American takes a sneak peak inside a Typical Small German Village

[@notyourbusiness1626]

Those houses aren't made out of wood, it's just the paneling of the facade for aesthetic reasons. Also those really big houses are usually multiple-family houses. So basically separated into apartments, but not exactly like an apartment complexe.

[@smalltime0]

Plattenbau, with laminate flooring on the outside wall.

[@Nemockzans]

From the look of it the 'big house' would be for about 4 families. There are a lot of houses build out of wood in Germany but they are up to a standard where you would have a hard time getting a hole in any wall with your bare hands now would a hurricane be a real danger beyond damages on the roof and windows

[@bollomator]

Nonsense. The framing or skeleton is oak! The gaps a filled with depends on the age , either bricks or clay mixed with hay. They can be hundreds of year old

[@hardlerp2340]

@@bollomator they are talking about that 10 years old kindergarten,

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

@@bollomatorfor old houses, yes. But not every house is old. There are many build in the last 70-ish years to replace the ruins.

[@gudrunasche9124]

It is not a typical german village, it is a bavarian village.

[@userhessenone1469]

yes, a big one

[@olgahein4384]

@@userhessenone1469 In the area of southern Baden-Württemberg aka the Black Forest it looks very much the same though.

[@philippprime6844]

@@olgahein4384 Badenwurtembergians, Bavarians ... it's very much the same. The only difference is that some are stingy and others are constantly drunk.

[@FabienneBergeron-i2d]

Liar, take your comments elsewhere @@philippprime6844

[@Nitramrec]

@@olgahein4384 Yes. But not in the more northern states. And there is a lot of northern area ...

[@PiratePawsLive]

The Houses are not made of wood. Those are just normal brick / concrete walls covered in wood paneling for aesthetics.

[@tosa2522]

Yes, and the insulation is located between the brickwork and the timber cladding.

[@UVCMD]

And even if they were made of wood... if you are not a karate pro, you are still unlikely to punch a hole into the wall.

[@mariadamedecoeur]

​@@UVCMD3ew😂😂😂

[@thetaleteller4692]

Also mentioning those houses are build to last at least 60 years, if maintained well easily 100 years.

[@75Tades]

Mr. Miyagi would make it 😄@@UVCMD

[@Vaati1992]

Germans love balconies. Even many affordable appartments for rent have them. In fact balconies are so common here that a common phrase to describe taking time off and staying at home is "Urlaub auf Balkonien" (literally vacation on Balconia, trying to turn the word balcony into something that sounds more like a country name)

[@jolandafrijlink6103]

That is what we say in the netherlands too 😁

[@smalltime0]

The apartment I rented in an ex-DDR Wohnblock in Leipzig had a decent sized balcony, large enough that I could sit comfortably, read a book and grill using one of those one time use grills you get in Rewe/Kaufland or whatever. The balcony was roomier than the Kitchen tbh (although that obviously had the washing machine in it).

[@johansilwouden3403]

In the Netherlands we also say that we spend our vacation in "Rundumhausen", literally "around your house" a very posh and elegant way of saying that you took a vacation, or a staycation, because you did not have money or time to travel abroad. Like when you had to do a lot of home improvement.

[@Sekire1]

@@johansilwouden3403 love the word staycation :D

[@bierschiss3562]

Some people even go to "Fuerteveranda" or "Terrassos" :D

[@NuEM78]

I wouldn‘t say this is a typical German village. Not because there is something wrong with the village but because there is no typical German village. (Building) culture in Germany is very regional, so this village may be very typical for its region but for me it might as well be in a different country. You can (with some experience) reliably tell in which part of Germany you are just by looking at the buildings.

[@bastik.3011]

Yeah as a Bavarian this villaged looked very normal but when i visited my friends in NRW it looks different and if i visit my other family in Niedersachsen it looks completely unique again

[@smalltime0]

If it looks like the building was made by concrete being poured into a mould, you're in an Ex-DDR state. Then you just need to learn regional differences. The biggest difference is practical, the higher states typically have houses with pitched roofs, because of the snowfall.

[@caccioman]

True ❤

[@onnasenshi7739]

I can't hear it anymore "typically German" Bavaria is just as typically German as Schleswig Holstein or Lower Saxony

[@LaurenMarie32300]

Never thought my vlogs for home would make it into a reaction video! I’ve learned a lot since making that video and know much of what I said was inaccurate…but take it as primary evidence of what little info I had absorbed from my host parents. I’m actually living in Germany now - but this time up North 😊

[@thurindot7384]

Welcome to the North. Where we actually speak german. :)

[@NeverMind439]

@@thurindot7384 So wrong on so many levels 🤪😝😂

[@Pseudomonasa]

​@@NeverMind439 if it's around Hannover (aNd ThAt iS nORtH GeRMaNy!) it is actually the standard dialect "high German"

[@muncangel5993]

@@Pseudomonasa It´s not NORTH, it´s in the middle ;-), Hamburg und Bremen are NORTH

[@muncangel5993]

@@thurindot7384 BS...hahahaha ;-)

[@thorstenh.5588]

Dont forget that this village is in southern germany. The buildings and the whole villages in western-, central-, east- and northern germany are (very) different.

[@FabienneBergeron-i2d]

Villages in other areas are very beautiful as well. I lived in several places. Just don't wanna go in most of the Cities, they were bombed to pieces in WW2 and no time for aesthetics and charm when it was time to rebuild. And also these days whatever is being built has lost it's charm and uniqueness most of the time.

[@thies7831]

@@FabienneBergeron-i2d They might look "beautiful", however, living there can be a curse to some house owners. Heritage protection often doesn't allow to fix ancient building problems such as sloping floors as long as they are safe with the beams having been anchored to the exterior structures. As a result, some rooms could be sloping off by 450 mm or 1 1/2 feet. Fitting built in furniture level for the doors and draws working correctly is having the entire room looking extremely odd.

[@denizirisozbey1760]

These houses are made for ex. 4 families. The ones on the second floor have balconies. Downstairs they have a garden.

[@K__a__M__I]

and under the roof they have a Hitzeschlag.

