# Stupid tourists, Darwin will take your children! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 20, 2017, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-tourists-darwin-will-take-your-children/782604 "2017-03-20T12:34:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2017, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-tourists-darwin-will-take-your-children/782604/21 "2017-03-20T20:00:32Z")
I think German people just travel more than most. And their middle class is so large and well-established that even the stupid people earn enough money to travel. But my limited experience of German folks is that they were very attentive and rules-oriented. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2017, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-tourists-darwin-will-take-your-children/782604/22 "2017-03-20T20:07:18Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I recall a news article some years ago where a komodo dragon ate a German tourist. Ah, [poor Baron Rudolph](https://books.google.com/books?id=IRHhAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA177&lpg=PA177&dq=komodo+dragon+kills+german+tourist&source=bl&ots=Ao55dydZAJ&sig=APMpDycX2oV_zS94Ku7DS9stAZE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjxgfXQ8OXSAhXhilQKHTWaDA04ChDoAQhJMAw#v=onepage&q=komodo%20dragon%20kills%20german%20tourist&f=false). Always stay with the tour group. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2017, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-tourists-darwin-will-take-your-children/782604/23 "2017-03-21T00:57:08Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I recall a news article some years ago where a komodo dragon ate a German tourist. Seriously though, who doesn’t like German food? Schnitzel with spaetzle and brown gravy is amazing! ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2017, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-tourists-darwin-will-take-your-children/782604/24 "2017-03-21T01:35:46Z")
Lots of Germans go to Death Valley, too. And they all go in August. Maybe their life at home is a little dull, and they’re looking for thrills? ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2017, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-tourists-darwin-will-take-your-children/782604/25 "2017-03-21T02:04:11Z")
I think Germany is just so well-organized that Germans simply expect everywhere else to be as well. “Ach, If the ice was to fall off the roof, an ice-falling schediule would be posted, ja?” ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2017, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-tourists-darwin-will-take-your-children/782604/26 "2017-03-21T02:06:31Z")
> [@JcWoman](#): > > There’s a similar book about deaths in the Grand Canyon. Including but not limited to live action re-creations\* of walking backward with a camera to your face to get a better shot and falling off the edge. > > \*I’ve only ever seen that in Looney Tunes cartoons. A friend of a friend narrowly avoided this fate last year. The rescuer had to explain to onlookers that the screaming foreign woman he was holding onto with a death grip had gone around a fence and nearly plunged to her death. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2017, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-tourists-darwin-will-take-your-children/782604/27 "2017-03-21T02:48:05Z")
> [@ricksummon](#): > > You just need to make the warning a bit more explicit, that’s all: > > **ACHTUNG! Fallendes Eis wird Ihre Kinder zerquetschen! Wenn Sie dieses Warnung ignorieren, werden wir keinerlei Tränen vergießen!** > > (WARNING! Falling ice will crush your children! If you ignore this warning, we won’t shed a single tear!) Or just “EisFallenKinderGesquishenUndTodenSchadeAchtung!!” ---
**Author:** ![wellanuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/57b2e6/32.png) [@wellanuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wellanuff)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2017, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-tourists-darwin-will-take-your-children/782604/28 "2017-03-21T02:59:08Z")
I think I read somewhere about a group of German tourists in Volgograd harassing the locals and ultimately getting their comeuppance, including a number who ended up dying. This was a long time ago, but I’m hazy on the details. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2017, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-tourists-darwin-will-take-your-children/782604/29 "2017-03-21T12:39:24Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Ah, [poor Baron Rudolph](https://books.google.com/books?id=IRHhAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA177&lpg=PA177&dq=komodo+dragon+kills+german+tourist&source=bl&ots=Ao55dydZAJ&sig=APMpDycX2oV_zS94Ku7DS9stAZE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjxgfXQ8OXSAhXhilQKHTWaDA04ChDoAQhJMAw#v=onepage&q=komodo%20dragon%20kills%20german%20tourist&f=false). > > Always stay with the tour group. The hell kind of name is “34W”? How about “Fafner”? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2017, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-tourists-darwin-will-take-your-children/782604/30 "2017-03-21T21:15:00Z")
