I wonder if you're referring to what's described in the first section of this article: http://www.onestopenglish.com/grammar/grammar-reference/amer...

As a lifelong American, I don't think that this is 100% widespread, many of the supposed Americanisms sound borderline "wrong" to me, and the only one I would favor is "She just left" instead of "She's just left".

And, having a German family history myself, I have trouble seeing this as a particularly German phenomenon.