Hope you guys enjoyed this video! Be sure to also check out the first video on German vs American Police 🇩🇪👉 kzfaq.info/get/bejne/nZqDhpamusDYZps.html

The informal address thing is completely overblown. If you're not a native speaker, you obviously weren't intentionally insulting anybody. You'd never get in trouble for accidentally using the wrong version. Also, there isn't actually a special law against insulting police officers. This is just the regular law against insulting people in general and the result of us having "freedom of opinion", not "freedom of speech" (insults are not an opinion), since our article 1 of the constitution is "human dignity is untouchable". So if you heavily insult a normal person (especially in public), you can get exactly the same fines or even prison time. Though maybe you have a higher than normal chance of this actually being enforced if you insult an officer.

Insulting of a Polizice officer is not specificaly forbidden. In Germany insulting is not included in freedom of speech. Your freedom of speech ends whem it comes to insulting another Person. The Person your insulting can actually sue you for doing that. You get in trouble for insulting a police officer not because he is a officer but because is a person. (Sorry if i didnt wrote everything correctly and if it the text is difficult to understand)

The colour coding for lights is actually quite consistent in Germany. Blue lights mean 'make way' (Police, ambulance etc) Orange lights mean 'be careful' (Construction crews, tow trucks. Regular cars and school busses use hazard lights) Red lights mean 'stop' (not just traffic lights but also rear lights) And green, of course, means 'go'. Quite satisfying, I think.

You can criticise as much as you want, you just can't insult in Germany. That is because of Article 1 of the German constitution: "Human dignity shall be inviolable. To respect and protect it shall be the duty of all state authority." So you do not have the freedom to insult anyone, you do have the freedom to not be insulted by people. "Du" is like calling someone by their christian name instead of officer soandso or Sir or however you are expected to adress a US policeperson.

You won't get in trouble for using "Du" in your case. No judge in Germany would decide against you, when you're a native English speaker, that doesn't naturally differentiate between a formal and a non-formal "you". Even if they would somehow find your KZfaq channel and could prove, that you knew about it in the first place. Maybe you were nervous or stressed and forgot about it in this specific situation. You would win this case - I would bet on it.

In a Nutshell: 'Du' for your "Dude(s)", 'Sie' for someone you would adress with "Sir" Edit: Dad

In Hungarian we also have the exact equivalent of Du and Sie. Nobody in his right mind would use the familiar form with any official (policemen, customs officers, etc) and the officials would not use it with you either. BUT nobody gets upset if a foreigner uses the familiar form, people are rather happy if the foreigner speaking broken or heavily accented Hungarian uses the language irrespective of a polite or familiar form. About 40 years ago a passport officer used the familiar form with me and I was so shocked visibly that she burst out laughing. It turned out that we went to the same school and she recognised me.

110 / 112. You are right. But if you mix it up, the organisation you called will connect you via direct line with the other guys. And that will be just a few seconds.

What´s important to know is that police officers in Germany aren´t protected by special rights regarding insults (Beamtenbeleidigung / insult of civil servants) rather that you can generally sue someone for insulting you. It´s just that the police or other civil servants know the law and are more inclined to use it. The only one that is further protected against insults is the Bundespräsident (President of Germany), though that law is used seldomly.

One major difference is the education for the job: in the US - as far as I know - you have only a six months police academy before you are a cop. In Germany the education takes three years. And secondly: it seems that in the US you have to be an ordinary policeman before you can climb up the ranks to become a sergeant, lieutenant, detective etc. In Germany in some states you can get an education to get you immediately in higher ranks (gehobener Dienst).