> [@wellanuff](#): > > I think I read somewhere about a group of German tourists in Volgograd harassing the locals and ultimately getting their comeuppance, including a number who ended up dying. This was a long time ago, but I’m hazy on the details. If I were a German in Russia, I would not mess with the locals. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2017, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-tourists-darwin-will-take-your-children/782604/31 "2017-03-21T21:19:50Z")
> [@Grim\_Render](#): > > Nine times out of ten some tourist gets hurt or killed, its a German. I have no idea why, they just seem to have much less understanding that nature will kill you. Where are you - Canada? Rocky Mountains? And where are the Germans from - Northern part? Because in Bavaria, Germany, we have mountains, and Roof avalanches if it Snows, and the “Sandal-wearing tourists” (both from Germany and from elsewhere, though here the stereotype is the obese American female Tourist in high heels) get into Trouble in the mountains far too often and have to be rescued. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2017, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-tourists-darwin-will-take-your-children/782604/32 "2017-03-21T21:26:23Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > In Germany you will be berated for not waiting for green even on an empty street. There’s two reasons for that. One, even if at 1 am the street is completly empty, the Police can still give you a ticket for crossing a red light (yes, pedestrians Count, too). I’ve talked to several cops, and the answer was “The law doesn’t stop being the law because it’s the middle of the night.” The second reason - there are even signs on many traffic lights - is to not be a bad example for children. If adults cross at red, they can judge the traffic. If children see them and follow, they have Problems judging Speed and distance. > [@](#): > > However, the flip side of that is that kids in general are allowed much more freedom to roam and do dangerous things. I confess I don’t know how the two mindsets coexist but they do. The General mindset is that children learn slowly by adjusting responsiblity. The laws on what children are forbidden to do, or allowed to do, adjusts at different Age Levels. We think that works much better than forbidding everything until they turn 18, and then allowing everything, so they binge drink. Beer is allowed after 16, hard Liquor after 18 years, for example. If the parents take their 15 year old Dining in a fancy Restaurant, the parents can allow a small glass of wine, and nobody will call the cops. If the parents give their 10 year old a half bottle of vodka, cops would be called for poisioning. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2017, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-tourists-darwin-will-take-your-children/782604/33 "2017-03-21T21:27:03Z")
> [@](#): > > Where are you - Canada? Rocky Mountains? I am. And I meet many tourists from Germany and Switzerland and Austria. It’s no surprise, people who enjoy the mountains go where there are other mountains (incidentally, they’re almost always surprised at the wildness of the Rockies; the Rockies are definitely not the Alps). I would assume these are _not_ the tourists going into avalanche zones when they shouldn’t, because they of all our guests should know better. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2017, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-tourists-darwin-will-take-your-children/782604/34 "2017-03-21T21:29:27Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Seriously, people just don’t get dangers that don’t seem intuitive to them because they’ve never seen or experienced the danger themselves,… > > If you never seen a hazard, you don’t know better just as a small child doesn’t understand that you shouldn’t touch hot things until they get burned a couple of times. > > Stranger I think that’s the best Explanation, regardless of the nationality. (Nationality might explain a certain selection for specific landmarks. People who already live near mountains at home aren’t attracted as much - or know how to behave - than flatlanders, who then make mistakes. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2017, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-tourists-darwin-will-take-your-children/782604/35 "2017-03-21T21:34:25Z")
