Wanderlust: Why the Germans love hiking and the great outdoors | Meet the Germans
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- čas přidán 26. 08. 2024
- Have you ever been shown up by a German on a hiking trail? They certainly can't be faulted for their impeccable hiking gear. Today on Meet the Germans, Rachel Stewart is roaming the hills trying to find out why the Germans have so much wanderlust.
Rachel moved from the UK to Germany in 2016. As a relative newcomer she casts a fresh eye over German clichés and shares her experiences of settling into German life. Every two weeks she explores a new topic - from beer to nudity to complicated grammar. This week it's all about the German passion for walking, hiking and nature.
You'll find more Meet the Germans videos here: bit.ly/2WIxOn1
#MeetTheGermans #RachelStewart #Wanderlust
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When you are in the middle of nowhere in Scandinavia 200km between you and the next settlement, there is still a chance of 99% to meet a perfectly equipped German, who is on a hike.
Wait, did we meet? :D
🤣
Scientists discovered that you are never more than 2km away from a hiking German :P
@@Mis7erSeven As an German i have to say: 🤣🤣🤣👍
My Dad and we went up the Olymp in shorts. Was a bit cold but also fun.
That snacking on sausages thing is so authentic! Recently lived in the US for a couple months and when I whipped out a little sausage snack during a studying session, my mates were like "Wow... that is the most German thing I've ever seen."
Würstchen und eingelegte Gurken sind meine Kombi.
Same thing in Switzerland. We have our "Landjäger" (a thin, smoked pork sausage) and our "Cervelats" (boiled pork sausage that is traditionally grilled on a stick over the open fire - or just eaten raw if no fire is accessible). And cheese of course (not necessarily for snacking in a studying session, but definitely for hiking).
@@velochlauer585 die haben wir hier in Deutschland
hard boiled eggs also a classic for the _Vesperbox_
Mmmmm. Landjäger!
I was hiking in the forest here in my own country Sweden, and was on my way back to a bus stop going in to town. Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, a nice elderly couple in a huge RV (Wohnmobil) stopped and offered me and my girlfriend a lift. Turns out, they were German! Absolutely amazing people!
It always warms my heart to hear stories of fellow Germans setting a positive example abroad.
Thanks a lot for sharing.
It's true....the hiking paths in Germany are well marked. Germans love hiking
Often yes
Especially popular ones
I was born in Karlsruhe and lived in New Ulm and my grandparents lived in Vohringen and we always hiking in the woods or we would visit family in Imenstadt and hike in the foot hills of the Alps... really beautiful and very clean country
One thing missing in this video was the navigation in the mountain, it is absolutely necessary to have a GPS navigation and a good navigation app. I would recommend MAPS.ME app. You may use like walking navigation app at the mountain. You may also download hiking routes (KML) from Internet and follow them. Mountain marking and paper maps sometimes are not helpful at all.
Yeah we rly do
You know you’re in Italy, when all the signs suddenly disappear.
"And then the Germans did what the Germans do best:"
" *theygotorganized* "
Don't forget that while being physically active at fresh air you can saufen wie blöd!
Hariboi musste sehr lachen. Danke man
But only with Dad and his Bollerwagen for the Fässchen.
@@Aussenluft Just finish that Fäßchen right at the start, and it will carry itself. More or less **cough**
Musste lachen. Ü
hahaha lmao
You missed one important fact: The greeting etiquette! When you just stroll or roam through a park, beach, shore or other touristy area, you don't greet strangers. But as soon as you are on a hiking path, it is expected you greet other hikers. As if you are a sworn-in secret community :D This is especially funny, when you have a mixed trip like along a lake and a short way uphill to a castle ruin. Down at the lake, no conversation to strangers - through the forest: "hello-hello" to everyone!
I can confirm this and damn I want to go wandern now
I am a German living in India now and apart from some food items it's the thing I miss most.🚶♀️🚶♂️🌳
To be fair.. Germany has so much variety when it comes to nature and the woods so it is not really surprising that one feels the urge to hike and walk through them. And all the markings can help to got not completely lost.
