[jmkerr]

This reminds me of this British perspective on the custom of opening a window in Germany, which is indistinguishable from parody for a German:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/30/germans-embrac...

> The custom is something of a national obsession, with many Germans habitually opening windows twice a day, even in winter.

> Impact ventilation, or Stosslüften, which needs explanation for most people unfamiliar with Germany except for experts in air hygiene, involves widely opening a window in the morning and evening for at least five minutes to allow the air to circulate. Even more efficient is Querlüften, or cross ventilation, whereby all the windows in a house or apartment are opened letting stale air flow out and fresh air come in.

> In Germany, windows are designed with sophisticated hinge technology that allows them to be opened in various directions to enable varying degrees of Lüften.

[kzrdude]

That's funny, a swedish journalist did a nice report on the same topic, probably for exactly the same reason, or two reasons, really - it's a foreign correspondent, so they always need to have a new topic to report home about and, Merkel had mentioned ventilation/Lüften recently, so it was on topic.

Even if it looks like a parody to a German, it is valuable to get an outside look at your own culture to bring a new perspective - I like that too. The article I read included the fact that many renting contracts have conditions about how often it should be ventilated.