[@Carol_65]

​@@K__a__M__I😂

[@docinho3206]

Kan confirm growing up right below a badly insulated roof @@K__a__M__I

[@arnikakiani8014]

This is a rural, southern village. Older houses are quite big because they probably included space for storing hay/straw/etc. and also a portion that housed some cows or other lifestock. And that may still be the case. The original living quarters were probably not all that huge. As to the "wooden" public buildings - that´s probably wood cladding over stone walls.

[@schrodingerskatze4308]

They are also bigger because more people lived in them. People had more children, and I also think that it was more common that your grandparents or maybe an aunt or uncle would live with you there. At least that's what my parents and grandparents told me.

[@arnikakiani8014]

@@schrodingerskatze4308 Very true, I live in a house built for several generations. In an agricultural community, there would also be quarters for the hired helpers (Knechte-/Mägdezimmer). On the other hand, a lot more people tended to sleep in one room or even one bed than we would find okay nowadays.

[@NadineFolger]

Most of those houses have been built hundreds of years ago when they have been part of a farm and people and life stock stayed in the same building - especially during the cold winters. They have been renovated, split up into apartments... This is a village from the south of Germany. It looks quite different where I live.

[@manub.3847]

@@schrodingerskatze4308 Depending on the region and rural tradition, several generations live/have lived in such houses. In my more distant family circle, I know of at least 5 of these situations in which the houses were later converted so that the family lives in one house, but in separate areas (= their own apartment). Typically grandparents, children, grandchildren and sometimes great-grandparents lived under the same roof. Often, when the great-grandparents/grandparent generation died, the houses were rebuilt in the 1970s/1980s. Sometimes because no other house could be built on their own land, sometimes because a renovation was cheaper than a new house.

[@hanskeller2636]

There was one mistake in the video. Germans do not burn wood due to the reason that the central heating is not sufficient. They burn wood because they like the smell and the special heat. But the main reason is that wood is cheaper in comparison to oil and gas. That's why

[@Ironman-mg3ud]

right, they have a fire burner often in addition to a gas or oil central heating but wood is not really cheaper

[@Waver1997]

Hey! That's my Village! It's "Wildpoldsried" (can be also seen at 9:55), also known in that area as "Das Energiedorf" (the energy-village). We produce much more electric energy with renewable ways than we consume. It has roughly 2.6k people living there. If you wanna know more about that village, feel free to ask :) (Also, cool to see my village reacted to by people far far away :D)

[@blumenmus]

Ich dachte mir beim Thumbnail schon, dass ich die Straße kenne und zack, Wildpolsried 😂 Ich hab echt mit allem gerechnet, aber nicht mit einem allgäuer Nachbardorf

[@BlauImHerzen]

*The kindergarten is solidly built of stone, the insulation of the building was covered with wood to give the building a nice, warm look.*

[@THomasHH]

Don’t mistake the German term Haus for the English/American term for House. It’s more a building if more than one person/family lives in it. We do have the term Gebäude for building, but we often use Haus for it as well.

[@deliatedeschi]

On houses/ windows- This house is pretty new. We started building "low- energy houses" which also means that windows showing north are smaller, whereas those pointing south are significantly bigger to catch sunlight better. Also the size of a house rarely tells you how many people are living in. It could be one family or two apartments in each floor for example. You can find that out by the postal boxes and doorbell buttons in front of the house.

[@DaGuys470]

_Slow regional train drives by_ Ryan: "Woah, that thing is flying"

[@DerAlteMann1974]

What will Ryan say if he sees an ICE passing by

[@Crushonius]

@@DerAlteMann1974 or when he sees people who are racing an ICE on the autobahn with their car

[@JED-v8q]

​@@Crushonius The ICE will certainly win. If you take The S-Bahn from Potsdam to Berlin, The tracks are parallel to the Avus. The S-Bahn is only slightly slower and the regional train is fester than The cars.

[@jeannedarc511]

The super Big houses with balconies are usually old houses from when a Family had 7 kids and they are often Transformed into apartments. So the people living on the first floor have a balcony instead of a patio 😄

[@k.elh.8097]

Not only did families often have more children in the past, but up to 4 or 5 generations often lived together in one house

[@Kivas_Fajo]

Not only are our shingles heavy duty clay ones, they are also interlocked and wired/screwed down on the wooden beams. They go nowhere, unless the storm has 250+ kph winds.

[@psylia1]

This is actually a Village in southern germany. Northern Germany is totally different looking. The vibe is so, so different from North to South.

[@stef987]

7:59 no, it's just big containers to throw bottles and other glass containers in. You have to sort the glass by colour, that's why it's multiple containers. Machines that give you money back probably won't be outside and in most cases will be inside a grocery store.

[@thies7831]

Those machines receiving bottles for recycling are run by electricity generated by environmentally sources, while an invisible aged pensioner is sitting in the backroom, giving that concoction a stern boot when playing up, instead of handling those goods in direct human contact over a counter. Such a method is strictly avoided these days as in the past simple chatter over that process lead to political discussions, ending at times into protest marches to government offices over controversial topics.

[@Guenner8685]

You don't get wood delivered, you make it yourself😉 Maybe some people get it delivered. But I grew up in such a small town and what we did is, you buy already chopped trees from the forest. Then you drive to the forest, you saw the tree in small parts, take it home and the you chopp it into the small pieces you see stacked there.

[@uztre6789]

That's great that you did that and of course people do that but yes, there are companies that sell pre-chopped wood and yes most people who use that get them delivered

[@caccioman]

In the countryside, you usually do it yourself or get it (delivered) from a neighbor who has access to excess fire wood (farmer or else)

[@thies7831]

Can't do THAT anymore. Even a small branch on the ground is a biotope for some forest dweller. In Victoria, Australia, an ingenious parent saved a campfire round at a Cub scout gathering by building a reusable log stack with flickering LEDs and accompanying sound effects. The kids had to wear thick jackets on that winter night, tuning their brain to feeling "extremely hot" in that situation. Following such a success, tent campers in Victoria are now requested to take a porta potty along as the government has figured out, that such a move will save money on building toilets and gain income on fines, created by caught offenders.

[@Taorakis]

Another thing to keep in mind when you say "these houses are huge" is that usually there is more than one family living in one of those houses. 2 Story Houses can have 4 Families in there, or occupants in general. Depending on how it's designed. This also works because the wwalls are usually way more noise dampening than in American Houses, so you don't hear your neighbors, unless they are quite loud.

