How foreigners feel at work in Germany

Why not just leave her alone? Her private surgery is her own business and if she chooses to tell you something different then you should keep your nose out of it unless it directly affects business. If she wants your help with her personal affairs she can ask for it.

way too inquisitive for my liking.

I am the keep private/professional totally separate.

Of course you should have friends outside work, but I think it makes your working day a lot better and more enjoyable if you know people around the workplace you can hava a laugh with and spend the odd lunch break with.

Also, some cooperation between colleagues can't do any harm either. I have worked in a place where everyone was working against each other and not helping eachother and that was very tiring.

As you spend more time at work with your colleagues than with your family at home, I think it makes it a lot better and more productive if the atmosphere amongst colleagues who help eachother out is good.

I find that the younger Germans that I work with are friendly and also quite prepared for activities outside of the office, Cinema, Beergarden, Oktoberfest etc. but they do have private friends and work friends, most of whom do try and keep the two fractions separate. There are however a few grumpy old sods for whom work is 8hours of their day 5 days a week and although they say Guten Morgen and Guten Abend etc they rather hit you over the head with a Baseball bat os they can have their peace and quiet for the 8 hours. but F*** them. I'm happy with the collegues I get on with.

I would say that the vibes in my office are better than those in a number of companies I worked in in the UK. But the average age has dropped from 50+ down to 30+ over the last 3years.

I am not working but studying abroad and I have had similar experiences. Some of the German students have actually come out and said that they do not want to get to know the internationals because we are only here for a year. It's bewildering to us because in almost every other culture it seems that people want to reach out to the foreigners. All I can say is, it's their loss.

yea, i for one think that you crossed a line there. true, you were well intentioned (i.e. the dietary concerns). but if she told you it was a particular surgery, you should have accepted it as the case and respected her desire to control how her condition was understood / viewed by her co-workers. as far as her dietary intake is concerned, that is her business, and you would have done well to have treated her like the adult she is.

sorry, that was off topic... but this is a case where the don-riina extreemism may have been a good option.

And not just in your own time. Several years ago my boss decided it would be a good idea to throw Friday morning breakfasts as a type of motivator for the staff, only he began this phase during an extremely tight period at work, full of deadlines and appointments. We ended up most times having to do unnecessary overtime to cover the hours missing in the morning from eating Brötchens, straining to make conversation (because of those deadlines) and drinking sekt.

I did once touch upon the subject and suggest we do something together out of hours with other members of staff, and was told in a very direct manner that I needn't bother turning up then.

Have you ever watched "The Office" series with Ricky Gervais?
Why does your post remind me of this?