Mysterious German queue
 

Can someone explain how waiting line (queue) work in Germany? I had following experiences and I am still scratching my head. <BR> <BR>At bank, when I entered, I saw all windows busy. There was one old lady standing just inside of the door, but way away from the teller window. I was not sure if she was waiting her turn or waiting for someone who is being served. Soon, another man came into the bank and stood behind her. I had no idea why that SPOT in the bank was the queue waiting point. There was a coat stand at that location, can that be the it? <BR> <BR>At post office, having bitten by the bank experience, I stood at the yellow line, having seen sigh elsewhere to wait at the yellow line. This time, other people who came in after me kept passing me and walked up straight to the teller window to wait there. At that point, I was so sure I would never catch on to how things work in Germany.

Greg, don't feel bad. You are not the first person to notice that queueing in Germany is not the same as queueing in, say, Britain. The Brits make a fetish out of it, hissing and harrumphing whenever some errant soul "doesn't play the game," that is, getting in at the end of the line. In Germany, our experience has been that the person with the sharpest elbows and coldest stare wins.

I have often noticed the lack of queues in both Germany and Austria. When I lived in Vienna, we would often have to wait in line at the computer lab. While the Americans always waited in line, the Austrians would just try to sneak up and grab the first available computer. If they happened to be closer or quicker they got the computer and it didn't matter that you had waited 20 minutes in an orderly fashion. <BR>The above post is correct, we always used to have a joke about sharpening our elbows.

I didn't find it to be too bad skiing in Italy, but friends who have skied in Austria and Germany say it's definitely the sharpest elbows wins in the lift "lines".

I know that in some German banks the bank employees all have their own clients. For instance clients with account no. 000-010 queue in the line of employee no. 1 ; 011-020 with employee no. 2 etc. <BR>Maybe that was the reason of the strange queueing.