Baustelle Deutschland
I wanted to get some money from the ATM at my bank the other day. Pech gehabt (tough luck, buddy). The Bauarbeiter (construction site workers) have taken over and there’s a big red sign on the door saying Pech gehabt, more or less. They’ve been working here for the past two months already, but up until now they’ve been nice enough to let us come in to get our money every once in awhile.
They were just warming up, it seems. Now they’ve taken complete control of the place and I’ve got a problem. I’m going to have to find another bank to go to for the next few months. They’re changing all the light bulbs, you see. Or maybe they’re even installing an additional ATM. This is a big deal here. And I’m just going to have to face the simple truth: My bank has now become a Baustelle.
A German Baustelle (construction site) is different than other Baustellen around the world. They are built to last. They are pretty much permanent. You stop noticing them after a time. When they finally do disappear after a year or two the Baustellen-authorities quickly put up a new Baustelle right across the street from the old one just to keep you from getting too disoriented. It’s a shock to their systems if a Baustelle disappears too quickly here, I guess. The German construction worker is veeeeery gründlich (thorough) which means that he his generally veeeeery slow.
And if he has not been slow enough then maybe he has not been thorough enough and this is frowned upon in German society because if you are not going to be slow i.e. thorough then why did you put up the friggin Baustelle in the first place?
All of this has to do with something called Deutsche Wertarbeit (German-quality work). When something is built with Deutsche Wertarbeit (you know, like Baustellen), it's built to last. And it seems that the Germans make deshalb (that’s why) such a big deal about Deutsche Wertarbeit because it is an ancient, Germanic myth or something and has to do with the Rhine river and those guys with the horned helmets and all that stuff and is therefore very dear to them I suppose but don't quote me on that one.