firetruck is in front of an apartment building where, evidently, there had
been a small fire. The scene is basically calm now, the situation dealt with,
and several of the firemen are waiting to climb back into the truck and leave.
But a firehose still runs from the truck, across a bike lane, over the
sidewalk and into the building.

As my friend walks by, she hears crazy, incessant ringing. Turns out it's a
man, on a bike, irate that the bike lane is blocked, demanding that his path
be cleared.

What gets me about that story isn't that the man is batty, not at all. In fact
it reminds me of lots of similar experiences I had in Germany where someone's
iron-clad, inflexible attachment to rules and order created a totally absurd
situation.

~~~
darklajid
(German here)

Actually I don't care about traffic lights all that much while walking/on a
bike. Except, you know, if kids are around. The attitude I see here is that
you really don't stop 'for the sake of it', but (and isn't this, if we want to
talk stereotypes, kind of american) you .. think of the childen.

In all seriousness: You _will_ get nasty looks/comments if you're ignoring a
red light while small kids are watching and the scenario you described sounds
perfectly fine (and my moral compass says that you did something baaad too).

~~~
crucialfelix
And seriously, keep out of the bike lanes ! We are not going to slow down just
because there are drunk tourists standing oblivious in the bike lane. It's
just common sense.

------
tallstefan
Thanks for the write up! Its always hilarious to read about experiences others
made in the country I grew up in.

Here are some reactions: Jaywalking - I definitely do that and in Berlin of
all cities, I saw folks jaywalking all the time. But yes - generally, there is
more discipline to wait for the green light, like in Japan, Korea or China.

"multimillion dollar round was not given in one big check". This is what I
heard is common practice in the valley as well. When a company raises 10
million, my understanding was never that the VC just transfers 10M cash to
their account but that this investment would be rolled out. We should
definitely review/discuss this.

Also, I agree with the appreciation with something fitting into a puzzle. That
probably stems from system thinking, growing up in a European community where
Germany is only a part in the whole of the continent and its political and
economical bodies.

Who owns data... mhhh. I think that depends on the industry. Oeffi
(<http://oeffi.schildbach.de/>) for example leverages the public transport
schedules of public local agencies as well as Deutsche Bahn. Pretty awesome!

On the other hand, data can be very proprietary in the States too. Take for
example movie showtimes. There is NO public, free API for that you could build
apps on. But yes, overall, you might be right.

In in case you want to see other impressions, US-Americans have in Germany, I
totally recommend this blog: <http://www.nothingforungood.com> (seems it got
hacked but hopefully will be up again ;-).

------
kh_hk

        > The <nationality> like <stereotype>.
    

What's funny to me is that I found Berlin completely different to all the
other cities I had previously been in Germany. One could say too much hype,
but I sort of enjoyed it.

~~~
tlarkworthy
Yeah Berliners are the far outs.

------
fnordfnordfnord
Funny story. I'm from the US but during college, I rented a room from a family
in Hamburg for a summer job. One day, the home's owner was driving me
somewhere and jokingly explained to me that the purpose of the 'star' on a
Mercedes Benz was to help the driver target jaywalkers and chase them back
onto the sidewalk. What I inferred was that German drivers hate jaywalkers.

~~~
OzzyB
One has to understand/learn/remember that Germany doesn't have the same speed
limit laws like we do in other countries/cities.

In other words, the more people respect "zebra crossings", the less drivers
have to worry about driving 15 bloody mph in some residential area cause the
folks there see no problem in just jumping across the street.

What the German example shows us is that: if we all abide by the rules -- with
no exceptions -- we can all have nice things.

(like driving your Porsche @150mph on the freeway cause we are actually
_adults_ )

Some might call that an environment for progress and innovation :)

~~~
morsch
Germany has a general speed limit of 50 km/h in cities -- which seems to be
pretty much a universal standard world wide --, and 30 km/h in many
residential neighbourhoods. In some residential neighbourhoods there's a speed
limit of walking speed and pedestrians enjoy permanent right of way. There are
some people who're lobbying for the general speed limit in cities to be
dropped to 30 km/h (safer, less noise), but sadly we're not there yet.

And crossing a street when there's no light and no zebra crossing is not
jaywalking - that's just crossing the street, and it's the legal way to do it
as typically there is no light or a crossing around. And of course many people
jaywalk all the time. I don't even but the think of the children argument --
if a kid is responsible enough to walk around in public traffic, they ought to
be responsible enough to judge whether crossing a red light is safe, otherwise
how would they deal with cases where there is no light? But I might be kidding
myself there, and I usually don't jaywalk when there's kids around out of
politeness if nothing else.

~~~
esbwhat
The thing is that not all streets are created equal. On particularly dangerous
corners there will be lights, and cars can come around the corner going maybe
a bit too fast to stop, so it's important to obey them. When there is no
light, that's usually indicative of a less busy street as well, where crossing
at your own discretion is safer.

~~~
mxfh
As always, know you routes. It't arguably safe to cross 3rd tier roads with
hindsight, yet anything higher in traffic hours is simply not worth it.

For the typical pedestrian commute through Berlin you don't even have to cross
a significant number of lights, if any at all, when traveling by means of
U&S-Bahn and know which side of the station you have to exit on.

------
buster
Ahh come on, that's just trying to see a lot more in psychology then there
really is. I'm from Berlin and many people DO jaywalk. BUT they don't (and i
don't) when there are kids around. And unless it's night there are kids around
more often then not. Is that so bad now?!

As if you can analyze a whole nation by seeing them jaywalk (or not)... pfft.

