I think Bavaria is also one of the most conservative state in Germany? The religious aspect of Bavaria definitely isn't representative for the rest of Germany
It is important to know that "religion class" does not teach you how to be religious, it teaches you about religion, which very often is anti-religious.
It also not only teaches about the own religion and how to be “a good Christian” but also about all the other world religions and what their history and values are. You’ll also never hear that one religion is superior to others
@@donr.wetter186 that was not my experience 20 years ago (admittedly i only heard the last 2 years of school, so maybe they start with covering other religions). I remember a lot of debates because our teacher came from a particular (protestant) church but students had heard different teachings in their variety of (protestant) church. For me as an atheist it was basically fairytale class and free good grades.
der Fehler ist im Wort "Starten" ... glaube es soll "Staaten" heißen". Davon abgesehen ist evolutionstheorie ... genauso lücken und fehlerhaft wie die meisten anderen theorien und mit den meisten erkenntnissen über genetik seit jahren schon nichtmehr kompatibel.
@@thephuntastics2920 Natürlich hat die Evolutionstheorie noch Gültigkeit. Zumindest so sehr wie eine Theorie Gültigkeit haben kann, sie gilt im Allgemeinen als anerkannt. Sie wird ja auch angepasst und weiterentwickelt.
@@thephuntastics2920 Lücken- und fehlerhaft? Mit der Genetik nicht kompatibel? Na klar, es ist nicht alles so wie Darwin es mal aufgeschrieben hat und wir haben noch nicht alle Zwischenstufen in der Evolutionsgeschichte gefunden, aber das heißt ja nicht das es fehlerhaft ist. Wenn Du ein Puzzle zusammensetzt und es fehlen am Ende ein paar Teile, ist ja auch nicht das ganze Puzzle falsch. Abgesehen davon unterstützt die Genetik die Evolutionstheorie. Man geht nicht mehr von einem ganzheitlichen Ansatz aus, aber die verschiedenen Felder der Biologie bilden immer noch eine Theorie. Achja, Theorie in der Wissenschaft ist nicht das gleiche wie es fälschlicherweise im allgemeinen Sprachgebrauch benutzt wird. Das wäre mehr eine These oder Hypothese. Eine wissenschaftliche Theorie ist im Grunde ein Fakt, der wiederholt bewiesen und nachgewiesen wurde, allgemein anerkannt ist und die Grundlagen des Wissens in einem Gebiet beschreibt. Klar gibt es mit fortschreitenden Möglichkeiten neue Erkenntnisse und Verbesserungen. Aber das wirft ja nicht die ganze Theorie über den Haufen. Die Aussage, das "die meisten Theorien lücken- und fehlerhaft" ist Blödsinn. Solchen Schmarrn hört man sonst nur vom Flacherditioten, Imfpgegnern und religösen Bibelspinnern, die glauben, die Erde ist nur 4.000 Jahre alt.
If you consider running for an office in Germany, you first go through a voting or selection process in your party, which is based on your political abilities and networks, but less about your wealth. Once you are officially running, you are the candidate of that party, which pays your campaign because in fact it is their campaign.
The money for the campaign is also provided by the state and paid for by taxes, so everyone can effort to run a campaign. The bigger Partys add some private money to this to get bigger campaign
Bumi LP That is not really true, it is more complicated. When you hit a certain percentage you will be partly refunded. In a nutshell. This is also not 100% correct but nearer the real way than your comment. Not meant in a negative way.
lol in Minnesota they have a dog mayor.. I guess a mayor isn't that important after all but still nice to see change.. Austria has the youngest head of government in the world, Sebastian Kurz..
@@imrehundertwasser7094 Indeed a town (Stadt). A really small one (2nd smallest of Bavaria) - but they have town rights since 670 years. Without these rights it would be just a small village belonging to a bigger town. In Kirchheimbonlanden (Rhineland-Palatinate) a 101 year old woman was elected into the town council. And as she is quite active and gets a lot of publicity she could even move a few things.
However, in America you elect a specific person and not the whole party. Within the parties there are huge differences among the candidates. In Germany a party is a package which you can take either completely or not at all.
It's not only about having multiple parties though, it's about the entire system of coalition building in a parliamentary republic. In the US, if you vote for some small third party, your vote virtually goes to waste. In Germany, a smaller party with enough votes may still become the junior partner in a coalition government and thus influence politics of the country topic-related. I think this is fairer and much more representative than just having two monolithic blocs for everything. As a German, if I care about some specific issues or if I'm unsatisfied with the ruling parties, I still have some options to go for. I can vote strategically, depending on how likely or unlikely certain coalitions are. This is true for both federal and local elections. In the US, you'd be outta luck. It's either the one thing or the other, with nothing in between. The resulting extreme partisanship is also increasingly detrimental to finding compromise in law-making.
to not split it up too much, there is a 5% hurdle, but every party that jumps that hurdle is represented instead of parties with as much as 49% being ignored. in addition, also when a party didn't jump that hurdle but a candidate of that party was elected in a voting district, that candidate will get a seat and thus people who voted for that candidate are represented somehow and their votes won't be lost.
Another effect is, that any small party can present policies and attract voters. Some times the big parties react by adopting the topic or policies from smaller parties to get the voters back. Therefore there is a chance, to get the ruling parties to implement niche policies. The christ democrats (CDU) did this quite a lot. As conservatives they are an uninspired bunch, but they like to rule. To keep their power, they adopted positions from greens, social left and lately the right wing.
@TheBlackiwid NPR is a public radio channel and network. It's listener sponsored and their programming is as independent as possible and very well researched. They differ from corporate media as they don't allow big lobbies and big industries to advertise, so that they are not bound to report along the corporate interests of their sponsors.
Another import side result of this: the parties are use to work together. If not on federal level, than on state level or on city levels. In formal and esp. in country and city districts on informal coalitions. Often also due common interests like "Bavarian Forest" vs. (big city) Passau. Or (small city) Passau vs (big city) Munich.
@Die Klausi it might surprise you, but you haven't lost the freedom of speech, because you can't lose what you never had. What you had and still have is the "Meinungsfreiheit" which simply means the freedom to express your opinion in public without the risk of being punished for it by the government, not more and not less. That doesn't mean that nobody can punish you for saying your opinion, the law just protects you to make sure that its not the government that punishes you ;)
The Religion thing is cause you lived in Bavaria. Most Non-Bavarians jokingly see Bavaria as a different country anyway haha, it’s a lot more traditional than the rest
Hey, they call themself a "Freistaat" (free State). @Montana Showalter I´ve never seen a cross (it´s called Kruzifix) in any classroom I went through. But I just live in Berlin..
@@fastfoodlover4963 maybe so, but doesnt mean that what he said is untrue. i bet it differs from region to region but at least from where i live in germany what he said is 100% true
Wow...props for going that route. It takes guts to talk about politics on CZcams...especially as an American with a likely american audience (i know yours is more german...but none the less) Keep being interested in politics. It shapes your future...so it is important for you to shape politics. 10:10 for the content as well. Nice job, well done.😃👍
@@MrTohawk While we are generally not as patriotic it's a bit different when it comes to CZcams. Lot's of videos having German in the title quickly get annexed into CZcamsdeutschland. I guess the lack of german on the international scale despite german being fairly present internationally awakens kind of an urge to show our presence. The reason that this is mostly a comment section and not a Kommentarbereich is merely due to the mercy and diplomacy of the German viewers.
One big difference in the political system is that the German they have proportional system that means a election district has lets say 10 seats. So they are list with ten persons. Every list get the number of seats as the have percentage of votes. In this scenario a party needs 10% for a seat. (It is actually more complicate.) So there is more space for small parties. In this system you have usually 10 to 20 times the number of candidates then there are seats. So on local level easy everybody know some one who is running. If people are interested and I have time (I work in a essential sector so no quarantine) I can explain you the Swiss system that works similar.
I've only heard that in switzerland you have 7 people in the highest position all from differnt parties and that they make the laws and then the people vote if they should pass, is that right?
@@jolioding_2253 The election system is similar like that in Germany. But the whole political system in Switzerland is very different. With the direct democracy so the people can direct vote for laws and constitution amendments. The result is that a majorityopposition system wouldn't work. Because it would be to easy to fore the opposition do blockade everything.
Lokal Election you can vote if you are 16 teen and in germany all citisens that have the rigth too vote are informt wehr too vote or how too vote ofer mail. One point no Voting maschins in germany
@@uwehansen2915 Not true. Being German doesn't mean you have a right to vote (even considering you committed a crime and therefore are not eligible) If you live outside Germany and can't show affiliation to the German State in terms of why voting is important to you, you are kicked out. Doesn't happen with Americans. Montana, we don't call history political studies. They are social studies. Third: In the USA you can not discuss politics. It's like the NBA, either you are for the Team or you are not. There is no middle way. The US does not have a two Party system. The Constitution does not speak about parties. Unlike the German Basic Law. In Germany, the party affiliation pays for your election. (More or less) I skip the immigration issue, cause you name mostly EU citizens.
@@jolioding_2253 The 7 people are just the executive in Switzerland. It is a sort of permanent grand coalition. Laws are still made by parliament, but since you can always take a referendum, a simple majority doesn't mean that much. So parties often try to find a broader coalition that most are happy enough to not let it come to a referendum.
Die Ursache liegt in der Gründungsgeschichte der USA - die ersten Einwanderer waren hauptsächlich Angehörige verfolgter religöser Minderheiten (Quäker, Baptisten usw.), daher gab es schon bereits zu Zeiten der britischen Kolonialherrhschaft eine sehr starke religiöse Basis unter den Kolonisten. Die Väter der US-Verfassung wurden zwar einerseits stark von der Aufklärung beeinflusst (bspw. Jefferson und Adams), waren sich aber auch der starken religiösen Strukturen in den ehemaligen Kolonien bewusst. Eine antireligöse Kampfansage in der Verfassung hätte das Land wahrscheinlich direkt im Anschluss an den Unabhängikeitskrieg in einen blutigen Bürgerkrieg gestürzt, da viele Religionsgemeinschaften im Widerstand gegen die britische Herrschaft eine wichtige Rolle gespielt hatten. Hintergrund für die _konstitutionelle_ Trennung von Kirche und Staat war daher weniger die Verfechtung eines rein wissenschaftlichen Weltbildes, als vielmehr die historische Erfahrung der Unterdrückung _religiöser Freiheit_ durch eine *Staatskirche* wie es in England der Fall war. Der eigentliche Grund für die Trennung von Kirche und Staat war es daher also, _mehr_ religöse Freiheit zu ermöglichen.
@@TheAxel65 Das "IN GOD WE TRUST" steht aber erst seit 1957 auf den amerikanischen Banknoten. Es ging mMn, wie bei vielen Gesetzen und Eintscheidungen in Amerika, vor allem zur damaligen Zeit, eindeutig darum Minderheiten abzuwerten, wie auch beim Cannabisverbot zum Beispiel.
@@AbteilungsleiterinBeiAntifaEV Ja, das Cannabisverbot, das vor allem auf die fanatische Kampagne eines Rassisten namens Harry J. Anslinger zurückgeht, der 1936 zum Chef des Federal Bureau of Narcotics ernannt wurde. Es folgte eine beispiellose Hetzkampagne, in der einerseits die Wirkungen des Cannabiskonsums dämonisiert wurden (schönes Beispiel dafür: Der Film _Reefer Madness_ von 1936: czcams.com/video/sbjHOBJzhb0/video.html ), andererseits aber auch die schwarze Community unter Generalverdacht gestellt und insbesondere schwarze Musiker überwacht und verfolgt wurden. Es hieß, dass er eine spezielle Akte mit dem Titel "Marijuana and Musicians" geführt habe. Er war auch dafür verantwortlich, dass die todkranke schwarze Jazzsängerin Billie Holiday mit Handschellen an ihr Bett gefesselt starb, weil er ihr Drogenbesitz unterstellte. Später in seiner Karriere nutzte er seine Position als US-Emissär bei der WHO, um seine Anti-Cannabis Kampagne weltweit weiterzuverfolgen - leider mit Erfolg.
@@TheAxel65 Genau darauf wollte ich hinaus. Ein Gesetz, dass nur eingeführt wurde um indirekt Minderheiten diskriminieren zu können. Typisch USA. Ähnliches, vermute ich, steckt deshalb dahinter, dass man 1956 "IN GOD WE TRUST" zum Motto Amerikas erklärte und es seit '57 auf die Banknoten drucken lässt.
Es stand da ursprünglich mal “in Gold we trust” weil früher für jeden dollar der um Umlauf war ein Stück Gold im gleichen wert beim Staat “hinterlegt” war jetzt gibt es diese gold Reserven aber nicht mehr in diesem Umfang deshalb haben die es irgend wann mal zu “in god we Trust” umgetauscht
2 parties, 3 parties, 4 parties, 5 parties, 6 political parties, no no there are more ! This is freedom for expression and true democracy is a multi party democracy 👍
Except when they start not talking to each other and are forced to rule out coalitions to appeal to their voters. Then it gets to the point where no government can be formed in any case, and it's the voters 'fault', and new elections have to be called... (which then change what exactly?) Or some other ridiculous crap happens *cough*thuringia*cough* where even a majority vote gets you nowhere.
in Thüringen have kiss the Fdp the Communist Asses. Now there are just to Parties left Afd and Ned . The Alternative für Deutschland . and The Neue Einheitspartei Deutschlands .
The core of the problem in both the USA and UK, is the first-past-the-post, district based election system. It used to exist in other countries. In the Netherlands we got rid of it in 1917, and replaced it with proportional representation. The US constitution was really ahead of it's time when it was written, but it is at least a century out of date now. And the UK has been out of date and anachronistic since ages.
Actually, the general premise of the US Constitution still applies today - esp. the Bill of Rights.The Bill of Rights is a declaration of unalienable Rights that every citizen enjoys that cannot be impeded, amended, voided, or taken away by the Government, which some politicians view as an obstacle (Obama, as a Senator, once spoke, frustratingly, of the "constraint" of the Constitution, esp. the 4th Amendment). The idea was that most power would be within the individual States, with the role of the Federal Government being limited, and would require compromise in order to pass legislation that affected all of the United States, and that change would come gradually and thoughtfully, rather than haphazardly, a particular group's ideals/agenda or on a passing whim. The Constitution was specifically written to prevent one group from having total dominance over the rest for longer that two years. The biggest problem in the US is not with the Constitution itself, but, life-long Politicians who vie for, and wield too much power, and the lazy/dumb people who keep (re)electing them to office. One example is Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who is now 70 years old, ran for a NY State Assembly Seat the year he graduated college in 1974 and won, assumed office in 1975 at the age of 24. In 1980, he ran for US Representative, won, ran for Senate 1998, won, assumed office 1999 and has been in the US Senate ever since. He has never held a private sector job. He has been on the public dole his entire adult life! Others are Patrick Leahy (D-VT), elected to Senate in 1974, assumed office 1975, still serving (45 yrs). Chuck Grassley (R-IA) assumed office 1981, still serving (39 yrs). Rep. Don Young (R-AK) assumed office in 1973, still serving (47 yrs). Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) assumed office 1979 , still serving (41 yrs). Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) assumed office 1981, still serving (39 yrs). Like Sen. Schumer, the above have spent most of their adult life in politics/public office. Not what the Founders of the Country had in mind.
Yes. I like the German system where there‘s a first vote for local mandates but every party still gets their representative percentages of second votes.
A lot of people don't realize that in the German parliament, only half the seats actually have direct regional mandates. The other half are only party mandates which are there to make up the percentage of vote. Sometimes large parties will get more direct mandates than they're entitled to by the percentage vote, but they get to keep them as so-called over-hang mandates. (Überhangmandate)
@@erictrumpler9652 And this system has a very comfortable advantage. If you're an important politician, e. g. getting place number one, two, three on the state party list and your state is not too small, you will never lose your job as you will never be voted out of office, only when your party doesn't want you anymore and puts you on a bad, unrealistic place like e. g. place ten. Of course there's a danger of lazyness and to abuse this very secure system but I'm happy about our system as a party leader won't lose his whole career just because he had a strong local challenger, and even more important the system makes it possible e. g. that a left social democratic leader can also come from the south (where nearly all constituencies have been electing conservative since the beginning in 1949), and a conservative leader e. g. can come from the West or the North where the left dominates very much of the area. Important, successful, effective politicians do not aprubtly lose their career just because the dominating party in their home is another one. In fact, there are a few chancellor candidates who didn't even win their constituency as they never had a chance in the first place in a constituency traditionally leaning to another party. What is, however, very interesting is that German politicians value their constituency very much and also have an office there and see themselves as an official representation of the constituency, regularly expressing it as their constituency, even when they didn't win it and only came in through the list. That's also the reason why by-elections do not exist in Germany. When a direct representative resigns, he will just be replaced in the Bundestag by the next one on his state party's list. The constituency does not have a direct representative anymore, but usually there will still be another list representative from another party for that constituency, so it's not really dramatic as their interests are still covered by someone. German parties also usually only nominate candidates with a constituency for their list because they want politicians who represent a region and actively campaign there, while list candidates without one are just worthless. Only very few exceptions of very important politicians sometimes are nominated and elected without constituency (like Gerhard Schröder and Martin Schulz, who coming from outside propably just didn't want to take away a constituency from a fellow party member) or after a surprising landslide win there can be representatives unexpectedly elected who had an unrealistic list place and never a constituency (as those without a constituency usually are placed at the very end of a long list).
It's true that Germany has "official" churches, and the government even collects taxes for them, although anyone can opt out at any time and avoid the taxes. Moreover, my impression at least is that, despite the separation of church and state, religion plays a far far greater role in US politics (and even daily life) than it does in Germany ("one nation under God", "in God we trust", etc.)
There are church taxes who are paid by members of the church, but If you exit the church you dont have to pay anymore. The church taxes pay for the salary of the priests and repairs usw.
in some of the west federal states like bavaria the church still plays an important role in daily life and the politics. i mean cdu/csu is a christian party
@@sharley3339 Not totally true. Even if you have left the church and do not have a membership, the churches still get a percent of the taxes the government has collected in this year. Of course, it is far less, but in fact everyone pays for all the religions and their buildings.
