Ohh my favorite sitcom! Well that’s just
unrealistic how the characters always just
walk in through the front door. I mean, how
can they open it without a key?
Oh my god now they’re climbing through the
air vents! Let’s do that too that’s the
best prank. Oh wait, we’re in Germany, we
can’t do that. WHY you ask? Well because
German houses and American houses are pretty
different.
Hallo, Servus and welcome back to my Youtube
channel! My name is Felicia, I’m originally
from Munich Germany but have been living in
Cincinnati, Ohio on and off since 2016.Today
I’m going to take you on a little tour through
German and American homes. For those of you
who don’t know this – the very first time
I ever came to the US was in 2010, so 10 years
ago and it was for a high school exchange
between the sister cities of Munich and Cincinnati.
Students from different high schools were
selected to participate in this and I got
very lucky and together with one other German
girl, I stayed with an American family for
2 weeks – here in Cincinnati. And when you
arrive in a new country where you’ve never
been before after such a long flight, you’re
totally overwhelmed by the whole situation
but I do remember that I noticed a lot of
differences about the house that first night
- and since then I’ve discovered many more
things of course and I’ve been wanting to
make a video about all of the differences
on houses ever since I started this channel
but for some reason I haven’t yet, so here
we go! I made a list of 13 things that I’ll
go through in this video. And of course, every
house and apartment is different both in Germany
and the US and people can design it however
they want and install different features but
these are differences that you’ll see when
you compare the majority of German homes to
the majority of American homes. Right when
you enter the house, you’ll notice a big
difference and that’s the front door. In
Germany they’re usually a lot thicker than
in the US and have a seal that makes them
more soundproof but also helps with insulation
– and you’ll find those seals at most
doors inside the home as well in Germany.
The front doors that I’ve seen in the US
so far were rather thin compared to that and
never had a seal. Also, and this is what I’ve
mentioned in the intro – in Germany, you
won’t find a door knob or handle on the
outside of the front door so even if the door
is unlocked, you won’t be able to open it
once it’s shut unless you have the key.
Which brings me to another point and that
is that most of the locks I’ve seen here
are a little different from the standard locks
in Germany. Where I live here in the US, we
have this kind of lock at the front door but
also inside on bedroom doors. The key is a
little smaller and thinner than the ones in
Germany and for German locks you usually just
turn it around once or several times – depending
on the lock – and then just pull out the
key like that but in the US I’ve found that
you have to turn the key back before you can
pull it out. And then in Germany since there’s
no door knob, you turn the key a little further
and push the door open at the same time while
in the US, you can just open it like a normal
door once it’s unlocked. At least that’s
how it is for most doors, I know that for
some doors in the US you can also switch it
to being locked automatically once you close
it. Then, after you’ve entered, you’ll
notice the next difference right away. In
Germany the first place you find yourself
when you enter a house or apartment is usually
the Flur or Diele – the hallway or foyer.
That’s usually where you take off your shoes
– which you should do in Germany as I’ve
mentioned in another video before – and
from there, you’ll get to the different
rooms. In the US, you enter the home right
into the living room in most cases. Like you
open the door and you’re already in the
living room. The Germans among you probably
know this from American shows and movies like
if you just think of sitcoms like Full House
or How I Met Your Mother, there’s never
a hallway. Some places do have some kind of
entrance area but it’s usually more open
than a German Flur. In general, German homes
tend to be a little less open than American
homes. The trend is going more towards open
rooms but traditionally, the hallway is its
own room pretty much with doors to all the
other rooms. The kitchen has its own door
and is its own room, the living room is its
own room, and so on - while in the US it’s
pretty common that the kitchen, the living
room, and the dining area, if there is one,
are all open and pretty much one big room.
Now let’s get to heating and cooling. In
Germany, it’s very uncommon for normal houses
and apartments to have air conditioning. We
do have it at stores, some office buildings,
and definitely in our cars, but I don’t
think I’ve ever seen a German home with
air conditioning. So how do we keep our places
cool? Well, first of all it doesn’t get
as hot and humid in Germany as it does in
a lot of parts of the US but in the summer,
temperatures do go up to around 35 degrees
Celcius. It’s helpful that our walls are
a lot thicker and better insulated than they
are in a lot of American homes so the heat
doesn’t come inside as quickly but besides
that we just suffer and use a combined strategy
of fans, opening our windows at night – and
we’ll get to the famous windows in a second
– and closing the curtains and blinds during
the day. In the US however it’s very common
for a place to have central air conditioning
– which means that there’s a thermostat
somewhere and there will be these air vents
that I mentioned in the intro – and through
those, the cold air will be blown into the
different rooms. And in the winter, it’s
simply hot air instead – so that’s the
cooling system and the heating system at the
same time. Which also means that you won’t
see these things in the US a lot. In Germany,
that’s the main way of heating – you’ll
usually find these radiators in every room
with an individual temperature control. I’ve
seen a few of these in American homes as well
but as I said, when there’s central AC with
air vents, those are usually used for both
heating and cooling. And places that don’t
have central AC often install these little
window AC units. And I’ve mentioned a few
times before that Germans often think that
Americans totally overdo the whole AC game
and that it’s often way too cold and I’m
going to make a whole video addressing this
but yes, Germans just aren’t a big fan of
having air blown into their rooms while Americans
seem to not be able to live without that and
that brings me to the next point and that
is: Ceiling Fans.
