Keeping Up With the Germans (Philip Oltermann)

Philip Oltermann
Keeping Up With the Germans



I hesitate to read books written by foreigners about British culture, or indeed books written by Brits about other cultures. They are often lazy caricatures and at best reinforce why you think you have a great culture with inane positive generalisations. Also I often  pick holes in what is written, not surprisingly as I have always lived in England bar a year or so travelling / bumming around the Americas. Although this book has all of the above in parts I guess that goes with the territory and the author understands that and has made a real attempt to analyse both German and British cultures by the innovative instrument of various meetings between both nationalities from the last couple of centuries.

I wasn't sure whether the book was by a German noting British oddities which is apparent when Philip first comes to live in London's suburbia noting bathrooms with carpeting and separate hot and cold taps (something which my German friends just cannot get their heads around). Or by a truly anglicised German looking at German customs such as new year walks up the Brocken in the Harz mountains which is somewhere I've had the pleasure of visiting. The book goes into much deeper analysis of both cultures and the national psyches and how each look at each other and is both intriguing and compelling.

A couple of notable sections are the impressive build of sash windows with their perfectly balanced counterweights hidden from view (ever opened one up?) but ultimately being either draughty or painted shut and therefore needing to be replaced. And the German obsession at new year with an English sketch from the music hall era called Dinner For One which I'd never heard of until my German friends showed me it a few months ago whilst visiting Berlin. To me it's an amusing sketch with little dialogue in the style of Norman Wisdom or Eric Sykes when TV was B&W and shut down at 10.30 with the national anthem. To the Germans it's a national institution. Go watch... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lzQxjGL9S0  Going back to my hesitation in reading books like this the sketch is everything you would expect a foreigner to think about Brits - class separation (butler with my name James), empire artifacts, eccentricity, heavy drinking, slapstick and finally crude innuendo but of course nothing explicit. But to be fair funny all the same and may sum up the public face of Britain from the 1950s although obviously not now.

In conclusion an enjoyable book that made me think about both German and my culture, and how both are perceived. Interested in how it comes across to a German very interested in British culture and how to a Brit who's married to a German and works regularly over there. Let me know boys.