Well the preamble of the Grundgesetz/German constitution begins with: "Im Bewusstsein seiner Verantwortung vor Gott und den Menschen" Generally speaking, I still agree with your statement though.
@C J there aren't crosses everywhere idk where you live or where you visited germany (maybe in the south) but in the east for example it's hard to find someone on the streets who is actually a christian. and during ddr there where even churches destroyed due to communism.
I would like to add that the elections are so much more expensive in the US because the campaigning is a full time job. Like Trump beginning his 2020 campaign immediately after taking office. I see that the politicians here focus more on their jobs and then the campaign begins the month before election. I would like to see this in the US.
I once read a story about congressman in the US getting bussed into an office with cubicles, where they get a phone and a list to call donors. They do this 4 hours a day, while someone from the party stands behind them and checks on their progress.
If you campaign in germany you have to consider that your election advertising in the streets (with posters) is regulated, you have only a few weeks to use it. So the core election campaign will start only 8- 6 weeks before election.
@@SickRabbit that may be true but only 2 parties ever actually control the country. And no third party candidate has ever won the presidency (with exception to the first president George Washington who was considered an independent candidate). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_parties_in_the_United_States#Major_parties Many Americans are told and I was taught in my school that "voting for a third party candidate is throwing your vote away". I don't think people realize how much indoctrination goes on in American public schools, many see how bad the educational system is but many seem ignorant or unaware of the propaganda and bias that goes on in what is taught in public schools here. Many don't start to really see or realize things like that until they spend some time aboard especially living outside the country for a while. And yes the US is a Democratic Oligarchy.
@@roguechevelle nothing about the election cycle is enshrined in American law. The Parties have no legal basis, nor to primaries, tv debates etc. This is why the American system has sort of become a two party system because the Republicans and Democrats baisically created a system that they locked everyone else out of, but because there was no law against these kinds of things nobody could stop them. In buisness a monopoly like this would be broken up by the government, but because this is the government.... So no, the US isn't a de jure two party system, but it is a de facto two party system, and yes, because the two parties have such a stranglehold on the electoral system any attempt for a third party to join in is pretty much doomed to failure.
as someone who lives in the north we can also choose between religion and ethics and we dont have a cross in out classrooms so thats like a very bavarian thing :)
Christian Petermann so I was wondering if it was forbidden here to only put up a cross. Because I thought it’s only allowed if you also hang up the other two world religions’ symbols. (ich lebe übrigens auch in NRW)
@@idontknowxxx9401 Actually there was a lawsuit and it was rules illegal to promote religion in classrooms with those crosses. Now they are there out of cultural reasons (cultural tradition) and not out of religious reasons. (I think they changed the states laws to include this
Dear Montana, I am an "old white man", living mainly on the old continent, especially in Bavaria, where I was born. I have friends in France, in the USA, in Russia, in the Ukraine and my home is only 20 kilometers away from the Czech border. So I am also half Czech or Bohemian. The older I get, the more I am interested in the differences between cultures, social and political systems. In the past, I was mainly interested in the differences between national economies. Your videos often open my eyes. I'm a little surprised because now I see things that I didn't recognize before. This helps me to better understand many of the circumstances and behaviour of my "non-Bavarian" friends. Basically I also believe that people in our countries are not very different. The clothes, the aims, the wishes and the way of life are very similar. The systems are sometimes very different, but the basic ideas of the political directions and competing parties are nevertheless similar again. Thank you very much for your good observation and your eye for the essential. I wish you and your parents a Happy Easter afterwards (with my friends in the eastern countries I am punctual with my Easter wishes today :-).
Just to clarify, its a bavarian thing with the crosses everywhere. Most of us dont have that. And yeah, religion lessons are there, but as you said you could take ethics, way more fun.
Depends, really. I had to got to a christian school for some time, because there was no other school were I lived. And they didn't teach ethics, so in religion, u'd have some very religious teacher and a few very religious farmer kids and the majority were atheists. It was so much fun. In another school I had very boring ethics classes, so it depends.
In the 1980's I went to a Gymnasium in Düsseldorf funded by the protestant church. I couldn't trade religion for ethics, it was mandatory. We were not brainwashed, however I felt I wasted my time with that bs. In the higher levels (Oberstufe) I was able to finally kick it out and took philosophy instead. Way better choice xD
I had the exact opposite experience as a high school student in the Mississippi in the 90s. I come from Berlin which is a not very religious region. My family is also not religious at all. Despite the claim that church and state should be seperated in the US , I found that religion was very present in school and in politics also. I was especially shocked when I found out about creationists- people that seriously deny evolution. And that that was discussed in high school !!! So I guess it depends very much on the region in the US and in Germany. In Berlin we do not have the cross on the Wall in schools. But you can take religion as a class if you want to.
It's also often in Baden-Württemberg, but funnily only Bavaria always gets the blame while nobody really ever cares for us, even though we have the strongest economy of all Germany. We're similar to Bavaria in quite a few points with the plus point that we manage to never get noticed... :D while Bavaria at the same time is annoying anyone in Germany with their claims.
For you the cross means nothing, it is just a decoration, right? You are not a Christian, so you don't care. Enjoy the coming raising new religon, either SC or Islam... By the way, a cross was placed in rooms and mountains and in graveyards in former days as sign of peace, blessing and protection from evil. Thngs people seem not to need.
@@SamWinchester000 Bavaria is Catholic and even the language does not belong to northern (Prussian) and eastern Germany. It should have joined Austria in 19th century, but the bloody intrigues of Bismarck made it impossiple.
@@josiavantroyen4215 Well. All of the televangelist circus, for example. A great song comes to mind. "When the lie is so big" by Frank Zappa. With a big ol' lie And a flag and a pie And a mom and a bible Most folks are just liable To buy any line. When the lie's so big As in Robertson's case, (that sinister face Behind all the jesus hurrah) Could result in the end To a worrisome trend In which every american Not 'born again' Could be punished in cruel and unusual ways By this treacherous cretin Who tells everyone That he's jesus' best friend
Bavaria is weird. In most schools there are no crosses, because it is forbidden to religiously influence children. The religion classes should give kids information about religion itself and touch on all the different religions.
I grew up in Bavaria and I never thought about it very much, because it was just a common thing. When I grew up I came to the realization, that church and state should be devided in the class room as well and that's not happening in Bavaria. But I never felt like I was pushed in a direction (not more than by social surroundings anyway) and we were informed about religion in general and other forms of religion. Nevertheless I would like there to be a neutral form of religion eduction everywhere in Germany...
In the other direction, when I heard from John Oliver that very many US local officials stand unchallenged for re-election, I was amazed! That makes no sense to us here in Germany!
I love that you inform people about those things and show the differences. It's also nice how your time abroad really inspired you. You seem to be a very ambitious person and your videos are always interesting to watch, also because of your positivity.
as a german from the east side of the country i can tell you that the most people there hate nothing more than that someone use bavarian as a example for the whole country. we have no cross in any public buildings, no realy religions influence in school or other public topic, good tasted beer and no stupid clothes... Some would say bavaria is originally another country (or wish that it will happen).... second: the most states have religion classes which are about the differences in religion from islam to Hindu, to diffrences between katholic and evangelical, and not about one third: some woud say the US system to vote a president is no democratic system because you vote only electors who can decide what he/she wants to vote last: im living in berlin, and yes we are a mixed culture. bigger the City, more mixed we are. Paris, London are all the same.
Yes point thrree is horrific in the US election system. In Germany we also "vote only electors who can decide what he/she wants to vote", but it is made sure that the majority of the people is not overridden by the majority of the representatives. That's why we have "Überhangmandate", we should keep them.
Religion class is - as I experienced it 23 years ago - not so much a religious class, but a class about Religion. Like religious studies at the university are studies about religion, not religious practices. I don't agree with the crosses in classrooms. That's a Bavarian thing. Liberalism comes in different shapes and forms. Economical liberalism is something that seems very US-Republican. Social (civil?) liberalism seems more US-Democratic. Germans tend to agree with the latter not the former. Political Parties in Germany do struggle with division, especially on the local levels. There are people in local politics who block an idea just because it came from a party they wouldn't want to succeed with anything. Later they propose the idea themselve to present it as their own success. I always hope those stories are the exception, but I did hear a couple... Keep exploring the world! Your curious non judgemental attitude is a blessing!
That is the case in west and east germany, the problem with the east part of germany is that there are lots of people that vote for AfD, so some people don't want to live there if they are not 100% german
Anton Erbe The problem in the west german countries is, that people there are lefties and they want to make Germany a multicultural society without knowing the bad side effects.
Yes, my city is also really multi cultural. I live in Hamburg and I think the half of my class has routes in other countries. Many have family in turkey, one in Sri, in Moldavia, in Brazil, in Italy, in Peru, in Tunisia a.s.o. and that's also a reason why I love to live in a big city because you get to know a lot of cultures
On CZcams you hear US Americans often say, they won't talk about politics or religion. In Germany we talk about these subjects openly but we learn not to talk about money (f.e. asking someone how much he earns).
@Die Klausi Wow! Okay I am trying to write this without any insult. But how dare you compare the jews horrible situation with the well deserved criticism on Catholicism? I am living in Munich and I do feel bothered by crosses and church bells. But I don't say anything because as long nobody gets hurt it okay. But you have no idea how many freedoms and special treatments religions especially Catholicism and Evangelism has in Germany.
You recognized the differences between the two political systems very well. The worst nonsense in the American electoral system that it inherited from the UK is the principle "the winner takes it all". In the UK by the constituencies in the USA by the Electoral College. This often leads to election winners who were not voted for by the majority of the population. Second, it almost inevitably leads to the fact that one can only choose between two large parties, which all too often do not really make the policy or initiate changes that the people actually want.
To get from bad to worse the US system makes it much easier to buy politicans so they serve in your interest. In the US there is much much more coruption.
The real problem starts with this system if your only choice is Johnson or Corbyn. Not much better with the last election in the USA. If only the candidates of two parties have any chance on the top job and if both parties insist on weak candidates the result will be a weak president / prime minister. And those have even more power than a German chancellor.
Regarding Germany being a melting pot... It really depends on where you live. In Bavaria, you have plenty of Eastern Europeans due to the location of the state. In North-Rhine Westphalia, there are plenty of French, Dutch and Belgian descendants, as well as lots of Greek, Italian and Turkish people. They migrated to Germany during the 60's and 70's during the "Wirtschaftswunder" (all thanks to the Marshall plan) in order to find work in the Industrial capital of Germany, the Ruhr region.
Marshall plan helped but it wasn't that alone, since the Marshall plan was not just for Germany but many other (western) european countries. (West) Germany got around 11% of the funds, same as Italy. Compared to 24% for the UK and 21% for France. Greece got 5%. Roughly 5 times as much as Germany per capita. Still no "Wirtschaftswunder" there.
Religion - you where in the south. In the north normal we dont use religious symbols in school or official buildings. There may be exceptions. Political partys - Having multiple parties can be an advantage, but it can also be a disadvantage. For example, you never know exactly who you are choosing because you do not know with whom they will form a coalition. That is why there is a 5% hurdle that not every small party can get into the government. Cost much money - In contrast to the US, we want to be ruled by educated people as much as possible and not by rich, rude chunks and bullys. The government should ideally represent the average of the population and not the rich upper class. Other cultures - its throughout the country. Passau is not even a hotspot like Cologne, Berlin, Hamburg. Stay healthy!
Berlin is sometimes referred to as "second largest Turkish city" because of its huge Turkish population (although by now there actually are more than one cities in Turkey that are larger than Berlin)... So yeah, we have a lot of immigrants
Religion class in Germany is a really interesting and controversial topic, both historically (e.g. the Reichskonkordat between Hitler and the Holy See) and politically (Art. 7.3 GG). In short, we do have separation of church and state (and I think Bavaria is reeeeeally stretching it with the crosses in class), but there is an explicit exception for religion class in our constitution. The reason you'll usually get for it is that it should be ensured that religion is taught in an open, pluralistic fashion in line with a liberal democratic society, and that you can't ensure that if you leave it purely to churches and Sunday school types of class. On the other hand, there is an understanding with the large churches (in case of the Catholics in the form of said Reichskonkordat which is still more or less in effect) to not work against the state and to stay out of day-to-day politics, so they're a lot less politically involved than US churches often seem to be. Religious freedom in the schools is guaranteed, since parents can excuse their children from religion class without reason, and it's not restricted to christian religions (theoretically most recognized religions can organize religion classes, but not many do).
In Bavaria it's theoretically the rule that if any student takes offence with the cross in the classroom, they have to put it away. In reality it's different of course, u'll get labelled as a troublemaker, u will get laughed at by ur teacher and the fucking cross stays. I've tried it.
@@joshina4497 Visualize the symbol of atheism or humanism displayed in the exact same position and think of how religious people would feel about that. Not a few would be offended. And alot would lie just to seem open minded when pressed on it but be offended on the inside.
Hitler actually hated Chrisitianity he only used it to his advantage. There is actually a quote of his (which is legitimate/well documented) that he adored Mohamed and Islam for its conquests and wars. Certainly he was not a christian he only pretended to be.
Nice Video Montana! Just two thoughts: I don't think crosses are usual in german classes, that's just Bavaria because the CSU decided this like two years ago and there was kind of a fuzz about it. Also having a lot of people with migration background is not rare at all, it's probably a lot more common in bigger cities than Passau as well, especially Berlin and the Ruhr Area are known for being really multicultural.
Bavaria is quite "special". They also have crosses in courtrooms. You don't have that anywhere else in Germany, because normally the states understand the concept behind seperation of church and state. But at least they still only teach evolution in Biology. ;-p
Well, in other German states there are many public schools (especially in rural areas) run by the churches as well, in the Catholic varieties of which you may find crucifixes, too. They will only be removed if there are complaints from parents. Churches which have the status of an institutional body under public law (Körperschaft des öffentlichen Rechts) are often commissioned by the state to run schools, kindergardens, hospitals etc. on behalf and in the responsivility of the state as the authorized institution (Träger).
My sister went to a privat catholic all-girls school and even there they had sex ed (even a little better then where I went to school because with the class being only girls, they were a bit more comfortable with the topic) where they learned about anatomy basics, safe sex and never about abstinence and obviously they also learned about evolution (It's a fact, why wouldn't you teach kids something factual?)
Montana you opened Pandoras box 😬 Of the first 11 comments two have started a discussion.... And sadly 8 can't help to participate in them. Hope the discourse will stay civil. Montana has a great way of addressing such issues carefully, maybe we should learn from that.
about funding when you want to be elected: in the USA you have to spend a lot of your own money or money from supporters. For me it seems to not give "poor" candidates the chance to influence politics. In Germany the parties do the financing for their candidates. And the financial behaviour of parties is strictly ruled. I prefer the "german way".
Robert Carson the United States militarily occupies Germany. If Germany stepped even an inch out of line, America would have the ability to do what it did to the country during WWII in a matter of minutes. Germany would have no way of defending itself. When Germans say snarky shit like stated in this comment (which was very rare when I lived there and the overwhelming majority of them were lovely), I would simply remind them whose country militarily occupies whose.
Und das ist gut so. Wir sind ein vereintes Europa und stimmen so in der Weltpolitik eine große Rolle. Alleingänge haben wir in der Geschichte zu oft gesehen das sich jeder an übermäßigem Nationalismus ertränkt und vergisst das wir alle Menschen sind die ein gutes leben haben wollen. Wenn wir füreinander sorgen so wie jetzt dann bleibt es auch weiter friedlich. Es wird immer schwarze Schafe geben und immer Leute die nur an sich denken und vergessen welche Möglichkeiten dir Europa im Gegensatz zum Rest der Welt dir bietet. Viele sind zu undankbar ohne zu wissen das sie sich niemals Gedanken oder Angst haben müssen bankrott aufgrund irgendwelcher Ereignisse zu gehen. Denkt mal darüber nach wie gut wir es haben und nicht immer weil ein kleiner Teil Flüchtlinge oder andere Minderheiten scheiße bauen. Das tun wir deutsche hier genauso gut.
I just randomly found this video, found it really insightful hearing the American perspective on politics over here. After watching your video and scrolling through the comments I'd also add the fact that in the US you have to register to vote (I haven't figured out if you have to register for every election?, I just often see it on twitter telling people to register to be able to vote) whereas in Germany you get a notice in the mail that you are eligible for voting in elections and also where to vote etc etc, which I personally find very convenient since many, especially older people probably would forget or simply not be able to register!
Nice to hear your view. Just one detail: People from Poland, Hungary, Romania etc. are not immigrants. They are fellow citizens of our European Union. ;)
@@snowflake4099 i think it depends hiw you see EU and your country,if you identify more with EU that your country then they are fellow citizens,if you identify more with the state/country they are ummigrants and if you identify with the local community even a person from the next town is an immigrant. Also legally speaking we are all fellow citizens with the same right and privileges in the Union.
Yes, it is same EU and Shengen space, but these are still separate countries, therefore still immigrants if they live in other country than their original native one. When i lived and worked in England or in Finland i was still immigrant, because i'm not from there. EU is not a federal state like USA, ok! EU is a political and economic Union of clearly divided nation states with different ethno-cultural origins and identities. And each country still has immigration policies even for the EU internal immigrants, because even though it is very much simplified in Schengen zone, becoming an actual citizen and permanent resident of other country, still requires certain dealings with immigration offices. Besides, when people who are like second generation from immigrant family, then yeah, they prolly identify as being already a German, but when they say they are from Poland or Hungary or wherever, they most likely just say where their family originates.. simple as that.
@@MrJuwarra Firstly: Schengen and the EU are not identical. Schengen includes several countries that are not part of the EU and leaves out several countries (Ireland, Cyprus) who are EU members. Second: The contract of Maastricht created an actual EU citizenship. Everyone who is a national of an EU member country is also an EU citizen. Therefore NOT an immigrant.