~~~
dlitwak
just trying to illustrate my impression through an example :) obviously I
realize that in a country of millions you will have plenty jaywalkers, so
rebuttals like "I jaywalk and I'm German" are kind of missing the point . . .

~~~
buster
Missing the point is that you try to think of an explanation but missing most
obvious reasons (like preventing kids to run in front of cars). Beginning the
sentence with "The Germans" when you have only been in one city feels kind of
offensive to me. Especially since you draw conclusions very quick out of no
real substance, imo.

~~~
dlitwak
I spent three weeks there, it wasn't an exhaustive study on the psyche of the
German people I'll give you that. But it was drawn on substance, I had
numerous meetings with berlin tech people, and just thought the jaywalking
observation seemed in line from the impressions I got from those meetings.

But there are differences in culture, so I guess if referring to the "Germans"
as a whole offends you there is nothing I can do.

~~~
mxfh
It's not exactly hard science to generalize from a three week visit to a part
of the City of Berlin, which is the most heterogeneous place it's gets when it
comes to trying to define The Germans, yet i think your observation seems to
be quite in line with mine, assuming you traveled from and to the trade fair
(ICC) and the usual start-up neighborhoods.

It definitely makes a difference where in Berlin you stay. Jaywalking is
highly localized and time depended. (The hilarious construction site crossing
at Unter den Linden, which many are forced to walk for the lack of an
operating U-Bahn is not the norm.)

The red light phases here are actually manageable to wait through, no
comparison to feeling the you-shouldn't-even-think-about-walking-here attitude
pedestrian traffic regulation radiates in most of the US.

The real equivalent to jaywalking is crossing the red lights by bike, if you
opt to going by foot you're not in a hurry in the first place. And yes there
are quite a lot of bikers out there, even in the current perpetual winter.

That said Hamburg's comparably long pedestrian red-light phases seem to be way
more nerve-wracking to the average Berlin trained pedestrian than I ever
imagined.

------
codesuela
Good article overall but anecdotal evidence is anecdotal

> Standing at a street corner I was shocked that no one jaywalked. There
> wasn’t a car in sight, yet Germans young and old stood there obediently,
> waiting for the green walk signal.

I am from Berlin and I jaywalk all the time :) I think people who were
actually raised in Berlin are very likely to jaywalk. Looking as to how you
visited ITB I suppose many people you've seen were not originally from Berlin
(also many startup founders are not originally from Berlin but from all over
Germany)

/nitpick

~~~
dlitwak
ITB was for the first week, the second two weeks I was working in the same
environment most other berlin startups work in.

But yes, it's anecdotal evidence, observed continuously over 3 weeks. And it's
an impression, that's all, never claimed to have done exhaustive research :)
Like I mentioned in other comments, I obviously realize there are plenty of
people who probably jaywalk, in a city of millions that much is certain. But I
thought that particular observation reflected a lot of what I had heard from
Germans themselves.

~~~
mxfh
Talking about anecdotal ITB observations, two weeks ago the streets around the
travel trade fair at ICC looked like some 2nd row parked open air museum for
diplomats car choices made in the eighties, with the number of exhibits in the
triple digits (Not including the chauffeurs). That's not the norm :)

------
thinkersilver
Thanks for the write up. I've been working for a start-up in the Silicon
Roundabout(London) for the last two years. I am not surprised by some of
David's observations about the investment culture in Berlin. The German word
for Venture Capitalism is Risikokapital - the word in itself already
encapsulates German investors' attitudes towards start-ups. The tech scene is
picking up dramatically is becoming shinier and a lot more exciting than where
I am right now. ...

------
drucken
No way to read what is almost certainly just pure text or text and images
without enabling scripting on an random, unknown website...

~~~
dlitwak
I'm sorry, actually curious, you can't read it? It's just a tumblr template,
so I'm curious if I should change some settings to make it more readable, etc.

~~~
raphman
While the complete content is in the HTML source, the text is hidden by
default and faded in with JavaScript. Anyone who has JavaScript disabled only
sees a white page with just your header logo.

~~~
dlitwak
Thank you, it's a brand new Tumblr template, wasn't aware that it had a
problem, will get on it.

------
38leinad
hm. was in columbus, ohio a few weeks back: if you are at certain places in
the US (an like walking) you have no other possibility then jaywalking. cities
and especially indudstrial/commerical areas are not constructed in a way to
make it easy for pedestriants. you can be happy if there is a pedestrian
crossing within the next mile...

~~~
myko
Columbus is one of the worst offenders. Especially on OSUs campus. Not very
pedestrian friendly.

------
CurtMonash
My aunt wouldn't jaywalk with me across a one-lane turn lane in downtown
Boston with no traffic nearby.

Yes, my family was German. And she'd lived in Los Angeles for decades.

------
zaru
I'm a relentless jaywalker, sometimes unconsciously, and my career has only
been in tech startups. Coincidence?

------
zaru
So we need to encourage more Germans to jaywalk?

~~~
sp332
We need to teach Germans to push back against artificial, external rules that
limit them. Not sure jaywalking is the best rule to start with...

~~~
dhugiaskmak
Limit them how? What is it that you think the Germans are suffering from that
requires them to be more like the residents of Silicon Valley?