A little story about the first part of the Video: I'm a police commissioner and when I first started working as a police officer, we used to visit the fire brigade control center on the night shift, which was only a stone's throw away from my police station. We got along well with the firefighters and had also driven one or the other operation together. So we were sitting next to the fire department control center officer, making small talk and drinking coffee, when an emergency call came in. An excited woman's voice declared, "I think there's a burglar in my house. Please come and help me!" Response from the fire brigade colleague: "Is the burglar on fire or why are you calling the fire brigade?!" I laughed the whole way until I got to the lady's house. To the last part of the video: "Du or Sie". I know this is not an easy subject. Normally you address someone by their first name and "Du" or by their last name and "Sie". But there are other forms that drive people who speak foreign languages to despair. As an an example: Up until the tenth grade, we were addressed at school by our first names and with "Du". With the change to the upper level at the grammar school (11th - 13th school class) we were faced with the decision by all our teachers whether we wanted to be "named" from now on. There have even been cases where teachers we've had for years also offered us the "du" using their first names. So the "Du" was changed to "Sie" if you wanted to, but you were still addressed by your first name. This often happens during training with the apprentices. It is an intermediate step from adolescence to young adulthood. But 99.8% of the time it won't be a problem if you say "du" to the police officers as a person who speaks a different language. There is hardly a colleague who is wired in such a way that he makes this a problem. As police officers, we have to put up with completely different things and forms of address. If you bump into me, it could just be that I address you as "Du" as well, in order to adapt to the situation.

Also, only recently police cars in Germany became blue. Hamburg was the first state which changed the color from the old FRG (BRD) green to blue in 2001. The EU demanded this change. Bavaria was the most stubborn state (as usual) and only changed the color in 2016. The old green police cars were commonly referred to as "minzgrün" (mint green).

I would bet my a** that not a single time in German history an American or any other non-native German-speaker on vacation or whatever who tried to speak German to a German Police Officer and used the informal "Du" got any kind of trouble. Probably they just would have a lot of respect for you that you're trying to show respect as a visitor or immigrant by speaking German. 😆

A friend of mine is a police officer in Germany and I was once discussing the issue with the informal "Du" with him. He said it is very much standard practice that they would never try to fine a foreigner who is just struggling with german grammar and adresses them with informal "du". That is simply not the spirit of this law and they are also not incentivised in any way to give out fines. It also makes a massive difference to them if you address them with "du" in an otherwise friendly and respectful manner, or if you combine the informal address with aggression and disrespect. He also said he never personally had a case where he opened a case for insult against him for insult, but he definitely would if someone called him an asshole or something.

Addressing a police office informally is not so much a problem in itself. I think the cases the writers of this law had in mind are the ones where there is a verbal disagreement already and the person addressing the police officer deliberately uses the informal address as part of their expression of disrespect.

Insults are always a criminal offense in Germany. Even against ordinary citizens. Calling the police a bull or showing the middle finger can result in severe penalties. Likewise, show no respect to a female police officer.

Question of the week: My dad, because he rarely took any interest in raising his children. So, about the video. Those differences, while interesting, don't matter much in my opinion. What I find more interesting are the differences in training between countries, and how police officers see themselves. I am not American, so I may be wrong, but from my point of view, a not inconsiderable part of American police forces seem to see themselves more like soldiers and shepherds of the public than civil servants, which is evident when they are excessively violent for no reason or insist, you need to know the exact legal speech to get a lawyer, stating that "I won't say anything until I get a lawyer." or just remaining silent is not sufficient when you want to invoke the fifth and sixth amendment. At least that's the impression I get from entertainment media, news, and American lawyers on KZfaq (I don't know why I watch their videos either, it's just... oddly interesting to learn how things are done in other countries.). Of course, police officers like that exist everywhere, it just looks like they are more common across the pond. Oh and there is a funny video of a guy in Germany calling a policeman "Du Wichser." and then after apologizing correcting to "Sie Wichser.".

A.C.A.B. are the first letters of the names of our Foreign Minister, Annalena Charlotte Alma Baerbock.

Little technical background for emergency calls on mobile phones: It's a special case. Usually, when you dial a number, your phone instructs the cell network to put you through to that number. But if your phone detects that you're trying to place an emergency call, by dialling *any* of the emergency numbers, it simply tells the network: This is an emergency call. So the cell tower will direct your call to the closest emergency service call center. Interpreting the emergency number is a functionality of the phone, not of the cell network. Because it's not a standard phone call, it even works with a locked phone a deactivated SIM card or if you don't have reception with your cell provider. In these cases the phone will just use the nearest cell tower, regardless of the provider. Most phones will then not display "No Service" but "Emergency only".