It is fun. Get outside and walk/hike. Rediscovere a part of nature. It even might help getting rid of city stress
The point about the climate is well-made, I think. If you go further south, it often gets way too hot in the afternoon, so easy day-long hikes are really only doable in spring and autumn, with winter depending on what's going on. Further north it might get too cold, windy, rainy, snowy, or any combination of that for it to be a big draw (even if you don't mind rain slippery conditions aren't nice for hiking).
@@Sp4mMe A Englishman says to a Frenchman: Look, there is a hat swimming.
The Frenchman replies: No, this is only a German hiker, the Germans hike in any weather.
German haute couture: JACK WOLFSKIN.
Or the Vaude brand.
I love it! Awesome quality!
The Einkehr is the biggest motivation for a german Wanderer
Nothing like the first cold beer after a whole day of climbing up and down the alps
I really enjoyed this episode but did anyone else get mildly infuriated at how she wore her backpack without closing the straps? Do that while hiking and your back will hate you haha
Sorry, I am clearly still an amateur 😂
@@RachelStewart04 How did you like the Siebengebirge?
@@RachelStewart04 : Don't worry baby! You're not an amateur, you did great! I don't care if your backpack is open, your zipper is down or if your bra is beige. Nobody shows German customs better than you do. Keep up the good work.
@@timsummers870 cringe
@
Luzie Alyssa You should forgive her, she's not German.
How is this for a weird flex: I actually recognised the specific area she was hiking in (Siebengebirge near Bonn), just by the nature of the terrain and the look of the trees.
Only on the second viewing did I notice the fact that she had a map of that region, and the fact that the railway she was exiting was the Drachenfelsbahn.
And I've only been there twice, years ago!
rockyblacksmith oh yes i recognised it too! The Drachenfels is awesome haha :)
Ihr seid ja zwei ganz Ausgebuffte!
@@joachimsaxer4812 Ich glaube ich wurde bis jetzt noch nie so bezeichnet, aber ich nehm's.
All of the episodes are filmed around Bonn, since Deutsche Welle has it's headquaters in the southern part of the old Capital.
ausserdem steht sie auf der Brücke von Schloss Drachenburg das könnte auch ein subtiler Hinweis sein
This is so true, I am German, I often just walk through the forest, sometimes off the paths, explore the area, enjoy the nature. And during vacations we often went hiking on mountains or on beaches (in Austria, Norway, Sweden) and often encountered other Germans.
hi please suggest me hiking clubs how find them
I've run into German hikers many hours from any other person at Glacier National Park. They are everywhere.
Yes we are xD
Reise, Reise! My grandfather who was German from Bremen,was working at the docks and noticed a pair of Alsatian shepherd dogs with address bound for the Philippines in the 1930's.He wrote a letter to this address and got invited to join them in Mindanao. And the rest as they say,is history.
Filipino here also. . . currently living here in Lambsheim which part of Rheinland Pfalz.. . where you can find one of the best wine from here . . .where other small towns ends in the word HEIM. .. hahaha. . .Mindanao in the PH is my Father's home town. . .
@@MUSICREELS2023 maybe you're brothers..
"Moin" - hi from bremen
I'm from Germany and pretty much everything she says is true 🤔😂!
Yes, I can confirm that.
Also when hiking with small kids, we use "die Kraxn" to hike long, steep or dangerous routes.
I've gotten into a stage ..... Where she comes in my dreams and guide me all through it in German
You bring back fond memories of when I lived in Berlin. Within 5 minutes of stepping out of my flat I was in the Grunewald. I could walk along by the Havel for hours. Sometimes I'd walk all the way to Wannsee.
We have the same tradition here in Norway.
And i love it and we also have amazing nature to do it in. :)
I would love to visit Norway After this Corona BS
You have Apetor !!!
In my Navy years I visited Norway 4times. Tromsö, Christiansand, Stavanger, Bergen.. And I fell in love with this beautifull country and with its people. Since then I return every year❤️
You could easily add Austria, Switzerland, Italy and Slovenia to the list. People of pretty much all Alpine countries are bonkers about their nature hikes. Bus stops on Sunday mornings hosting people with trekking poles NOT waiting on a bus, but a ride to the base of a mountain. Such a beautiful tradtion. Cheers!