@@chrispyak yes, of course i know that they are not identical (i work in international airport and therefore it is my duty to know these things), but basically right in this case we are talking about the countries that are in both. And second is not completely true.. when you move to another country, you can't vote in their elections and you can't run for office without becoming the citizen of that country.. and there are other things too. As i said, immigration is made very easy for us, but we are still immigrants in other countries. Think actually even about the meaning of the word itself - immigration - the action of coming to live permanently in a foreign country.. which rings true for it, because as i said, these are still separate countries.. and you still move, and you still move over the borders.
Sometimes it‘s crazy to hear how different the South of Germany can be in comparison to the very North. For example the crosses that were in your classrooms. I could never imagine something like that! I can only guess that’s due to being more catholic in the south. And even that the religion classes are separated. I mean we also have religion but it was’t ever necessary to separate the classes because at least at my school (especially when we got older) wasn’t focussing on Christianity that much, much more the subject was on which religions are existing in general. The goal was much more to get an inside of here uncommon religions like Buddhism. And never imagine to have religion from class 5 to 12. We also had a lot of philosophy classes instead and could at one point also elect one of both. I mean that all could be even different in other schools in the North but still that‘s my experience. Just another point of how different Germany can be. Another example the general school system in every (i guess it could be translated with) state. I love to hear all your stories and sometimes even getting insides in my country that i don’t even know! :)
I am from the north of Germany and for me it was the same as it was for her. There are a lot of catholic schools in Hamburg and classes about religion as well.
Anja Lange Interesting. Especially the catholic part because i mean Hamburg is not that far away from me but even when we were focussing on Christianity it was on the protestant part. I don‘t even know where like a catholic church is here nearby. I would have thought that the area around Hamburg was quiet similar to my experience.
Freia Hesse At my school in Bavaria, we were separated and had religion, in my opinion, we as Catholics learned more about the broad range of religions and a lot of philosophy, while the Protestant people actually had to memorize the Ten Commandments. Could also be just a personal experience, as our catholic teachers were full-time teachers who happened to teach these subjects, while the Protestant religion teachers worked as pastors etc. and then also taught kids in religion class
Laurin Wey Yeah that sounds to me really like it just was the outcome of different teachers. In the end it always depends on them. Like which goals they have for teaching. For example if they want to educate their students more in their own religion or giving them knowledge of diversity and teaching them all kinds of religions and so on.
Dear Montana, one thing you mentioned here shocked me quite a bit, and I would love to get some clarification on that: The separation of state and religion is practised *more* in the US than in Germany? To be fair, Bavaria is not a good representation of Germany in that regard, as it is the only state that actually allows crosses in class rooms. But in general I had the impression that the US is so much more religious, with people sending "thoughts and prayers", with politicians publically displaying their piety, with most families going to church regularily etc.; I read a few times that it is political suicide to say you're atheist when running for an office in the US. In Germany (maybe not Bavaria, but definitely in the Northeast), religion is a purely private issue, and even most politicians try to avoid any public display or discussion of their religious affiliation. I dare say the majority of Germans is non-religious or outright atheist, and the school classes about religion are supposed to educate children about which religions there are in the world, what their core beliefs are and which holidays they celebrate, so that the kids get a less biased view on religions and not just assume that what their parents preach is the one true thing... So, all in all, my impression is that in Germany there is almost a total separation of state and religion, while in the US it is very important to publically display your religion or piety as much as possible. Could you please elaborate on that? Thank you!
I think there are arguments for both sides. For example in germany the state collects taxes for the church. That just doesn't happen in the US, there you pay a fee directly to the church (if you want) like with every other institution. Then there are many schools and hospitals etc which are owned by the church but funded by the government. Then you have many christian holidays which are also public holidays, shops are closed on sundays, these are all originally christian traditions. I'm a student and when I was looking to rent a room in my city (online) I found a dormitory which only allows christians. You had to send them your "Taufurkunde" (no idea what that is called in english). Of course I didn't do that. But if you just open your eyes you will find many examples of christian influence in germany.
@Wolfgang Preier Can you please explain, what you mean precisely by "protestant countries"? As opposed to what? Catholic countries? Who do you mean by the "other countries" and the "mixed countries"? I don't get it...?
@Wolfgang Preier Ok, I get it. Basically you are right, but I guess theres more behind it than a simple "catholic = conservative" or "protestant = liberal" equation. Have a look at Ireland for example - strong catholic background, but still a modern country which even legalized abortion and allowed gay marriages recently. When last visiting them, the Irish were kind enough not to burn me at the stake as a heretic, even though I am an atheist. Actually they've been quite friendly. I guess when you add _education_ to the equation then you get a more precise picture: Better education reduces massively the religious influence on political and personal decisions. Honestly, as an Atheist I feel safest in countries with good education no matter what the local religious belief is xD
@Wolfgang Preier The more important becomes education! Btw, during my studies of political sciences in the 90's I once attended a lecture called "Die religiösen Dimensionen des Nationalsozialismus" - very interesting. Did you know that the Naziphrase of "Das Tausendjährige Reich" originally stems from a passage in the Bible? That's the part in the apocalypse where Jesus is preparing for the final battle against the unbelievers (original quote from the Bible, when explaning who is part of the unbelievers: "The Jews because they're the sons of Lie and the Satan"). After Jesus wins, he errects the _Reign of Thousand Years_ . The Nazis grabbed all the antisemitic gibberish from the bible into their ideology. In Riefenstahl's film of the Nürnberger Reichsparteitag everything is put in scene like a religious ceremony - the torches, the flags, the "baptizing" ritual of a flag ("Fahnenweihe"). And Goebbels wrote a novel called "Michael" where he described his first encounter with Adolf Hitler like a divine apparition like meeting the messias.
The US has always been a democracy with good and bad times. I think that Biden could be a start to unite the country again and the younger generations are overall a lot more involved which is a very good thing no matter what they believe in.
@@Arcaryon The turnout for young voters never really came. I think this is a big fantasy. It was even less than 2016. Some of the far-leftist activists have this hope of a huge surge in young voters that just never comes. I think Bernie hoped for the same thing and he lost the black vote considerably.
@@loth4015 I have a lot more patience in that regard. I basically expect these changes to occur in the next 50+ years. And hope that it's early enough to be able to withstand China. Biden is just a step. But the fact is: people LIKED Bernie. A candidate who for the US was basically a defecto left wing politician. And who also got sooo much backlash from Bloomberg trying to slow him down. I mean, look where the US stands today. Black voting rights, more discussions about the system then ever and a president that is dividing the nation. If any climate is perfect for a change in policy, this is the moment for all of this to slowly begin to develop.
@@Arcaryon Bernie was not as anti-establishment as Trump appeared to be though in 2016. He did lack the winner mentality. I remember in 2016, when he was asked what he thought about Hillary's deleted e-mails one time and he shrugged it off. Hillary laughed and clapped, because she probably knew at that point that she won. Instead of killing Hillary, he went way too soft and lost the nomination. Then, this year, some democrats, etc. on twitter shared that video recently, where Trump went after the establishment. And during one of the primaries, he said something about George Bush, Jeb Bush, etc. And pointed at the crowd saying: "Only the big donors, the people with money get invited to the crowds here." and the crowd started booing Trump, but he continued. "I am paying for my own campaign. I don't need any of you donors and big money." And at that point, a lot of people understood the appeal of Trump back then, asking "Why isn't bernie more like this? Calling out the big donors, etc.?" So I don't think Biden will beat him either this year. It's just too much establishment.
@@loth4015 That's one of the reasons why the US government is failing and declining. Always fighting for the local government. Our man in Washington. Go, kill the system, hang all the other corrupt thiefs and do everything different. Worse than a minor kingdom in the Holy Roman Empire. Keep in mind - Trump lacks 4 million people in votes and definetly didn't make anymore friends with the way he governs. He may win this but that would be the point where I might as well write of the potential of the US to become a functional democracy completely. I mean, Trump IS the establishment. Literally makes most of his policies that way. I honestly don't follow the process as intensely as I should because it's a 50/50% chance either way but as it is undecided, we can literally throw a coin to see who the unaligned will crown in the upcoming elections. Who knows what goes on in their heads. The Rustbelt made him strong. But how will people react that don't care too deeply about ideologies but lost their job due to Covid-19? I am not an analyst but Trumps position isn't secure at all. He made so many mistakes all the, time even in implementing policies that were on his agenda that I don't know if he will really be strong enough to continue as he has. What made him big can just as well bring him down because if it's just about the narrative, he is good on camera appealing to his people. I just doubt that this approach will win him the elections again because Biden is a more likable candidate than Hillary. He lost the popular vote to a highly unlikable candidate before. Biden just has to be somewhat acceptable and he will have got his chance and a good one I might add. The thing about he US is that it's political system chronically ill and needs to fix itself asap - but it's such a slow process. And yet, with the way this world develops - it's running out of time. If Trump made America great again, aka claim his administrative period as a success, he will could win the vote. But the Dems got soooo much to work with. If they try, he will not have an easy time.
Great video and you've talked about a lot of interesting points! I think overall we do have a lot of people from different countries and cultural backgrounds who live in Germany. Nonetheless, it's not as much as in the US, but still a decent amount and I think that it's a beautiful thing. Keep up the great work and love your videos! 🙌🔥
Hi, so the thing is that you went to school in Bavaria, which is by far the most religious state in Germany. In my school, there are no crosses or any religious symbols in the school at all and I attended philosophy classes instead of religion classes. However, you could choose to have religion classes if you wanted to. Germany lacks behind in regards to separation between state and church whatsoever, which is kind of interesting as Germany, in general, is way less religious than, for example, the US. Really liked this video :D
Well, actually, no. The USA lacks behind us in that regard, because religious opinions and organisations have way more impact than in Germany (except for Bavaria).
Ich bin in Berlin zur Schule gegangen, daher waren die Nationalitäten an meiner Schule noch viel diverser^^ ich find deine Videos echt interessant. Nicht nur der Vergleich mit den USA sondern auch einfach mit Bayern und Berlin^^ ich kann kaum für Deutschland sprechen, weil Berlin ja schon spezieller ist, aber durch deine Videos ist mir noch viel bewusster geworden, dass es wahrscheinlich überall in Deutschland riesige Unterschiede gibt und das wahrscheinlich einfach typisch deutsch ist^^ Wirklich coole Videos Liebe Grüße
it’s so interesting to learn new things about germany, even as a german. i have lived here my whole live but in west germany and i’ve never heard of this ‘cross above the door’ thing
Thanks. That was a great contribution. I knew that the US is more of a plutocracy (rule of the rich), but I did not know what it is like on the local level. In my opinion, the 2-party system is the root cause of that lack of democracy. Little parties have no chance and if one party failes (or both, like we have it now) there is no third choice. Btw. the german system was more or less developed or at least much influenced by the US army after the war.
"There is an overall hatred for DT in germany" Hatred is too strong a word i would think. More generally we pitty you fools who voted for him and even more so those who didn't. To me it is just mindboggling how people still could support him at all. In an old roman text "The republic" i am currently reading, Scipio defines the worst form of government is the one where the people think the rich are noble and full of virtue from birth and praise them for it, instead of searching for those people who due to hard life choices, sacrifices and discipline established virtues upon their characters.
@Boris Notbadenov2 If i remember correctly there were 2 years where republicans had the house, the senate and the presidency. You complaining about an opposition keeping him from achieving more is quite hilarious and yet infrastructure week to this day is the biggest joke of his presidency to me. Shortly ago the guy in charge of that told reporters how he was undermined by the administration and why nothing got done and it was not one bit about the freakin democrats, but all about incompetence and corruption. There are so many examples like that, only your partisan perspective doesn't allow you to see it, i guess you would go mad if you'd try. Anyways when i compare how corona was managed in the EU in comparison to the USA, nothing you could say would make Trump look good. Sure you could try anyways, but most likely i just laugh about you then, not because of the stupidity, but the senseless efort of mine to reason.
@Boris Notbadenov2 Where it comes to legitimacy of elected representatives the USA nowadays is not anymore a shining beacon in the dark, more like a muddy cesspool of power hungry coconspirators of both parties. Look at gerrymandering, citizen united, lobbyism. The election of 2000 was quite an eye opener in that perspective and did not get any better with 2016 from my understanding. Voter supresion is trending with the current administration. You may want to blame democrats all day long, fact remains that these problems both parties contribute to. If Trump would have golfed less maybe he could have handled a hearing or two, besides running the country properly and even get ahead of things. Thats what competent people would do. Instead people were discouraged from giving testemony and he himself never did. Sure the democrats were furrious and pissed and from what i was seeing from the outside, the right strived on that. Aslong you could piss them of, you did not want to look too close at Trump. But Boris, you know all that.
It surprised me that you did expect almost all people to be 100% German. Surely in the US not everyone is from the same state in university? In size European countries are a bit like US states.
She was in Passau which used to be a huge diocese and therefore most of the higher schools were founded by the church, and this is why there are crosses in every classroom
It's very interesting, I grew up in germany and a lot of the things that shockd you seem so natural that I really got into reading more about how politics work around the world. I always just assumed that things would be pretty similar across the modern western world. Turns out I have a lot more to learn.
You often see immigrants from other EU members in Germany because it's easy to immigrate from other EU countries. But there are also many people in Germany who have an turkish background as many turkish people immigrated to Germany in the 60s. That makes Germany a place which is very diverse.
@Tommy Turbo I'm guessing that this is true for most of Germany, but in the Ruhrgebiet most people of Turkish descent are in fact descended from the Gastarbeiter, often now in the 3rd generation.
Not really. If it was as diverse as is claimed, then the crime rate would be way higher and the IQ would be lower. I would assume, a good 80-90% of germany's population is non-hispanic white.
The diversity of cultures is sometimes insane. When I made Abitur many years ago, in the Frankfurt area, we had 14 nationalities in one class with 31 people 😁🏳️🌈
I am insanely happy to live in a country so attractive that so many of your class mates were from abroad. Especially since just three generations earlier, the evil twin of our country had earned about the worst of reputations. Go Frankfurt, btw. :)
@@sarahsauter5820 The US is more diverse as a country. The US has around 56% non-hispanic whites. Germany probably still has 90% whites. You can see this pretty easily by looking at crimerates. Generally speaking, the more diverse a place is, the higher the crime rate. So when looking at US cities with the highest homicide rates, you can take a look at the demographics. It's a pretty good indicator of a country's diversity.
Don't know why youtube proposed your video to me but I am happy to see how eye-opening your exchange was for you and how open-mindedly you think about that topic and reflect on the differences you observed :)
Hi Montana! Ich schaue deine Videos jetzt schon seit längerer Zeit und du machst das richtig gut! Du bist sehr sympathisch und deine Videos sind sehr interessant, vor allem für Deutsche, um zu verstehen, wie wir von außen wahrgenommen werden. Dass du vor allem in Bayern warst sollte man allerdings nicht vergessen, denn dort sind die Menschen und die Mentalität schon etwas anders als in "Durchschnitts-Deutschland" (was z.B. Staat und Religion angeht). I'm watching your videos for some time and you're doing a great job! I really like you and it's very iteresting to see, how we germans are seen from foreigners. But one should remeber you spent most your time in Bavaria, becaus the people and mentality there is much differnet than in "average- Germany".
Yeah, but only jokingly because it's not really. Other non jokes are how everything in Bayern is better than in northern Germany. From football to schools and to the economy.
In elections, we have a “personalisierte Verhältniswahl”. That means you get in elections a sheet of paper for voting. You vote for two things one Person and the second is a party. A party can only come to the Bundestag, if they passed 5% of the second voting. This “Sperrklausel” is there, because we don’t wanna split the party’s as much(“Splitterparteien”). A part of the seats(299) are for the “Listenkandidaten”(second vote) and 299 for the “Direktmandate”(direct voted; first vote). To vote you have to be an adult(18 years) and you have to be a German Bürger(if you vote in a landestag you have to live in the Bundesland for longer than 3 month). So now we have 709 Seats in Bundestag. We have in Bundestag 7 Partys(if we split Union in CDU and CSU). CDU is the strongest party with 246 seats and is our government. Our Bundes Präsident is Frank Walter Steinmeier. He is not as much in charge as angela merkel, our Bundeskanzlerin. With her “Kabinett” she is our government. To prevent dictatorships, we have split the government forces up in exekutive, judikative and legislative. Information I’ve forgotten I can just write you later 🙃
And I forgot: we have an “unlimited” amount of party’s, but they aren’t in the Bundestag/Landestag, because they aren’t as popular as they have to to be in the parliament. So only a few can get in there and some party’s are forbidden, because they were extremely right or extremely left....
I totally agree with the fact how shocking it is that Bavaria is so openly in favour of one religion. I'm so glad that that's not the case for Germany as a whole. I live in Berlin and I would not feel comfortable if it would be the same here as it is in Bavaria. In my opinion religion has nothing to do in politics.
Yeah me too. I think there should be a neutral form of religious education issued by the Kultusministerium in which the churches have nothing to say. If they wanna offer their own eduction they can still do that and people that are interested can go there. I grew up in Bavaria and never thought anything of it until I became a little bit older, because it was such a common thing where I lived.
Only in Bavaria are crosses in the classrooms. In all other states its not forbidden but they respect more other religions. ( Hello from the north of Germany )
Weaky Leek ich finds eigentlich auch ziemlich unnötig. Man kann das Kreuz aber auch als eher kulturelles Symbol sehen, da es gerade Bayern sehr stark in der Sprache oder in der Denkweise geprägt hat. Auch wenn das sicher viele wieder als rechts sehen, Deutschland ist nunmal ein christlich geprägtes Land und das Kreuz soll sicher nicht ausdrücken dass man andere Religionen nicht toleriert
When you run for elections in Germany, your party will pay for your campaign. Membership fees, donations and the state pay the parties. You can even take time off from work if you have to do campaign work and have to join meetings. When you are successful, there are gentlemen’s agreement that you donate some of your salary back to your party, but that is not a rule or law.
I'm from Eastern Germany and I think it's totally crazy to have a cross in a classroom. That's only a thing in Bavaria and in private religious schools. But yeah, I think there shouldn't be crosses in public schools. Because we're living in a secular nation.
