This reminds me of the articles saying that germans like to use cash because of the inflation 100y ago. It's just not true and likely being written by someone who has never asked a single german/chinese.
Absolutely!
1. It's quite possible that Germans still have an aversion to inflation due to the 1920's episode of hyperinflation in the Weimarer Republik. My grandmother often spoke of it, she had vivid memories of it, as she was selling groceries in the local "Konsum", had to put up new price tags every hour, and saw the suffering of everyone (including her own family). She liked to recount how her "Volksschule" teacher (in a poor neighbourhood) taught them hundreds and thousands, and then briefly mentioned millions and billions, but glossed over them saying "You'll never have to use them anyway."
(Thus, there are people alive, if I may make that claim for myself, that have heard (visceral) first-hand reports of it.)
2. There is this beautiful paper demonstrating that people have more trust in government and bureaucracy in areas that were part of the (long defunct) Habsburger Empire, even if they (and their counterparts on the other side of the old border) have now lived a century in the same modern country.
"The Empire Is Dead, Long Live the Empire! Long-Run Persistence of Trust and Corruption in the Bureaucracy"
3.
> > It's just not true and likely being written by someone who has never asked a single german/chinese.
Many Germans or Chinese have some sort of consciousness of their history; maybe you haven't asked them.
4. And, by the way, you're also formed by your history (via the culture surrounding you) if you don't consciously notice it. Your statement above is as naive as that of people that claim not to be influenced by advertisement, say, or their biological roots, just because they don't notice it.
EDIT: typo
And, for example, since you mention Croatia, in the middle of beautiful Split on the Dalmatian coast of the Adriatic sea, there's the palace of Roman emperor Diocletian, then Fort Gripe built during the Venetian era to defend against Ottoman attacks, the National Theatre built during the Habsburg era, etc.
Beautiful Dubrovnic three hours down the coast has Byzantine origins (literally), suffered artillery attacks as recently as 1991, and now is a location for the filming of Game of Thrones (King's Land or so).
Of course people have some awareness of the history, they're living in it!
But apart from that, it is more a psychological thing, I guess. Cash you can hold in your hands, feels more safe than just some plastic card. So it is more about feeling, than real security I think.
But there is also the privacy issue. Paying with cash is anonymous. This is still a big thing and maybe the more important factor why cash is more important in germany ...
Even national chains, until very recently, didnt accept credit cards.
Some still don't and don't plan to.
Why would one want to let a large part of the economy run through oligopolistic credit card providers, just to let them skim some 2% or 3% off it? It's absurd, if you think about it.
Of course in the UK fees have been "banned" a few weeks ago, which means everybody will get charged the fees via price increases, effectively subsidizing card users.
My point is that both cash and modern cashless payment systems (debit/cash cards) are way better than oligopolistic credit cards with their gaudy marketing and high fees.
> Sparkasse for some reason gave me a MasterCard that had it's own account, so I had to transfer money from the checking account to the card if I wanted to use it.
That's afaik normal for Germany, prepaid CC are probably the only CC you gonna get without a girokonto.