Originally Posted by Buster CT1K
One thing to note: Germans cut in line quite often. A business-traveller type tried to cut in front of me at security when there was only one person ahead of me, and no one behind me. I asked him if he was traveling with the guy in front of me, he said no, I advanced a step, and he fled to another line. Now, lest you think me a hypocrite, apparently cutting in front of others is the done thing in Germany: an article in a German guidebook says that it's OK to cut infront of others, for example when you're in a big hurry. If others object, that's their prerogative, but you're entitled to try cutting the queue.
Unfortunately, you're absolutely right on that. Though cutting the line is still commonly regarded bad behaviour, more and more people try to, and - confronted with it - mostly pretend that they haven't seen the queue of 40 passengers they just tried to cut in.
Individualism (or better egoism) is the big thing in Germany nowadays. In those situations other better educated Germans in line normally roll back their eyes, but don't say a word - they try not to match the image of an ueber-teacher who tells others what to do (but in reality, of course, it is just an unnecessary ueber-liberalism which supports bad behaviour of those fellas.)
Well, I'm sad to say: there's something (in fact: very much) rotten in the state of Germany...