When you arrive in Germany, one thing you will notice first is that it seems to always be overcast and rainy. The reason for this is simple: When Germans don’t eat all of the food on their plate, the sun doesn’t shine the next day. It is quite a feat to get 80 million Germans to all eat their plates completely empty on the same day, let alone all of the tourists there, who don’t know the rules.
Now, when you go to a restaurant in Germany, be sure you finish up everything on your plate, not only because you’re not going to get a doggie-bag, but because if you don’t the waitress will come and yell at you for not finishing your meal. Even though you are still full from a big breakfast at the hotel of fresh baked Brötchen and cold cuts, or scrumptious butter-filled pretzels, you must eat every last bite of your meal, because otherwise your waitress is going to have to spend your tip at the tanning salon, since once again the sun won’t be shining tomorrow.
deutsche Übersetzung für Astrid ein/ausblenden
Haudi Astrid,
hier die Übersetzung:
Wieso es in Deutschland immer regnet
Wenn Sie in Deutschland ankommen, wird Ihnen als Erstes auffallen, dass es dort immer regnet und bewölkt ist. Der Grund hierfür ist simpel: Wenn Deutsche ihren Teller nicht leer essen, scheint am nächsten Tag die Sonne nicht. Es wäre ein ganz schönes Kunststück, alle 80 Millionen Deutschen dazu zu bringen ihre Teller am gleichen Tag leer zu essen, ganz zu schweigen von all den Touristen in Deutschland, die die Regeln nicht kennen.
Wenn Sie in ein deutsches Restaurant gehen, stellen Sie sicher, dass Sie alles auf dem Teller aufessen, nicht nur, weil Sie keine Verpackung für die Reste bekommen, sondern weil die Kellnerin Sie auch noch anschreien wird, weil Sie nicht aufgegessen haben. Auch wenn Sie noch voll sind von dem großen Hotelfrühstück mit Brötchen und Aufschnitt, oder fabelhaften buttergefüllten Brezeln, müssen sie auch den letzten Happen Ihres Essens aufessen, weil sonst die Kellnerin ihr Trinkgeld im Solarium ausgeben muss, da die Sonne auch morgen wieder nicht scheinen wird.
Grüße in den verregneten Norden,
John
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April 28th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Hmmm I actually wonder why Americans call a German Brezel, pretzel…
Where does that come from? But u know… nothingforungood 
April 29th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
I think it was the hardening of the initial plosive, which may or may not have occured during the zweite lautverschiebung?
April 30th, 2008 at 4:44 am
The German Brezel looks a lot like what we buy at baseball games and dip into nacho cheese. That must be why we call them pretzels. Either that or whatever that Hasselhoff guy just said.
May 6th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
As you have noticed, it is quite silly to link the weather to the fact of eating up your plate. Originally the (Northern Germany) saying was: if you eat up, then tomorrow you will get a good meal again (wieder gutes). So most likely, someone from another area must have interpreted it as “gutes Wetter”/”good weather”, and as always with stupid things, it stuck.
May 6th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
This usage comes from the time where German tend to be not that poor (as right after WW2) anymore.
There the German had plenty to eat ’suddenly’, so they educated their kids to eat up everything - so they did by saying “eat up everything or the sun won’t shine tomorrow”.
It is as the usage saying that eating to much mustard makes dumb - which comes from times where spice were very expensive…
May 6th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
I can’t agree with “you’re not going to get a doggie-bag” because every single restaurant I’ve been to here in Germany would let me take the rest of the meal home if I wanted to. You just have to ask “Würden Sie mir das bitte einpacken?” or sth. similar.
May 14th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Actually the waitress just needs a little cheer-up. Commend on the food and tip her more than the average German (which isn’t hard to do because we’re all as stingy as they come) and the sun is shining again
May 14th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
*should read: Commend the food …
May 17th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
It’s hard to finish the Schnitzel with fries. This meal must be from fast food restaurant.
January 13th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
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February 3rd, 2009 at 8:38 am
I remember thinking to myself when I first arrived here at Germany a year ago .. ” The people here are as warm as the weather “
February 4th, 2009 at 1:43 am
Sorry to hear that.
But given how warm the summer in 2006 was, this explains why everyone was so cheerful during the FIFA World Cup.
July 16th, 2010 at 7:46 pm
Yes, you actually can get doggie-bags in Germany. But maybe it’s because of the relatively small meals you usually get in German restaurants - there are usually no leftovers to take home
July 23rd, 2010 at 10:01 pm
ares is right: the native frisian proverb says: eet man op, dann gifft dat morn goodes wedder. Times and people converted goodes wedder (sth nice again) into gutes wetter. Nevertheless thousands and thousands of children were pushed and punished to eat up their plates just for an erroneous translation.
July 31st, 2011 at 10:13 am
don´t you mistake germany for england? germany has some hot days from time to time too.