[@satsumamoon]

We.have.neighbours on two sides and below. We hear sneezing, pissing, washing machines and of course anythin g with more noise. From two we hear footsteps.

[@Taorakis]

@@satsumamoon yepp, that can happen too of course.

[@lollipop2900]

The wood panelling is not just for aesthetics: wood is a fantastic insulator, so many upper floors have extra wooden panels attached to the brick/concrete walls. Southern Bavaria is a mountainous region; winters are (or used to be) quite severe. About 5 years ago we had a huge long lasting freeze that lasted about two weeks. Temperatures during the day were at -25, nights were at -30. All the water pipes on our upper floors froze. Our house was originally meant to have wood paneling on the upper floors 😮

[@derhinek]

The Kindergarten and elementary school are not made of wood. In recent years there has only been a trend to install wooden slats in front of the (stone/concrete) wall as a facade of some buildings.

[@reinhard8053]

In my city there are/were money grants for buildings if you have a certain amount of wood used. So we have some wooden slats at the sides of the house where my appartement was.

[@thies7831]

For preventing the building to burn down after having used wood, the rest of the structure is made up of asbestos concrete and lead paint, purchased extremely cheap in some underdeveloped countries, often installed by workers, originating from such locations. The savings will buffer the cost of using real wood on the outside.

[@PeterSPuzzo]

Hey, just to clear things up - the wooden houses in Germany are actually super well-built. Many of them are called 'Passivhäuser' (Passive Houses) and are designed to be super energy efficient with great insulation, airtight construction, and triple-glazed windows. They're definitely not sticks 😮😅

[@Herzschreiber]

We are not heating our houses with wood, but lots of houses have an open fireplace or a modern woodburner with a glass front or so. Just for the ambient. Not for heating the entire house. And some Germans own a little private forest, so their access to wood is relatively easy. And yes, one can purchase wood in small or huge amounts. In rural aereas with a lot of forests around there is often a sawmill where you can order it. Being charged for the weight of your garbage is not common, but there are towns and villages doing it that way. If it is the case, the garbage containers usually have a lock so nobody else than you can put something in it to ease the own container. The windows "up here" where she lives are windows of an attic. There are very different styles of windows sitting in/on a roof, this is one of them.

[@SatieSatie]

Off topic but: I _hate_ the idea of "private forests". Just hate it. Forests should belong to everyone. Not only to those who can pay. My sister's in-laws also own a piece of a forest and it makes me kind of angry.

[@Yo_Hahn]

@@SatieSatie We dont have normal "forests" anymore. Nearly every forest is a wood plantation just for profit. You have the right to enter every forest if you want, so what do you want more?

[@bastik.3011]

​@@SatieSatiei mean they are owning one just means you can cut wood. I dont think its even possible to keep people from going into your forest

[@hornstein12]

@@SatieSatie then you have to hate owning land aswell, otherwise that doesnt make any sense.

[@SatieSatie]

@@hornstein12 I 100% knew that someone would come up with this question lol. Owning a place where you live isn't questionable as there's an existential need behind it; but owning land, forests, beaches is.

[@kipchickensout]

typical maybe, average I wouldn't say, looks quite southern

[@melaniewolf5855]

Should be Bavaria, looks like Oberbayern or Niederbayern...

[@simonl.6338]

I know he has seen other cities and towns aswell but I think he should watch a video like this where someone is walking through a more northern town like Flensburg or even Göttingen or something. It's entirely different and I think he'd enjoy it

[@kipchickensout]

@@simonl.6338 Yup

[@moreInkOre]

Loved seeing you being so excited about this video. xD Makes the video so much more enjoyable to watch. (Also LOL at the: "OMG, is that a wagon!?") I must say I am getting pretty excited to move to a pretty small town soon again, because that's what I am drawn to. And yes, most of those "big" houses are for more than one family. It's pretty common I'd say. It's a nice mix of multiple family dwelling houses and single family houses over at my small town - but we also have some of the bigger apartment buildings.

[@thies7831]

Yes, it is a wagon (or station wagon in some countries). Germans are DIY champions, not expecting everything served up to them like in the USA. Therefore, saving delivery fees, that type of car is the ideal one for collecting goods at one's expenses. In small villages people have to travel longer distances to a lower priced supermarket, resulting in shopping once a month, loading up the car well on that trip.

[@swealer]

To the playground. I dont know how thats handled in the US but because the playground is on a public space or for public use, it does need to meet some standards and gets checked and certifyed by officials from a.e. TüV or similar instituts😊 Edit: and the houses arent made out of concrete... Thats plain and simple brick and mortar houses

[@thies7831]

That's above ground. However, the Nuclear War bunkers underneath are made of thick concrete walls. The same did apply to the subway stations some villages installed in the 1970s on advice that planning for the future it is smart having all necessary infrastructure built then before expanding becoming a large city. No roads will have to be ripped up again or houses removed. German Town planning at its best.

[@HenryLoenwind]

About the dish: Germany lies quite far to the north from an American point of view---most of it matches up with Canada. That means that dishes aimed at geostationary satellites (i.e. those over the equator) are angled relatively flatly to the south. As such, putting them onto a south-facing wall works well and is less effort than putting them onto a roof.

[@PsychedeliKompot]

They're also far easier to access and maintain this way.

[@Attirbful]

it sounds to me as though she is an AuPair in Germany. I was an AuPair in the U.S. loooong before KZbin even existed. Had it existed then, I would have made videos of my experiences and uploaded them so family and friends can share in it, too. I was left to write letters, send photographs, and, once in a while record a tape…

[@rushinroulette4636]

Many house owners with such large wood storages have a forest partition where they can shop and split wood from. These storages are used to dry the wood until it can be used. Yes, we do have wood delivery services, but they usually cost more money depending on when you order. The best quality and most satisfying is the wood you get early on in the day, also known as the morning wood.

[@ulie1960]

🙂 LOL 🙂 yes the morning wood is the best...... would love to know if Ryan gets this one...