While it may not technically be illegal to insult an LEO in the US, it is also not recommended, since they usually shoot on sight, whenever they feel threatened...and "flipping the bird" towards an LEO could definitely be construed by the effected LEO as: *"I thought the suspect aimed a g_n on me. I feared for my life and had to defend myself"* ...which any court in the US will accept as a totally valid excuse.

Yes it's no Problem if you dial the "wrong" emergency number, they will just reconnect you. The control center/-s have to work together all the times anyway so that's no Problem. The control center that is responsible for my area even houses both and they are just separated by some glass walls for quick Cooperation and Exchange. But reconnecting is no problem, also if you f.e. landed in the wrong control center they will just quickly reconnect you with the right one in seconds.

Mounting, or worse using, blue lights on a private vehicle NOT registered as an appropriate emergency vehicle can and WILL get you into serious trouble in Germany, as this is considered impersonation of an official person. To prevent people from loosing trust in the flashing blue lights, and reacting appropriately, these fines are rigorously enforced. So don't even consider allowing a passenger to play a brightly lit flashing blue video on their phone holding it up to the windscreen while in the passenger seat at night. This might not (probably not, but don't wager on it) get you in trouble, but you might be pulled over if you do get caught by a cop. Very very probably you'd just get a warning if it was blatantly obvious your passenger was pulling a prank. However if you used it to entice others to move out of your way, possibly even causing damage or accidents, oh boy, THAT'S not gonna end well. Dito for any kind of sirens. That's why PA systems are also heavily regulated as these can be used to simulate sirens/emergency horns of standard emergency vehicles. Random question: technically, my dad, but he was away for most of the week so my mom didn't really have a choice when it came to enforcing rules.

We have a saying here in Germany: "It's easier to say 'Du A**hole' than 'Sie A**hole'." A couple of distant US relatives were visiting us in Germany, and my Dad asked me by phone over the loudspeaker, when I could get off of work to hang out. I told him, "Frau Schmidt" (name changed) said I could leave an hour early. When I got to the party, one of our relatives aaked, why I called my boss Frau Schmidt instead of using the first name. I told him, because she's my boss and I don't hang out with her casually, nor do I wish to. I grew up in Oklahoma as well, before we moved to Germany when I was 14, and my German mother ALWAYS made sure I called all grown-ups Mr. or Ms. Suchandsuch. And even when they told her it was okay for me to call them by their first name, my Mom always made it VERY clear that no, it is very much NOT okay. The adults were not my friends, but elders to be respected. I've been here in Germany for 34 years now, and things have indeed gotten a lot more casual here. And I find this development to be somewhat problematic. When formal address is pooh-poohed as being unimportant, inhibitions to behave badly also get lowered. Social media is the best example. You think comment sections in the US can get nasty? They are AMATEURS compared to the Germans, and the one commmon thread in all these interactions is that EVERYONE uses the informal "Du" on the internet... even with complete STRANGERS. So yeah, I've had bosses offer me the "Du" and first names before, but ummmm.... nö! I'm just fine with the formal "Sie"!

The thing is: There is no "Beamtenbeleidigung" in the German law, only "Beleidigung" which means insult. If you insult a natural person in the vicinity of whitnesses, the insulted person can file a complaint and the whole court case kicks off. Natural persons. Juristical persons are not protected. So "A.C.A.B." is not an insult, as long it is not directed at a single officer. There also was also a case, where a police officer was called "head forester". He filed a complaint for insult, but that got thrown out by the judge. The implication of that name was that he could not do his job and should transfer to the forest department. But the judge did not see that as a given, it was merely an error of rank denomination of the insultee.

This one was really well researched. Very interesting!

If you are using a mobile phone they are programmed to use the appropriate local emergency number, whatever emergency number you dial .