Austrians and swiss people are germans and slovenia past part of germany for 1000 years
In this chapter i m more german than a german. I hike also for visiting historical buildings and even adventurous ruins! With top gears.
But I love forest bathing the best. That’s something my dad taught me when I was a kid, and was my #1 childhood Sunday activity.
I love hiking, especially in the nearby Siebengebirge (as Rachel did). And I'm not even German, but from across the pond.
I'm learning German, a few weeks into A1 and these video series helps to make sense of some things.
Great edits!
And so true, I've hiked in 3 continents and I've always encountered fellow hiking Germans on the trail. Can't escape them!
If I go for a hike I've "earned" my Spezi and my Schweizerwurstsalat! Nothing tastes better after a hike in the sunshine!
Good episode - I've always had this internal urge to go hiking to clear my mind.
Many People seem to swear by it!
I didn't know about the German love of hiking being that I'm American and come across Germans very rarely. I'm half German, though, and have loved hiking all of my life. This is the coolest news! Thank you for the video!
When I (a German) was on holidays in New York two years ago we went „wandern“ north of NY around the Hudson River area.
I was very surprised and also disappointed to see that most of the nature there wasn’t accessible via hiking paths or trails... We found a nice parking spot there in the middle of the Forrest but even there weren’t any paths starting from that point.
In Germany throughout all of the woods there are paths, trails, or „streets“ for pedestrians and cyclists.
At the end we walked parts of the Appalachian trail in NY but even this trail hadn’t got that many signs to be able to follow it properly...
Germans really love to Hike. . .that is what i have noticed. . . and the trails have so much Marks. . . i love it also. . .when the weather is really good. . . .Saturdays and Sundays the forest is really full. . .
I am sitting in front of my computer all day long, but sometimes i upgrade and join reality outdoors. It's Hyper-HD® resolution in 3D at 90,000 fps with infinite RTX, Full-Surround-Sound™, forced feedback, and even Fragrances™!! And all that for a very low price. Some places even have OXIGEN® and OLES Background-Lighting (Original Light-Emitting Sun).
it is 4D , maybe more ...
Just discovered these videos and I am addicted. Rachel is beautiful but so down to earth. Great topics and editing too.
Yep, nature lovers. Ive hiked fr0m France to Australia to Nepal. Always meet germans... the original romantics, along with the british aristocrats who invented the sport of mountaineering.
From France to Nepal? Crazy man want to do this to! It's hard to find someone for this crazy thing even in Germany 😂
More significant than Romanticism, I would say that the industrialization and the urbanization arising in the 1800s made the natural environment a rare(r) commodity and, thus, much more valuable. Romanticism was partly a consequence of the diminishment of nature rather than a spur towards immersion into nature (of course, Romanticism was also a revolt against the rationalism of the French Revolution).
Once I went for a walk in a garden. A perfectly geographically flat garden.
I saw two perfectly fit young persons with walking sticks.
I was like, what the hell?
They were Germans.
@DeepSpace12 Modern Poetry!👨🎨
I am German and I love this video. Great work DW Euromaxx. Just for some people who like to know. We make these tracks because we don't want everybody running all trough our beautiful an precious nature, to be destroyed by these careless people.
I was visiting Nuremberg and found a full blown exhibition at the city’s museum about, you guessed it, hiking. I remember thinking it was such an odd topic but it all made sense after the visit.
Hiking in Mallorca ist also very beautiful. Last time i was there i meet just germans on the hiking path and all greet
"I just met germans on the hiking path.." Well duh, Mallorca is German so why are you surprised?
Not to mention the German’s love for Geocaching!
Yay! More opprotunity to use special equipment and organize to arrive at a highly specific target!
The problem still remains: How to explain Geocaching to an outsider. "Well... I use military equipment that is worth millions of dollars, to find little tupperware boxes in the forest." 🤔
0:34 damn this is some next-level editing!