Please dont take any of this personally, i mean no offense. Just some general observations: About money in politics: In Germany, we have the "Parteienfinanzierungsgesetz" (party finance law) which grants state-money to parties based on their previous results (it also limits and regulates donations) - i dont know the formula, but i assume small parties get a little bit more per vote than the big ones. The party will then finance their candidate´s run. You only have to be "rich" (obviously that depends on what level you are running for office), i assume, when you are trying to run for either a very small party or none at all (as an independent). I find it kind of telling btw, that you are "shocked" by the fact, that things actually work here. When a political system is laid out in a way, that it a) stifles private conversations about policies and politics and so that b) only very rich people can run for office, as the US-ian system, by your own description, is, then it is - let´s face it - broken, almost to the point of being dystopian. That´s what should get you shocked (and angry). About locality: Please realize that Passau is at the very edge of Germany and part of a state, that makes a point of being semi-independent (kinda like Texas) with very distinct cultural elements that you wont find anywhere else in Germany. Lederhosen are not german. I cannot stress that enough. You didnt claim they were, but i´ll still say it again: Lederhosen are not a german thing. I have friends in California, and when i tell my friends about my experiences there, i make a point of saying that i dont know how things are in Indiana or Maine, cause i only saw California. I saw very few people wearing cowboy hats there. Just as you wont see many Lederhosen in Hamburg. Even I, as a german, often fall into the trap as to converying my own local and personal experiences here to my american friends as if i was the german hive mind. I think, in that sense, if i was visiting it, and travelled it, i´d probably be shocked about how culturally diverse it actually is, first and foremost, cause i can imagine, our reputation abroad is quite the opposite. (PS: Yeah, in Germany, even your parties get paid for by the state - pure socialism ;P) Addendum: So, next time you come to Germany, i´d like to encourage you, to travel it, north to south, west to east. It´d feel like you traveled westcoast to eastcoast. Chances are, you will sometimes struggle to talk to locals. Heck, take someone from Passau with you and watch them struggle! Sitting a Bavarian, an Hamburgian, a Berliner, a Dresdener, a Stuttgarter and someone from cologne at the same table, talking their local dialects is pure potential comedy. When you compare north to south, even the family houses look different - the northern ones are mostly red (fake) bricks, while in the south, they tend to be painted white. Northern cows are black&white, southern ones brown&white. Mostly. Okay, that´s not culture. Or is it? You mentioned the crosses in classrooms. Yeah, that´s never gonna happen here in the north. It´s really a bit like in the US in that regard? The south tends to be more religious? The bible-belt? Bavaria is Dixieland, when it comes to that. It´s got a lot to do with the reformation and the schism between catholics and protestants. Luther, 30-years-war and all that. Still very important stuff to know about in order to understand german culture, as it is today. As most of its history actually is. What we all have in common as germans as a whole and where we are diverse, is all founded in one part of our history or another.
Craziest thing for me is, that politics in the us (at least the last few years) often have discussions on a personal level not about political topics. That isnt something thats ever done in germany. Political candidates wouldn't rant about the appearance of others or bs like that. You not only need less money, you dont need anything normally. Parties get money to use for their elections. That maybe wont include regional politics because those candidates might do it for free and therefor need money from their spouses to live.
In Germany we have more than 40 parties competing in elections, whereby "only" 5 to 7 actually receive enough votes to play a role. It is also important to know that the period of the election campaign in Germany is legally limited to ~ 6 weeks. Posters from parties that are displayed in public outside this period will result in fines for the parties. It is also important to know that the political system in Germany is financed differently. The financing of the election campaign is almost exclusively done by the parties. Only parties can accept donations tax-free. In the case of donations to private individuals, they would have to pay tax on the donations as income. In addition, parties receive approximately one additional euro of tax money from the state for every euro donated. In addition, parties receive further tax money if they reach certain percentages in elections (~0.5% of the votes I believe). Donations to parties that exceed 10,000 Euro per year must be reported to the Bundestag, which makes this information publicly available. Every few years illegal party donations are discovered, which then lead to very high fines and criminal proceedings. One could say that in Germany the political agenda is indeed the main focus, not the financial possibilities. As a political scientist, however, I can say that transparency in lobbying in Germany is really only minimal and needs some improvement. But in Germany, politicians unfortunately find it very difficult to make changes. The Internet is still considered new territory for many politicians.
What if you really hate one of the political parties, can't you just make a poster supporting them and post it outside the 6 months period; so that way they get fined.
@@senbassador This is exactly what happens from time to time, but has so far proved to be very ineffective. But one must also consider that people who clearly put up or take down party-political posters are directly controlled by the police, who also require a party membership card. I myself have helped in several election campaigns to put up posters before the election and after the election. In each election campaign I had to be identified by the police at least five times. For comparison: As a (white heterosexual) righteous man of 40 years, I have never been controlled by the police outside of election campaigns.
The Bundesverfassungsgericht (highest German court) actually ruled that these cruzifixes (basically catholic crosses) have to be taken down. They are just ignoring that ruling though...
@Die Klausi The ruling of the Bundesverfassungsgericht is in regards to the religious neutrality of the state. The government is not allowed to favor any religion... ( Art. 140 GG in Verbindung mit den Artikeln in der Weimarer Reichsverfassung zum Neutralitätsgebot des Staates, wenn es dich im Detail interessiert)
In my school (NRW), there are crosses, too, but they're basically left over from the past (the old building is about 500 years old - the rooms in the newer buildings don't have any crosses). These days, they're painted in the same shade as the walls to not be obvious and are called "invisible crosses", as they're technically not allowed to be there but kind of belong to the building historically: they'll be taken down if someone files a complain, but other than that they'll stay and everybody pretends to not see them. It's quite interesting
Sadly, the EU Court for Human Rights denied the decision of the German Constitutional Court about crosses in classrooms. Something I can not understand.
@Die Klausi Yes they do? At least on the Gymnasium. And american education is statistically and logically worse. Like the first commentor said, you just learn the answers. In germany, you learn how to get the answers. It's way harder but actually prepares you for life.
@@neues3691 Die Sache ist die, dass man hier die Möglichkeit hat, die beste Bildung umsonst zu bekommen. Was in Deutschland vom Niveau her die Hauptschule ist, ist in Anerika die öffentliche Schule. Das heißt, dass man ewig viel Geld braucht, um gute Biödung zu genießen. Dazu kommt, dass die Schulen in DE sehr gut ausgestattet sind. In Amerika suchst du White Boards, Chemie Labore und ähnliches in einer öffentlichen Schule vergeblich. TL;DR: Du weißt garnicht, wie gut es wir haben. Schule hier ist schwerer, aber bildet wirklich ausgesprochen gut im Vergleich.
Some months ago a heard you telling about culture shocks regarding sweets and candys, I thought ok its a young girl... But now I am really impressed about your analysis of the different systems of voting Parlaments and teaching religios issues in school. It shows me, that young people have the chance and should use it to meet together worldwide. It will bring all of us foreward. Please go on with your channel!
In New York, 36% are foreign-born. Not even "migration" background which could go back 4 or 5 generations in Germany (which is a crazy concept to most Americans to count these people as "basically foreigners") but people who weren't born in the US at all.
Ole Nickel oh I didn’t know this is a competition 😂 but you would win anyway. I mean 99% of the citizens do have an migration background because you robbed the hole country. 🇺🇸USA USA USA 🇺🇸
@@aceboogie862 I'm German... but nevermind. It's not a competition, I wanted to give some context that Berlin isn't special or out of the ordinary in that regard. The big global cities are very multicultural and have been for longer than one might think, as people come and go for various reasons.
In Germany, the church and the state (or school) are separated from each other too. Religion‘s lesson are more religion history and what the Bible is about. Yes you can go to bible studies and religion lessons in you‘re church but that’s completely different to what you have in school.
And what about those schools in Germany which are financed by the catholic/protestant church in Germany? They do exist, and there are quite a lot of them, right? I went to a gymnasium in Düsseldorf in the 80's, funded by the protestant church. I couldn't skip religious classes for ethics, religion was mandatory. Ok, they didn't try to brainwash us, however it always felt I wasted my time with that bs. In the higher levels (Oberstufe) I finally kicked out religion for philosophy - way better investion of time! In 2009, when my daughter was send to primary school, to my horror I found myself one day in the middle of a christmas play (you know: Sheep and Cows, Angels, Baby Jesus, 3 Holy Kings) organized by her teacher. Next to my not baptized daugther sat several kids with muslim background staring also in disbelief to the unfolding christian spectacle in the non-confessional, stately funded school.
Church taxes collected by the state, bishops' and priests' salaries paid by the state, and religion classes in public schools - this is no actual separation of state and church.
You broadened your horizon. I live in North Hessia in my hometown of Eschwege. I am a Resident Alien of the US and stayed there for 42 years. I still have a bed there!!! I love both countries; Germany and the US. Good job with your video. Keep on learning. Stay safe.
The percentage of immigrants or persons who have an immigrant background to some extent differs within the German regions. Cities like Munich have a lot of persons with an immigrant background, whereas especially in the former GDR the percentage is significantly lower. Just have a look at the countries where the foreigners living in Munich are from: www.muenchen.de/rathaus/dam/jcr:89a2dcdb-76bb-427d-8930-61a956092c08/jt190115.pdf On the 31.12.2018 Munich had 1.542.211 inhabitants, of those 861.475 (55,86%) were Germans without an immigrant background, 247.444 (16,04%) Germans with an immigrant background and 433.292 (28,10%) foreigners. Of the foreigners 217.716 were from countries of the EU, the top 3 EU countries are Croatia 38.137 Italy 27.821 Greece 26.560 From other European countries (all in all 108.797) the top 3 was Turkey 37.876 Bosnia and Herzegovina 19.692 Serbia 14.115 Africa totaled 20.135, top 3 Nigeria 3.361 Tunisia 2.323 Somalia 2.317 The total from America (we don’t differentiate between North and South America as continents) was 16.188, top 3 USA 6.647 Brazil 2.610 Canada 1.227 Asia total of 68.458, top 3 Iraq 12.237 India 9.071 China 8.400 Finally Australia 896, New Zealand 195 and a handful of guys from the other countries in Oceania (3 from Samoa)... In Dresden for a comparison in 2018 only 11,3 % had an immigrant background (7,4% foreigners and 3,9% German citizens with an immigrant background), thus significantly less than in Munich.
I don't know, I grew up in a rural town in Austria and while you have a lot of religion in your everyday life it doesn't really matter much anymore. For older folks that is still different, of course, but on the whole people just don't care. At least, that is what I'm experiencing.
@@kateb.348 In my school there aren't enough students so we can only take ethics in class 11 and 12, we are currentlx only six students in that class... kind of sad
In the US are not only two parties. There are few other parties. But the first-past-the-post-system in combination with the need of much money for their campaign trail (not for their party?) only two parties are noticed. Maybe this is lawfull but not fair. And issues of minority groups can easly be overlooked. Cross in the classroom: there was a big controversial discussion about this, because the schools has to be neutral. But the bavarian government see it different.
In the US are really only two parties that matter, though. None of the other parties have any kind of influence in the house or Senate, after all. And in Austria it is kinda the norm to have crosses in classrooms, but generally nobody cares since most families aren't that into religion these days. It's cute and all, but more like an decorative ornament.
Hey montana, great video! It's interesting to see what a girl from the US thinks of Germany. I don't know about you, but most of the Americans I see are very shortsighted or naive, but u prove that that's not always the case! Keep up the great work!
maybe the difference is that she was not here as tourist to "see the entire europe in 7 days", but came to stay and live here for a full year with a german family.
They have more parties, but as a result of the electoral system, these hardly make a chance. With FPTP, many vote more against who they dislike most, than vote for someone they want. If you don't like either either big party candidate, you can often vote 3rd party (Greens, Libertarians...), but you risk the person you like least to win, even if the combined results for his main opponent and 3rd party opponent are higher. Many hold their noses and vote for in their opinion the lesser evil..
Da Boss For the most part having only “two parties” (meaning only two that have a chance at winning a presidential election) doesn’t really mean much in the sense that your ideals are what define the party you fall in. If you tend to think more liberally, you’ll be called a Democrat; if you tend to think conservatively you’ll be called republican. The only issue it sparks is when some unintelligent Americans think that just because they are a member of one of those two parties they have to disagree with every aspect of the other.
In Austria (and I guess Germany as well) the people who run almost always run for a party that funds it. And the parties get money from the state (in general and before elections especially)
As a German who lives in Hamburg, I have never seen a cross in a class room, but yes we do have region lessons for everyone until seventh grade where we learn about the worlds biggest regions
A cross in a Classroom is more common in Bavaria than in other States. Bavaria is a highly religious state I guess :D
yes
I think Bavaria is also one of the most conservative state in Germany?
The religious aspect of Bavaria definitely isn't representative for the rest of Germany
@@michielvoetberg4634 true
I was in a semi private katholic school in Northrhine Westphalia and we didn't have crosses in every room
They even have crosses in court rooms, which is kind of controversial.
It is important to know that "religion class" does not teach you how to be religious, it teaches you about religion, which very often is anti-religious.
I would call it a-religious and not anti-religious. So not against religion but neutral.
@@TBFSJjunior For many religions being neutral to them is being against them.
It also not only teaches about the own religion and how to be “a good Christian” but also about all the other world religions and what their history and values are. You’ll also never hear that one religion is superior to others
@@owlboar
Fair enough. I'm anti that notion, but you have a point.
@@donr.wetter186 that was not my experience 20 years ago (admittedly i only heard the last 2 years of school, so maybe they start with covering other religions).
I remember a lot of debates because our teacher came from a particular (protestant) church but students had heard different teachings in their variety of (protestant) church.
For me as an atheist it was basically fairytale class and free good grades.
The cross thing is just in Bavaria. I've never seen that in my state.
Same😂 Stell ich mir auch komisch vor
Ich komm aus bayern und wir haben wirklich in jedem Zimmer eins in meinem Gymnasium und in der Grundschule hatten wir das auch😂
In official buildings not.
facts
In ganz Österreich sind Kreuze in allen Klassen
Staat und Kirche sind in Amerika so sehr getrennt, dass in einigen Staaten die Evolutionstheorie nicht unterrichtet werden darf. Finde den Fehler.
Der zweite Fehler ist deine Schreibweise von "Staat".
der Fehler ist im Wort "Starten" ... glaube es soll "Staaten" heißen".
Davon abgesehen ist evolutionstheorie ... genauso lücken und fehlerhaft wie die meisten anderen theorien und mit den meisten erkenntnissen über genetik seit jahren schon nichtmehr kompatibel.
@@thephuntastics2920 Natürlich hat die Evolutionstheorie noch Gültigkeit. Zumindest so sehr wie eine Theorie Gültigkeit haben kann, sie gilt im Allgemeinen als anerkannt. Sie wird ja auch angepasst und weiterentwickelt.
@@thephuntastics2920
Lücken- und fehlerhaft? Mit der Genetik nicht kompatibel?
Na klar, es ist nicht alles so wie Darwin es mal aufgeschrieben hat und wir haben noch nicht alle Zwischenstufen in der Evolutionsgeschichte gefunden, aber das heißt ja nicht das es fehlerhaft ist. Wenn Du ein Puzzle zusammensetzt und es fehlen am Ende ein paar Teile, ist ja auch nicht das ganze Puzzle falsch.
Abgesehen davon unterstützt die Genetik die Evolutionstheorie. Man geht nicht mehr von einem ganzheitlichen Ansatz aus, aber die verschiedenen Felder der Biologie bilden immer noch eine Theorie.
Achja, Theorie in der Wissenschaft ist nicht das gleiche wie es fälschlicherweise im allgemeinen Sprachgebrauch benutzt wird. Das wäre mehr eine These oder Hypothese.
Eine wissenschaftliche Theorie ist im Grunde ein Fakt, der wiederholt bewiesen und nachgewiesen wurde, allgemein anerkannt ist und die Grundlagen des Wissens in einem Gebiet beschreibt. Klar gibt es mit fortschreitenden Möglichkeiten neue Erkenntnisse und Verbesserungen. Aber das wirft ja nicht die ganze Theorie über den Haufen.
Die Aussage, das "die meisten Theorien lücken- und fehlerhaft" ist Blödsinn. Solchen Schmarrn hört man sonst nur vom Flacherditioten, Imfpgegnern und religösen Bibelspinnern, die glauben, die Erde ist nur 4.000 Jahre alt.
Monaco Map-Editor GER Nach der Logik kann man auf Religion verzichten. Götter sind auch nicht bewiesen.
The presents of religion in schools is different in Bavaria. Bavaria in general is more christian than other parts of Germany.
Bavarian is not christian but hypocrite. The bavarian politicians are all for wars abroad.
*presence
Bavaria have not more christian, but there are more Catholic.
@@muttersliebling8696 depends on the region
@@qh5163 which is a pretty christian thing
If you consider running for an office in Germany, you first go through a voting or selection process in your party, which is based on your political abilities and networks, but less about your wealth. Once you are officially running, you are the candidate of that party, which pays your campaign because in fact it is their campaign.
Well, that's the official way, yes. It always helps to be wealthy.
The money for the campaign is also provided by the state and paid for by taxes, so everyone can effort to run a campaign.
The bigger Partys add some private money to this to get bigger campaign
Bumi LP That is not really true, it is more complicated. When you hit a certain percentage you will be partly refunded. In a nutshell. This is also not 100% correct but nearer the real way than your comment. Not meant in a negative way.
@@stephanwildemann8177
I know, I work in a Party.
I thought it would be easier to understand while still beeing near enough
@@Bumi-90 Close enough if you ask me ;).
The citizens of Lichtenberg, a city in Bavaria, just elected a 19-year old mayor.
lol
Siggi no way!!
More like a town ... population 1,051.
lol in Minnesota they have a dog mayor.. I guess a mayor isn't that important after all but still nice to see change.. Austria has the youngest head of government in the world, Sebastian Kurz..
