As a long term resident in Germany I would love to say that little surprises me anymore about life here. I know how things work. I feel at home in my adopted land. Then I have an extended stay in the UK and BAM suddenly I’m in a bambi like state of ‘what? Was this how it was before?’ I don’t generally tend to leave Germany for longer than two weeks at a time and I’ve not really experienced these kinds of feelings on my returns before. This time, I think I might have a case of culture shock.

Culture shock – Feelings of confusion and disorientation experienced when exposed to a culture different to ones own 

Way back when I first moved to Germany I was fairly blasé about the whole thing, after all it was only for a year, so I was very accepting of the differences I encountered. Being laid back about life helped get me through the bumpy road of early expat life and to be honest, is probably one of the biggest reasons I’m still here now. I didn’t really have a ‘culture shock’ per se when I arrived. Apparently, after seven years it has suddenly struck me, and wow. It’s intense.

In amongst the little everyday surprises was one that I’ve never really noticed before now. Advertising. Not all advertising though, just the tobacco advertising. How I’ve never before realised that it’s everywhere on the streets of Germany, I do not know. Billboards adorned with young attractive people advertise cigarettes on train platforms, bus shelters and along main roads. So strange to me since it’s something that has been illegal in the UK since 2003 and not something that you’ll see in other European countries.

The German stereotype of the sport loving, organic eating, atomic power hating, always punctual and never ever crossing when the red man is lit, seems to be in weird juxtaposition with the number of smokers there appear to be. I’ve been bombarded with the anti smoking message since I was very young and I can count on one hand the number of expat smokers my age I know. Amongst my German friends of the same age however there are a lot more. Of course I am fully aware that my friendship group is not exactly the greatest pool of comparison, but I’ve found that many other expats have had the same experience too.

A local cigarette vending machine – Photo Alie C

Yes tobacco products in Germany carry warnings (and hideously gruesome pictures) and whilst the anti smoking message was there for my German friends when they were young, there was also the view that smoking, or not, is a personal choice not a culturally enforced one (like waiting for the green man). You are more likely to see billboards for awareness of sexually transmitted diseases than any linking smoking to lung cancer. Practically every supermarket checkout has tobacco products, uncovered and in plain view, which really gave me a shock the other day, there is a whole other counter for that stuff in the UK. In my small village there were three cigarette vending machines within 50 feet of my front door, I’ve never seen one of those in the UK at all.

Eating outside in the summer can be difficult if you are sensitive to smoke, most restaurants and biergarten don’t have designated smoking areas, the whole of the outside is fair game. Our local train platforms have a specific area painted onto the platform as the designated ‘smoking area’ although that seems mostly to encourage smokers to throw their butts in the bin rather than the floor and isn’t enforced at all. Mostly smokers have been respectful when we have inevitably ended up sharing a table with some.

As a non-smoking, married woman in my thirties I know I’m not the target market for this kind of advertising but I find it very concerning that children are growing up surrounded by these images. Would I feel differently if I had grown up here? Is this such a shock because I come from a country that some would consider a ‘nanny state’?

Oh culture shock, what next?

-Alie

Also I haven’t added any pictures of the advertising here because I don’t want to give the manufacturers any more time, Google or a ten minute walk around Germany will give you quite a few options.