What are the humanistic characteristics of Germany?

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There is a joke about the personnel composition of heaven and hell in the minds of Westerners: If heaven is to be formed, the British should be the ones to organize it. The police, the French will be the chefs, the Germans will be the mechanics, the Italians will be the lovers, and the Swiss will be the general managers; if it is to form a hell, it should be the Germans as the police, the British as the chefs, the French as the mechanics, and the Italians. Being a general manager...Jokes like this reflect the different character traits of various Western countries or nations.

Although I knew very little about Germany before going there, there are two jokes about Germans that left a deep impression on me.

One thing is that if a dollar is lost on the street, the British will never panic. At most, they will shrug their shoulders and walk forward in a gentlemanly manner, as if nothing happened. Americans are likely to call the police, report the crime, leave their phone number, and then walk away chewing gum. The Japanese must hate their carelessness very much. They will review it over and over again when they return home and never let themselves lose it a second time. Only the Germans are different. They will immediately draw coordinates and squares within 100 square meters of the missing location, and use a magnifying glass to search for each square.

There is also a joke that if there is a fly in the beer, Americans will immediately call a lawyer, the French will refuse to pay, the British will make a few humorous remarks, and the Germans will use tweezers Clip out the flies and seriously test the beer for bacteria. I originally thought that the rigorous and serious attitude and scientific and realistic spirit of the Germans were greatly caricatured in these two jokes. However, after I arrived in Germany and confirmed by what I saw and heard, I felt that the two jokes were very harmful to the Germans. Although the character portrayal is exaggerated, it is not too distorted and is very vivid.

This time, as a playwright, I went to Germany to participate in a performance with the crew of "Tokyo Moon". The performance takes place at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg, one of Hamburg's three major theaters. During the installation, there was a small "international conflict" between our lighting designer and the German technicians. When our lighting designer climbed the boom to install the chandelier, he used a herringbone ladder brought from China. However, the German technician thought it was unsafe and insisted on using a German-made herringbone ladder with an adjustment and balancing device. After they set up the "MADE IN GERMANY" herringbone ladder, they carefully adjusted the four ladder feet to keep them exactly on a horizontal plane to ensure that the ladder was absolutely vertical and stable. After debugging, the German technicians were not at ease yet and repeatedly shook it with their hands to make sure it did not shake at all. After such a strict inspection, they were sure that it was 100% stable before allowing our lighting designer to climb up. In fact, the ladder we brought is also very sturdy. It has been used for more than ten years and has been climbed up and down thousands of times without any problems. Moreover, the ladder is not high, so even if it shakes a little, it will not be dangerous. But the German technicians insisted on using their ladders, which seemed too serious and too rigid. In fact, if you think about it carefully, it reflects an extremely valuable spirit of the German nation.

First of all, great respect and protection for workers. Germany not only has a labor safety law with numerous items and extensive content, but also a very detailed and unique workplace law. For example, the law stipulates that the indoor height of the workplace must not be less than 2.75 meters, there must be windows indoors that can see the outside, working in a closed workplace is strictly prohibited, each job must be provided with enough space, and work in a crowded environment must not be allowed. The most touching thing is that it even stipulates that the workplace must have fresh and clean air and a normal temperature suitable for the health of the workers. Otherwise, it is illegal and the workers can sue the owners accordingly. There are strict regulations on the air and temperature in the workplace, let alone ladders.

If there are laws, they must be strictly followed. This reflects the meticulous and fine style of the German nation. The Chinese Deputy Consul General in Hamburg once told me a story when he first came to Hamburg. Once, he exceeded the speed limit on a highway for several seconds in order to pass a German car in front of him to turn. After turning the corner, he found that the German car he had passed was chasing after him for an hour and a half. After getting off the bus at the Consulate General, he asked the German why he kept following him.

The German said, I have been chasing you for an hour and a half just to ask you: Why are you speeding?

The most feared word in the world is "seriousness", and Germans are so serious. A serious nation is the most promising nation. This year marks the fifth anniversary of the reunification of East and West Germany. In these short five years, the two political entities have not experienced "exclusion" or social turmoil because of their different blood types. On the contrary, the economies of the former East and West Germany have There are varying degrees of growth, and the economic growth rate of the former East Germany has reached 9% this year, ranking the highest in Europe. This cannot but be said to be a miracle. The occurrence of this miracle is probably related to the fact that Germany is a serious nation!

When I traveled to Berlin this time, I spent 7 marks to buy a palm-sized piece of the Berlin Wall as a souvenir. After I brought it back to Shanghai, I showed it to my friends. But almost all my friends have asked a question: Is this cement block bought from Germany for nearly 40 yuan a real piece of the Berlin Wall? Could it be fake? I feel sad. Sadly, only my countrymen ask such questions. We ourselves are horrified by the pervasive fakery sweeping the country. In Germany, it is possible to buy anything, but it is very difficult to buy fake things. Wang Hai, the "trickster" who knew and bought fakes, only came into being in today's China. The Sichuan Technical Supervision Bureau actually became the defendant of the counterfeiters in order to crack down on counterfeiting. This probably also has strong Chinese characteristics. These extremely dramatic things would never happen in Germany. The Germans are serious and the Chinese are fake. Although it cannot be generalized.

If he were a Chinese, what would his attitude be in the two jokes told at the beginning of this article? In fact, we Chinese characters were included in the original jokes. But for the sake of the Chinese people, I deliberately concealed it. But hiding the truth is also a kind of falsehood. In order to fight against falsehood, I... I will tell it. In the first joke, it is like this to ridicule us Chinese: When we lose one yuan on the street, we Chinese will not be as casual as the British, will not call the police like the Americans, and will not be as conceited as the Japanese. When I reflect on myself, I will not look for it as seriously as the Germans do. Instead, I will spit on the ground, and then curse: "Huh, whoever finds it will buy medicine." Then I feel mentally balanced. This kind of Ah Q doctrine has been deeply criticized by Mr. Lu Xun, but there are such people around us, so it is not a vilification. In the second joke, when it comes to flies appearing in beer, the Chinese will not go to a lawyer like Americans do, won't refuse to pay like the French, won't make a few humorous remarks like the British, and won't Do the test like the Germans did, but... instead, pick the fly out of the beer, drink half of it, demand compensation, and go to the second beer shop, do the same thing, secretly put the fly in the beer, and continue to demand compensation. . Isn’t this too damaging to us Chinese? Unfortunately, when I visited Japan the year before last, I did hear that some Chinese students deliberately put cockroaches in their noodles and demanded compensation from their Japanese bosses. Although I also know this is individual.

But in some countries, there are simply no individuals like us!

Isn’t it necessary to improve the quality of the people? I think I’ll start with the simplest and most difficult thing first, how about that? Even if you are fighting against counterfeiters, don’t fight them fakely, let alone fake people to fight them, but fight them with real people, how about