These are also pretty standard in the US and
I’ve never seen one in Germany but I actually
think they’re awesome. Not every place in
the US has these but a lot of places do – they’re
usually connected to the ceiling light with
their own on and off switch and they just
help make the air circulate a little when
it’s hot. I love this especially for working
out at home and you don’t have to have an
extra fan in your room.
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And now let’s get to windows. The famous
German windows are very different to the ones
you’ll find in America. Because here, all
you can do is slide your window up and down
and they usually have a second slide thing
that’s a bug screen but that’s really
all you can do and honestly, opening these
windows doesn’t get a lot of air inside.
Like I often open up both windows in my rooms
and there’s still no air circulation really.
German windows on the other hand are perfect
for that. Germans are also pretty obsessed
with “Stoßlüften” but German windows
are perfect because they usually have three
different modes. You can open them like a
door, which let’s a lot of air in, you can
tilt them like this which also lets some air
in, or you can close them. And they also usually
come with a seal just like the doors BUT they
don’t come with a bug screen which Americans
like to complain about. But you can always
install one. Like I always had one in front
of my window as a kid. What a lot of German
windows do come with though are outdoor blinds
or shutters. They’re built into the wall
and you can close them from the inside like
this and not only do they darken the room
almost entirely but they also help with the
insulation part. Suuuper handy in my opinion.
Sometimes they’re also electric like this
one in my room – but at some windows you’ll
also just find regular indoor blinds or curtains
like you do in the US. This one is a pretty
big one in every day life: American homes
usually have built in closets in the bedrooms.
They can have different sizes, some of them
are walk-in closets, but the least you’ll
see is usually something like this – so
you'll have a door that looks just like a
normal room door and then there’s shelves
and a clothing rack inside and they're not
taking up any space in your actual room usually
because they're actually built into the wall.
This is usually one of the most shocking realization
for Americans, but those are not a thing in
Germany! Our bedrooms are usually just empty
rooms when we move in, no built in closet.
So you’ll have to buy a wardrobe – a lot
of them are just stand alone pieces of furniture
in your room, but some people also invest
in a built-in wardrobe that’s fitted exactly
into your room. I used to have one of those
in my bedroom in Germany under the roof. This
is a small one but when walking through the
house, you’ll notice that light switches
are different as well. In the US most light
switches look like this, while in Germany,
they’re usually much bigger and are either
one that you can tilt or that you can press.
Also, doors in the US usually have door knobs
throughout the house while in Germany we mainly
have door handles. Some places in the US do
have handles as well, but when they do, the
handles usually feel very different than the
ones in Germany, so it's not the same handles.
Okay let’s move into the bathroom. If you’ve
seen my video about peeing differences you
know that I mentioned how different bathrooms
are and that I’m going to dedicate a whole
video to that topic so I’ll just mention
a few things in this one. One big one is that
in a lot of older homes in Germany, the bathroom
light switch is on the outside of the bathroom
– this used to be a safety regulation in
Germany back in the day and you’ll still
see this a lot but it’s super annoying really.
Not only because you’ll have to remember
to switch the light on before you go in but
also because people mess with you and turn
the light off while you’re inside. Now inside
the bathrooms, let’s talk about showers
for a second. In the US, most showers I’ve
seen so far in homes but also in hotels, and
whether it’s a bathtub with a shower or
just a shower, have a fixed shower head. You
can usually adjust the angle a little but
you can’t move it, which coming from Germany
I find super annoying because you can’t
get water to all parts of the tub or shower
which especially sucks if you wanna clean
it. In Germany, we usually have a handheld
shower head that’s detachable which I personally
just think is much more practical cause you
can take the water wherever you need it basically
and if you don’t wanna get your hair wet
you can move it down quite a bit too.And then
one other difference of many in the bathroom
is the toilets. American toilets in a lot
of cases, not every toilet but a lot of them,
have a lot of water in the toilet bowl so
it’s very high. While in Germany it’ usually
really low. Some old German toilets also have
a shelf like this in the toilet, which seems
to be one of the most popular topics to talk
about in the comments, but that’s really
not all that common anymore. And American
toilets also usually have this old fashioned
toilet tank and a flushing lever like this.
I’ve seen this even in pretty new homes
while in Germany, we oftentimes have a button
to flush and lots of toilets have a big and
a small one depending on how much water you
need to flush. But also, in modern German
bathroom you often don’t even see the toilet
tank anymore because it’s built into the
wall and all you see is a push button in the
wall to flush. And one last difference in
the bathroom that I wanna mention in this
video is that I feel like even in newer bathrooms
in the US, you hardly ever see one faucet
handle to control the temperature at the sink.
