I think it's more of a symptom of how narrow a view of the world you get from mainstream English language social media, even the view of other Western countries. Sites like Reddit are openly hostile to content in other languages since only English is allowed in the main subreddits and other languages are quarantined to dedicated language/country subreddits, while sites like Facebook/Twitter accept all languages but completely isolate different languages from each other to avoid the "bad UX" of seeing content in a language the user doesn't know.
this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2026
71 points (96.1% liked)
Asklemmy
53605 readers
295 users here now
A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
Search asklemmy π
If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
- Open-ended question
- Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
- Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
- Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
- An actual topic of discussion
Looking for support?
Looking for a community?
- Lemmyverse: community search
- sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
- !lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities
~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~
founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
Most of us speak pretty good English and German media absolutely sucks ass, so many people choose to exclusively hang out in English-speaking spheres i guess
luckily many Germans learn some English at school, also the languages seem really closely related.
The impression I have is that Germans are bigger users of the Fediverse in general than other countries, as in statistically overrepresented. Mastodon is originally a German project. Germans also created a Fediverse application for buying and selling second-hand items, Flohmarkt (Flea Market). Some other posts here have mentioned that Germans are culturally/historically more interested in privacy than many others, which may help explain the interest in the Fediverse. Finally, Lemmy is also an European project, so it makes sense that there would be more Europeans here, and Germany is the largest European economy and the most populous Western-European nation. Those are all probably factors contributing to this.
I would guess because simply historically, we always were very private people. This was generally increased with the experiences during the second world war and after in East Germany, where there was widespread government spying and people spying on each other. Thus, we have lots of groups that are engaged with activism regarding privacy, and it's present in the collective consciousness.
Reddit is an advertising shithole and Lemmy is the more private/free alternative, so it's more likely more Germans come here.
Also in general, the internet lends itself for less social people, which I'd also characterize Germans to have a tendency for.
we always were very private people
I lived in germany for a while and I loved this aspect from germans. It really bothers me when people are like "what do you need privacy for, what are you hiding" like the government always has the best intentions
I have heard the same sentiment about privacy, and from what I've seen in privacy tool communities (e.g. meshnets, where the densest networks I saw in the world were Germany and Catalonia, or Tor network where it's common to find German nodes) this matches up.
How many germans do you need to change a lightbulb?
One. We are efficient and have no humour.
One to change it and seven to file the paperwork.
And always on the wrong side of history
It's pretty much just that there are a lot of germans.
The population of germany is about 80 million.
All else being equal, there are 16 times more germans online than us finns, for example.
Next to the USs 300 million people, that's still one german about every 5 people. Add to that that germans are definitely online more than americans, and yeah...
A lot of germans.
Ok, but if you consider that there are 80M Germans, there are also 60M French (+African countries), and 50M Spanish (+ LatAm). That would make for a language ratio of ~1:1:1 considering Europe alone. This clearly doesn't seem to be the case, so I'm just curious what the reason behind the strong adoption in German speaking countries could be...
I'm probably quite biased being German myself, but I feel like that things like privacy and security tend to be more important to Germans than to other folks. And I don't speak just about the tech bubble, it shows everywhere.
To give a random example, when a license plate has been blurred in a photo posted anywhere, chances are high it's been posted by a German. Despite the fact that there is no license plate lookup (like carfax for US, finnik.nl for Netherlands, car.info for Sweden etc) so a license plate wouldn't even reveal anything to anyone, yet we treat it like a secret on instinct. If you ask such a German why he blurred it, he probably won't have a reasonable response, he just does it because he feels like it.
(Edit: Just look through the used cars here, most if not all will have their plates blurred if they have plates on them lol)
Getting back to topic, this might not be the only explanation, but I'm pretty sure it's a noticable factor why Germans are especially present on platforms like this, i.e. platforms that tend to respect the user's privacy more than the big tech corporations.
Hmm that's fascinating. I didn't realize you guys had such a strong cultural tendency towards privacy. Do you think there's a specific thing that caused it, or has it always been this way?
Most of this privacy fetish is purely performative though. The Schufa is a dystopian data collector with information on every German and despite a token focus on data privacy politicians pass more and more surveillance laws like using Palantir for the police and crackdowns on free speech and protesting in general.
Hmm I don't know actually, but now I'm curious too. From quick search:
As the newspaper Handelsblatt explains, βangst about potential surveillance is rooted in Germanyβs past.β The combined legacy of the Nazi Gestapo and the East German Stasi are thought to be part of the reason Germany has been a pioneer in data protection β with legislation dating back to the 1970βs.
https://www.codastory.com/surveillance-and-control/coronavirus-germany-privacy/
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
then you would also have to include the Austrians and our Brothers in Cheese π
60 millions Italian also.
As a neighbour (and disliker) of that country I can't tell you how many German tourists I've seen immediately speaking germ and just assuming everyone needs to understand.
Probably why they are the only ones posting in their language here
Yeah, I haven't noticed an unusual amount. Lemmy is still mostly Americans, and then maybe Brits and Germans. Just anyone that can speak English and has had broadband long enough to acclimatise to nerd culture, basically.
Lemmy mostly Americans
How can we even like know that?
The amount of American politics and culture on here for a start
To be fair the amount of absolute insanity coming out of the US is what's driving it. Luckily the UK has been fairly stable recently.
They'll tell you before you can ask
Yeah, occasionally. Honestly that's fine, the annoying thing is when they assume everyone else is too.
I don't have hard data, but it seems self-evident just from my personal experience. And going back to the original point, it's a nation of 400 million.
Wasn't also /r/ich_iel a big part of the reddit exodus at one point?
Their reddit automod promots Lemmy on every post iirc
Other countries would have the courtesy to write in English.
Even the French
We have nothing elese do do because we never work and have to much money.Β
because we never work
so this is what Merz was complaining about? π
He still is. Lazy germans. Merz just hates us.Β
load more comments
(2 replies)
Wym? There are nein Germans here! Any more than nine would be a lot tho /joking
Ps, while not born in Spain, weβre in Spain!! Hello spain mentioned!! :D
Shout out to dach und ich_iel for keeping me very confused and slightly glad I took German in highschool!
I donβt know, but I think more Germans per capita are fluent in English than French, Spanish, or Latino people are, and maybe that has something to do with it.
Ah that would actually be quite a logical explanation, since being able to operate in English would make it easier for you to partake in Anglosphere trends
load more comments
(2 replies)
Germans are everywhere. Basically everywhere you go as a tourist, it's loud Americans and slightly less loud Germans using the Americans for cover to be lounder than they would normally be.
load more comments
(2 replies)
We (French speaking peoples) have several instances, the one Iβm writing from is probably the most active on lemmy, the others are on piefed.
Iβd say if you see a lot of them itβs probably because of your language settings or because of those German instance settings.
I had to block several of their communities as I donβt have German selected in my languages but they still show on all (and in German, not English posts hosted on a German instance), so they were just badly setup. Maybe it changed tho, I havenβt updated my blacklist in a while.
load more comments
(2 replies)
Germans invented the printing press. They seem always at the front of decentralized media distribution technology lol.
view more: next βΊ