[@monkeyboy275bobo8]

How the firewood gets delivered depends on how you want it and who you know. Where i am from its usually privat people who get asked by the forest ranger to cut down the bad trees and keep the wood in exchange. So you would just ask those people if they want to sell. My father usually cuts the trees into 1m logs first to bring them back home, then you split them and leave them to dry (which you see in the video). You then have to cut it into a lenth that actually fits into your oven (usually 25cm/33cm). So really you can buy it at any step of that process. It just depends if you want to work more or pay more. Most people dont have a tractor or woodsplitter but a circular saw is rather common so the split 1m logs you see in the video are quiet populare to buy.

[@walterjoshuapannbacker1571]

This is quite a large "village", almost a small town, and it's Bavarian - villages are very different in other regions. When I say "village", I usually mean small settlements of single-family rural houses and farms.

[@johndaly9472]

The villages usually have a couple of farmers that also have some forest. You usually get your wood from them. You can also buy it in other places like the baumarkt (hardware store) or even some gas stations. But the prices are insane for large amounts if you don’t get it from somebody that has a forest. The people from the strassenmeisterei (road maintenance) and some other jobs get to take down trees or parts of them and have access to wood that way. They might share with friends or family. A lot of this is also part of the informal economy in a lot of places.

[@caccioman]

Vetternwirtschaft 😂

[@johndaly9472]

und schwarzarbeit, ist halt standard am land@@caccioman

[@alexanderbraun1087]

Garbage cans are available in different sizes. Private households can decide which bin they need and then have to pay the costs for the waste in addition to a basic fee. Prices for residual waste range from €50 (35 liters) to €320 (240 liters). At least thats the costs for my location.

[@anitapenkert389]

In my region you are not free to decide. The bin size is defined by the household size (number or registered persons). You cannot choose a smaller one (we tried). And if you don't separate the garbage you can get fined.

[@nordwestbeiwest1899]

This needs to be set straight: Germans don't heat with logs because that's a luxury and very expensive. They heat with wood pellets, pressed wood residues in special heating systems with tanks full of these wood pellets.

[@NadineFolger]

I guess gas heating is more common than wooden pellets.

[@max.power89]

Logs are more likely to be used for heating in rural areas by people who also have forests.

[@olgahein4384]

@@max.power89 Correct about the rural areas, not so much about 'having' forests. Most people i know (including my parents) who own a house and a fireplace just 'rent' a piece of forest land where they can gather wood. My parents live in the Black Forest, and evergreens are shallow rooted and are thrown over all the time anyway. They rarely have to do anything else than collect it from the ground. They have some obligations though, like cleaning the ground from debris too, keeping the young trees safe etc. There's also a limit to how much wood they can take, but they never maxed it out. They rent from the village that owns those woods. According to my dad it was always cheaper that way, compared to paying heating bills even from 20 years ago. The fireplace would warm the whole house very quickly and it stayed warm for half a day after the fire was out (hurray to modern bricks). And you don't even need as much wood, if it's dried outside for a few years.

[@caccioman]

I have a wood stove in my kitchen (and overall central - oil - heating in the house, which was built in the 70ies). The wood stove works on wood (logs, twigs) or coal (pellets, bricks). 20 years ago my parents would still regularly use the wood stove for cooking and basic heating of the kitchen (so the central heating wasn’t needed in the kitchen/had less to heat up). Would be still nifty to do that, but sadly I am too lazy to use it… 😅

[@caccioman]

Older people still might use their wooden stoves and (also) heat with wood (logs)

[@GoelerLP]

Wow, it's crazy seeing you react to a video about a town in my area. The familiar names on the road signs. I have moved out of Germany a few years ago, so it was refreshing seeing familiar architecture.

[@mapau9750]

The larger houses usually contain 2 or 3 separate apartments. That would explain the balconies: that those residents have access to air and sunbathing while those in the first floor have the front and backyard.

[@CoL_Drake]

these houses are NOT out of wood ... there is something called a "facade" :) we make nice wood paneling on it for it to look nice also the flying train is a slow regional train that doesnt go very fast :) like half speed of a fast train or less

[@patrickmuller7334]

About the wood, I'm pretty confident that's just wood paneling over stone walls, to make the buildings warmer and more inviting.

[@PropperNaughtyGeezer]

3:18 " this is very unusual." This is typical residential area. 5:03 These are former farms or estates, modernized and converted into residential buildings. 13:15 This is a new house. They are now installing this small windows because of the energy efficiency. This will be the north side. On the south side then again use larger windows and allow sunlight to warm up the interior.

[@TheShowdown16]

While a number of german homes rely on wood as a primary source of heat many more than that have an additional fireplace because it's nice.

[@MichaEl-rh1kv]

At the very first picture you see typical southern German architecture (e.g. the church and the wide gable front of the houses), the roof shape is typical Alpine, so presumably Bavaria. 2:24 Many modern playgrounds are actually constructed only after embedding the local children in the design process. 2:37 Typical village church with the cemetery around it - the chapel is the funeral parlor. 2:58 This "alpine" style with the massively wooden-framed balconies is typical for newer residential areas in Bavaria, consisting mainly of detached and semi-detached houses. 3:45 Typical teacher's cars. 😄 5:11 The one with the greenish shutters looks like an old farmhouse (which would not have concrete walls, rather brick and wood under the white plaster). The other one on the left is either built following the pattern of the neighborhood regarding dimensions or maybe got a more modern looking exterior during a complete makeover. 6:14 The yellow one could be an old school house built at the end of the 19th century. 6:48 In those rural Bavarian regions they have many forests and in the villages many houses are still heated by wood firing ovens (sometimes central ovens following the "Grundofen" thermal storage principle), and some may have a natural gas connection or oil heating, but still maintain additionally a open fireplace or a tile oven in the living room. 8:44 There are different billing methods for waste. In most municipalities every household will have 3 to 4 different cans for waste: one for paper, one for plastic and mixed packaging materials, one for residual waste and sometimes an optional one for compostable waste. (Flats within the same house can share a bigger garbage can.) You pay nothing for paper and the plastic packaging, but for residual waste, and in many places the garbage truck will weigh the waste before emptying the can, which is identified by an inbuilt RFID tag. Since you don't pay for the plastic packaging, some incentive for recycling is given, but not for avoiding packaging waste. 13:09 Looks like the street side is facing North, so it has only a few small windows. The big windows will be on the other side, overlooking the landscape.