> [@Grim\_Render](#): > > And it is disproportionately Germans, who seem to possess an entirely unwarranted assumption of safety. I don’t know why. Maybe the place just looks civilized, maybe they expect official warning signs at every danger, maybe Germany is just so urbanized that they have forgotten that Mother Nature has psychotic episodes and should not be left alone with her children. Mostly Germans compared to … which other Tourist nations? Germans are generally said to be one of the most touristy nations (inside Germany, many tourists are Asians), travelling far; and if the come from Middle or North Germany: yes, it’s mostly urbanized. Even Bavaria with mountains has avalanches, but not much else. There’s flooding, but neither tornadoes nor many earthquakes; and not really many wild animals. Some years back, a normal Brown bear wandered across from the Austrian border, and everybody got into a tizzy, calling him Bruno the Problem bear. [Bear JJ1 - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_JJ1) Whereas Americans have bears and other wild animals rooting in their back Yard, and breaking into their cars. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2017, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-tourists-darwin-will-take-your-children/782604/36 "2017-03-21T21:38:37Z")
> [@The\_Tooth](#): > > I am. And I meet many tourists from Germany and Switzerland and Austria. It’s no surprise, people who enjoy the mountains go where there are other mountains (incidentally, they’re almost always surprised at the wildness of the Rockies; the Rockies are definitely not the Alps). Yes, that, too. Since Ötzi, People have lived in the Alps with animals and crossed for trade and war. They look tamed, with huts and trails everywhere. The Rockies … are completly different. (And higher: 2000 meters is okay, 4000 m is quite high). > [@](#): > > I would assume these are _not_ the tourists going into avalanche zones when they shouldn’t, because they of all our guests should know better. Those tourists who don’t get into Trouble, you don’t know if they are German or not, only noticing the misbehaving ones, so there might also be a selection bias. Unless you greet every Tourist entering and Count who made it out unharmed again 😉 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2017, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-tourists-darwin-will-take-your-children/782604/37 "2017-03-21T22:22:34Z")
No, I just pay attention to the voices around me at the tourist traps, and I hear a lot of German and German-accented English being spoken. And I assume that people from mountainous countries are familiar with the hazards of mountains and won’t go where they shouldn’t. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2017, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-tourists-darwin-will-take-your-children/782604/38 "2017-03-21T22:44:12Z")
> [@JcWoman](#): > > There’s a similar book about deaths in the Grand Canyon. Including but not limited to live action re-creations\* of walking backward with a camera to your face to get a better shot and falling off the edge. > > \*I’ve only ever seen that in Looney Tunes cartoons. And in the stage play of _Auntie Mame_ (although that happens in the wings). ---
**Author:** ![Grim\_Render](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@Grim\_Render](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grim_Render)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2017, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-tourists-darwin-will-take-your-children/782604/39 "2017-03-22T22:30:33Z")
> [@constanze](#): > > Those tourists who don’t get into Trouble, you don’t know if they are German or not, only noticing the misbehaving ones, so there might also be a selection bias. Unless you greet every Tourist entering and Count who made it out unharmed again 😉 This, really. I would assume that if a fraction of German tourists are knowledgeable about mountains, sea and ice, we never notice them. It is the ones that aren’t that stand out. And while stats have unfortunately been hard to dig up, anecdotally that last disbelieving scream is most often “_Nein!_” Which is generally Germans, with the occasional Austrian. Possibly an Anglosaxon if said person is being mauled to death by nine wolves. Here are the statistics I’ve managed to dig up: Average number of tourists as fraction of population: 0,5 % Tourist share of lethal accidents: 10 % Biggest tourist nations: China, Other European, Sweden/Germany, Denmark, Uk, Netherland, USA, France. (Bit deceptive stats on China, used to be tiny and has just shot up lately. ) The Norwegian tourist board no longer promote Norway with pictures of rugged nature due to number of accidents. They say “central Europeans” which includes Germany here is the most frequent offender. Often due to combinations of alcohol, small boats or mountains. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2017, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-tourists-darwin-will-take-your-children/782604/40 "2017-03-22T23:27:05Z")
Ocean Beach in San Francisco has seriously dangerous rip currents, and there’s dozens of signs warning you about it in four [languages](https://hoodwork-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/story/image/19729/obwarning.jpg). Doesn’t seem to [help much](http://sfist.com/2016/08/18/in_second_death_at_ocean_beach_this_1.php). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-tourists-darwin-will-take-your-children/782604.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-tourists-darwin-will-take-your-children/782604.md?page=3)