Germans have a tendency to associate in a formal association (called Verein). From sports clubs (often even the smallest rural villages have multiple), allotment plot gardening, hiking, environmental protection, neighbourhood based one, as parental associations, cars owners, professional ones to old folks and widows, etc. etc.
These are all registered with the local court (e.V.), have a formal operations charter,etc.
As people tend to be multiple clubs/associations there are far more club members than people in Germany. Germany holds the world record in that regard since 1945.
(Personally I am a member of…12 I think. Maybe more. Car, School of the kiddos, sports, sports of the kiddos, a few very niche professional ones, environmental ones, a local food one,etc.)
This tendency to formalize things also sometimes is visible online in terms of subcommunity formation.
Thanks! This sounds like community building to me. The peer pressure seems to be a double edged sword. I can see how it might become burdensome in some cases.
Yes and no. The zealousness of Germans to stick to rules but also to create rules is the issue.
Just a few mid 50 friends kicking a ball once a week in a public park to stay fit and have an excuse for a beer afterwards?
Nope, that’s regular use, join a club, get into a 50+ team and kick there, but don’t forget that you need a player pass, pay club fees and often have to do 24 work hours per year.
Or even worse: Allotment gardening. Heavily regulated in most clubs by a few boomers (think HOA2.0) that will cite you for fallen leaves.
And if you have the wrong type of hedge in your garden. Or if it’s to high. They will then mandate that you cut it. Which you aren’t allowed from March to October due to environmental protection laws. And of course if you sleep more than one (or two) nights in your garden it’s also forbidden. And beware if they find another salad in that part of your patch,that one is only for flowers.
(It’s so bad that it is a meme in Germany)
There is a German word for all that, of course: “Blockwartsyndrom”.
A Blockwart(officially Blockleiter)was the lowest position with (very little) power during the Nazi times - they were literally responsible for a building block (around 40-60 flat). They were the ones who spied on their neighbours, organised the Volkssturm later on(aka sending poor kids and old folks to their death) and generally pestered their neighbours.
Blockwartsyndrom simply means: Give a little man a little power and he will everyone’s life hell.
Well there are some pros in case of your buddy’s meeting once a week to play some ball. If they found a Verein, they can get a metro card and go shopping there. They can get a bank account for common costs, to gather money for a trip, to buy new equipment. Maybe some tax stuff? Don’t really know but sounds like there have to be taxes involved somehow. And they get to found a Verein.
This is correct. If found a club (“Verein” in German) under German jurisdication you will be rehistered as a so called e.V. and get some benefits. The biggest one is that the club will not pay taxes (or at least pay less taxes) for earned money. However, there are some downsides. You have to have a legal statute, you need several formal representatives (one who is responsible for finances, and usually two who are legal representatives of the club). These have to be elected each year on the mandatory club member meeting. The protocol from this meeting has to be signed by a lawyer. AFAIK there are also limits on how much money you are allowed to have your bank account. This due to the the nature of the “e.V.” label, which means that you are a non profit organisation and this means, that you can’t just hoard huge amounts of money.
Ling story short: you have to do quite a lot of bureaucracy in order to save money on taxes. It definitely is nothing that is worth for playing a bit of football and chugging some beers with 3 people every two weeks
Can you elaborate on the self organizing thing? I don’t think I have a strong intuition on what you mean.
Germans have a tendency to associate in a formal association (called Verein). From sports clubs (often even the smallest rural villages have multiple), allotment plot gardening, hiking, environmental protection, neighbourhood based one, as parental associations, cars owners, professional ones to old folks and widows, etc. etc. These are all registered with the local court (e.V.), have a formal operations charter,etc.
As people tend to be multiple clubs/associations there are far more club members than people in Germany. Germany holds the world record in that regard since 1945. (Personally I am a member of…12 I think. Maybe more. Car, School of the kiddos, sports, sports of the kiddos, a few very niche professional ones, environmental ones, a local food one,etc.)
This tendency to formalize things also sometimes is visible online in terms of subcommunity formation.
Thanks! This sounds like community building to me. The peer pressure seems to be a double edged sword. I can see how it might become burdensome in some cases.
Yes and no. The zealousness of Germans to stick to rules but also to create rules is the issue.
Just a few mid 50 friends kicking a ball once a week in a public park to stay fit and have an excuse for a beer afterwards? Nope, that’s regular use, join a club, get into a 50+ team and kick there, but don’t forget that you need a player pass, pay club fees and often have to do 24 work hours per year.
Or even worse: Allotment gardening. Heavily regulated in most clubs by a few boomers (think HOA2.0) that will cite you for fallen leaves. And if you have the wrong type of hedge in your garden. Or if it’s to high. They will then mandate that you cut it. Which you aren’t allowed from March to October due to environmental protection laws. And of course if you sleep more than one (or two) nights in your garden it’s also forbidden. And beware if they find another salad in that part of your patch,that one is only for flowers. (It’s so bad that it is a meme in Germany)
There is a German word for all that, of course: “Blockwartsyndrom”. A Blockwart(officially Blockleiter)was the lowest position with (very little) power during the Nazi times - they were literally responsible for a building block (around 40-60 flat). They were the ones who spied on their neighbours, organised the Volkssturm later on(aka sending poor kids and old folks to their death) and generally pestered their neighbours. Blockwartsyndrom simply means: Give a little man a little power and he will everyone’s life hell.
Well there are some pros in case of your buddy’s meeting once a week to play some ball. If they found a Verein, they can get a metro card and go shopping there. They can get a bank account for common costs, to gather money for a trip, to buy new equipment. Maybe some tax stuff? Don’t really know but sounds like there have to be taxes involved somehow. And they get to found a Verein.
This is correct. If found a club (“Verein” in German) under German jurisdication you will be rehistered as a so called e.V. and get some benefits. The biggest one is that the club will not pay taxes (or at least pay less taxes) for earned money. However, there are some downsides. You have to have a legal statute, you need several formal representatives (one who is responsible for finances, and usually two who are legal representatives of the club). These have to be elected each year on the mandatory club member meeting. The protocol from this meeting has to be signed by a lawyer. AFAIK there are also limits on how much money you are allowed to have your bank account. This due to the the nature of the “e.V.” label, which means that you are a non profit organisation and this means, that you can’t just hoard huge amounts of money.
Ling story short: you have to do quite a lot of bureaucracy in order to save money on taxes. It definitely is nothing that is worth for playing a bit of football and chugging some beers with 3 people every two weeks