问题

一些德国人(欧洲人)为什么那么傲慢,他们的傲慢来自于哪里?

回答
这个问题触及了一个相当复杂且敏感的文化现象,很容易陷入刻板印象的泥沼,所以需要非常谨慎地去探讨。并不是所有德国人(或者说欧洲人)都会被普遍认为是傲慢的,这种认知很大程度上来自于个体经验、媒体塑造以及一些历史和文化因素的交织。

首先,我们需要理解“傲慢”这个词在不同文化语境下的含义。在中国文化里,傲慢可能更多地与居高临下、不尊重他人、自以为是联系在一起。而在西方语境下,尤其是在德国,这种“傲慢”的感受,有时可能源于他们文化中一些被视为“自信”或“原则性”的特质,却在跨文化交流中被误读了。

德国人给人的“傲慢”印象,其根源可以追溯到几个层面:

历史与国家认同的塑造:德国作为一个统一的国家出现得相对较晚,但其历史中不乏辉煌的科学、哲学、音乐、工业成就。这种长期的文化积淀,加上两次世界大战后,德国在战后重建中,一方面需要为过去的罪行承担责任,另一方面又要重建国家尊严和国际地位,这种双重压力下,德国人普遍形成了对国家实力、技术领先、社会秩序的强烈自豪感。这种自豪感,如果表达方式不够圆润,在外人看来就容易被理解为傲慢。他们可能觉得,在某些领域,比如工程技术、汽车制造、环境保护等方面,他们确实有值得骄傲的资本,并且习惯于以一种“就是这样,我们做得好”的态度去呈现。

教育与思维方式:德国的教育体系非常强调逻辑性、批判性思维以及对事实的尊重。从孩童时期起,就鼓励提问、辩论,并且尊重专业知识。这种教育模式培养了许多德国人在讨论问题时,往往会直接切入核心,不回避矛盾,并且对“正确”的解决方案有着强烈的坚持。这种直接和“较真”的沟通方式,在习惯于委婉表达、注重和谐的文化中,很容易被解读为缺乏情商,甚至是攻击性或傲慢。他们不是有意贬低他人,而是认为在特定问题上,只有一种“正确”或“最优”的答案,而他们恰好掌握了。

社会秩序与规则意识:德国人普遍非常重视规则、效率和公平。社会运转的高效,很大程度上依赖于每个人对规则的遵守。这种高度的秩序感,也体现在他们的沟通中。他们可能更倾向于遵循既定的程序和逻辑,对于“差不多就行”、“灵活处理”的做法会感到不适。当他们认为对方的行为不符合规则,或者效率低下时,他们可能会直接指出,这种不加修饰的批评,在某些文化中会被认为是“挑剔”或“自视过高”,认为自己比别人更懂规矩。

语言与表达习惯:德语本身就以其严谨、精确和直接著称。在日常交流中,德国人习惯于清晰地表达自己的观点,并且不害怕表达不同意见。这种直接的表达方式,加上他们对逻辑和事实的侧重,使得他们在对话中可能显得缺乏一些“缓冲”和“委婉”。例如,当他们认为对方的观点有谬误时,他们会直接指出,而不是像在某些文化中那样,先肯定对方的部分优点,再委婉地提出修正意见。这种“不留情面”的指出,很容易被认为是傲慢,因为对方会觉得被直接否定了。

对“效率”的追求:德国社会非常推崇效率,无论是在工作场合还是日常生活中。当他们看到一些“低效”或“不合理”的情况时,他们会忍不住想要去“纠正”。这种纠正行为,如果是在跨文化语境下,没有充分理解对方的文化背景和思维模式,就可能被视为一种“高人一等”的姿态,认为只有自己的方式才是对的。

当然,以上这些都是一些普遍的观察,不能一概而论。每一个个体都是独特的,德国人中也有很多非常谦虚、热情、乐于助人的人。很多时候,我们对一个群体产生的印象,是基于少数极端的个例,或者是被媒体和文化符号反复强化而形成的“刻板印象”。

反过来说,我们自己作为外部观察者,也需要审视自身的文化滤镜,去理解对方的表达方式和背后的文化逻辑。也许,他们认为的“自信”和“原则”,只是我们不习惯的沟通方式。当我们有机会深入了解德国文化,或者与德国朋友建立更深的联系时,我们可能会发现,他们所谓的“傲慢”,很多时候是一种对真理的追求,对效率的坚持,以及一种对自己文化和国家成就的真诚自豪。

网友意见

user avatar

Please let me answer as a German (and European)

I apologize; I am not able to write my contributions in Chinese. Believe me, I would love to do that. I am learning Chinese, but I am bad at speaking, and completely unable to write. My mother tongue is German. I am also close to mother tongue in English and French, and
fluent in Spanish, all including oral and writing. I learned 6 years of Latin and speak a little Polish. So I try to bridge the language gaps. But in Chinese, I am just not there yet. I
still think that speaking in the wrong language is better than not speaking
with each other at all. With modern translation tools, I can read your website
and questions, and you can read my answers. One of my employees translates some
things, but she can't keep up with all. You can find her under Janny

非常抱歉我不会用中文作答或写作。如果可以的话我也希望自己能用中文交流。我现在正在努力学习中文,但是还完全不能书写,也说不了多少。我的母语是德语,并且能够非常熟练地使用英语和法语,能够比较熟练地使用西班牙语(包括口语和书写),并且我学了6年的拉丁语,还会说一点波兰语。我在尝试减少语言障碍。


但是我的中文还不行。我总觉得用不同的语言交流总比相对无言好。多亏了强大的翻译工具,让我能看懂你们的网站和问题,你们也能看懂我的回答。我的一名中国员工会翻译一些我的回答或文章,但是她赶不上我的速度,你们可以在她的知乎账号(zhihu.com/people/janny-)下面看到一部分翻译


First of all: I don't doubt your experiences, and they make me sad. I thank you for writing about them in a very reasonable way, e.g. saying that "some" are arrogant, not "all" or "THE Germans". That is really good.

