It indeed is, in a way German culture is very similar to something like Japanese culture, where the social form is way more important than actual intent/content

It indeed is, in a way German culture is very similar to something like Japanese culture, where the social form is way more important than actual intent/content. For the same reason, the German language has very complex honorifics [0]. Some Germans take real offense if you don't address them with the proper honorific or forget to list one of their, oh so important, honorific titles on some text communication. Because of this, there exists quite a lively market to sell honorific titles, specifically aimed at German-speaking users [1], in that regard there still exists a very real "class distinction" in Germany. Stuff like that always makes me wonder how much influence population density has on the evolution of such strict social dynamics. [0] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%B6flichkeitsform#Die_H%C3%B6flichkeitsform_in_der_deutschen_Sprache https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%B6flichkeitsform#Die_H%C3... [1] https://title-town.eu/ https://title-town.eu/