Those carefree Germans
Look at this photo of young Germans riding bicycles in Heidelberg and tell me what you DON'T see. Give up? Not a single one is wearing a bicycle helmet. This is no aberration. Until I arrived in Stuttgart, where the culture is clearly different, I saw almost no one in Germany wearing a bicycle helmet. Not in Freiburg, or Eisenach, or Berlin, or Heidelberg. Many Germans ride bicycles, especially in urban areas, and they just let the wind blow through their hair.
Asking around, I was told that most people won't even consider wearing one. They didn't as a child and they're still here. Why should they now? Rainer Czarnecki, my cousin in Frankfurt, said helmets are considered "uncool" among kids--as they would have been when I was a kid in the 1950s and 1960s. For us, it would have been a ticket to permanent dorkdom.
I explained to several Germans that in America, one is considered to be irresponsible if he or she fails to wear a bicycle helmet, and that some states have laws requiring children to wear them. What about head injuries? Answer that, Mr. German Devil-May-Care (not you, Rainer). Nah, still not interested. I did feel guilty when Rainer's children headed out the door the next morning wearing their bike helmets for the ride to school. Of course, he also told me that some kids are known to peddle out of sight of their parents and then ditch the helmet.
It's different in Stuttgart, where I see many bike riders wearing helmets. Tabea Kilian, my cousin who lives here, said the city is considered to be a dangerous place to bike. Perhaps that's why bikers here make the sensible choice to wear a helmet. Still, it brought back good memories of childhood seeing so many people riding without an uncomfortable plastic appendage on their heads.
Many things about Germany evoke an earlier time that we Americans often regret having lost. Cities have thriving downtowns with big department stores and small shops both. Bookstores are practically on every corner. Real bakeries--not the supermarket kind--are everywhere. A public university education is still free, although the government is trying to change that. The shocking proposed tuitition? About $750 a year.
There are reasons some of these things still exist here, including some that would make a free marketeer run screaming from the room. But you can't argue that they don't enhance the quality of life.