The production quality is fkn insane!
A few years back we did a circular one week tour in the Black Forest in June. The weather was fair. At Triberg where we started there were several shops selling hiking gear. The paths were very well marked and it was very pleasant. The only surprising thing was... a total lack of hikers. The hotels where we stayed were deserted. At the weekend there were people milling around parking areas, but hardly anyone was hiking.
0:35 Just slowed down the playbackspeed to see if its cutted or you have a twin sister.
Its really well cutted.
I was impressed too, that's some really good coordination!
So German!
I was stationed in Augsburg in the '80s. My wife and I Volksmarched aprox. 1500 km.
Volunteering at Mount St Helens, after Canadians, the Germans. So happy to meet up with them.
Spazierengehen in Hamburg an der Elbe. Ich habe es in meiner Kindheit gehasst. (Jahrgang 63) Im Sonntagsoutfit, vor den anderen paradieren. Nur nicht schmutzig werden und an jedem Spielplatz vorbei. Habe erst von meinem Mann mit 25 + gelernt was Wandern im Wald bedeutet. Jetzt mag ich es.
Haha very nice to see that as german who use too hike frequently. I thought the US has many parks where they do the same. Hiking brings me down to earth. We also like hiking with family or our friends
That sausage toss was really impressive!
That is all so true. "Wandern" is by far the best thing to do. Always and everywhere.
Yep can confirm. I used to walk mountains in Scotland a lot and have bumped into a good few Germans. Infact, a German unfortunately fell off Ben Nevis (tallest mountain in UK) last year and died.
@Snake Yes, really sad - The weather up there can change very quickly and avalanches are frequent.
Austria left the chat
3:17 You forgot the most popular drink in Germany, the Apfelsaftschorle.
I really love Rachel's videos on here.
Yep .. absolutely! Also, just South of the Border, the Swiss suffer from the same affliction 😊.
Suffer????
You have always ripped us off for the sake of your Fränklies and before someone did get that wrong, it is your nation and so you did have every right to put your price tag at it and it is our right to accept and pay your price or reject that offer. In the first case, I can't see that you suffer and in the second one nobody did bother you.
You nailed it, girl! We germans love hiking because then we can "einkehren ". And no hiking tour without a little bottle of "schnaps" 😉
Guten Tag aus Kalifornien!
SERVUS AUS BAYERN! 😅
And instead of carving "I was here" into the bark of some poor tree with your jungle knife in the middle of nowhere, they use Hiking-Apps with offline maps and tracking function to share their trips with the world (and not to get lost in the wilderness, despite all those signs everywhere). I personally love hiking, too, especially in one of the German "Bannwald" areas - Natural forest, completely let to its own for decades. Real "jungle" in Germany.
I love walking and listening to music 😍❤️
THE most important thing when you go hiking: Good shoes and lots of water.
And a good Backpack (for the water).
And enough food. And a raincoat. Maybe a walking stick. A map might come in useful, but usually they hang around everywhere.
We did a week's circular hike in the Black Forest in June starting from Triberg. We saw many shops selling hiking gear, but apart from one day which was busy, we saw almost no hikers and the hotels we stayed at were almost deserted. A shame because it was very beautiful.
Sorry but Black Forest is in the southwest of my country and this is our industrial power area, so they have to work because we have something named Berlin and the folks of the South (Bayern and Baden Würtemberg) along with us in the middle (Hessen) have to pay for it (alone in 2018 +4Billion Euros alone via the internal financial adjustment fond). So I have to excuse my fellow citizens, but they were busy.
@@lotharschepers2240 Aha, a hater of the _Länderfinanzausgleich._ C'mon, a little bit more solidarity with the poor Northerners. _"Mer hawwes jo"_ 🤣
Siebengebirge, Drachenfels, Wiese unterhalb Gaststätte "Felders"... ❤️
Tolle Gegend!
best thing to do outside!! I love my german forest
0:43 - hey it's Castle Drachenburg!
most german name ever :)
Nice video. Love it. Rachel doing great.