I wanted to write an elaborate comment on the Tagesspiegel's characterisation of the slogan "Die Polizei, dein Freund und Helfer". As I don't want to start political fights here, though, I just offer the observation that it may be important to know what part of the political spectrum a paper is from when you quote them. This might inform on their comments. I, 53, have never had a negative connotation with the mentioned slogan.

It’s not your job to proof that you say Du to everyone, but it’s their job to proof that you tried to insult them.

10:26 I think it is noteworthy to point out that accident response vehicles of public transit companies with guided vehicles (like trams or Trains) and or trolleybuses may also be equipped with and use a blue blinking light as long as they are sufficiently marked as accident response vehicles from the outside. This includes f.e. Deutsche Bahn, LVB and other transit companies.

I didn't even know that the emergency number 112 is now available in so many countries! Actually, the introduction of these numbers, the 110 and 112, goes back to a single private individual, when 8-year-old Boy Jörg Steiger was injured in a car accident 40 years ago and died because the rescue service only showed up at the accident site 1 hour later, in this case to late. (Now many Germans will surely remember the emergency telephones on the autobahn, on which a plaque from a "Jörg Steiger Foundation" was attached.) After this accident, the boy's father campaigned vehemently for the introduction of a Germany-wide emergency number, which he succeeded in doing and it was introduced in 1973. The actually German emergency number 112 was even introduced throughout Europe in 1991 in order to establish a uniform emergency number in all EU member states and to make emergency services easier to reach, especially for travellers.

Red lights in Germany are exclusive break lights. In the US it can be break lights, turn signal or emergency lights, typical US. No clear rules.

The german police treats donni well because his tickets have funded the golden toilets in the Police HQ.

Rule of thumb: Family, friends and little children: Du Everyone else: Sie

All European countries (and UK) use blue flashing lights on emergency vehicles.

Adding some information from the Netherlands regarding the use of blue emergency lights. In addition to the police, fire brigade and ambulance, other emergency services have also been designated who may use a blue flashing light. In the Netherlands, these include the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee, USAR, the road inspectors of "Rijkswaterstaat" (Ministry of infrastructure and water management), various rescue brigades, ProRail Incident Response, the explosives clearance service, Sanquin Blood Supply, the emergency response teams of the Dutch Red Cross and transport for organ transplantation. Blue lights may not be used by others. This group is allowed to use yellow/orange flashing lights.

Actually, the reason for common emergency numbers rose when the digital GSM telephone network was introduced in 1991/1992. With the analog mobile networks used before you only had a connection in your own country. Therefore your phone didn't work abroad and was not useable even for emergency calls abroad. When GSM with international roaming was introduced, a uniform number was required. I remember when I had my first phone in 1992 when GSM started in Germany, when I was at the English channel on one side, I could use service providers from both France and Britain and when I was on a Ferry on the Baltic Sea, I often could select providers from three or four countries. Therefore, in case of an emergency, it would be difficult if you had to know the different national emergency numbers of all countries and to check first in which country the provider you logged in is sitting since sometimes you could select from a dozen or more providers. (My first mobile phone had a transmission power from 5 to 8 watts and therefore allowed longer distances to the next base station and there were fewer cell phones and base stations than today, while today's cell phones have a self-regulating transmission power I think in the range from 200 to 500 mW.) About flashing lights: Cars on construction sites, towing cars, garbage trucks, road sweepers, snowplows, and oversized or heavy-load trucks all have yellow flashlights.

Fun fact: The flower pot behind ya is for balcony's banisters. ^^ That's why the slit it there. ^^ But...I highly assume you already know and have it inside, because...d'uh!...winter!...or say cold still at night. ^^ 😝

112 is the police here in Norway, 110 is the fire department and 113 the ambulance here. 1412 is for people with reduced hearing (deaf people etc) that need emergency services. SMS is possible to the emergency numbers too. As for nonemergency help from the police there's 02800. Non-urgent help from the other services have different numbers pr area. 112 is a universal emergency number in all of the EU/EEC and will work even without a sim card or adequate phone reception, like on a Norwegian mountain.

