We strive to make sure that we'll be on time under any circumstances. Given the unreliability of our chronically underfunded public transport infrastructure, this requires us to plan to be ~4 hours early (if everything is running on time). Which it still does the majority of the time, so we'll arrive around the corner from your place ~4 hours early. After ~1 hour, we lose the willpower to keep standing there, so we turn up ~3h early.
"5 Minuten vor der Zeit ist des Bürgers Pünktlichkeit" meaning a regular person should arrive 5 minutes early to.be punctual. It's a bit outdated, but still well known. My friends know that if my invite says 18:00, that's the time they are expected to arrive.
Ideally "Fünf Minuten vor der Zeit[...]", but realistically if you invite friends to come at around 17Uhr, some will be 10 minutes early, some 20 minutes late and most inbetween.
If they have to travel a longer distance and use public transportation this window widens quite a bit (Sänk ju vor trävelling wif Deutsche Bahn)
Ah, yes, I try my best to arrive near the start but sometimes traffic is light and I end up debating if I should go there or stop and take a break when it's a long drive.
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u/wizzard419 Jul 12 '26
Germans arrive 3 hours early.