Thank you! :-)
I’m loving this series. Very interesting.
Three years ago, at the entrance to the Lost Gardens of Heligan, the nice cashier lady asked us if we were from the Netherlands, we told her no, from Germany. She was asking because we didn't wear any funtional hiking gear and boots. She then encouraged us to check her on her assumption that every German tourist wears this kind of clothing. She was right. I personally hate this kind of gear. Not because I look like a German but everybody looks the same.
A word of advice for merrily wandering Germans coming to Australia:
1. Australia is seriously big, and the distance from place to place can be significant. So, if you find yourself in a medical difficulty, getting you to a hospital, or a doctor/paramedic to you, may take a long time (and a 'long time' also includes 'too long');
2. everything in Australia can kill you. While there are probably one or two people to avoid, everything else, if annoyed (and it doesn't take much) will try and take you down, including ants, wasps, spiders, various plants, bigger marsupials, smaller marsupials, definitely snakes (Australians are quite proud of the fact that of the top 10 most venomous snakes in--the--world, 8 are Australian), you can probably ignore the small birds (at your peril) but the two big birds, the emu and its cousin, the cassowary, are able to open you up like a tin of sardines. Swimming in the ocean can be a little too exciting given the prevalence of deadly jellyfish, deadly small fish, and many deadly large fish (you know, like sharks). Oh, and Australian sea snake, for there is indeed such a beast, is *the* most venomous snake in the word! However, in fresh or salt water, nothing will turn you into Menschwurst(?) quicker than a crocodile. 'Crocs' are no joke, and are as cunning as they are hungry; and, finally
- if the inhabitants don't get you, the sun may, be it in Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland all of the year, or in the rest of Oz during the hotter months. Australia is the skin cancer capital of the world for people of northern European ancestry. The problem with melanomas is that it can be 15 or 20 or 35 years before the skin cancer turns lethal. In Australia, particularly in the northern States, most GPs (General Practicianers, or Family Doctors) are reasonably well skilled at spotting worrying blemishes and sending you off to the Specialist. The other benefit in Australia in this regard, and especially in Queensland, is having a lot of that sort of Specialist. The 'sun problem' for Besucher is that such Specialists, in their home countries, tend to be a very rare commodity.
AND there you have it, definitely not a message from the Australian Tourist Board, but a series of things to bear in mind when you visit, if you visit, the Great Southern Land (and that's Australia, not New Zealand!).
Be mindful. Be safe. Enjoy and come back.
😊
Excellent editing
Thanks!
As an American from the state of Colorado but living in Germany, I often get a little chuckle out of seeing Germans who look like they spent hours or days preparing for a trek on Mt. Everest, but are really just having what I would describe as an easy 5km walk. The Germans: "We have planned this for 3 weeks. We have a proper balance of protein, carbohydrates, and electrolytes and we have calculated exactly how many calories we will burn so we can know exactly how much food we need. We have our trekking sticks, the perfect combination of removable clothing layers, a map, a compass, a planned route with an emergency plan...now we can go for this 45 minute walk." American from Colorado: "Hmm...I'm bored and I have 4 hours to kill before dinner. I'll take an spontaneous 20km run straight up and down the side of a jagged a 4,000m high mountain. Oh, I better prepare...nah, I have 0,5L of water and a protein bar, I'm good." But all jokes aside, so far I am finding Germany really is a great place with TONS of hiking and biking trails that make it easy to get out and get that frische Luft.
What a lie, what American would know what 4000m even means ;)
Ohh! I love hiking too. Look forward to come to Germany and hike through the trails there.
I once met a germany lady hiking in the middle of the jungle at tioman island malaysia alone..i myself during that time did a geological mapping with my team. She either super brave lady or just another typical german
Hiking is fantastic. We do it in a religious basis: Fátima, Saint James and Lurdes
I may not be German, (I'm Belgian, actually) but the Wanderlust is something that can stretch even beyonf German borders. I'm infested with the Wanderlust, and walk almost every evening in my hometown... And dream of bigger hikes...
