Are You Smart Enough To Be German?

Perun

Perun

His name struck fear into hearts of men
Staff member
The German government is planning to introduce a citizenship test. For that purpose, a pool of 250 or so questions was created, out of which 33 get selected for each test. The questions revolve around the German constitution and political system, history, geography, international relations and culture. It's been big news lately, and every paper and news service has posted a selection of 33 questions (some at random) for readers to answer. Now, I stumbled upon Spiegel Online's English version of the test:

http://www1.spiegel.de/active/quiztool/ ... i?id=33093

So now you can see for yourself if you would be fit for living in Germany... if you spoke German ;)

BTW, I did this test at four different websites and one newspaper (with different questions each time), and I always passed with 100%. I guess that makes me an exemplary citizen, because I know many people who would at least have answered an odd question incorrectly.
 
31 of 33...only ones I messed up on was the name of the constitution and the first leader of the Federal Republic.
 
25.  I did miss a few incredibly easy questions due to sheer stupidity (yes, EU doesn't have 25 members...) and the geographical questions.
 
Well, it scored me 32.  However, it let me 'try again', and it counted those right (I just clicked check score on the last one).  In reality, I missed 10.
 
30 out of 33.

Don't know the state capital of Hesse, flag of North Rhine-Westphalia, and the first chancellor. The questions were rather easy. This is something i'm strongly for - in order to vote, you have to know basics of basics of your state's system, history and geography.
 
26 out of 33. I have mixed feelings about my score. At first I thought I'd flunk it, but after seeing how easy the questions were I consider my score rather low. Most of the questions one could answer if they lived under ANY democratic state, others with basic historical knowledge could make educated guesses. My favorite was: What is the role of Police in Germany? C. eavesdrop on citizens :D
 
28/33

Onhell, you're right, most questions are basic democracy, I had problems with some geography and the flag of Westphalia. :D
 
To be fair, the questions about flags and capitals vary from state to state. The standard questions are always from Northrhine-Westphalia, but if you lived, say, in Bavaria, you'd only have to answer questions about Bavaria and perhaps Baden-Württenberg.
 
23/30. Although it did let me try again on the questions I missed, so I got 33/33 in the end. I thought I'd fail the test because, well, I'm not a buff on German history, but as Perun said, the questions can be answered by anyone who knows a little history and knows something about what defines a democratic Republic. So basically, any European should be able to become a German with this test.
 
Indeed a bit of history knowledge and common sense will make you smart enough to be a german.

Why is this test that simple? Need many more Germans? I know that many dutch people live in germany because it is not that crowded (and it is cheaper, they may live in Germany but only as long as it is cheaper  :halo:)

But a funny test. Took me 4 guesses to pass the who can enter your house. The postman to go to the loo?
 
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28 out of 33. An American stationed in Germany can get many of the answers from the Armed Forces Network's television propaganda commercials.

I could have sworn that Germans put pumpkins out front on Easter though.........
 
Shadow said:
I scored 28/33, with some common sense and one or two lucky guesses.
Click to expand...

Ditto.  Most of these are common sense questions.  Any of the questions that actually required some familiarity with Germany other than WWII history, I either missed or got lucky with a guess.
 
Natalie said:
23/30. Although it did let me try again on the questions I missed, so I got 33/33 in the end. I thought I'd fail the test because, well, I'm not a buff on German history, but as Perun said, the questions can be answered by anyone who knows a little history and knows something about what defines a democratic Republic. So basically, any European should be able to become a German with this test.
Click to expand...

Not just as a European, but as any citizen in the democratic world.  By grade 10, a Canadian student (at least in Ontario) should be able to answer 14 of those questions from a civics class, 6 of them from a history class.

EDIT:  I listed a few questions that I considered common sense, but decided to take it off.  A score of 20 minimum seems reasonable for an Ontario high school student. 
Since I was able to re-do questions, I don't know what my exact score is, but I passed.  The specific geography questions were the hardest. 
 
I'm not so optimistic about the general history knowledge of the average American though...
 
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