@@imrehundertwasser7094 Indeed a town (Stadt). A really small one (2nd smallest of Bavaria) - but they have town rights since 670 years. Without these rights it would be just a small village belonging to a bigger town.
In Kirchheimbonlanden (Rhineland-Palatinate) a 101 year old woman was elected into the town council. And as she is quite active and gets a lot of publicity she could even move a few things.
I think politics in the US are poisoned because of there being only two big partys. It is very sad.
I thought there are more parties in the U.S.....but just two parties with chances ;)
all poltical party is in germany are like clone with another baseball cap and u say that the US politcs are poisoned.
@@coachcristiano8238 yes "only two big partys" ;) the others are small
xXLegendarybeatXx sorry, what exactly do you mean by that?😅
However, in America you elect a specific person and not the whole party. Within the parties there are huge differences among the candidates. In Germany a party is a package which you can take either completely or not at all.
It's not only about having multiple parties though, it's about the entire system of coalition building in a parliamentary republic. In the US, if you vote for some small third party, your vote virtually goes to waste. In Germany, a smaller party with enough votes may still become the junior partner in a coalition government and thus influence politics of the country topic-related. I think this is fairer and much more representative than just having two monolithic blocs for everything.
As a German, if I care about some specific issues or if I'm unsatisfied with the ruling parties, I still have some options to go for. I can vote strategically, depending on how likely or unlikely certain coalitions are. This is true for both federal and local elections. In the US, you'd be outta luck. It's either the one thing or the other, with nothing in between. The resulting extreme partisanship is also increasingly detrimental to finding compromise in law-making.
to not split it up too much, there is a 5% hurdle, but every party that jumps that hurdle is represented instead of parties with as much as 49% being ignored.
in addition, also when a party didn't jump that hurdle but a candidate of that party was elected in a voting district, that candidate will get a seat and thus people who voted for that candidate are represented somehow and their votes won't be lost.
Another effect is, that any small party can present policies and attract voters. Some times the big parties react by adopting the topic or policies from smaller parties to get the voters back. Therefore there is a chance, to get the ruling parties to implement niche policies.
The christ democrats (CDU) did this quite a lot. As conservatives they are an uninspired bunch, but they like to rule. To keep their power, they adopted positions from greens, social left and lately the right wing.
@TheBlackiwid NPR is a public radio channel and network. It's listener sponsored and their programming is as independent as possible and very well researched. They differ from corporate media as they don't allow big lobbies and big industries to advertise, so that they are not bound to report along the corporate interests of their sponsors.
Another import side result of this: the parties are use to work together. If not on federal level, than on state level or on city levels. In formal and esp. in country and city districts on informal coalitions. Often also due common interests like "Bavarian Forest" vs. (big city) Passau. Or (small city) Passau vs (big city) Munich.
@Die Klausi it might surprise you, but you haven't lost the freedom of speech, because you can't lose what you never had. What you had and still have is the "Meinungsfreiheit" which simply means the freedom to express your opinion in public without the risk of being punished for it by the government, not more and not less. That doesn't mean that nobody can punish you for saying your opinion, the law just protects you to make sure that its not the government that punishes you ;)
The Religion thing is cause you lived in Bavaria. Most Non-Bavarians jokingly see Bavaria as a different country anyway haha, it’s a lot more traditional than the rest
No, same in Lower Saxony
Hey, they call themself a "Freistaat" (free State).
@Montana Showalter I´ve never seen a cross (it´s called Kruzifix) in any classroom I went through. But I just live in Berlin..
@@fastfoodlover4963 maybe so, but doesnt mean that what he said is untrue. i bet it differs from region to region but at least from where i live in germany what he said is 100% true
Bavaria is the Texas of Germany.
cuz everybody’s jealous
Wow...props for going that route. It takes guts to talk about politics on CZcams...especially as an American with a likely american audience (i know yours is more german...but none the less)
Keep being interested in politics. It shapes your future...so it is important for you to shape politics.
10:10 for the content as well.
Nice job, well done.😃👍
Tbf, anyone talking about Germany has a mostly German audience.
@@MrTohawk While we are generally not as patriotic it's a bit different when it comes to CZcams. Lot's of videos having German in the title quickly get annexed into CZcamsdeutschland. I guess the lack of german on the international scale despite german being fairly present internationally awakens kind of an urge to show our presence. The reason that this is mostly a comment section and not a Kommentarbereich is merely due to the mercy and diplomacy of the German viewers.
One big difference in the political system is that the German they have proportional system that means a election district has lets say 10 seats.
So they are list with ten persons. Every list get the number of seats as the have percentage of votes. In this scenario a party needs 10% for
a seat. (It is actually more complicate.) So there is more space for small parties.
In this system you have usually 10 to 20 times the number of candidates then there are seats. So on local level easy everybody know some one who is running.
If people are interested and I have time (I work in a essential sector so no quarantine) I can explain you the Swiss system that works similar.
I've only heard that in switzerland you have 7 people in the highest position all from differnt parties and that they make the laws and then the people vote if they should pass, is that right?
@@jolioding_2253 The election system is similar like that in Germany. But the whole political system in Switzerland is very different. With the direct democracy so the people can direct vote for laws and constitution amendments.
The result is that a majorityopposition system wouldn't work. Because it would be to easy to fore the opposition do blockade everything.
Lokal Election you can vote if you are 16 teen and in germany all citisens that have the rigth too vote are informt wehr too vote or how too vote ofer mail.
One point no Voting maschins in germany
@@uwehansen2915 Not true. Being German doesn't mean you have a right to vote (even considering you committed a crime and therefore are not eligible)
If you live outside Germany and can't show affiliation to the German State in terms of why voting is important to you, you are kicked out.
Doesn't happen with Americans.
Montana, we don't call history political studies. They are social studies.
Third: In the USA you can not discuss politics. It's like the NBA, either you are for the Team or you are not. There is no middle way.
The US does not have a two Party system. The Constitution does not speak about parties. Unlike the German Basic Law.
In Germany, the party affiliation pays for your election. (More or less)
I skip the immigration issue, cause you name mostly EU citizens.
@@jolioding_2253 The 7 people are just the executive in Switzerland. It is a sort of permanent grand coalition. Laws are still made by parliament, but since you can always take a referendum, a simple majority doesn't mean that much. So parties often try to find a broader coalition that most are happy enough to not let it come to a referendum.
Was mich sehr verwirrt hat als ich in Amerika war: Wieso steht der Währung "In God we trust" wenn Staat und Kirche getrennt sind?
Die Ursache liegt in der Gründungsgeschichte der USA - die ersten Einwanderer waren hauptsächlich Angehörige verfolgter religöser Minderheiten (Quäker, Baptisten usw.), daher gab es schon bereits zu Zeiten der britischen Kolonialherrhschaft eine sehr starke religiöse Basis unter den Kolonisten. Die Väter der US-Verfassung wurden zwar einerseits stark von der Aufklärung beeinflusst (bspw. Jefferson und Adams), waren sich aber auch der starken religiösen Strukturen in den ehemaligen Kolonien bewusst. Eine antireligöse Kampfansage in der Verfassung hätte das Land wahrscheinlich direkt im Anschluss an den Unabhängikeitskrieg in einen blutigen Bürgerkrieg gestürzt, da viele Religionsgemeinschaften im Widerstand gegen die britische Herrschaft eine wichtige Rolle gespielt hatten. Hintergrund für die _konstitutionelle_ Trennung von Kirche und Staat war daher weniger die Verfechtung eines rein wissenschaftlichen Weltbildes, als vielmehr die historische Erfahrung der Unterdrückung _religiöser Freiheit_ durch eine *Staatskirche* wie es in England der Fall war. Der eigentliche Grund für die Trennung von Kirche und Staat war es daher also, _mehr_ religöse Freiheit zu ermöglichen.
@@TheAxel65 Das "IN GOD WE TRUST" steht aber erst seit 1957 auf den amerikanischen Banknoten.
Es ging mMn, wie bei vielen Gesetzen und Eintscheidungen in Amerika, vor allem zur damaligen Zeit, eindeutig darum Minderheiten abzuwerten, wie auch beim Cannabisverbot zum Beispiel.
@@AbteilungsleiterinBeiAntifaEV Ja, das Cannabisverbot, das vor allem auf die fanatische Kampagne eines Rassisten namens Harry J. Anslinger zurückgeht, der 1936 zum Chef des Federal Bureau of Narcotics ernannt wurde. Es folgte eine beispiellose Hetzkampagne, in der einerseits die Wirkungen des Cannabiskonsums dämonisiert wurden (schönes Beispiel dafür: Der Film _Reefer Madness_ von 1936: czcams.com/video/sbjHOBJzhb0/video.html ), andererseits aber auch die schwarze Community unter Generalverdacht gestellt und insbesondere schwarze Musiker überwacht und verfolgt wurden. Es hieß, dass er eine spezielle Akte mit dem Titel "Marijuana and Musicians" geführt habe. Er war auch dafür verantwortlich, dass die todkranke schwarze Jazzsängerin Billie Holiday mit Handschellen an ihr Bett gefesselt starb, weil er ihr Drogenbesitz unterstellte. Später in seiner Karriere nutzte er seine Position als US-Emissär bei der WHO, um seine Anti-Cannabis Kampagne weltweit weiterzuverfolgen - leider mit Erfolg.
@@TheAxel65 Genau darauf wollte ich hinaus. Ein Gesetz, dass nur eingeführt wurde um indirekt Minderheiten diskriminieren zu können. Typisch USA.
Ähnliches, vermute ich, steckt deshalb dahinter, dass man 1956 "IN GOD WE TRUST" zum Motto Amerikas erklärte und es seit '57 auf die Banknoten drucken lässt.
Es stand da ursprünglich mal “in Gold we trust” weil früher für jeden dollar der um Umlauf war ein Stück Gold im gleichen wert beim Staat “hinterlegt” war jetzt gibt es diese gold Reserven aber nicht mehr in diesem Umfang deshalb haben die es irgend wann mal zu “in god we Trust” umgetauscht
2 parties, 3 parties, 4 parties, 5 parties, 6 political parties, no no there are more ! This is freedom for expression and true democracy is a multi party democracy 👍
Except when they start not talking to each other and are forced to rule out coalitions to appeal to their voters. Then it gets to the point where no government can be formed in any case, and it's the voters 'fault', and new elections have to be called... (which then change what exactly?)
Or some other ridiculous crap happens *cough*thuringia*cough* where even a majority vote gets you nowhere.
There are just 2 Big German parties in the Brd .
Afd and NED
in Thüringen have kiss the Fdp the Communist Asses.
Now there are just to Parties left Afd and Ned .
The Alternative für Deutschland .
and The Neue Einheitspartei Deutschlands .
@@killerkraut9179 Both of them are shit, I am happy not to live in Thüringen even when I live in NRW😆
@@whutwhutwhut730 but of Bundes level in Germany exist just Afd and Ned .
The core of the problem in both the USA and UK, is the first-past-the-post, district based election system.
It used to exist in other countries. In the Netherlands we got rid of it in 1917, and replaced it with proportional representation.
The US constitution was really ahead of it's time when it was written, but it is at least a century out of date now.
And the UK has been out of date and anachronistic since ages.
absolutely true but for the UK they do not even have got a written constitution...
Actually, the general premise of the US Constitution still applies today - esp. the Bill of Rights.The Bill of Rights is a declaration of unalienable Rights that every citizen enjoys that cannot be impeded, amended, voided, or taken away by the Government, which some politicians view as an obstacle (Obama, as a Senator, once spoke, frustratingly, of the "constraint" of the Constitution, esp. the 4th Amendment). The idea was that most power would be within the individual States, with the role of the Federal Government being limited, and would require compromise in order to pass legislation that affected all of the United States, and that change would come gradually and thoughtfully, rather than haphazardly, a particular group's ideals/agenda or on a passing whim. The Constitution was specifically written to prevent one group from having total dominance over the rest for longer that two years. The biggest problem in the US is not with the Constitution itself, but, life-long Politicians who vie for, and wield too much power, and the lazy/dumb people who keep (re)electing them to office. One example is Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who is now 70 years old, ran for a NY State Assembly Seat the year he graduated college in 1974 and won, assumed office in 1975 at the age of 24. In 1980, he ran for US Representative, won, ran for Senate 1998, won, assumed office 1999 and has been in the US Senate ever since. He has never held a private sector job. He has been on the public dole his entire adult life! Others are Patrick Leahy (D-VT), elected to Senate in 1974, assumed office 1975, still serving (45 yrs). Chuck Grassley (R-IA) assumed office 1981, still serving (39 yrs). Rep. Don Young (R-AK) assumed office in 1973, still serving (47 yrs). Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) assumed office 1979 , still serving (41 yrs). Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) assumed office 1981, still serving (39 yrs). Like Sen. Schumer, the above have spent most of their adult life in politics/public office. Not what the Founders of the Country had in mind.
Yes. I like the German system where there‘s a first vote for local mandates but every party still gets their representative percentages of second votes.
A lot of people don't realize that in the German parliament, only half the seats actually have direct regional mandates. The other half are only party mandates which are there to make up the percentage of vote. Sometimes large parties will get more direct mandates than they're entitled to by the percentage vote, but they get to keep them as so-called over-hang mandates. (Überhangmandate)
@@erictrumpler9652 And this system has a very comfortable advantage. If you're an important politician, e. g. getting place number one, two, three on the state party list and your state is not too small, you will never lose your job as you will never be voted out of office, only when your party doesn't want you anymore and puts you on a bad, unrealistic place like e. g. place ten. Of course there's a danger of lazyness and to abuse this very secure system but I'm happy about our system as a party leader won't lose his whole career just because he had a strong local challenger, and even more important the system makes it possible e. g. that a left social democratic leader can also come from the south (where nearly all constituencies have been electing conservative since the beginning in 1949), and a conservative leader e. g. can come from the West or the North where the left dominates very much of the area. Important, successful, effective politicians do not aprubtly lose their career just because the dominating party in their home is another one. In fact, there are a few chancellor candidates who didn't even win their constituency as they never had a chance in the first place in a constituency traditionally leaning to another party.
What is, however, very interesting is that German politicians value their constituency very much and also have an office there and see themselves as an official representation of the constituency, regularly expressing it as their constituency, even when they didn't win it and only came in through the list. That's also the reason why by-elections do not exist in Germany. When a direct representative resigns, he will just be replaced in the Bundestag by the next one on his state party's list. The constituency does not have a direct representative anymore, but usually there will still be another list representative from another party for that constituency, so it's not really dramatic as their interests are still covered by someone. German parties also usually only nominate candidates with a constituency for their list because they want politicians who represent a region and actively campaign there, while list candidates without one are just worthless. Only very few exceptions of very important politicians sometimes are nominated and elected without constituency (like Gerhard Schröder and Martin Schulz, who coming from outside propably just didn't want to take away a constituency from a fellow party member) or after a surprising landslide win there can be representatives unexpectedly elected who had an unrealistic list place and never a constituency (as those without a constituency usually are placed at the very end of a long list).
It's true that Germany has "official" churches, and the government even collects taxes for them, although anyone can opt out at any time and avoid the taxes. Moreover, my impression at least is that, despite the separation of church and state, religion plays a far far greater role in US politics (and even daily life) than it does in Germany ("one nation under God", "in God we trust", etc.)
There are church taxes who are paid by members of the church, but If you exit the church you dont have to pay anymore. The church taxes pay for the salary of the priests and repairs usw.
in some of the west federal states like bavaria the church still plays an important role in daily life and the politics. i mean cdu/csu is a christian party
@@sharley3339 Not totally true. Even if you have left the church and do not have a membership, the churches still get a percent of the taxes the government has collected in this year. Of course, it is far less, but in fact everyone pays for all the religions and their buildings.
Well the preamble of the Grundgesetz/German constitution begins with: "Im Bewusstsein seiner Verantwortung vor Gott und den Menschen"
Generally speaking, I still agree with your statement though.
@C J there aren't crosses everywhere idk where you live or where you visited germany (maybe in the south) but in the east for example it's hard to find someone on the streets who is actually a christian. and during ddr there where even churches destroyed due to communism.
I would like to add that the elections are so much more expensive in the US because the campaigning is a full time job. Like Trump beginning his 2020 campaign immediately after taking office. I see that the politicians here focus more on their jobs and then the campaign begins the month before election. I would like to see this in the US.
I once read a story about congressman in the US getting bussed into an office with cubicles, where they get a phone and a list to call donors.
They do this 4 hours a day, while someone from the party stands behind them and checks on their progress.
If you campaign in germany you have to consider that your election advertising in the streets (with posters) is regulated, you have only a few weeks to use it. So the core election campaign will start only 8- 6 weeks before election.
US is a Democratic Oligarchy. Ofc there are more parties than two in the US 😅
@@SickRabbit that may be true but only 2 parties ever actually control the country. And no third party candidate has ever won the presidency (with exception to the first president George Washington who was considered an independent candidate). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_parties_in_the_United_States#Major_parties Many Americans are told and I was taught in my school that "voting for a third party candidate is throwing your vote away". I don't think people realize how much indoctrination goes on in American public schools, many see how bad the educational system is but many seem ignorant or unaware of the propaganda and bias that goes on in what is taught in public schools here. Many don't start to really see or realize things like that until they spend some time aboard especially living outside the country for a while. And yes the US is a Democratic Oligarchy.
@@roguechevelle nothing about the election cycle is enshrined in American law. The Parties have no legal basis, nor to primaries, tv debates etc. This is why the American system has sort of become a two party system because the Republicans and Democrats baisically created a system that they locked everyone else out of, but because there was no law against these kinds of things nobody could stop them. In buisness a monopoly like this would be broken up by the government, but because this is the government....
So no, the US isn't a de jure two party system, but it is a de facto two party system, and yes, because the two parties have such a stranglehold on the electoral system any attempt for a third party to join in is pretty much doomed to failure.
as someone who lives in the north we can also choose between religion and ethics and we dont have a cross in out classrooms so thats like a very bavarian thing :)
yeah, no crosses in NRW
Bayern ist ja auch nicht Deutschland😂🤘
Christian Petermann so I was wondering if it was forbidden here to only put up a cross. Because I thought it’s only allowed if you also hang up the other two world religions’ symbols. (ich lebe übrigens auch in NRW)
@@hanneswiedemann3302 bayern ist Österreich. In Österreich haben alle Klassen Kreuze
@@idontknowxxx9401
Actually there was a lawsuit and it was rules illegal to promote religion in classrooms with those crosses.