I did a long hiking trip just 2 days ago. Afterwards i was completely sunburned and my muscles still hurt. Good Times.
I am a german and I hate hiking, but the rest of my family loves it !
Watching this video brought lots of memory, I’ve got to find me German man to do the outdoors activities 😊
This is so true, Germans looooove Alaska. Now it all makes sense.
It's so amazing how detailed this show is :)
You can spot Germans a mile away when out on the trails! 😂 Rachel's depiction is so spot on lol
How? Everything that was said applies to Czechia and Austria I guess.
I recognized the little bridge at Schloss Drachenburg at the beginning of the video.
People in Taiwan are even more obsessed with wandern than the Germans, so Taiwan should become a popular holiday destination for Germans.
@Eric Christen How do you know? Have you been hiking in the South of Taiwan?
@Eric ChristenSwitzerland is sometimes more expensive than Taiwan
This is something I definitely need to do when I go back to Deutschland.
Jaaaa, I would like to move NOW.
It is so lovely for the body and soul.
The song they are playing at start is
"Das Wandern is Der Müllers lust."
I'm a german and member of group, that calls itself "Wanderverein". It literally translates to hiking club/hiking organisation. We are no club. It's old college buddies with spouses and children. I swear, 90% don't like hiking. We cheerish each others company and hiking gets us together. Therefore I'm happy with hiking.
I never thought hiking is a german thing or a thing germans overtake. But beside it's high film quality this video has a execellent fact accuracy. I felt totally well observed.
Now I want a zoo with people of different cultures, which portait their unique interests. We could talk so much insideful stuff.
I love these short pieces far better than anything on the ponderous BBC
Great video! Thank you!
One thing to add how well organized the Germans are: they plan the hiking route ahead.
They know how long the distance, the elevation, and what time to reach the "einkehren" place and what time approximately to be back home.
0:34 . That was pretty awesome.
Einkehren is the most important part of wandern
Just need to tell you I enjoyed this video!
Thank you - glad to hear it!
Wandervogel is the name adopted by a popular movement of German youth groups from 1896 to 1933, who protested against industrialization by going to hike in the country and commune with nature in the woods. Drawing influence from medieval wandering scholars, their ethos was to revive old Teutonic values, with a strong emphasis on German nationalism
Ópa loved hiking! He hiked all over Poland and Eastern Europe then back again
😁
Such an awesome series!
I was hiking the East Coast Trail in Newfoundland and came across a german. The catch was that both our english is, contrary to popular belief, quite good and sounds native. So we stood there in soaking rain for about twenty minutes talking english until we noticed our mistake :D
Another time, that was in Labrador-City: I lived there for a few months and had work in a restaurant - people from all over town came to see the german who was hiking in the winter through northern canada.
Yes. We are insane. Yes indeed.
I hiked a mountain in Germany, Watzmann, and got smoked by old ladies in their 60s or older! I'm used to hiking in rough terrain, but not CONSTANT elevation for 4h in 30c heat.
i'd never imagine watching a video about hiking... at all...
but with rachel talking about it... it's a whole different story. (heck she could talk about tea - northern german vs british and i would love to watch and listen... some sort of guilty pleasure? - i guess it is, i wouldn't even tell my friends ^^)
It’s not entirely a German thing, hiking culture is quite prevalent in Nordics aswell.
Oh yes plenty of hiking going on there too! Do you think they are as well "kitted out" as people in Germany?
@@RachelStewart04 I*d say yes, although the gear leans more to the heavier side.
I love it that hiking is also a dating activity with Germans
nice hiking. stay safe... new friend here from malaysia.😊
I go walking a lot in the Scottish Highlands and if you meet anyone there who is from outside the UK ten to one it is a German. German companies also manufacture a lot of the walking equipment we buy and Dachstein and Jack Wolfskin are household names. But if you want the best pair of boots it has to be a pair of Zamberlans from Italy. I believe still made from leather from Pittards in Somerset, from cows which have spent their lives in the soft West Country rain. And I have just looked out the window and it is still raining. Raining at breakfast time and still raining approaching mid-afternoon!