One thing in Germany that I’ve noticed is that the main entrance doors of houses only open from one side. If you go outside and shut the door, you can’t get back in without a key. The handle on the outside of German house doors, does not turn, rather a key needs to be inserted and turned in order to open the door.
Why aren’t there Handles on both sides?
There is no definate answer for this question, but it has to do with a fear of theft.
Germans like to know that the door is securly locked, meaning that they don’t use a key to lock the main door. Even though many German cities seem very
friendly and harmless, there is still theft. A friend of mine has had her hour broken into on more than one occasion.
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Yepp, that’s true. As a rule, the main entrances of houses or flats only have a doorknob. I grew up with that. When I was a child, my parents installed a turnable doorknob so i hadn’t to ring the door bell waking up my father after his night shift (I didn’t have my own keyring back then) But that’s an exception to the rule. Funny enough, many back doors have still normal handles.
In the early 90ies, i visited a friend in Leipzig (former east Germany). I was astonished that not only there were doorhandles, but the doors were unlocked, too. The criminal rate was so low, they only locked the doors at night, I was told. Well, I think that has changed now.
Now I live in a small village in Lower Saxony about 60 miles from Hannover and I’m happy to leave the door to the frontyard open in summer so my children can move in and out as they play. Somehow I really missed that when I lived in town – there were no handles.
Yours,
Oliver