Now they are there out of cultural reasons (cultural tradition) and not out of religious reasons. (I think they changed the states laws to include this
Dear Montana,
I am an "old white man", living mainly on the old continent, especially in Bavaria, where I was born. I have friends in France, in the USA, in Russia, in the Ukraine and my home is only 20 kilometers away from the Czech border. So I am also half Czech or Bohemian.
The older I get, the more I am interested in the differences between cultures, social and political systems. In the past, I was mainly interested in the differences between national economies.
Your videos often open my eyes. I'm a little surprised because now I see things that I didn't recognize before. This helps me to better understand many of the circumstances and behaviour of my "non-Bavarian" friends. Basically I also believe that people in our countries are not very different. The clothes, the aims, the wishes and the way of life are very similar. The systems are sometimes very different, but the basic ideas of the political directions and competing parties are nevertheless similar again.
Thank you very much for your good observation and your eye for the essential. I wish you and your parents a Happy Easter afterwards (with my friends in the eastern countries I am punctual with my Easter wishes today :-).
What a nice comment :)
@@Coffeebean1985 Sowas schreibt nicht jedermann. Oder etwa doch?
Just to clarify, its a bavarian thing with the crosses everywhere. Most of us dont have that. And yeah, religion lessons are there, but as you said you could take ethics, way more fun.
Honestly I grew up in Munich and it was not really a thing, maybe in elementary school but Passau is way smaller and very likely more traditional
Depends, really. I had to got to a christian school for some time, because there was no other school were I lived. And they didn't teach ethics, so in religion, u'd have some very religious teacher and a few very religious farmer kids and the majority were atheists. It was so much fun.
In another school I had very boring ethics classes, so it depends.
Amerika has more Fanatik Christ becoast off the devieding off Chursch and Staat
@@uwehansen2915 please fix this comment. It's unintelligible
In the 1980's I went to a Gymnasium in Düsseldorf funded by the protestant church. I couldn't trade religion for ethics, it was mandatory. We were not brainwashed, however I felt I wasted my time with that bs. In the higher levels (Oberstufe) I was able to finally kick it out and took philosophy instead. Way better choice xD
I had the exact opposite experience as a high school student in the Mississippi in the 90s. I come from Berlin which is a not very religious region. My family is also not religious at all.
Despite the claim that church and state should be seperated in the US , I found that religion was very present in school and in politics also. I was especially shocked when I found out about creationists- people that seriously deny evolution. And that that was discussed in high school !!!
So I guess it depends very much on the region in the US and in Germany.
In Berlin we do not have the cross on the Wall in schools. But you can take religion as a class if you want to.
The cross above the door thing is only on Bavaria I think and even there it's quite controversial
If its the same as in Austria its becouse of a treaty with the vatican
It's also often in Baden-Württemberg, but funnily only Bavaria always gets the blame while nobody really ever cares for us, even though we have the strongest economy of all Germany. We're similar to Bavaria in quite a few points with the plus point that we manage to never get noticed... :D while Bavaria at the same time is annoying anyone in Germany with their claims.
For you the cross means nothing, it is just a decoration, right? You are not a Christian, so you don't care. Enjoy the coming raising new religon, either SC or Islam... By the way, a cross was placed in rooms and mountains and in graveyards in former days as sign of peace, blessing and protection from evil. Thngs people seem not to need.
@@SamWinchester000 Bavaria is Catholic and even the language does not belong to northern (Prussian) and eastern Germany. It should have joined Austria in 19th century, but the bloody intrigues of Bismarck made it impossiple.
@@SusiBlumentopf yeah whatever, nazi
In the US there is the seperation of church and state...
USA: "In god we trust." "One Nation, under god." "God Bless America!"
$$$ is America's God!
Also see the huge influence of so-called Christian groups on politics in the US.
@@TommiBrem Can I ask what you mean by "so-called" christian groups? I'm just curious :)
@@josiavantroyen4215 Well. All of the televangelist circus, for example.
A great song comes to mind. "When the lie is so big" by Frank Zappa.
With a big ol' lie
And a flag and a pie
And a mom and a bible
Most folks are just liable
To buy any line.
When the lie's so big
As in Robertson's case,
(that sinister face
Behind all the jesus hurrah)
Could result in the end
To a worrisome trend
In which every american
Not 'born again'
Could be punished in cruel and unusual ways
By this treacherous cretin
Who tells everyone
That he's jesus' best friend
@@josiavantroyen4215 Here is the song:
czcams.com/video/G3QGm46YbrU/video.html
Bavaria is weird. In most schools there are no crosses, because it is forbidden to religiously influence children. The religion classes should give kids information about religion itself and touch on all the different religions.
Well, if you're in the "Vorhof zum Paradies", there will be some unicorns. ;)
I grew up in Bavaria and I never thought about it very much, because it was just a common thing. When I grew up I came to the realization, that church and state should be devided in the class room as well and that's not happening in Bavaria. But I never felt like I was pushed in a direction (not more than by social surroundings anyway) and we were informed about religion in general and other forms of religion. Nevertheless I would like there to be a neutral form of religion eduction everywhere in Germany...
I was in the protestant classes of Nort-Rhine-Westfalia. I always reconized these classes as a scientific debate with religious and ethic topics.
@@Cptn080 that's how it should be everywhere. :)
In mainz there are no crosses in the classrooms. There are only ones in private catholic schools
In the other direction, when I heard from John Oliver that very many US local officials stand unchallenged for re-election, I was amazed! That makes no sense to us here in Germany!
I love that you inform people about those things and show the differences.
It's also nice how your time abroad really inspired you.
You seem to be a very ambitious person and your videos are always interesting to watch, also because of your positivity.
as a german from the east side of the country i can tell you that the most people there hate nothing more than that someone use bavarian as a example for the whole country. we have no cross in any public buildings, no realy religions influence in school or other public topic, good tasted beer and no stupid clothes... Some would say bavaria is originally another country (or wish that it will happen)....
second: the most states have religion classes which are about the differences in religion from islam to Hindu, to diffrences between katholic and evangelical, and not about one
third: some woud say the US system to vote a president is no democratic system because you vote only electors who can decide what he/she wants to vote
last: im living in berlin, and yes we are a mixed culture. bigger the City, more mixed we are. Paris, London are all the same.
Yes point thrree is horrific in the US election system. In Germany we also "vote only electors who can decide what he/she wants to vote", but it is made sure that the majority of the people is not overridden by the majority of the representatives. That's why we have "Überhangmandate", we should keep them.
Religion class is - as I experienced it 23 years ago - not so much a religious class, but a class about Religion. Like religious studies at the university are studies about religion, not religious practices.
I don't agree with the crosses in classrooms. That's a Bavarian thing.
Liberalism comes in different shapes and forms. Economical liberalism is something that seems very US-Republican. Social (civil?) liberalism seems more US-Democratic. Germans tend to agree with the latter not the former.
Political Parties in Germany do struggle with division, especially on the local levels. There are people in local politics who block an idea just because it came from a party they wouldn't want to succeed with anything. Later they propose the idea themselve to present it as their own success. I always hope those stories are the exception, but I did hear a couple...
Keep exploring the world! Your curious non judgemental attitude is a blessing!
In western Germany there are also many people from a Turkish or Italian background as well as Eastern Europeans and refugees.
That is the case in west and east germany, the problem with the east part of germany is that there are lots of people that vote for AfD, so some people don't want to live there if they are not 100% german
In the ruhrgebiet are more than 100 nationalities
@@SaschaW95 Plus a german minority. So you have to say more truely 101 different nations.
@@maxscholz7734 hahahahahah good one
Anton Erbe The problem in the west german countries is, that people there are lefties and they want to make Germany a multicultural society without knowing the bad side effects.
Yes, my city is also really multi cultural. I live in Hamburg and I think the half of my class has routes in other countries. Many have family in turkey, one in Sri, in Moldavia, in Brazil, in Italy, in Peru, in Tunisia a.s.o. and that's also a reason why I love to live in a big city because you get to know a lot of cultures
On CZcams you hear US Americans often say, they won't talk about politics or religion. In Germany we talk about these subjects openly but we learn not to talk about money (f.e. asking someone how much he earns).
@Die Klausiyou say this all the time yet you can't shut up
The thing with the cross only exists in Bavaria. If someone feels discriminated through the cross they have to take it away
The won't tho. I've tried it once. The teacher laughed at me and I got labelled a troublemaker (which tbf, I was, but still).
Bibis Product Placements really? That is illegal you know.
@@gayflover3569 yes, but what r u gonna do about it as kid?
Bibis Product Placements True
@Die Klausi Wow! Okay I am trying to write this without any insult. But how dare you compare the jews horrible situation with the well deserved criticism on Catholicism?
I am living in Munich and I do feel bothered by crosses and church bells. But I don't say anything because as long nobody gets hurt it okay. But you have no idea how many freedoms and special treatments religions especially Catholicism and Evangelism has in Germany.
You recognized the differences between the two political systems very well. The worst nonsense in the American electoral system that it inherited from the UK is the principle "the winner takes it all". In the UK by the constituencies in the USA by the Electoral College. This often leads to election winners who were not voted for by the majority of the population. Second, it almost inevitably leads to the fact that one can only choose between two large parties, which all too often do not really make the policy or initiate changes that the people actually want.
To get from bad to worse the US system makes it much easier to buy politicans so they serve in your interest. In the US there is much much more coruption.
The real problem starts with this system if your only choice is Johnson or Corbyn. Not much better with the last election in the USA. If only the candidates of two parties have any chance on the top job and if both parties insist on weak candidates the result will be a weak president / prime minister. And those have even more power than a German chancellor.
Regarding Germany being a melting pot... It really depends on where you live. In Bavaria, you have plenty of Eastern Europeans due to the location of the state. In North-Rhine Westphalia, there are plenty of French, Dutch and Belgian descendants, as well as lots of Greek, Italian and Turkish people. They migrated to Germany during the 60's and 70's during the "Wirtschaftswunder" (all thanks to the Marshall plan) in order to find work in the Industrial capital of Germany, the Ruhr region.
Marshall plan helped but it wasn't that alone, since the Marshall plan was not just for Germany but many other (western) european countries. (West) Germany got around 11% of the funds, same as Italy. Compared to 24% for the UK and 21% for France. Greece got 5%. Roughly 5 times as much as Germany per capita. Still no "Wirtschaftswunder" there.
Religion - you where in the south. In the north normal we dont use religious symbols in school or official buildings. There may be exceptions.
Political partys - Having multiple parties can be an advantage, but it can also be a disadvantage. For example, you never know exactly who you are choosing because you do not know with whom they will form a coalition. That is why there is a 5% hurdle that not every small party can get into the government.
Cost much money - In contrast to the US, we want to be ruled by educated people as much as possible and not by rich, rude chunks and bullys. The government should ideally represent the average of the population and not the rich upper class.
Other cultures - its throughout the country. Passau is not even a hotspot like Cologne, Berlin, Hamburg.
Stay healthy!
Even more specific. Outside of bavaria we dont use crosses in official building.
@@not-a-theist8251 here in NRW we do sometimes but catholics tend to have crosses in class - protestants do not
Berlin is sometimes referred to as "second largest Turkish city" because of its huge Turkish population (although by now there actually are more than one cities in Turkey that are larger than Berlin)... So yeah, we have a lot of immigrants
Religion class in Germany is a really interesting and controversial topic, both historically (e.g. the Reichskonkordat between Hitler and the Holy See) and politically (Art. 7.3 GG). In short, we do have separation of church and state (and I think Bavaria is reeeeeally stretching it with the crosses in class), but there is an explicit exception for religion class in our constitution. The reason you'll usually get for it is that it should be ensured that religion is taught in an open, pluralistic fashion in line with a liberal democratic society, and that you can't ensure that if you leave it purely to churches and Sunday school types of class. On the other hand, there is an understanding with the large churches (in case of the Catholics in the form of said Reichskonkordat which is still more or less in effect) to not work against the state and to stay out of day-to-day politics, so they're a lot less politically involved than US churches often seem to be. Religious freedom in the schools is guaranteed, since parents can excuse their children from religion class without reason, and it's not restricted to christian religions (theoretically most recognized religions can organize religion classes, but not many do).
Totally agree, esp. the stretching part with Bavaria (lived there for 12 years)
In Bavaria it's theoretically the rule that if any student takes offence with the cross in the classroom, they have to put it away. In reality it's different of course, u'll get labelled as a troublemaker, u will get laughed at by ur teacher and the fucking cross stays. I've tried it.
@@AbteilungsleiterinBeiAntifaEV how did you get offended by... a cross?
@@joshina4497 Visualize the symbol of atheism or humanism displayed in the exact same position and think of how religious people would feel about that. Not a few would be offended. And alot would lie just to seem open minded when pressed on it but be offended on the inside.
Hitler actually hated Chrisitianity he only used it to his advantage. There is actually a quote of his (which is legitimate/well documented) that he adored Mohamed and Islam for its conquests and wars. Certainly he was not a christian he only pretended to be.
Nice Video Montana! Just two thoughts: I don't think crosses are usual in german classes, that's just Bavaria because the CSU decided this like two years ago and there was kind of a fuzz about it. Also having a lot of people with migration background is not rare at all, it's probably a lot more common in bigger cities than Passau as well, especially Berlin and the Ruhr Area are known for being really multicultural.
Bavaria is quite "special". They also have crosses in courtrooms. You don't have that anywhere else in Germany, because normally the states understand the concept behind seperation of church and state. But at least they still only teach evolution in Biology. ;-p
Well, in other German states there are many public schools (especially in rural areas) run by the churches as well, in the Catholic varieties of which you may find crucifixes, too. They will only be removed if there are complaints from parents. Churches which have the status of an institutional body under public law (Körperschaft des öffentlichen Rechts) are often commissioned by the state to run schools, kindergardens, hospitals etc. on behalf and in the responsivility of the state as the authorized institution (Träger).
My sister went to a privat catholic all-girls school and even there they had sex ed (even a little better then where I went to school because with the class being only girls, they were a bit more comfortable with the topic) where they learned about anatomy basics, safe sex and never about abstinence and obviously they also learned about evolution (It's a fact, why wouldn't you teach kids something factual?)
No, the protestant regions are not Christians anymore. Bavaria, Austria, Italy... all Catholic and still their majority is Christian.
Montana you opened Pandoras box 😬
Of the first 11 comments two have started a discussion.... And sadly 8 can't help to participate in them.
Hope the discourse will stay civil.
Montana has a great way of addressing such issues carefully, maybe we should learn from that.
about funding when you want to be elected: in the USA you have to spend a lot of your own money or money from supporters. For me it seems to not give "poor" candidates the chance to influence politics. In Germany the parties do the financing for their candidates. And the financial behaviour of parties is strictly ruled. I prefer the "german way".
Yes, the amount you're allowed to spend on a political campaign is strictly limited.
i heard a german joke recently about politics
what borders stupidity?
Canada and Mexico
lmao
😂😂😂. This is amazing 😂😂😂
They’re jealous
@@KH-mn7bt not really sure what they would be jealous of lmao
Robert Carson the United States militarily occupies Germany. If Germany stepped even an inch out of line, America would have the ability to do what it did to the country during WWII in a matter of minutes. Germany would have no way of defending itself.
When Germans say snarky shit like stated in this comment (which was very rare when I lived there and the overwhelming majority of them were lovely), I would simply remind them whose country militarily occupies whose.
komm mal nach nrw an eine gesamtschule, das ist ein „culture shock“
@@neues3691 Bayern nicht. Das stimmt.
Lieber nach Köln
Und das ist gut so. Wir sind ein vereintes Europa und stimmen so in der Weltpolitik eine große Rolle. Alleingänge haben wir in der Geschichte zu oft gesehen das sich jeder an übermäßigem Nationalismus ertränkt und vergisst das wir alle Menschen sind die ein gutes leben haben wollen. Wenn wir füreinander sorgen so wie jetzt dann bleibt es auch weiter friedlich. Es wird immer schwarze Schafe geben und immer Leute die nur an sich denken und vergessen welche Möglichkeiten dir Europa im Gegensatz zum Rest der Welt dir bietet. Viele sind zu undankbar ohne zu wissen das sie sich niemals Gedanken oder Angst haben müssen bankrott aufgrund irgendwelcher Ereignisse zu gehen. Denkt mal darüber nach wie gut wir es haben und nicht immer weil ein kleiner Teil Flüchtlinge oder andere Minderheiten scheiße bauen. Das tun wir deutsche hier genauso gut.
@@SCYN0 Chapeau! Genauso ist es.
Naja, sagen wir im Pott. Münsterländer Gesamtschulen zum Beispiel sind oft eher mit Bauernschaftkindern besetzt
I just randomly found this video, found it really insightful hearing the American perspective on politics over here. After watching your video and scrolling through the comments I'd also add the fact that in the US you have to register to vote (I haven't figured out if you have to register for every election?, I just often see it on twitter telling people to register to be able to vote) whereas in Germany you get a notice in the mail that you are eligible for voting in elections and also where to vote etc etc, which I personally find very convenient since many, especially older people probably would forget or simply not be able to register!
Nice to hear your view. Just one detail: People from Poland, Hungary, Romania etc. are not immigrants. They are fellow citizens of our European Union. ;)
Yeah but still immigrants
@@snowflake4099 i think it depends hiw you see EU and your country,if you identify more with EU that your country then they are fellow citizens,if you identify more with the state/country they are ummigrants and if you identify with the local community even a person from the next town is an immigrant.
Also legally speaking we are all fellow citizens with the same right and privileges in the Union.
