PUNCTUALITY

If there is one German custom you should learn and stick to, it is punctuality. An invitation for 4pm means EXACTLY 4pm. Not 15 minutes earlier and not 10 minutes later. Fashionably late is not a German custom. Germans, particularly business professionals, are sticklers about being on time. Arriving late will certainly draw a comment and, in a business situation, put you - in German eyes - in a compromised position.

If you realize you are not going to arrive somewhere at the appointed time, the custom is to call and announce you will be late.

"The check is in the mail" is not an excuse in Germany. If Germans are punctual for meetings and social occasions, they are, to a very large extent, punctual in paying their bills. In fact, in numerous surveys of foreign business professionals, they have consistently rated the German habit of paying invoices on time as the quality they like most about doing business in the country.