[@thies7831]

Even some country cemeteries are having limited tenure on them. After 25 years either relatives or the council (for prominent local people) are buying that plot again or the remains are getting removed, crushed down and buried in some mass grave in a corner for selling that vacant spot to future village residents. Family History is preserved in Registry Books, kept by the Church for those wanting to trace the past.

[@alexandrorocca7142]

There's no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothing.

[@peterhoz]

When the tractor passed her, you'll see a yellow sign. That is the town name, also it marks the town boundary. And because all towns are a 50kph speed limit (approx 30mph) by default, it is the signal for that speed limit to start. Like many European countries, the only time you see a speed limit sign is where the default is not in use. Eg a 30kph near a school, or a 60kph in a town, or an 80kph in the countryside rather than the default 100. They generally have signage at the international border advising the defaults for the nation. Generally towns (50), highways (90 or 100), and freeways (130). Except in Germany where the freeway default is no limit, which was a surprise when I left the airport car park in Frankfurt and was on the freeway (Autobahn) within 2 minutes. It was only when I noticed that the GPS speed sign disappeared, then a BWM raced past, that I realised oh wow Autobahn!

[@Maisiewuppp]

Re. Your comment on window placement: American houses are designed to ‘sit up and beg’ on the street (impress others, having oversized double height porticos, multiple pointless gables spoiling the roof line for example). German houses are made for function and efficiency.

[@reinhard8053]

Yes. My house has only the back to the street with a few small windows. But that is also a question of direction. You put the nice part with the windows to the south.

[@thies7831]

In Braunschweig, Lower Saxony (in the North of Germany), older houses are having the entrance in the back of the building, sporting no front doors to the street. No idea about the origin of that feature.

[@OrkarIsberEstar]

As austrian (Tyrolean) i was very surprised to see that seattle and surrounding villages / nature looks insanely close to where i live (Reutte) in Tyrol/Austria. Our lake is smaller our river too, our cioties as well ofc, we have more mountains but overall it looks eerily similiar, from vegitation to panorama etc.

[@drsnova7313]

That's really not unusual. Architectural preferences (or requirements) don't stop at national borders. Here in the west of Germany, going to either France or Belgium shows very similar styles along both sides of the border.

[@SatieSatie]

Oberallgäu (where this village is located in) borders on Tyrol. :)

[@paulbeneder9337]

The village in the video is about 55km / a 40 minute car ride from Reutte, so it’s not too far. Architecture will change when the landscape allows bigger agricultural structures, you will find some Vierkanthöfe when you move towards the flatter topography in upper Austria.

[@OrkarIsberEstar]

@@SatieSatie haha indeed, i used to go to the fencing club in Füssen, its just across the Fernpass

[@alexschmidt5302]

Eben. Das ist auch nicht typisch deutsch sondern typisch bayerisch. Nord-, West- und Ostdeutschland scheint für Amerikaner nicht zu existieren.

[@olli1068]

"why is there a stop sign and why is it in English" is the most American question I've heard in a while. Assuming that something is English just because this word also exists in English is at least stupid. The stop sign is actually the only traffic sign that is almost identical in most countries - mainly because it's most dangerous if drivers don't know it. The "stop" with one "p" is not a German word (in German it would be "stopp"), but it is in serveral other European languages, not only English!

[@andican1967]

there is a driving school (Fahrschule) in that building

[@thies7831]

STOP was written with one "p" in the past, however, as 75% of the next generation failed getting educated, the "older" 25% had to adapt to this new "Pigeon-German". Germany no longer is the country of "Dichter und Denker" (Poets and Ponderers), but "nicht ganz dichten Denker" (not very tight Thinkers). However, despite the international design, in Victoria, Australia, a Chinese tourist ignored that sign, resulting in a crash with a fatality. The defence lawyer pleaded on negligence by the authorities as no Chinese translation was added underneath the word STOP, knowing well, that a lot of Chinese tourists are using that road ...

[@seorsamaclately4294]

The pay for waste disposal can vary from county to county. In one you may pay per weight, in another it's a set rate.

[@martinrupprecht9853]

Hello Ryan, I really enjoy your reaction videos! In some older videos, you did marvel at the german window blinds called "Rolladen". In this vid ( 5:15 ) you can see the old-fashioned predecessor of the Rolladen, called "Schlagladen": the green flaps on both sides of the windows. The pictured house has some of them in the closed position, so you can figure out how they are used!

[@FelixFuchsHase1105]

Witzig. Wieder was dazugelernt: Hab das Wort Schlagladen noch nie gehört oder gelesen, soweit ich weiß. Ins Englische übersetzt könnte man ja fast "Fight Club" sagen. ;)

[@thies7831]

@@FelixFuchsHase1105The old word for Taxi in Germany was "Droschke". The Austrians might still use it. However, there is the German verb "dreschen", describing the ancient activity of separating wheat from the chaff by belting a pile of that product with a stick. If somebody is getting hit by a stick, the German verb does expand to "verdreschen". Some foreigners seeing the sign incorporating the word "Droschke" assumed it being a warning for a hotspot where people could get beaten up. Naming it as "Taxi" solved that misunderstanding. At the very same time the classic looking black exterior paint was changed to antique white, keeping the interior cooler.

[@helenewei4232]

The train is a slow , short regional train, connecting only 2-3 towns. They are way slower than the ice or the trains that go bigger distances. And they even slow down when they cross villages

[@NavySeal2k]

The windows being spaced equally comes from the 16" the spars of the wood frame are spaced. That's why the windows are 32" or 48" also, so they all look the same. At our Brick houses you can place a window wherever you like and you can have any measurement you like. And yes, we love our roof windows! ;)

[@enoiladoe]

Based on front equipment the tractor was on snow plowing duty.