I have made similar experiences with my own countrymen and -women.

I was born in Hamburg (port city in the north, partner city of Shanghai). I spend most of my high school in Dortmund (many know the football club Borussia Dortmund). I studied in Aachen (on the border to Belgium and Netherlands), and then lived 10 years in Munich.

In 2004 I came to China for the first time. Since ~10 years now my own German top management consulting company also has a 100% daughter company in China with local staff only. I work with these Chinese nationals on a daily basis, and we get along really well. The loyalty is very high, there is almost no turnover of employees.

Before, I worked 6 years for Siemens, and was also sent to China. Once in China, I was really shocked how some German colleagues treated the local Chinese employees. "Arrogance" is actually even a nice word for what they did.

So where does / did that come from? I offer 3 hypotheses

  1. Lack of knowledge
  2. Stuck in the past
  3. Traditional German self confidence


  1. Arrogance usually is coupled to a lack of knowledge. How can you feel superior, if you know many areas where you lack behind?
    I can say with confidence that my Chinese employees know a great deal more about the West, Europe and Germany than what the average colleague in Europe knew about China. It's different for those who were sent to China as expatriates of course. But what I mean are the college graduates and young professionals.
    How much does their education system teach about history of other countries?
    The French for example are totally focused on France only (my wife is French, I have lived in France for 10 years).
    Germans are very much focused on the 3rd Reich part of history, so they spend much less on World history. And if so, then it is oriented towards Western countries, such as Italy, France, USA...
    Then there is the interest of the people, and language:
    While all Chinese learn English in school, which opens up to you to read and experience European culture, in Germany (or Europe), hardly anybody learns Chinese, and if so than it's a full time study, nothing besides it.
    This is also very much true for the German managers at Siemens who were working in China. Even if they had long term delegations (3-4 years usually), they would learn only a little or actually no Chinese at all.
    The reason probably is that especially the written Chinese is very hard to learn for us at an adult age. I try to learn Chinese, but my aspiration would be to speak and have listening comprehension. I don't think I'll ever be able to write, even though I would love to learn all. Besides German, I am close to mother tongue in English an French, and I am fluent in Spanish. So I am really not somebody who can't learn a language. But I can see that the hurdle is very high.
    Without the language, you miss a lot. You can't really inform yourself. If you are in China, it gives a feeling of insecurity. Some expatriates gave me the impression that they were overplaying this insecurity with extra arrogance.

    Yet informing and learning about China would be key, because China is changing at such a breathtaking speed.
  2. So many Germans are stuck in the past. I don't want to say as far back as the Opium Wars (few will really know what that was). But maybe as far back as 1980, and you all know what that means.
    We still call China an "emerging economy". Yet, if you use purchasing power paritity, it is is already the worlds largest economy. That does not fit. And I remember that until a few years back, Germany paid "Entwicklungshilfe" = development aid to China. This money is typically given to 3rd world countries.
    Germans still associate with China what China represented 10 or 20 years back. This is natural to a certain degree. The news needs time to travel and to be digested. And the lacking communication abilities of the Germans don't help.

    It is not only China's role that is changing. Also Germany's in the global context: It is shrinking. When I was a child, Germany was the 3rd largest economy, after USA and Japan. And the No 1 in exports, which it actually is again now, after having been temporarily overtaken by China. But overall, the importance of Germany is shrinking relatively speaking. It takes time to accept that fact, especially because people don't WANT to understand it.
  3. Germans traditionally are rather arrogant. Well, all nations are, more or less. The USA are "ONE nation under GOD", the French are "the GREAT Nation", and China is basically the middle of the cosmos, and so on.
    But what I want to say: Germans feel sometimes superior, not just to Chines, but anybody.
    It is hard to say why that is so. Germany has been an exceptional country. Formed only 1871, it felt like it needed to catch up with powers such as England and France, e.g. to gain own colonies. So the national feeling was exaggerated on purpose.

    Germany has achieved unusual successes (e.g. around 1900-1930 or so, the main global language of science was German, because there were so many talented and success physicists, chemist and so on). The Nobel Prize winner lists of those years are full of Germans, such as Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg etc.

    Today, people identify more with Mercedes, BMW and Audi. They feel they are "world class".
    Unfortunately, the step from "I love my country, we are really great" to "We are actually even better than others" is a very slippery slope.

    Germany got this terribly wrong in the 3rd Reich. On the one hand, we are more willing to talk about that part of history than practically all other nations: take Japan as example, and its stubborn refusal to stop worshiping war criminals. Or the USA where hardly anybody talks ever about the fate of the native American Indians. On the other hand, we found a way to differentiate between US, the Germans, and THEM, the Nazis.
    So this does not slow down the self esteem of many people.


I hope this helps, and that you meet more nice Germans. Some can even be a pain because they try so hard to be extra nice and do everything extra well (typical German problem....). Tibet is such a case. Most don't even know what they are talking about, but they are very convinced to do the right thing and only want to help.

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