By Marcel Krueger, for CNN
Cars. Efficiency. Leather shorts. Germany is known around the globe for excelling at a variety of things. Germans themselves are known as friendly and welcoming people, even if everyone thinks we have a nonexistent sense of humor.
The country also boasts two millennia of history that, for good and bad, shaped the world as we know it today. But there’s much more to this large country sitting in the middle of Europe than stereotypes and war jokes.
Here are 11 things that make Germany special:
1. Mixing water, barley and hops
Germans drink, breathe, eat and sleep beer. OK, mainly we just drink the beer. There are more than 1,300 breweries and 5,000 different brew brands helping us drink more beer per person than any other European nation, apart from the Czech Republic. And, yes, we know the United States now has a ton of new craft breweries. We don’t care.
2. Taking our clothes off in public
When it comes to getting naked in nature, no other nationality comes close. We can’t blame you for keeping your distance, just don’t judge us.
3. Bureaucracy
It shouldn’t really come as surprise that Germany has an abundance of laws controlling almost every aspect of life. And while this amount of over-regulation might seem to make us inflexible, it’s what gives us our reputation for being efficient.
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