[@Magistrella]

6:35 Well, yes we have wood delivery people xD BUT Here in Germany the maximum moisture content of burning wood is regulated to reduce emissions and particle content in the smoke. If your wood is above a certain % you'll be fined. It takes 2-3 years on the outside to reach the desired level of dehydration. i.e. you'll always have enough wood around for 2-3 years at least. Usually in different stages from big, while drying, to small pieces ready for stoves. Some buildings are equipped with whole log burners. These buildings usually are fully dependent on wood for warm water and heating. They usually can be found in big agricultural buildings. Our neighbor for example keeps part of their barn heated and their house. Including all the water necessary for their animals and 4 families living there.

[@879cc]

Looks like a south german village, in the north we often have clinker facades, also my house 😊 Wood for heating is in most cases only in addition, mainly we heat with natural gas or the modern houses offen with electric powered heat pumps and often they use photovoltaik current.

[@carolinesch.]

These houses are usually older houses that where a part of a farm, bigger land, have a Business and the family living in the levels above and usually multiple generations. We have some here where I live that have been converted into mulitple Family houses or bigger offices. Of example one has a store at the ground level and then above with that big balkone they made it into a lawoffice

[@maireweber]

Our rural fire stations serve lots of farms and smaller villages in the area, it's still densely populated by American standards. Rural firefighters deal mostly with stuff like car crashes or fallen trees on the country roads, cows who fell and got stuck somewhere and flooded basements when all the creeks coming down the mountains overflow at the same time. That's still a lot of work each station has to cover.

[@Warentester]

Wood fire is purely for atmosphere reasons or maybe as an add-on heating on particularly cold days. You wouldn't be allowed to heat your house purely with wood due to the particle emissions (an exception here are specialised wood pellet heaters burning compressed woodwaste from sawmills).

[@kbittorf335]

The newer wood burning appliances in the US have at least 2 stages of combustion. The primary combustion is of course the wood burning then as the temperature rises the upper level of the firebox has air tubes that ignite the gases coming from the lower fire reducing emissions. Standing outdoors and looking at the chimney you will not see any visible smoke. A 3rd stage is adding a catalytic combuster between the 2nd stage and chimney outlet. Wood pellet heaters are common as well and one can also purchase compressed wood waste blocks to use as well. Wood energy is of course much more prevalent in the rural areas here as well.

[@cylab]

Actually you can burn wood for heating. In rural areas its quite common to have central heating driven by burning wood logs in combination with some other burner using gas or oil regulation is getting more strict, though and I dont know the situation for new installations

[@FalcoGer]

Houses are usually made of either clay bricks or cinder blocks, not concrete. foundations are often concrete. Also wood burning fireplaces are definitely not super common. It's more of an upper middle class thing and not the primary way to heat a home. Most homes use central heating with a gas or oil boiler and either wall mounted radiators, or under floor heating. Sometimes there is block heating from a power plant where waste heat is used to heat houses.

[@martindanielpein]

Hi Ryan I found your channel some days ago and was stunned to see how much you are interested in some aspects of Germany & of German life or life in Germany. most aspects are subjective and of course when somebody directs his/hers attention to specific things its never catching the whole picture. I appreciate how you rate or how you judge those examples. If I may I would send you a video That shows my way to my work uncut I would think tonight it might be a big surprise 😊 Daniel

[@ThorDyrden]

recycling glas is very common. The containers are for gree, brown and white glass - and all bottles or glasses (e.g. from cooking-oils, honey, ... ), which are not directly refilled via the Pfand-System are collected there, broken and melted to produce new glas (that's why they are sorted by color), And our household-waste is not paid by weight, but more or less by volume. So your houshold orders a different sized carbage can, which is emptied twice a month - so this is your waste-volume limit for half a month. If you produce more waste you need a bigger, more expensive can. In deed - when you sort out plastic-packaging (yellow-can or sack), paper (usually a blue can) and all the glass... the remaining waste is the smalles can in a household usually.

[@XMLXL]

i like that you are one of the few who actually do reaction content i mean your reaction is 3x the original video keep it up

[@subbbass]

this is Bavaria, southern germany. It's not everywhere like this. In big houses normally live more than 1 family but of course in rural areas people have more space than in cities. Some of these houses may be new, some more than 100 or 200 years old.

[@Gaston413]

7:59 Most villages have those places with public containers for recyclling paper/cardboard and white/green/brown glas. Recycling companies have a contract with the municipality and collect these raw materials free of charge for citizens. Often there are boxes for clothing and shoes in good condition too. The residual waste that is collected from the home is charged according to the volume of the garbage can and the frequency of collection, but the price varies slightly throughout Germany. Here, too, waste companies have contracts with local authorities through annual tenders. The collection of "green dot" waste, which mainly consists of packaging waste, is free of charge for citizen. You get that extra bin with your residual waste garbage can, which is mandatory for home owners or tennants. The expenses for collection and disposal or recycling are already paid by the manufacturers to the "green dot" system, who have to take care of disposal and recycling. However, there should be no illusions about recycling. Recycling is expensive and much of the material that is difficult to recycle is still incinerated. It's actually not much different to you, except that we separate a lot more reusable and recyclable waste into different systems before it goes into the general waste garbage can.

[@tomfrank9447]

I don't know if the German towns are that different from the Austrian (we are Neighbours)ones, but the architectural styles are similar so I assume that people live in similar conditions in Austria. The chapel in the church courtyard was usually attached to a cemetery and was actually not a chapel but the funeral hall. These large houses are usually created because several families often lived in them, but they were all related to each other. They mostly came from farmhouses. The current farmer used most of the house, his parents had their own part with their own entrance and their parents also lived in their own part. Sometimes they also run a small guesthouse with a few rooms, depending on how attractive the area is for tourists. This wooden facade is mostly just an illusion. Behind it there is usually a brick building but sometimes there are actually concrete walls. The wood that you see in front of the houses was cut and stacked by the owners themselves with elbow grease; the wood is more likely to be delivered in urban areas. Wood is cheap, especially if you have a small forest. Gas is quite expensive in Europe because it has to be imported. In Europe, everything is recycled. Glass and paper are valuable raw materials from which glass and paper are made again. Of course, in Europe you also pay to have your trash picked up. However, there are collection points where you can take around one vehicle load per day and not have to pay. The roof tiles you see are actually quite heavy. This is the reason why our roofs tend to stay where they belong during storms.