My favorite ACAB that I saw on a Sticker in Berlin was "All cops are bärtig" ("all cops are beardy")

Kai Pflaume is also known for using the informal you on everyone, while Günter Jauch is known for receiving the formal you from everyone.

Your explanation of the German du/sie made me think of something else. Here in Finland, we also have the formal and informal ways of addressing people, but the formal way is rarely used nowadays. Also, even though we do have words for Mister and Mrs, those haven't really been used anymore during my lifetime (that's about 50 years). The only occasion I can think of when they are always used is when addressing the president of Finland and his spouse: the president is "mister president", and his spouse is "mrs Lastname". But about 20 years ago we had our first female president and news reporters had a problem. How to address her boyfriend? At the time she became the president they weren't even married, although they did get married later. Addressing him as "mister Lastname" didn't seem right. Fortunately (or not) he happened to have a title of his own: valiokuntaneuvos. Don't ask me what that means because no-one here knows either. It is an obscure political title that he had somehow acquired earlier in his life. But that was all they had, so reporters referred to him as "valiokuntaneuvos Lastname". It took them all day to say it. Then fortunately, a couple of years later he got his PhD and reporters started to refer to him as "doctor Lastname". That probably made life a lot easier for everyone concerned. Next year we are again going to have presidential elections and this time, there is a real chance that we might get our first gay president. His husband is a hairdresser. I might vote for him just because I want to see how reporters are going to deal with that.

911 in Europe is only guaranteed to work on mobile. On landline 911 collides in many cities with numbers assigned long ago. No, using "Du" isn't in itself an insult. It's like always a matter of context - which can make it difficult, as using Du - and possibly in addition first name - so a stranger may come over as patronizing, talking down on someone not in the same class/ less worth, which ofc tilts toward insult. That's BTW why police is usually trained to never use informal address at all. In fact, they get, at least in Bavaria, even trained to use extreme old fashioned references when talking - like "Der Junge Herr" - literally "the young lord". But again, as mentioned, it's all about circumstances, so as someone clearly speaking dialect, or as a foreigner, you'll never get into trouble for using "Du". Depending on situation the police might as well swtich to dialect and/or informal address.

In the part of Germany where I live it's usually no problem mixing "Du" and "Sie". Our regional dialect uses French, German and even local words. It's just a mix and as long as we do understand each other there's no problem. We are multi-culti for thousands of years😊

"My rights only reach so far until they reach someone else's."

Cool new specs!

Nice videoouuu, as always. Two very important facts when comparing police forces of both countries are definitely missing (and they are non-political too): 1. education and training, and 2. the organisation of the police. Training in Germany: several years in special universities plus on the job training with the state's exams. In the US: sometimes only weeks. Organisation: In the US, you have, what, 57 different police organisations on federal, state, county, municipality, even university level, all differently equipped and all with different rules and regulations. In Germany, you police forces on federal and on state level. They are all sworn in as "Beamte," and they are being paid equally, either by the relevant state or by the federal Ministry of the Interior acc. to the Bundesbesoldungsgesetz. All together, we have 3 federal police forces (including the Bundestagspolizei) and one police force per state. That's it.

In Germany we call the police Cars Polizeiauto or “FuStW”. That means Funkstreifenwagen and is an normally police car in Germany. We have some special cars like the undercoverpolicecars “ZFustW” ( Zivilstreifenwagen ). My English skills are not so good, so I can not explain really them.

What I really love about the American police is that they often have activities for children at local fairs and festivals. They talk to the children and answer their questions. My kids always enjoy talking to firefighters and police officers. Sometimes, they get a sticker and you can see how that makes their day 🥰

Hmmm... regarding formal/informal "you": I was taught in my English lessons at school (ok, in the 80s, here in Germany): In English always always always add a Sir or Mrs./Madam when talking to officials: "Yes, Sir. Thank you Mrs. or Madam". E.g. to the migration/border control officers, police or all other officials in the US. Otherwise it could be considered as rude. Imho, this is the informal way to talk and show respect to an US police officer, isn't it?

