Attitudes towards British and American people

I currently work in Germany in an international company. Most of my colleagues are German, but I also work with an American, one other Brit and also Spanish and Italian colleagues. I have been here for a long time and have noticed that the Germans are generally much friendlier towards the Spanish and Italian workers than the english speakers to whom -including me- they are frankly pretty rude and awkward and unfriendly. I have also noticed that the Spanish/Italians have made more friends and more quickly outside of work. Am I just working with strange people or is this frequently the case in Germany? I'm in the former east, where is the best place for Brits to work in Germany?

You're just working with strange people. Or maybe you, yourself are strange. I also live in the East and I wouldn't by choice move West. Life is better here IMHO.

I've been here 25 years (based around Hamburg) & now work in an international company. Have had absolutely no problems with German colleagues. There are plenty of threads here about issues trying to make close friends with work colleagues on this site but I did not have the expectation to make "close buddies" at work.

Like HEM, I neither expect nor desire more than work-oriented relationships, which are confined to the workplace, at work.

Are you speaking English w/ the Germans, or German? Even kind Germans can come across as extremely rude when speaking English.

Hi,
I am completely new here and I just read your post. I think I know what you are talking about. I was born here in Germany but I grew up abroad, in the US and also in Latin America. Germans sometimes do not know where to put me. When they hear me speak they ask me where i am from and I tell them I was born here but raised in the US. Once they hear that they start getting critical of Americans and showing this attitude that "americans are stupid" and basically categorizing me into this overly generalized preconceived notion. I have always felt they have a issues with americans, see them as uncultured humans and are not afraid of showing that they think this way. Some are condescending and others just just plainly ignore me. I know exactly what you are talking about. Nevertheless I do have to say that it is not all Germans that are that way. Once you give them ma little time and chance to get to know you they change and get friendlier. It does however take a lot of reaching out to them instead of just opening the door and invitingthem in, you have to keep reaching out. It may get tiring at times but it is worth a try. It has taken me well over a year of reaching out to finally get to the point where I can say I have a circle of friends. Oh and you should try maybe to befriend some of the Italian or Spanish colleagues and try to maybe start friendships with the Germans via the others that you have already befriended.
Hope this helps,
good luck
Sally

Being a Texan transplant I have found out that I apparently have direct input on Bush's foreign policy... I was also told I was lying about being Texan because I was wearing adidas shoes - apparently all we get are boots...

No, no, that's all of us Americans living abroad. Didn't you get the memo from the state department? Should I forward it to you? Are you flying back for this week's cabinet meeting too?

Maybe you just work in a strange place. I work for an international company as well and have not seen any difference in how native German colleagues treat me as opposed to non-Americans/Brits. Everyone is extremely friendly and accepting. The only problems I've had are with other Ausländeren treating me poorly because I was American.

Anti-Americanism is rampant among many Germans these days, and of course it shows in the way they interact with Americans. I'm not sure how many would be openly hostile toward Americans face to face, but I feel that a lot of Germans have a deep-seated desire to see America as a whole fall flat on its ass, and some have absolutely no problems with making each and every American collectively responsible for the perceived or real wrong-doings of their government. This used to be different, but it all changed in the last 5 years or so.
I don't think this applies to the Brits to the same extent, though, although they too are probably less popular in Germany than they may have been years ago.

DISCLAIMER: The above post contained sweeping generalizations that may not apply to a lot of Germans.

I'm an American working in Dresden in an International School. I have had NO problems with Germans- it's the people from Australia, New Zealand, and the UK who give ME the most grief. In addition to having a horrible President (no argument there) I am greedy, loud, dress poorly and I must drive a gas guzzler so I waste energy! (and these people have only known me since July.) It is said as a joke, but it gets a bit stale after a while.

Sounds very TT-esque to me.

The main problem with America is that there is no goverment in which the people have any sort of valid control over, rather a team of lackeys that lie and do whatever the corporations tell them to do.

When we lived in Germany (2003), we had absolutely no problems. Perhaps because we have many German relatives (husband is half German), that got us over the hump. Actually, many of the people in our neighborhood (definitely not an expat enclave) said they preferred Americans to Brits because we liked German culture more (didn't carry that British is Best attitude everywhere), didn't get drunk at every opportunity, worked hard (weren't always whining or looking to "delegate" aka dump work on someone else), and were much more willing to try and fit in (speaking German, not escaping to Irish pubs as often as possible). The Germans we got to know well used to introduce us to other Germans as "Clinton Americans" not "Bush Americans". Seemed to smooth the way.

I've since worked with a lot of Germans on various projects and the attitude is about the same as it was in 2003 with people over 35. With the younger crowd, there is a lot of looking down their noses at Americans (despite their secret addictions to American TV shows, movies, music, and consumer goods). It's funny to listen to young Germans make snide comments about American imperialism while they drink Coke, smoke Marlboros and avidly scan the TV schedules for the next episodes of South Park and Pimp My Ride.

I think those comments could be because the brit/aust/nzers sometimes have a different and more aggressive sense of humor to a lot of americans. The problem is that a lot of it isn't funny (esp the so-called 'australian sense of humor' which is often used to justify verbal assault) and can be utilised by people who have (and perhaps because they have) obvious challenges (like being monstrously fat or very tiny, to cite two recent summer encounters) which makes it hard to respond to in kind, if you can be bothered to keep up. I have met a couple of germans who 'disliked australians' for various reasons, but it's such a complete novelty for me to be wholly identified by my nationality that I don't really have any reaction but I suppose it could get annoying if it happened a lot.

I am Italian and everything is OK with my new colleagues, I also have an American and a British colleague and they are not treated in a different way.
I only had a bad experience two years ago, my old colleagues refused to speak English to me (even if all of them could speak it fluently) and at that time my German was not so good (the job interview was in English and I told them that I did not have a high level of German, they decided to hire me anyway). I asked several times for a German course to my boss and he never replied, so I looked for a course at Volkshochschule...but my German did not improve enough so I was not confirmed after one year (I asked them why and they simply told me that I had language problems).
Luckily I found a job in another company so I decided to resign before the end of the contract, according to the Company regulations.
Now it is much better, my colleagues are simply wonderful

Thanks for your comments. Just as an example, this Monday I by chance arrived at work at the same time as one of my German colleagues who works in the room next to me and isn't a supervisor just a normal member of staff at the same level as me (it's a small company with about 20 staff). We had to share a lift and I politely said hello and asked if she had had a nice weekend in German, to which I was given formal responses. This whole week this person I now notice has been saying goodbye to everyone apart from me when she leaves the office each evening and acting rudely towards me obviously because my behaviour was considered over familiar. I have found most of the Germans I work with to behave like this. Is this normal with Germans?

yes, me too. they used to always ask if i was allowed to bring my gun with me! it's so nice when I meet other Americans and can say, I'm from Austin! They know what I mean.

This has been my experience too. In fact my German colleaugues are the friendliest bunch I've ever worked with, anywhere

Haha yeah, I try to explain Austin to them by showing them leslie online and explaining he runs for mayor every year, that makes them confused...

Oh congratulations, you must be such an amazing person Cruiser.

Just a thought but do you think your own attitude... highlighted here in this overtly sarcastic ad hominem response to someone making a simple remark... might indicate maybe why people don't like you or treat you very well?

Welcome to the internet, the home of the overtly sarcastic ad hominem response.