[@Gandhiweasel]

Hello Ryan, this Wood IS selfmake..They have a own Little Forest and Cut the the trees hinself and stuff..And this have to be enough for a hole Winter season...The squaremeter IS called a "Ster" in German.;)

[@NoZoDE]

12:12 There are definetly closer paths to railways. For example there is a bike path connecting my village with another village closeby. Because of n adjacent Hydroplant (just a small Laufwasserkraftwerk) the bike path has to raise up and be next to the railway. There you are at max 1.5m away from trains which even seem to be faster than the one shown here. No railing, just a small, overgrown curb between you and the train.

[@manfredoxygen6771]

That was in Wildpoldsried a small villigige in Oberallgäu Bavaria. 2600 inhabitants. And we build windows were we need them to have a nice room.

[@McGhinch]

7:25 or 8:01 This are recycling material collection containers. They seem to be for glass and we roughly separate also by glass color, green, white, and brown. They don't pay you back the deposit. When you buy containers with a deposit you bring them back to the store -- could be a different store that also sells the same container.

[@SatieSatie]

I'm sooo glad it got recently changed in Austria/Vienna - we don't have to separate glass by color anymore.

[@janab.648]

The propane tank looking thinks she showed were for recycling glas. Clear, brown and green clad have their own container. And you are nor charged in wight (that is when you personally bring it to the recycling yard) but for the volume. You pay for the Volume your recycling bin has. If you need less or more volume you contact the recycling company to get you one with more or less capacity and your bill will go up or down accordingly. If your bin is full you have to get it to the recycling yard and there you have to pay extra to depose of it there. As for the windows that is because the rooms are planed first and then the windows are placed in accordance with the rooms.

[@yugopolis861]

The tv antenas are on the side to be protected from the wind and rain. Which makes sense, with hills all around it might be quite windy at times

[@SolarisUrbinoFan]

That train has tilting technique to go faster on curvy tracks (up to 160kph), one of my favourite train units.

[@Herrolas]

11:43 max speed is 80km/h on unprotected countryside with a village nearby to reduce noise emission. These short distance local trains (stops are often just 5 minutes apart) are especially designed to be less noisy. they are diesel-electric driven (not like a hybrid with batterys, they can switch), im living 20 minutes away from downtown Dortmund and here some of these trains use the overhead power lines and some use their diesel engines.

[@MartinBrenner]

Wildpoldsried, village about 5km from Kempten, north of the Alps. Train is a typical regional diesel passenger train. The village used to have a station on the line but was closed due to low passenger numbers but there is a bus to Kempten.

[@BlauImHerzen]

1 roof tile weighs approx. 4 kg, 16 tiles per square meter x the roof area is the weight. For example, a 125 m2 roof weighs around 8,000 kg

[@mpmyprojects6687]

07:10 In most houses or buildings, the heating system is most likely perfectly sufficient and runs on natural gas or oil. The reason for heating with wood can vary. But gas is quite expensive, and if you can get wood cheaply (from a friend or someone who owns a piece of forest etc.), wood heating is the better choice and in most cases just an additional heating source. However, if you have to rely on buying wood on the market, the price goes up to a point where gas is cheaper. Another reason is that people like the coziness of a wood-burning fireplace and therefore install a fireplace.

[@wkaemena]

Unsorted garbage costs a heavy fee calculated by volume. But you can easily reduce your garbage by separating in glass, plastic, paper and organic waste for recycling and these types of garbage are collected free of charge. In my town unsorted garbage cost me per 15 gallon volume about 8$.

[@stinjefunf5319]

Architecture heavily depends on the region in Germany. These big houses with long balconies and paintings on the walls are typical for southern Germany and german-speaking alpine regions. In northern Germany, especially in lower Saxony, you will see a lot of brick houses, some of which have roofs made of some type of grass ("Reetdach"). In Schleswig-Holstein, the northern most state, there are even some scandinavian style houses made of colourfully painted wood. In the middle of Germany you can find a lot of half-timbered houses. I am sure there are even more regional architecture styles, but these are the ones I know.

[@Pseudomonasa]

My town is in the south of lower Saxony and is 1100 years old. Old town still looks like middle age 😅

[@Koirankeksit]

We also habe a wood heating, but only for special comfort in winter (it's cosy) and as back up if there should be problems with the gas and electric power.

[@eaglevision993]

You can install a satellite dish on a roof with clay tiles. There are special tiles which let you install a mast for the dish. This is acutally how it is mostly done. Dish on the wall is more prevalent on a later installation where you have no mast on the roof.

[@karinwenzel6361]

Another reason why you wouldn't want to install your satellite dish on the roof is the amount of snow which might take it down with the "avalanches from the roof" (Dachlawinen). After all, the village is in Bavaria!

[@eaglevision993]

@@karinwenzel6361 A solid mast will endure a nice bavarian avalance :-). But the snow resting on the dish could impair the signal. It is also easier to access for maintenace when it is put on the wall next to a window or at ground level. Also less prone to get out of alignment during a storm.

[@PileOfEmptyTapes]

Last but not least, a dish on the roof is almost certainly going to require proper lightning protection facilities, while much further down on the wall that is of much lesser concern.

[@biloaffe]

9:35 These roof tiles are made of clay, but there are also other materials, e.g. concrete, slate, plastic, etc.

[@sekborg5757]

Heating is a very interesting topic nowadays in Germany. Most houses heat with natural gas, some older houses still use oil for heating, in some rare cases u can even find houses that have a heating system that only use hard coal. Most modern houses heat via geothermal energy or an air source heat pump in combination with solar energy. Some houses use a fireplace too, but mostly for aesthetic reasons. It's in the same price range as other heating methods and it looks nice and comfy. 99.9% of peopele with a fireplace do not heat their house primarely with it.

[@HanneleKorpela391]

In Finland, many malls have a recyckling stations underground, where parking lot is. So it's easy take with you when go to bigger supermarket buy grocerys.