Yes, it is same EU and Shengen space, but these are still separate countries, therefore still immigrants if they live in other country than their original native one. When i lived and worked in England or in Finland i was still immigrant, because i'm not from there. EU is not a federal state like USA, ok! EU is a political and economic Union of clearly divided nation states with different ethno-cultural origins and identities. And each country still has immigration policies even for the EU internal immigrants, because even though it is very much simplified in Schengen zone, becoming an actual citizen and permanent resident of other country, still requires certain dealings with immigration offices. Besides, when people who are like second generation from immigrant family, then yeah, they prolly identify as being already a German, but when they say they are from Poland or Hungary or wherever, they most likely just say where their family originates.. simple as that.
@@MrJuwarra Firstly: Schengen and the EU are not identical. Schengen includes several countries that are not part of the EU and leaves out several countries (Ireland, Cyprus) who are EU members. Second: The contract of Maastricht created an actual EU citizenship. Everyone who is a national of an EU member country is also an EU citizen. Therefore NOT an immigrant.
@@chrispyak yes, of course i know that they are not identical (i work in international airport and therefore it is my duty to know these things), but basically right in this case we are talking about the countries that are in both. And second is not completely true.. when you move to another country, you can't vote in their elections and you can't run for office without becoming the citizen of that country.. and there are other things too. As i said, immigration is made very easy for us, but we are still immigrants in other countries. Think actually even about the meaning of the word itself - immigration - the action of coming to live permanently in a foreign country.. which rings true for it, because as i said, these are still separate countries.. and you still move, and you still move over the borders.
Sometimes it‘s crazy to hear how different the South of Germany can be in comparison to the very North. For example the crosses that were in your classrooms. I could never imagine something like that! I can only guess that’s due to being more catholic in the south. And even that the religion classes are separated. I mean we also have religion but it was’t ever necessary to separate the classes because at least at my school (especially when we got older) wasn’t focussing on Christianity that much, much more the subject was on which religions are existing in general. The goal was much more to get an inside of here uncommon religions like Buddhism. And never imagine to have religion from class 5 to 12. We also had a lot of philosophy classes instead and could at one point also elect one of both. I mean that all could be even different in other schools in the North but still that‘s my experience.
Just another point of how different Germany can be. Another example the general school system in every (i guess it could be translated with) state.
I love to hear all your stories and sometimes even getting insides in my country that i don’t even know! :)
I am from the north of Germany and for me it was the same as it was for her.
There are a lot of catholic schools in Hamburg and classes about religion as well.
reading your post makes me glad being Bavarian.
Anja Lange
Interesting. Especially the catholic part because i mean Hamburg is not that far away from me but even when we were focussing on Christianity it was on the protestant part. I don‘t even know where like a catholic church is here nearby. I would have thought that the area around Hamburg was quiet similar to my experience.
Freia Hesse At my school in Bavaria, we were separated and had religion, in my opinion, we as Catholics learned more about the broad range of religions and a lot of philosophy, while the Protestant people actually had to memorize the Ten Commandments. Could also be just a personal experience, as our catholic teachers were full-time teachers who happened to teach these subjects, while the Protestant religion teachers worked as pastors etc. and then also taught kids in religion class
Laurin Wey Yeah that sounds to me really like it just was the outcome of different teachers. In the end it always depends on them. Like which goals they have for teaching. For example if they want to educate their students more in their own religion or giving them knowledge of diversity and teaching them all kinds of religions and so on.
Dear Montana, one thing you mentioned here shocked me quite a bit, and I would love to get some clarification on that:
The separation of state and religion is practised *more* in the US than in Germany? To be fair, Bavaria is not a good representation of Germany in that regard, as it is the only state that actually allows crosses in class rooms. But in general I had the impression that the US is so much more religious, with people sending "thoughts and prayers", with politicians publically displaying their piety, with most families going to church regularily etc.; I read a few times that it is political suicide to say you're atheist when running for an office in the US.
In Germany (maybe not Bavaria, but definitely in the Northeast), religion is a purely private issue, and even most politicians try to avoid any public display or discussion of their religious affiliation. I dare say the majority of Germans is non-religious or outright atheist, and the school classes about religion are supposed to educate children about which religions there are in the world, what their core beliefs are and which holidays they celebrate, so that the kids get a less biased view on religions and not just assume that what their parents preach is the one true thing...
So, all in all, my impression is that in Germany there is almost a total separation of state and religion, while in the US it is very important to publically display your religion or piety as much as possible. Could you please elaborate on that? Thank you!
I think there are arguments for both sides. For example in germany the state collects taxes for the church. That just doesn't happen in the US, there you pay a fee directly to the church (if you want) like with every other institution. Then there are many schools and hospitals etc which are owned by the church but funded by the government. Then you have many christian holidays which are also public holidays, shops are closed on sundays, these are all originally christian traditions. I'm a student and when I was looking to rent a room in my city (online) I found a dormitory which only allows christians. You had to send them your "Taufurkunde" (no idea what that is called in english). Of course I didn't do that. But if you just open your eyes you will find many examples of christian influence in germany.
@Wolfgang Preier Can you please explain, what you mean precisely by "protestant countries"? As opposed to what? Catholic countries? Who do you mean by the "other countries" and the "mixed countries"? I don't get it...?
@Wolfgang Preier Ok, I get it. Basically you are right, but I guess theres more behind it than a simple "catholic = conservative" or "protestant = liberal" equation. Have a look at Ireland for example - strong catholic background, but still a modern country which even legalized abortion and allowed gay marriages recently. When last visiting them, the Irish were kind enough not to burn me at the stake as a heretic, even though I am an atheist. Actually they've been quite friendly. I guess when you add _education_ to the equation then you get a more precise picture: Better education reduces massively the religious influence on political and personal decisions. Honestly, as an Atheist I feel safest in countries with good education no matter what the local religious belief is xD
@Wolfgang Preier The more important becomes education! Btw, during my studies of political sciences in the 90's I once attended a lecture called "Die religiösen Dimensionen des Nationalsozialismus" - very interesting. Did you know that the Naziphrase of "Das Tausendjährige Reich" originally stems from a passage in the Bible? That's the part in the apocalypse where Jesus is preparing for the final battle against the unbelievers (original quote from the Bible, when explaning who is part of the unbelievers: "The Jews because they're the sons of Lie and the Satan"). After Jesus wins, he errects the _Reign of Thousand Years_ . The Nazis grabbed all the antisemitic gibberish from the bible into their ideology. In Riefenstahl's film of the Nürnberger Reichsparteitag everything is put in scene like a religious ceremony - the torches, the flags, the "baptizing" ritual of a flag ("Fahnenweihe"). And Goebbels wrote a novel called "Michael" where he described his first encounter with Adolf Hitler like a divine apparition like meeting the messias.
Another great Video 👏🏼
People like you, smart and open, are the ones who give me hope for the US.
Stay healthy and all the best!
The US has always been a democracy with good and bad times. I think that Biden could be a start to unite the country again and the younger generations are overall a lot more involved which is a very good thing no matter what they believe in.
@@Arcaryon The turnout for young voters never really came. I think this is a big fantasy. It was even less than 2016.
Some of the far-leftist activists have this hope of a huge surge in young voters that just never comes. I think Bernie hoped for the same thing and he lost the black vote considerably.
@@loth4015 I have a lot more patience in that regard. I basically expect these changes to occur in the next 50+ years. And hope that it's early enough to be able to withstand China. Biden is just a step. But the fact is: people LIKED Bernie. A candidate who for the US was basically a defecto left wing politician. And who also got sooo much backlash from Bloomberg trying to slow him down. I mean, look where the US stands today. Black voting rights, more discussions about the system then ever and a president that is dividing the nation. If any climate is perfect for a change in policy, this is the moment for all of this to slowly begin to develop.
@@Arcaryon Bernie was not as anti-establishment as Trump appeared to be though in 2016. He did lack the winner mentality.
I remember in 2016, when he was asked what he thought about Hillary's deleted e-mails one time and he shrugged it off. Hillary laughed and clapped, because she probably knew at that point that she won. Instead of killing Hillary, he went way too soft and lost the nomination.
Then, this year, some democrats, etc. on twitter shared that video recently, where Trump went after the establishment. And during one of the primaries, he said something about George Bush, Jeb Bush, etc. And pointed at the crowd saying: "Only the big donors, the people with money get invited to the crowds here." and the crowd started booing Trump, but he continued. "I am paying for my own campaign. I don't need any of you donors and big money." And at that point, a lot of people understood the appeal of Trump back then, asking "Why isn't bernie more like this? Calling out the big donors, etc.?"
So I don't think Biden will beat him either this year. It's just too much establishment.
@@loth4015 That's one of the reasons why the US government is failing and declining. Always fighting for the local government. Our man in Washington. Go, kill the system, hang all the other corrupt thiefs and do everything different. Worse than a minor kingdom in the Holy Roman Empire.
Keep in mind - Trump lacks 4 million people in votes and definetly didn't make anymore friends with the way he governs. He may win this but that would be the point where I might as well write of the potential of the US to become a functional democracy completely. I mean, Trump IS the establishment. Literally makes most of his policies that way. I honestly don't follow the process as intensely as I should because it's a 50/50% chance either way but as it is undecided, we can literally throw a coin to see who the unaligned will crown in the upcoming elections. Who knows what goes on in their heads. The Rustbelt made him strong. But how will people react that don't care too deeply about ideologies but lost their job due to Covid-19?
I am not an analyst but Trumps position isn't secure at all. He made so many mistakes all the, time even in implementing policies that were on his agenda that I don't know if he will really be strong enough to continue as he has. What made him big can just as well bring him down because if it's just about the narrative, he is good on camera appealing to his people. I just doubt that this approach will win him the elections again because Biden is a more likable candidate than Hillary. He lost the popular vote to a highly unlikable candidate before. Biden just has to be somewhat acceptable and he will have got his chance and a good one I might add.
The thing about he US is that it's political system chronically ill and needs to fix itself asap - but it's such a slow process. And yet, with the way this world develops - it's running out of time. If Trump made America great again, aka claim his administrative period as a success, he will could win the vote. But the Dems got soooo much to work with. If they try, he will not have an easy time.
Great video and you've talked about a lot of interesting points! I think overall we do have a lot of people from different countries and cultural backgrounds who live in Germany. Nonetheless, it's not as much as in the US, but still a decent amount and I think that it's a beautiful thing. Keep up the great work and love your videos! 🙌🔥
Great Video Montana. I like how the German local Politics motivated you to get into local Politics in the US.
The Cross is only in Bavaria
Happy Birthday Montana.
Hi, so the thing is that you went to school in Bavaria, which is by far the most religious state in Germany. In my school, there are no crosses or any religious symbols in the school at all and I attended philosophy classes instead of religion classes. However, you could choose to have religion classes if you wanted to.
Germany lacks behind in regards to separation between state and church whatsoever, which is kind of interesting as Germany, in general, is way less religious than, for example, the US.
Really liked this video :D
Well, actually, no. The USA lacks behind us in that regard, because religious opinions and organisations have way more impact than in Germany (except for Bavaria).
Ich bin in Berlin zur Schule gegangen, daher waren die Nationalitäten an meiner Schule noch viel diverser^^ ich find deine Videos echt interessant. Nicht nur der Vergleich mit den USA sondern auch einfach mit Bayern und Berlin^^ ich kann kaum für Deutschland sprechen, weil Berlin ja schon spezieller ist, aber durch deine Videos ist mir noch viel bewusster geworden, dass es wahrscheinlich überall in Deutschland riesige Unterschiede gibt und das wahrscheinlich einfach typisch deutsch ist^^
Wirklich coole Videos
Liebe Grüße
it’s so interesting to learn new things about germany, even as a german. i have lived here my whole live but in west germany and i’ve never heard of this ‘cross above the door’ thing
I also only remember being a clock over the door in classes. I'm from North-Rheinwestfalia.
Thanks. That was a great contribution. I knew that the US is more of a plutocracy (rule of the rich), but I did not know what it is like on the local level. In my opinion, the 2-party system is the root cause of that lack of democracy. Little parties have no chance and if one party failes (or both, like we have it now) there is no third choice.
Btw. the german system was more or less developed or at least much influenced by the US army after the war.
"There is an overall hatred for DT in germany"
Hatred is too strong a word i would think.
More generally we pitty you fools who voted for him and even more so those who didn't.
To me it is just mindboggling how people still could support him at all.
In an old roman text "The republic" i am currently reading, Scipio defines the worst form of government is the one
where the people think the rich are noble and full of virtue from birth and praise them for it, instead of searching for those people who due to hard life choices, sacrifices and discipline established virtues upon their characters.
Is not because Donald Trump is a good choice, it's because no thinking person supports the Democrat establishment.
@@GuerreroMisterioso95 "no thinking person" Good one! :) Well, he said so himself, he loves the uneducated.
@@kinngrimm Giant Douche vs. Turd Sandwich :)
@Boris Notbadenov2 If i remember correctly there were 2 years where republicans had the house, the senate and the presidency. You complaining about an opposition keeping him from achieving more is quite hilarious and yet infrastructure week to this day is the biggest joke of his presidency to me. Shortly ago the guy in charge of that told reporters how he was undermined by the administration and why nothing got done and it was not one bit about the freakin democrats, but all about incompetence and corruption.
There are so many examples like that, only your partisan perspective doesn't allow you to see it, i guess you would go mad if you'd try. Anyways when i compare how corona was managed in the EU in comparison to the USA, nothing you could say would make Trump look good. Sure you could try anyways, but most likely i just laugh about you then, not because of the stupidity, but the senseless efort of mine to reason.
@Boris Notbadenov2 Where it comes to legitimacy of elected representatives the USA nowadays is not anymore a shining beacon in the dark, more like a muddy cesspool of power hungry coconspirators of both parties. Look at gerrymandering, citizen united, lobbyism. The election of 2000 was quite an eye opener in that perspective and did not get any better with 2016 from my understanding. Voter supresion is trending with the current administration. You may want to blame democrats all day long, fact remains that these problems both parties contribute to.
If Trump would have golfed less maybe he could have handled a hearing or two, besides running the country properly and even get ahead of things. Thats what competent people would do.
Instead people were discouraged from giving testemony and he himself never did.
Sure the democrats were furrious and pissed and from what i was seeing from the outside, the right strived on that. Aslong you could piss them of, you did not want to look too close at Trump.
But Boris, you know all that.
It surprised me that you did expect almost all people to be 100% German.
Surely in the US not everyone is from the same state in university?
In size European countries are a bit like US states.
She was in Passau which used to be a huge diocese and therefore most of the higher schools were founded by the church, and this is why there are crosses in every classroom
It's very interesting, I grew up in germany and a lot of the things that shockd you seem so natural that I really got into reading more about how politics work around the world. I always just assumed that things would be pretty similar across the modern western world. Turns out I have a lot more to learn.
You often see immigrants from other EU members in Germany because it's easy to immigrate from other EU countries. But there are also many people in Germany who have an turkish background as many turkish people immigrated to Germany in the 60s. That makes Germany a place which is very diverse.
Which is great 👍
It really is!
@Tommy Turbo ok sorry
@Tommy Turbo
I'm guessing that this is true for most of Germany, but in the Ruhrgebiet most people of Turkish descent are in fact descended from the Gastarbeiter, often now in the 3rd generation.
Not really. If it was as diverse as is claimed, then the crime rate would be way higher and the IQ would be lower. I would assume, a good 80-90% of germany's population is non-hispanic white.
The diversity of cultures is sometimes insane. When I made Abitur many years ago, in the Frankfurt area, we had 14 nationalities in one class with 31 people 😁🏳️🌈
I am insanely happy to live in a country so attractive that so many of your class mates were from abroad. Especially since just three generations earlier, the evil twin of our country had earned about the worst of reputations. Go Frankfurt, btw. :)
Frankfurt is one of the most diverse city in Germany with many foreigners or people with immigrant backgrounds. (Might be due to banking)
And then there are the Americans who think that their country is much more diverse 😂
The absolute state of germany.
@@sarahsauter5820 The US is more diverse as a country. The US has around 56% non-hispanic whites. Germany probably still has 90% whites.
You can see this pretty easily by looking at crimerates.
Generally speaking, the more diverse a place is, the higher the crime rate. So when looking at US cities with the highest homicide rates, you can take a look at the demographics. It's a pretty good indicator of a country's diversity.
Generally in smaller towns/villages everone knows the mayor and the mayor knows everyone
Don't know why youtube proposed your video to me but I am happy to see how eye-opening your exchange was for you and how open-mindedly you think about that topic and reflect on the differences you observed :)
Hi Montana! Ich schaue deine Videos jetzt schon seit längerer Zeit und du machst das richtig gut! Du bist sehr sympathisch und deine Videos sind sehr interessant, vor allem für Deutsche, um zu verstehen, wie wir von außen wahrgenommen werden. Dass du vor allem in Bayern warst sollte man allerdings nicht vergessen, denn dort sind die Menschen und die Mentalität schon etwas anders als in "Durchschnitts-Deutschland" (was z.B. Staat und Religion angeht).
I'm watching your videos for some time and you're doing a great job! I really like you and it's very iteresting to see, how we germans are seen from foreigners. But one should remeber you spent most your time in Bavaria, becaus the people and mentality there is much differnet than in "average- Germany".
Ah, Bavaria, that makes sense. Germans joke that it's their "Bible belt".
Yeah, but only jokingly because it's not really. Other non jokes are how everything in Bayern is better than in northern Germany. From football to schools and to the economy.
Montana (sees cross and is shocked)
Me: "Are you a vampire?"
Congrats on seeing what a democracy is like :)
You are the best example that we only have a future if we get to know each other better.