3:00 yes whether it's the police or the fire department they can direct you without any problem at all ... they maybe tell you "well you are wrong here its 110/112 what you need let me direct you have a great day" .. i never had it myself just needed the medical one a few times and used it but i heard from a few people who called the wrong ... or needed both in the same moment and learned that way its not important which one you call "first" in that scenario 15:35 well my mom ... but at the same time my father wasnt that much at home as truckdriver on the road from monday to friday xD and he was quite strict ^^ but overall both had their times where i got away with something .. xD

In my city they also used the flashing blue lights when they picked outside food for having lunch at the station and didnt wanted it to be cold before being back 😂

In czech republic we also have multiple emergency lines. 150 - fire department 155 - ambulance 156 - municipality police 158 - national police 112 - international emergency line, works in all EU countries

Great video! As a German, I'm having a hard time imagining that using the informal "you" would actually get you in trouble.

I am a '66er. In former days, in Germany, we called a Police-man: "Schutzmann": A "guarding-man".

Section 52 paragraph 3 of the Road Traffic Licensing Regulations (StVZO) explains which institutions are specifically allowed to equip their vehicles with blue lights: police, military police, federal police, customs service, etc. fire brigade, disaster control, accident relief vehicles of public transport companies. According to Section 38 Paragraph 3 of the StVO, yellow flashing lights warn of various dangers. These can be, for example, work and accident sites (including snow removal vehicles and tow trucks), unusually slow vehicles (tractors) or large-capacity transport that is overly wide. When transporting heavy goods, there is often an accompanying vehicle with glowing warm signs behind the truck. By the way, the siren is also called 'Martinshorn'. Greetings from northern germany ❤

Yes, you can technically speaking sue someone for insulting you. However in practice that seldom ever happens because few people in germany are so thin skinned as to not be able to laugh off the odd insult. Also insult is a rather hard case to prove and few judges are willing to recognize an insult as severe enough to warrant punishment. Maybe if we were talking about a long insult rant or specifically vile insults that touch upon protected characteristics like race, gender or country of origin. Or maybe if the insult in some way resulted in actual damage in some way. But other than such cases there's very little chance to actually get punished by law for an insult if you get charged at all. Finally, this confusion of "sie" and "du" is not an insult. It may be considered rude depending on the circumstances but this is not an actionable offense. This fear is completly overblown.

Neither my mom nor my dad let me get away with anything.

Best thumbnail yet!

I called a police officer "du" when I was new here and he was totally chill. I was riding my bike in what I didn't realise was a pedestrian area and I didn't understand "schieben" (to push, e.g. push your bike) until he demonstrated and there was no problem.

In Germany, only emergency vehicles use blue light ("Blaulicht"). Others must use yellow lights. To my knowledge, it's the same in other EU countries as well as the UK. Blue lights plus siren means you must give way.

The THW (Technisches Hilfswerk/ technical help) has also blue flashlight The construction cars had orange flashlight.

Mom or Dad: I can't think of a situation that would demonstrate a difference, though I'm sure there was one. They certainly had differences of opinion.

Thats what i always find funny in america, the way people talk to the police officers is highly respectless. Sometimes i do understand why they get agressive (which ofc is not ok) I just think that people value freedom of speech way to high. Threating another human with such disrespect is not ok and shouldnt be protected as freedom of speech.

The blue light form the V Emergency service is from 1933 because blue light has highes spread at the atmosphere so you cant see it above 500 Meters( Thats the number i have in my head). It was introuduce that i case of an War the emergency service can be target so easy.

There is a big misconception of "Beamtenbeleidigung" its equaly illegal to insult someone in Germany who is not a state worker, its just far more easier for a police officer to press charges. And if you flip the bird to the police you are pretty much asking to spend a night at "Kaffee Viereck". At worst you could get 3 years prison time for insults.

As many have already pointed out: an insult needs intent as an ingredient. No German judge would follow an argument that using the wrong grammatical case from a non native speaker constitutes an insult. On the other hand the different way of addressing someone, either formal or informal is not only common as well in French, Spanish, Italian etc. but also in English - just handled grammatically different through adding a sir to your address. So I humbly do beseech you of your pardon, sir, but would you please be so kind and reconsider? And since I am a modest person a simple Yes Sir! would suffice ;-)

Even English once had a gradation of polite forms like 'thou' (du) and 'you' (sie). However, the familiar form was lost shortly after Shakespeare's era.

