PGR, you are so right. Our dear friends in Freiburg thought we Californians were such scoff-laws! “You have to slow down on the off-ramps. They will make the controls (give you a ticket? Take you off to jail? We never knew).
We took our son to the doctor, and he prescribed a medicine for his asthma attack that we had had as kids. I knew that the inhaler would be enough. “You are not getting the medicine that the doctor ordered?” our friends asked. “We don’t need it.” The doctor asked us, “Did you get the medicines i prescribed?” Husband answers, “No we didn’t think we needed it.” The doctor had never heard anything like that! He was furious.
I have some distant German relatives and have been to Germany many times, often for extended periods - so I know about das “making controls!”
Even though I am ethnically German (are a large part anyway), while I certainly respect them, I am a little ashamed to say I don’t have a great affinity for them. I much prefer American individualism and freedom