Kultur 8

Ich finde interessant, dass Deutscher Sauna mögen aber haben sie Angst vor Bakterien. It just struck me as odd that the Germans, who are clearly obsessed with germs and getting sick and cleanliness, would be willing to sit naked in close quarters with one another. Personally, I enjoy a good trip to the sauna, but it does seem somewhat schmutzig to be sweating in a closed room with a bunch of people and no circulation.

Maybe it's the German tendency to keep the outdoors from coming inside (not opening windows in the car, freaking out if there's a draft) that allows them to be especially comfortable in the sauna. They have the second highest number of saunas in their country, after all, so there must be some reason that people keep coming back to them besides fascination with this Finnish tradition.

I think one important cultural aspect of the sauna is that, as the article states, people of different classes and background are all in there together and nobody can really tell the difference. German culture hasn't struck me as one that is overly concerned with socioeconomic class in the way American culture is, so I think the idea of a communal sauna is reflective of that. It furthers the notion that Germans can be a very open sort of people (nude beaches and saunas), but also have their reservations and can be, at times, rude. They seem to encompass both sides of the spectrum.