Well, as I often say: there is a big monetary difference between "Sie A...loch" and "Du A..loch" 😂 BTW: I prefer the german constitutional right of untouchable human dignity any time over US American freedom of speech. Especially seeing how the freedom of speech is used to harm, insult, hurt and instigate.

The thing with informal adressing is an urban myth imho.... For a german this would be considered disrespectful, if you use informal adress to a police officer, but in a conversation with a foreigner that doesen´t speak the language very well, they usually won´t care. Almost all the times my dad let me get away, he was like "yeah whatever" :D

the "main original" moto means that it goes directly against the Nazi one. Because as Himler said, they did not want the police to be seen as helping the people (probably more as a controller)

It's actually already insulting, if Dieter Bohlen talks to you. No matter the topic.

No police officer would get angry/charge you by accidentaly using the unformal "DU" . But native speaker know, when the informal "DU" becomes inpolite. And german is not te only language, which has a formal and informal translation of the english you (frensh, spanish for example have similar translations). On the other hand you will never have to to adress an policeofficer or anyone else as "Sir or Mam" this sounds realy weird for german native speakers.

In Austria there was once a case where a guy said "Sie Arschloch" to a police officer and wasn't fined (ofc at the spot but he even went to court and they ruled that the "sie" levered out the "Beamtenbeleidigung") because he used the formal you. That just shows how ridiculous the language sometimes can be :D Rqotw: dad all the way, as an only child and boy I always ran to him and complained about mom and he often overturned her parenting decision in favour of me

The famous German "You may say you to me". 😅

The thing calling 911 on landline is, that very (very very) old telephone connections sometimes still have 3 digit phone numbers and you automatically have your local prefix number set, if you don’t explicitly use one. But that would be the case for 112 and 110 too, so I don’t know if this is still the case for 911 or if I‘m completely wrong and they already replaced the 911 phone numbers of all customers. 🤷‍♂️

As for addressing a police officer: I'm not a lawyer, but I'd assume that a police officer that notices he's talking to an American who's speaking some German but isn't great at it is likely just skipping over the informal version of "you" because he might even know that Americans don't even have that distinction. Especially if he's not being insulting.

First things first: It was my mom 🙂 In Germany we have different light schemes for emergemcy and non emergency vehicles. Emergency vehicles use blue light, all other yellow flashing light, so it's clear if it's just some "men at work" in front of you (may it be a constructions site, someone cleaning the road or towing a car), or if there is maybe an emergency. You mentioned the "Follow me" sign at the back of the police car, but I missed the ... let's say: second part: When there is a police car with flashing lights behind you in the US -> It's a traffic stop. If you see flashing lights behind you in germany you drive to the side of the road, maybe stop in the next intersection to make room for the emergency vehicle behind you. If they want to stop you they will use such "follow me" signs or other signals to tell you to follow them. And regarding insulting police officers - or let's say any goverment officials - that'snot a good idea. As a non-native speaker you may not get in trouble (depending on your language skills). There is no specific law for them - 185 StGB includes all - but there is extensive case law you can use as a price list and it goes up to two years of jail time, depending on what you said.

It's no problem to use informal speech with officers as long as it happens in a respectful manner. As soon as you get condescending or extremely petty you can get in hot water but that really depends on the situation and people involved. One thing you forgot is the training each force has to do. In Germany ongoing officers need up to 3 years of training while the US just have a couple of weeks.

Very good that you mention that 112 is the generic emergency number in all of Europe

Cool glasses.😎😉

11:40 you can say you to me! XD

I've heared, that there is a non-emergency number for the police in the US and you can get in trouble, if you misuse the 911-number. I know 911, but no other number. Could I get fined, if I dialed the wrong number just because of not nowing the right one?

