Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise?

Health, or gesundheit, is a universal human concern - few, if any, people or cultures delight in illness and the discomfort it can bring. However, different societies have very different strategies for maintaining health, and some worry about maladies that are unknown elsewhere. The French smoke like fiends and have little idea of vegetarianism, yet take days off work for heavy legs, a solely French affliction. South Koreans fear fan death - untimely demise caused by sleeping in a closed room with an electric fan left running overnight. In short, every culture has it's own health phobias and ideas about what is good for you and what is not.

Germans are no exception. Despite drinking almost more beer per person than any other country (except the Czechs) and downing bread and processed meat products at alarming rates (a more specific food oriented post will be forthcoming), they live on average around two years longer than Americans. What are their strategies? Some initial observations, in no particular order:

• Fresh Air. Germans are seemingly obsessed with "frische Luft", and rarely miss the opportunity to "lüften" a room even on the coldest day. Rarely a seminar has gone by without some of the students opening all the windows, letting all the nice heated air out and exchanging it for cold damp chilly air. If they haven't done it, the professor usually requests the opening of windows, lest we run out of oxygen. In most German homes that I've been in, bathroom windows are often left open. Because, you know, the room where you get naked and stand under running water is most pleasant when kept within a few degrees of freezing. Leaving the house for the day? Turn off the heat and open the windows! Shiver the sickness away! I'm hardly someone who likes the house well-heated in Winter, but this particular German propensity baffles even me.
•  Bio-everything. Bio (pronounced bee-oh) is just the German word for organic. You can basically get bio versions of whatever you want, and bio supermarkets abound. Everything from milk to potatoes, broccoli to bratwurst. It is WAY more prevalent here than in America, the Whole Food US upper-upper-middle-class notwithstanding.
• Sneaky exercise and the great outdoors. As was recently pointed out to me, Americans can be seen jogging around our cities, Germans only jog along lakes and rivers. Where they do most of their exercise, I don't know. There are gyms, sure, but even then, there are simply fewer really fat people here than in the US (not that Germany is exactly a thin land, in fact, women seem to be/feel less pressured here to maintain ultra-slim standards). This may all come down to Germans simply walking or cycling more, given the less suburban (in the American sense) layout of most towns and cities here. They do love their outdoors, witness the Schrebergarten - a bizarre backyard for hire, away from home, usually along a rail road track. 

And there you have some wild generalizations about German strategies for health maintenance.

Es lebe die Bürokratie!

In a fit of international self-promotion, the German federal government branded the country a "land of ideas", though they could just as easily (and rather more aptly) have branded the country as the "land of paperwork". Simply living in Germany, not only as a foreigner but for everyone, requires a continuous effort to satisfy the bureaucratic powers that be. A never ending cascade of forms from diverse public and semi-public bodies must be obtained, properly filled out, signed and stamped by the right people (a task that can sometimes make the little hobbitses' journey to Mordor seem like a spaziergang in the park), and submitted in very specific orders.

Would you like to: live? live in a certain place? own a pet? watch tv? go fishing?

There's a form for that! And an application, and sometimes a fee, probably a license, too.

Indeed, by virtue of living in Germany one must have health insurance, by law. This is sensible (and coming to America, unless the courts get in Barry and Nancy's way).  You can't get much done without proving health insurance - to enroll in university, for example, you need to show you have insurance.

You also need to register with your local Einwohnermeldeamt, or inhabitants' authority, so the state knows where you live. It is required.

As a foreigner, and non-EU citizen at that, I have had to go through many steps to get settled and given permission to remain in the country. Granted, it started off nicely, the immigration official at the airport didn't ask a single question and the visa can be obtained after entering the country (this is in stark contrast to both the US and the UK, where upon entering the country you're often left feeling distinctly less than welcome!). Since then, however, I have been required to obtain in the following order:
1. A bank account (and Verpflichtungserklärung stating my parents would not allow me to fall destitute should i run out of money!)
2. Health insurance - most people are insured through public bodies, but since I didn't qualify it was a long procedure to obtain private insurance (that was all too reminiscent of the US ''system''.
3. Immatrikulationsbescheinigung - the enrollment certificate from the university, which itself required the previous two documents in addition to various letters from the department of the university I am studying in.
4. Meldebestätigung - registering where I live.
5. Aufenthaltserlaubnis - the permit allowing me to live where I live.
6. Student visa and work permit - self-explanatory, need all five previous documents to get this! With this comes an ID, which I will be technically required to carry at all times, just like everyone else in Germany.

There are good reasons for all of these requirements, so I don't mean to complain, even if I do enjoy doing so from time to time. For Germans it is natural that the state pervades many aspects of life - it is unavoidable. I have questioned, given, well, you know... history!.. doesn't this strike anyone as vaguely big-brother or authoritarian?As it has been explained to me: no, because in a democratic society like Germany, everyone is a member of the state (important to my PhD project! The German word for citizenship literally means ''state membership'') and state and society are intertwined. Unlike in America, where the state (aka government) is often viewed with suspicion at best, here the state is seen as a protector, both of rights and of a general standard of life. It seemed a good solution to all the nasty problems that led to fascism, and has generally worked since 1945.

So, I will take on the paperwork gladly, in the spirit of social democracy and anti-fascism. Vorwärts..!


PS: I'm going to broadly generalize and observe that it seems 60% of people here own parkas, and women wear sensible shoes almost without exception. The end.