People in Germany say public behaviour is ruder: Survey

How people deal with each other in public is becoming increasingly unfriendly, people living in Germany believe, while insisting that they themselves are consistently courteous, a survey published on Sunday showed, reported dpa.

The poll from YouGov found that 59% said public discourse had become ruder over the past five years, while 85% saw themselves as polite. The representative survey queried 1,012 people.

There was a marked difference between the generations. Some 65% of post-war boomers perceived a deterioration, while just 39% of younger people shared this view.

Regional differences were also detected, with 61% in Hamburg seeing everyday contact as polite, in stark contrast with Bremen, where the figure was 36%. The two ancient northern German port cities lie less than 100 kilometres apart.

Traffic was seen as a major source of conflict, with 61% perceiving it as a place of noticeable rudeness. By contrast only 15% viewed the workplace this way.