The taz is a very leftwing newspaper. The Nazis also identified areas for protection of nature. I will not blame them for THAT either. - So what is bad about a "friend and helper"?

I guess it's not only that it's just Dieter and that he does it all the time. Yes he does, but I have to say it is also Hamburg. I grew up in this area and Hamburg and everything above it don't use the formal "Sie" that much anyways. No matter how close I was to Hamburg or how close to the north sea, baltic sea or to denmark, nobody cares about it if you say "Du". No matter if it's a teacher, the police or just a stranger you never say "Sie". Cuz mostly if you say "Sie" in that region you just get back the words "So alt bin ich noch nicht" ( I'm not that old yet ). The only person that pops up in my mind where you would use "Sie" here is your boss or in school the principal. That's it. This was my biggest issue when I lived for 2 years in a different region in Germany, cuz I earned a lot bad looks when I said "Du" 😅

When you get pulled over in the US, the police car pulls up behind you, hence no screen on the back for written instructions, let alone instructions in multiple languages using the word "please"

112 is the nummer for every emergency they will send everything you need. 110 is directly the police and as far as i know cost you to dial if you dont have a flatrate

In Norway: 110 Fire & Rescue 112 Police 113 Ambulance 911 route you to 112

Dad was the good cop, mom was the bad cop. In the US there is much use of "ma'am" or "sir", especially in the south. Every encounter I've had with police - whether in the south or north - everything out of my mouth was yes or no ma'am or sir. Does German still have "ma'am" or "sir"?

Fun fact: in theory, it's allowed to call cops in Germany "Bullen" _("pigs" in English comes probably closest)._ However: calling them "Drecksbullen" or "Bullenschweine", etc. would definitely count as "insulting a police officer" and would bring you in conflict with the law. Quote: "The decision of the Bremen Local Court makes it clear that the mere designation of a police officer as a "Bulle" is not sufficient to establish criminal liability under Section 185 of the Criminal Code. It follows from this that special attention must be paid to the circumstances surrounding the act in the course of preliminary proceedings. It must be positively established that a defamatory content is to be attributed to the term." However: I wouldn't recommend calling the cops "Bullen". Not while they're in earshot, anyway. *;o)*

I have actually used the informal Du with police officers in a friendly exchange. No problem at all. As long as you are not obviously disrespecting someone, that really shouldn't be a problem.

Here in Germany you can't film the Police to protect your self. This is a huge difference and it's important to know. There is a other interesting Channel on YT calls "Audit the Audit", this is not possible in Germany....thx for this vid.

Why do you say "flip the bird"? I finally found out that it means to show the middle finger.

question of the week: it always depended on how my dad was feeling. Sometimes he didn't care AT ALL so no matter what we did he couldn't care less. But if he had a bad day and needed someone to shout at he'd penalise every tiny thing we did wrong

12:07 not really .. at least for a person with a language barrier, a person which intentionally used "du" while knowing better what to say .. in other words intent matters .. CAN lead to penalties but i have not heared of a single non native german person getting into troubble for using "du"

No one would threaten you, if you use the word Du , especially when they learn, you are a native english speaker. In the Northern countries like Sweden everyone is using the word Du.

Wenn du versehentlich die beiden Notrufnummern vertauschst (112 - 110), kommt trotzdem die richtige Hilfe. Sie benachichtigen sich untereinander. Also im lebensbedrohlichen Notfall NICHT auflegen, wenn du merkst die Nummer ist falsch, sondern mitteilen welche Art Hilfe du brauchst!

In dire emergency setting the du/sie rules goes out the window also with police.

The idea of anyone being fined oreven serving time for saying "Du" rather than "Sie" is hillarious. I really had to laugh. It is not a crime, it is only impolite. You will generally hear police officers say "Du" to a lot of people being picked up on the street. If that was a crime, all our officers would serve time behind bars. Besides, police officers would recognize your accent anyway. The best thing you can say to a police officer is: "Do you spak English?" In fact, they do. That avoids misunderstandings. Just remember it's not their first language.

Thats why the bots say that in Fallout 4, "protect and serve"...