In elections, we have a “personalisierte Verhältniswahl”. That means you get in elections a sheet of paper for voting. You vote for two things one Person and the second is a party. A party can only come to the Bundestag, if they passed 5% of the second voting. This “Sperrklausel” is there, because we don’t wanna split the party’s as much(“Splitterparteien”). A part of the seats(299) are for the “Listenkandidaten”(second vote) and 299 for the “Direktmandate”(direct voted; first vote). To vote you have to be an adult(18 years) and you have to be a German Bürger(if you vote in a landestag you have to live in the Bundesland for longer than 3 month). So now we have 709 Seats in Bundestag. We have in Bundestag 7 Partys(if we split Union in CDU and CSU). CDU is the strongest party with 246 seats and is our government. Our Bundes Präsident is Frank Walter Steinmeier. He is not as much in charge as angela merkel, our Bundeskanzlerin. With her “Kabinett” she is our government. To prevent dictatorships, we have split the government forces up in exekutive, judikative and legislative. Information I’ve forgotten I can just write you later 🙃
And I forgot: we have an “unlimited” amount of party’s, but they aren’t in the Bundestag/Landestag, because they aren’t as popular as they have to to be in the parliament. So only a few can get in there and some party’s are forbidden, because they were extremely right or extremely left....
I totally agree with the fact how shocking it is that Bavaria is so openly in favour of one religion. I'm so glad that that's not the case for Germany as a whole. I live in Berlin and I would not feel comfortable if it would be the same here as it is in Bavaria. In my opinion religion has nothing to do in politics.
As a Bavrian I can only agree! Grüße gehen raus an Söder
Yeah me too. I think there should be a neutral form of religious education issued by the Kultusministerium in which the churches have nothing to say. If they wanna offer their own eduction they can still do that and people that are interested can go there. I grew up in Bavaria and never thought anything of it until I became a little bit older, because it was such a common thing where I lived.
Only in Bavaria are crosses in the classrooms. In all other states its not forbidden but they respect more other religions. ( Hello from the north of Germany )
Weaky Leek ich finds eigentlich auch ziemlich unnötig. Man kann das Kreuz aber auch als eher kulturelles Symbol sehen, da es gerade Bayern sehr stark in der Sprache oder in der Denkweise geprägt hat. Auch wenn das sicher viele wieder als rechts sehen, Deutschland ist nunmal ein christlich geprägtes Land und das Kreuz soll sicher nicht ausdrücken dass man andere Religionen nicht toleriert
Warte mal, ich gehe in Bayern zur Schule und in keinem der Räume hängt ein Kreuz xD
@@mangachu3626 das kann ja gut sein. Muss ja jede Schule für sich entscheiden.👍
@@torbenfeldtmann9995 In Bayern DARF jede Schule/Klasse entscheiden, dass sie ein Kreuz aufhängen, aber sie MÜSSEN es nicht!
@@WS3838 wenn du mal gelesen hättest was in der Unterhaltung steht, hättest du gar nichts schreiben müssen :)
I got a question: could you imagine living in Germany? As an official citizen
When you run for elections in Germany, your party will pay for your campaign. Membership fees, donations and the state pay the parties. You can even take time off from work if you have to do campaign work and have to join meetings. When you are successful, there are gentlemen’s agreement that you donate some of your salary back to your party, but that is not a rule or law.
Videos like this are very important. Thank you for that. :)
I'm from Eastern Germany and I think it's totally crazy to have a cross in a classroom. That's only a thing in Bavaria and in private religious schools. But yeah, I think there shouldn't be crosses in public schools. Because we're living in a secular nation.
Nah, you've it in most Austrian schools, but it really is just a decorative item. Nothing crazy about it. Just a leftover from the past.
Please dont take any of this personally, i mean no offense. Just some general observations:
About money in politics: In Germany, we have the "Parteienfinanzierungsgesetz" (party finance law) which grants state-money to parties based on their previous results (it also limits and regulates donations) - i dont know the formula, but i assume small parties get a little bit more per vote than the big ones. The party will then finance their candidate´s run. You only have to be "rich" (obviously that depends on what level you are running for office), i assume, when you are trying to run for either a very small party or none at all (as an independent).
I find it kind of telling btw, that you are "shocked" by the fact, that things actually work here. When a political system is laid out in a way, that it a) stifles private conversations about policies and politics and so that b) only very rich people can run for office, as the US-ian system, by your own description, is, then it is - let´s face it - broken, almost to the point of being dystopian. That´s what should get you shocked (and angry).
About locality: Please realize that Passau is at the very edge of Germany and part of a state, that makes a point of being semi-independent (kinda like Texas) with very distinct cultural elements that you wont find anywhere else in Germany. Lederhosen are not german. I cannot stress that enough. You didnt claim they were, but i´ll still say it again: Lederhosen are not a german thing. I have friends in California, and when i tell my friends about my experiences there, i make a point of saying that i dont know how things are in Indiana or Maine, cause i only saw California. I saw very few people wearing cowboy hats there. Just as you wont see many Lederhosen in Hamburg. Even I, as a german, often fall into the trap as to converying my own local and personal experiences here to my american friends as if i was the german hive mind. I think, in that sense, if i was visiting it, and travelled it, i´d probably be shocked about how culturally diverse it actually is, first and foremost, cause i can imagine, our reputation abroad is quite the opposite.
(PS: Yeah, in Germany, even your parties get paid for by the state - pure socialism ;P)
Addendum: So, next time you come to Germany, i´d like to encourage you, to travel it, north to south, west to east. It´d feel like you traveled westcoast to eastcoast. Chances are, you will sometimes struggle to talk to locals. Heck, take someone from Passau with you and watch them struggle! Sitting a Bavarian, an Hamburgian, a Berliner, a Dresdener, a Stuttgarter and someone from cologne at the same table, talking their local dialects is pure potential comedy. When you compare north to south, even the family houses look different - the northern ones are mostly red (fake) bricks, while in the south, they tend to be painted white. Northern cows are black&white, southern ones brown&white. Mostly. Okay, that´s not culture. Or is it?
You mentioned the crosses in classrooms. Yeah, that´s never gonna happen here in the north. It´s really a bit like in the US in that regard? The south tends to be more religious? The bible-belt? Bavaria is Dixieland, when it comes to that. It´s got a lot to do with the reformation and the schism between catholics and protestants. Luther, 30-years-war and all that. Still very important stuff to know about in order to understand german culture, as it is today. As most of its history actually is. What we all have in common as germans as a whole and where we are diverse, is all founded in one part of our history or another.
Craziest thing for me is, that politics in the us (at least the last few years) often have discussions on a personal level not about political topics. That isnt something thats ever done in germany. Political candidates wouldn't rant about the appearance of others or bs like that.
You not only need less money, you dont need anything normally. Parties get money to use for their elections. That maybe wont include regional politics because those candidates might do it for free and therefor need money from their spouses to live.
And in Austria there is also a limit on how much they are allowed to spend. One party just has some problems, because it was slightly above the limit.
you actually made me appreciate living in germany so much thanks for pointing out so many aspects of german politics!
In Germany we have more than 40 parties competing in elections, whereby "only" 5 to 7 actually receive enough votes to play a role.
It is also important to know that the period of the election campaign in Germany is legally limited to ~ 6 weeks. Posters from parties that are displayed in public outside this period will result in fines for the parties.
It is also important to know that the political system in Germany is financed differently. The financing of the election campaign is almost exclusively done by the parties. Only parties can accept donations tax-free. In the case of donations to private individuals, they would have to pay tax on the donations as income. In addition, parties receive approximately one additional euro of tax money from the state for every euro donated. In addition, parties receive further tax money if they reach certain percentages in elections (~0.5% of the votes I believe). Donations to parties that exceed 10,000 Euro per year must be reported to the Bundestag, which makes this information publicly available. Every few years illegal party donations are discovered, which then lead to very high fines and criminal proceedings.
One could say that in Germany the political agenda is indeed the main focus, not the financial possibilities. As a political scientist, however, I can say that transparency in lobbying in Germany is really only minimal and needs some improvement. But in Germany, politicians unfortunately find it very difficult to make changes. The Internet is still considered new territory for many politicians.
What if you really hate one of the political parties, can't you just make a poster supporting them and post it outside the 6 months period; so that way they get fined.
@@senbassador This is exactly what happens from time to time, but has so far proved to be very ineffective. But one must also consider that people who clearly put up or take down party-political posters are directly controlled by the police, who also require a party membership card.
I myself have helped in several election campaigns to put up posters before the election and after the election. In each election campaign I had to be identified by the police at least five times.
For comparison: As a (white heterosexual) righteous man of 40 years, I have never been controlled by the police outside of election campaigns.
To be fair, most of our politicians are old, ~60+, of course they have no idea of the internet, not that they try to understand it to begin with.
The Bundesverfassungsgericht (highest German court) actually ruled that these cruzifixes (basically catholic crosses) have to be taken down. They are just ignoring that ruling though...
@Die Klausi The ruling of the Bundesverfassungsgericht is in regards to the religious neutrality of the state. The government is not allowed to favor any religion... ( Art. 140 GG in Verbindung mit den Artikeln in der Weimarer Reichsverfassung zum Neutralitätsgebot des Staates, wenn es dich im Detail interessiert)
In my school (NRW), there are crosses, too, but they're basically left over from the past (the old building is about 500 years old - the rooms in the newer buildings don't have any crosses). These days, they're painted in the same shade as the walls to not be obvious and are called "invisible crosses", as they're technically not allowed to be there but kind of belong to the building historically: they'll be taken down if someone files a complain, but other than that they'll stay and everybody pretends to not see them. It's quite interesting
Sadly, the EU Court for Human Rights denied the decision of the German Constitutional Court about crosses in classrooms. Something I can not understand.
@@innoberger1632 Oh really, I didn't know that. Thank you for the information. And yeah, I cannot understand that decision either
The thing is in Austria and Germany religion is not taken as seriously, so religion classes r fine
German schools teach kids how to think for themselves not how to take a multiple choice test.
Not in Math. There are many teacher who will give a less points, if your method was different to that what he/she taught you.
@Die Klausi
Yes they do? At least on the Gymnasium.
And american education is statistically and logically worse. Like the first commentor said, you just learn the answers. In germany, you learn how to get the answers. It's way harder but actually prepares you for life.
No, they teach children to think as lefties or greenies. This already started in the 70s.
@@usagi67 That is sad but true.
@@neues3691
Die Sache ist die, dass man hier die Möglichkeit hat, die beste Bildung umsonst zu bekommen.
Was in Deutschland vom Niveau her die Hauptschule ist, ist in Anerika die öffentliche Schule. Das heißt, dass man ewig viel Geld braucht, um gute Biödung zu genießen.
Dazu kommt, dass die Schulen in DE sehr gut ausgestattet sind. In Amerika suchst du White Boards, Chemie Labore und ähnliches in einer öffentlichen Schule vergeblich.
TL;DR:
Du weißt garnicht, wie gut es wir haben. Schule hier ist schwerer, aber bildet wirklich ausgesprochen gut im Vergleich.
About the crosses in classroom; If any studen't in the room had a problem with the cross, the teacher woud have to take it down from the wall.
Some months ago a heard you telling about culture shocks regarding sweets and candys, I thought ok its a young girl...
But now I am really impressed about your analysis of the different systems of voting Parlaments and teaching religios issues in school.
It shows me, that young people have the chance and should use it to meet together worldwide. It will bring all of us foreward.
Please go on with your channel!
Hey I live in Frankfurt and indeed the city has so many people with different cutural backgrounds and I think that's beautiful
Same city here and same opinion! :)
Same city different opinion
It is also the city with the highest crime rate in Germany.
Time to legalise cannabis. So the police has more capacity to go after the real criminals.
@@Mische2k yeah because of the airport
In Berlin nearly 40% of the people have an migration background
In New York, 36% are foreign-born. Not even "migration" background which could go back 4 or 5 generations in Germany (which is a crazy concept to most Americans to count these people as "basically foreigners") but people who weren't born in the US at all.
Ole Nickel oh I didn’t know this is a competition 😂 but you would win anyway. I mean 99% of the citizens do have an migration background because you robbed the hole country. 🇺🇸USA USA USA 🇺🇸
@@aceboogie862 I'm German... but nevermind. It's not a competition, I wanted to give some context that Berlin isn't special or out of the ordinary in that regard. The big global cities are very multicultural and have been for longer than one might think, as people come and go for various reasons.
40M from 80M in Germany have migration background. Including me.
In Germany, the church and the state (or school) are separated from each other too. Religion‘s lesson are more religion history and what the Bible is about. Yes you can go to bible studies and religion lessons in you‘re church but that’s completely different to what you have in school.
And what about those schools in Germany which are financed by the catholic/protestant church in Germany? They do exist, and there are quite a lot of them, right? I went to a gymnasium in Düsseldorf in the 80's, funded by the protestant church. I couldn't skip religious classes for ethics, religion was mandatory. Ok, they didn't try to brainwash us, however it always felt I wasted my time with that bs. In the higher levels (Oberstufe) I finally kicked out religion for philosophy - way better investion of time!
In 2009, when my daughter was send to primary school, to my horror I found myself one day in the middle of a christmas play (you know: Sheep and Cows, Angels, Baby Jesus, 3 Holy Kings) organized by her teacher. Next to my not baptized daugther sat several kids with muslim background staring also in disbelief to the unfolding christian spectacle in the non-confessional, stately funded school.
Church taxes collected by the state, bishops' and priests' salaries paid by the state, and religion classes in public schools - this is no actual separation of state and church.
You broadened your horizon. I live in North Hessia in my hometown of Eschwege. I am a Resident Alien of the US and stayed there for 42 years. I still have a bed there!!! I love both countries; Germany and the US. Good job with your video. Keep on learning. Stay safe.
I always enjoy your videos, Montana. Keep up the good work. 🤩
The percentage of immigrants or persons who have an immigrant background to some extent differs within the German regions.
Cities like Munich have a lot of persons with an immigrant background, whereas especially in the former GDR the percentage is significantly lower.
Just have a look at the countries where the foreigners living in Munich are from:
www.muenchen.de/rathaus/dam/jcr:89a2dcdb-76bb-427d-8930-61a956092c08/jt190115.pdf
On the 31.12.2018 Munich had 1.542.211 inhabitants, of those 861.475 (55,86%) were Germans without an immigrant background, 247.444 (16,04%) Germans with an immigrant background and 433.292 (28,10%) foreigners.
Of the foreigners 217.716 were from countries of the EU, the top 3 EU countries are
Croatia 38.137
Italy 27.821
Greece 26.560
From other European countries (all in all 108.797) the top 3 was
Turkey 37.876
Bosnia and Herzegovina 19.692
Serbia 14.115
Africa totaled 20.135, top 3
Nigeria 3.361
Tunisia 2.323
Somalia 2.317
The total from America (we don’t differentiate between North and South America as continents) was 16.188, top 3
USA 6.647
Brazil 2.610
Canada 1.227
Asia total of 68.458, top 3
Iraq 12.237
India 9.071
China 8.400
Finally Australia 896, New Zealand 195 and a handful of guys from the other countries in Oceania (3 from Samoa)...
In Dresden for a comparison in 2018 only 11,3 % had an immigrant background (7,4% foreigners and 3,9% German citizens with an immigrant background), thus significantly less than in Munich.
4:40 - yeah, well... that's what is called democracy...
I live in Bavaria, actually not far away from Passau, and I hate that religion and state aren't separated... I wish they would change that
Now if we could replace religion classes by some sort of ethics / philosophy / comparative religion classes, that would be great.
@@ThePixel1983 in most of the country outside of bavaria there are ethik/philosophie classes you can take instet of religion.
I don't know, I grew up in a rural town in Austria and while you have a lot of religion in your everyday life it doesn't really matter much anymore. For older folks that is still different, of course, but on the whole people just don't care. At least, that is what I'm experiencing.
@@ThePixel1983 You can do that in bavaria. At least where I am (Franconia) but I think as well in the rest of Bavaria, can't you?
@@kateb.348 In my school there aren't enough students so we can only take ethics in class 11 and 12, we are currentlx only six students in that class... kind of sad
crosses in the classroom would be a big culture shock for me, too. i live in berlin.
Since I am from Passau, it's even more fun to watch your videos!
In the US are not only two parties. There are few other parties. But the first-past-the-post-system in combination with the need of much money for their campaign trail (not for their party?) only two parties are noticed. Maybe this is lawfull but not fair. And issues of minority groups can easly be overlooked.
Cross in the classroom: there was a big controversial discussion about this, because the schools has to be neutral. But the bavarian government see it different.
In the US are really only two parties that matter, though. None of the other parties have any kind of influence in the house or Senate, after all. And in Austria it is kinda the norm to have crosses in classrooms, but generally nobody cares since most families aren't that into religion these days. It's cute and all, but more like an decorative ornament.
@@Coffeebean1985 yes, only the two matters in the US because of the system
Hey montana, great video!
It's interesting to see what a girl from the US thinks of Germany. I don't know about you, but most of the Americans I see are very shortsighted or naive, but u prove that that's not always the case! Keep up the great work!
maybe the difference is that she was not here as tourist to "see the entire europe in 7 days", but came to stay and live here for a full year with a german family.
I always wondered why the US only has two parties. That's kinda stupid IMO
They have more parties, but as a result of the electoral system, these hardly make a chance. With FPTP, many vote more against who they dislike most, than vote for someone they want. If you don't like either either big party candidate, you can often vote 3rd party (Greens, Libertarians...), but you risk the person you like least to win, even if the combined results for his main opponent and 3rd party opponent are higher. Many hold their noses and vote for in their opinion the lesser evil..
its the same in Germany Afd and Ned .
@@killerkraut9179 korrekt
@Die Klausi i prefer the "mess" to a system which tries to fit all opinions in a rigid Team Good and Team Bad dichotomy.
Da Boss For the most part having only “two parties” (meaning only two that have a chance at winning a presidential election) doesn’t really mean much in the sense that your ideals are what define the party you fall in. If you tend to think more liberally, you’ll be called a Democrat; if you tend to think conservatively you’ll be called republican. The only issue it sparks is when some unintelligent Americans think that just because they are a member of one of those two parties they have to disagree with every aspect of the other.
In Austria (and I guess Germany as well) the people who run almost always run for a party that funds it. And the parties get money from the state (in general and before elections especially)
yes but in Austria they get 10 times more than in Germany. Austria is 10x smaller than Austria 😂
As a German who lives in Hamburg, I have never seen a cross in a class room, but yes we do have region lessons for everyone until seventh grade where we learn about the worlds biggest regions