They're called Mischbatterie in German and
are very common in Germany but in the US you
usually have a separate hot water and cold
water handle – so once again, it seems a
little more old fashioned than in Germany.
Moving into the kitchen, one big difference
is the fridge. American fridges are usually
much bigger than German ones, just like a
lot of things are bigger in the US. A lot
of them have a water and ice dispenser like
this and oftentimes they have a separate door
for the freezer. Sometimes it’s also just
like a big thing on top of the fridge. German
fridges usually don’t have a dispenser like
that, they’re smaller and the freezer is
either a little part inside the fridge or
it’s underneath it and it usually comes
with drawers which I’ve only seen only a
couple times in the US. One thing that I find
super handy in the US is the garbage disposal.
A lot of kitchens have one and it’s like
a grinder built into the sink. I mean, I don’t
put waste in there on purpose but if food
leftovers have found their way into the drain
and it’s clogging up I do find it practical
that you can just turn on the garbage disposal
and the problem is solved. And one more thing
I wanna mention about kitchens is the stove.
In Germany most stoves are regular electric
stoves or induction stoves nowadays, which
do exist in the US, but a LOT of stoves here
are either electric coil stoves or gas stoves.
That’s actually the most common one I’ve
seen around here and you hardly ever see that
in Germany unless the owner is like a really
passionate cook or it’s a really old house,
so that’s quite interesting.
This one I just wanna mention very briefly
because in some German apartments, you’ll
also find the washer in the kitchen, which
is usually because there’s no space anywhere
else in the place. You’ll also often find
it in the bathroom, and especially in apartments
there’s oftentimes no dryer. That’s because
Germans mainly air dry their clothes which
is why you’ll definitely see drying racks
like these in German homes. Bigger places
usually do have a dryer but we don’t use
that for our regular clothes a lot, so laundry
rooms usually always have drying racks or
a clothesline rope set up. When I first moved
here for a longer period of time, I was really
confused to find a washer in dryer in most
places but zero space to hang up my clothes.
But Americans simply don’t do that as much
as we do in Germany.
One difference that you’ll notice when you
walk through a German or American home is
the floors. In American homes you’ll see
a lot of carpet which I love personally and
in a lot of cases it’s this pretty thick
fluffy carpet too. You don’t see that in
German houses a lot, most homes don’t have
carpet at all. Instead we have tiles and wooden
floors typically. But even when Americans
have wooden floors they’re usually different
than they are in Germany where parquet is
one of the most common floors, or the cheaper,
fake version, laminate floor. In the US, the
hardwood floors usually look a little different,
like the structure is different and they’re
usually much darker than parquet floor and
from what I understand they’re also made
differently. Overall, I’ve found that Americans
have a preference for darker wood in their
floors and furniture while Germans use lighter
colored wood for a lot of that.
And last but not least, let’s talk about
the exterior really quick. This varies a lot
in Germany and the US of course, but when
it comes to apartments, one main difference
is that in Germany, we always have our full
names outside on the door bell, the mailbox
and the actual apartment door while in the
US it’s usually just an apartment number
and that’s a part of your address. When
it comes to houses, American houses often
have the typical front yard and porch and
everything is very open while in Germany,
porches aren’t really a thing and we don’t
really have those big front yards either.
Instead, you’ll see a lot of fences and
hedges in Germany, things typically aren’t
really open like they are in the US. And overall
we just have a lot less space in Germany and
especially in a lot of German cities, housing
and just space in general is pretty expensive
and people are glad to even have a balcony.
A yard is really a dream come true but then
when they do have one, a lot of yards especially
in cities are right next to the neighbors
yard. Just to give you an idea, in Munich,
which is one of the most expensive cities
in Germany, so keep that in mind, but in Munich
I can maybe buy a tiny studio apartment for
the same price that I can buy a nice house
here in Cincinnati with a yard and a porch
and everything. Of course, it’s like that
in the big American cities as well, but the
whole density thing and space as luxury is
just a little more common in Germany.
Of course, there are many more differences
that I could have mentioned here, so if there’s
anything important that I missed, feel free
to share that in the comments below! And I’d
also like to know which of these features
you’d like to have in your country or what
you you’d like to get rid of! For me personally,
if I could build my own house and mix the
features of both countries, I think I would
definitely have the German windows and doors,
American central air and ceiling fans, German
bathrooms, and I think the American setup
with a porch and lots of space and the carpet
and dark wood interior design, cause I really
like that. Thank you so much for watching,
I hope you guys enjoyed this video. This was
a little longer again after my Random Differences
mini-series with shorter episodes. If you
liked it, make sure to hit that thumbs up
button, and don’t forget to subscribe to
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I hope I’ll see you next time. Tschüss!