[@HibikiKano]

On random placed windows: If the houses are made with thick walls and insulation, then even double or tripple glazed windows are still a area of heat loss. If you have rooms that don't need windows like a storage closet, the utilities room etc, then generally they dont get a window so you can have more windows in those rooms where you spend your time. Or just sace energy if you want to be frugal. Also in many European houses utilities, like furnices, boilers, heat pumps, solar panel batteries, and the master controlls for them are not in the garage with your car, but have their own room. On wood houses. We do have them now, but they are very differently designed to yours, usually even more massively built than brick houses. Very modern with modern "structure wood", technology on that field is adcvancing quite rapidly so expect more wooden european houses. I see some modern schools build with "Structural composite lumber" and "mass timber" in Slovenia. But so far the main brake on that is various national construction code on the height of timber structures. You can see some amazing wooden skyscrapers in Sweden now.

[@MellonVegan]

14:00 Concerning the window layout that you can see here: it does look a bit odd but I can imagine why they chose to place most of these windows where they are. The large one next to the door is supposed to let as much light as possible into the hallway. The smaller ones to the left and right will likely be a shitter and a shower or sth like that. Guest bathrooms like that tend to have small, frosted windows and may be located close to the entrance. At least where my mother lives, that's how it works. The windows in the roof are simply there bc we have lower ceilings under the roof and this building in particular seems to be quite low for a 2 story building. I'm guessing the alternative to windows in the roof (which might be at head height from the inside) would have been to put them at foot level.

[@kingofmontechristo]

For some reason it it quite common in Germany, I always wonder who actually build it because it does not make any sense

[@pelle7771]

With the house atvthe end: itvis probably the north side of the house. There are often not so many windows on this side because there is no sun anyway. Often there are some for bathrooms on this side, but the wall is used for cupboards/bookshelves/bedroom closets and the windows look to the west and east in this rooms. That's more practical.

[@MirkoC407]

The building with the signs on the wall is according to Google Maps a driving school. I already thought so when I saw it. It is quite normal for them to have traffic signs or traffic lights on the wall or in the window as eye catchers.

[@viktorious1389]

the Wood is just the outer shell, beneath that its usually concrete walls, they just cover it up to look nicer

[@Likr666]

The heating in the houses is usually heat pump, gas, oil or wooden pellets. These piles of wood are used for additional heating with a fire place or oven, but not for main heating of the houses. The big houses are usually for 2-4 families. In villages living in one house with several generations is quite common.

[@memyselfandi3202]

One thing you have to remember, design, construction and materials vary not only from location to location, but also different times. So houses can not only be decades old, but hundreds of years. f.i. the roofing you mentioned. While I would call that 'typical shingles' used throughout Germany, but they are more modern. You can also find slate or wood shingles or reed roofs. Same goes for walls and floors and walkways and whatnot. Addition with regards to window placement. Most 'modern' houses in Germany follow kinda the same layouts and that defines the window placement. Going from the house she is walking to I will presume the following: Behind the front door (blocked by car) you will find the foyer where you hang your jackets and change shoes. Branching off from this is usually the guest toilet and sometimes a small storage room. The guest toilet is the small window you see to the (left?) side of the door. Usually the glass would be 'milky' and thus a giveaway. The large window would typically be the staircase. On the opposite side of the building would be the living room and I would guess the kitchen is to the right. Upstairs are bedrooms and the families bathroom. Remember, Germans love 'lüften' so every room ideally has a window. But then again they are heat drains so you don't want to overdue them. Plus you need to have space so people can put up their own closets and like so you need larger wall spaces without windows. Basement below house, not garage though it does have living areas (see windows in roof and stairs to left)

[@DerSchredder-0900]

There aren't many "wood-delivery-guys". Most people I know, that heat with wood stoves (actually my family too), get their wood theirselves. Sometimes you own a piece of forest or you can sort of rent a area where you are allowed to take the wood out (thats often done to protect the forest and the small plants in it). That is of course a lot of work, but it's also much cheaper than buy it from someone...

[@darmokVtS]

Well "typical village" is as in many cases not a thing if we talk the entire Germany due to the usual regional diversity in culture. It's a typical small town in a rather touristy rural bavarian region.

[@philippprime6844]

It's not even a town

[@Herrolas]

12:43 actually the window placement and whole architecture is well thought out. See the droping sun? the door an the taping girl is on the north side of the house. So most of the windows will be on the other side, pointing to the south. in winter you get the most light and energy and in the summer you use your big awning, wich are verry common in germany. ;-)

[@TheDomAdventures]

Regarding Heating: We obviously have gas/oil or some other kind of heating. But an old-school wood burning stove is simply cool an cozy, and lot of older houses have them anyways so you might as well use them. As for the "logistics" behind the firewood, you simply go and buy some , and mostly saw, chop and store it yourself. There will of course be forestry companies selling ready-made, dried firewood but that would be more expensive than simply buying a tree trunk sawn into handy 1-meter pieces and then chopping it up yourself.

[@Zinkhal1]

13:11 yes that are windows ... pretty common here a lot of houses with 2 or 3 floors are using the "roofpart" as 1 floor ... and most houses are kind of splitted in half so you have an apartment left and right or front and back and every floor is an own apartment ... so yes a lot of times you have 2 apartments in the roof ... in the summer its a pain in the butt to be honest getting so hot in there if the sun is shining on your roof and you are exactly underneath it xD

[@kbittorf335]

Heating with wood is very common in the rural US. Usually as a secondary source. And it is available should power fail as it typically does not require electricity. Brennholz is locally sourced, carbon neutral, and renewable.😊👍

[@biloaffe]

8:03 This is a waste glass container, this glass goes into the recycling cycle. The deposit machines are only available in supermarkets.

[@michaausleipzig]

It's very bavarian actually. The architecture and design don't look the same in other parts of Germany. Also it seems like the people living there are ... quite well off. That's also of course not the case everywhere. Ah, she was nice enough to walk past the road sign with the village name on it while filming. Of course never heard of it before but yeah ... deeeeep in southern Bavaria... Ooh, nice train towards the end. I'm a train driver myself, that was a DB class 612 diesel multiple unit. They were introduced about 25 years ago so they're quite outdated by now and are used for regional services on non-electrified routes. And it wasn't going very fast, Ryan. Not at all... 😅😉

[@DeaTHLorD861]

The placement of the windows is calculated for optimal light flooding. The placement is of course really not random 😄

[@SilkeJuppenlatz]

Bear in mind that it isn't normally 1 family living in those houses. It's usually several families in those houses, which will be apartments inside.