I guess not a small number of people share my rather stereotyped view on Germans like they are particular about their personal cleanliness. At book stores in Japan, you can easily find books titled for example, '100 tips for House care in Germany', mostly written by Japanese housewife who married to a German. Recently I had some experience that reminded me once again, for a great number of Germans, personal cleanliness is not just enough. Here is the story.
There are three German tenants who live in our apartment; two above my floor and one next door on the same level are all Germans.
About a month ago, I happened to see one of them, a lady who lives directly above my room, in the washing room in the basement. After a short chat, how are you doing, how do you like your life in Switzerland, blah blah blah and she said, by the way Satoshi, "I realized that the drain pipe in your balcony has been totally blocked. I think it has been like that even since before you came in and I can see when it rains, the water doesn't go and the walls of the balcony are now covered with mildew. Your cleaning lady has not been doing job properly and you should tell that to her."
She was right. I was not even aware that there was a drainage in my balcony because it was totally blocked. So I thanked her and sent email to the realtor who was responsible for the cleaning contract. But as you know, realtors are not so helpful. They were too slow to react and nothing happened in the next two weeks. Then the same lady came to me, this time to my room and with a screw driver in her hand. I must tell you that I felt a little nervous when I saw this. She said "Satoshi, can I come in?" I said, "Yeah, of course, what's up?" "I will show you something." and she went straight through my kitchen to the balcony and started digging the blocked drain pipe with her screw driver. I was so surprised watching this and she was really into it. After a couple of minutes she realized that she could not remove the metal mesh cover to dig any deeper and she finally stopped. She said, "You see. This is the problem, Satoshi, you should tell the cleaning lady to do something about this." and she left.
I pushed the realtor again but another week has passed. Then the other German, an elderly who lives above but not on my side but on the other, saw me coming back from work and he said "Satoshi, long time no see, how's life blah blah blah..... and I had a bad feeling about this. And he went, "Satoshi I realized that you have a blocked drain pipe. And I think you should really talk to the cleaning lady.' Oh, no. His room is not on my side, he cannot possibly see my balcony. The lady must have talked to him. By the end of the month, whole apartment would know my problem in the balcony.
I gave up pushing incompetent realtor and determined to fix the problem by myself.
Went to a DIY home center and got the professional plumbing tools, wrench to pry open the cover and mildew cleaner. I spent three hours removing the dirt in the pipe, washing up the walls. Now it is much cleaner than before and everybody seems to be satisfied except the realtor who received a lot of complaint from me after the event.
Conclusions, surely stereotyped but reality in my neighborhood:
-Germans are not only particular about their personal cleanliness but also others'.
-Germans pay a lot of attention to and monitor what their neighbors are doing.
-Germans cannot bear to watch neighbors screw up the balcony.
By the way, one of my German colleagues who is an early starter opens up all the windows of his colleagues offices to let in fresh air before they come to work.
