Christian Höferle is a German expert in intercultural communication and the founder of The Culture Mastery, a U.S.-based company dedicated to helping people navigate the complex realities of living and working across cultures. Sigrid, herself a German-Mexican cultural hybrid, spoke with Christian about his personal journey, his cultural insights, and what it means to carry Germanness around the world.

Sigrid
Today we have a very interesting guest with us. He is a German, but he’s living in the U.S., which is a great opportunity for us to talk about culture as a German—not in Germany, but outside. His name is Christian Höferle. Did I say that right?

Christian
You said it better than any American I ever met.

Sigrid
That’s very nice to hear. You’re the founder and owner of The Culture Mastery, and you’re a specialist on culture.

Christian
That would be a very quick definition. Yes, that’s what we do. And I’m still flabbergasted that we’re doing this in English now, because in the green room we were talking in German. But all right, let’s do this in English.

Sigrid
Fantastic. You’re living in the U.S. For how long now?

Christian
I’ve lived here for 21 years and some change. I stopped counting. I spent a year in Minnesota as a high school student—that’s the upper Midwest, right by Canada. Then I lived in the Tennessee Valley for 13 years, and now I’ve been in Atlanta, Georgia for almost eight.

Sigrid
You’ve been in the heart of the U.S. and seen what it’s like to be a German outside Germany. Do you still remember that culture shock feeling?

Christian
I do, even though I’m not a big fan of the term „culture shock.“ A shock feels like a real disturbance, and for me, it was more a series of surprising situations I couldn’t make sense of. Each place brought different surprises. The adjustment in Minnesota was not the same as in Tennessee, and moving to Atlanta brought a new set of surprises again. But one thing most regions in the U.S. have in common is that, once you get past the often intimidating Border Patrol, people are usually quite welcoming. Or at least curious.

Cultural reception isn’t universal—it can vary deeply depending on who you are and where you’re from.The conversation turns to how this affects the perception in the U.S., especially for people from Latin America.

Sigrid
That sounds like a great experience. But I have to say, being Mexican in the U.S. doesn’t always get the same reception. Once I say I’m from Mexico, the door often shuts fast.

Christian
That’s a different experience, for sure. I won’t deny that any Latina or Latino coming to the U.S. is under a different kind of scrutiny. There’s that underlying suspicion—are you here legally? Do you have the paperwork? My whiteness is certainly a privilege. I won’t deny that. And being German in Europe feels quite different from being German in North America.

Sigrid
What do you mean?

Christian
I’m Gen X. I grew up in a divided Germany, with the historical weight of our grandparents’ crimes. Traveling in Europe, I always felt like my Germanness came with a stigma—the aggressor stereotype, the overbearing German. Whether it was Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal—I sometimes felt I had to dial down my Germanness. But in the U.S.? Being German earns you goodwill. People think: Lederhosen, beer, Oktoberfest. I’m Bavarian, so it actually fits! I have Lederhosen in my closet and I do enjoy a good beer.

Sigrid
That’s beautiful. I relate—in Mexico, I’m the German. In Germany, I’m the Latin. And I love being the Latin here. I can be lively and messy and people accept it as part of who I am. But in the U.S., I always get: Are you legal? Do you ride donkeys?

Christian
Do you make your own tequila?

Sigrid
That too! Once someone even asked if I knew what movies were!

Christian
There are uneducated people everywhere. I’ve been asked if Hitler is still alive. But those stories get exaggerated sometimes. Yes, Americans often know less about Europe than vice versa, but still, most of them have a decent grasp of the transatlantic relationship. It depends a lot on the social and educational background of who you talk to.

From personal anecdotes, the conversation shifts to Christian’s professional path and how his intercultural work began.

Sigrid
So, Christian, how did you end up working in intercultural communication?

Christian
Totally by accident. I was a journalist at first, worked in the music industry. Then we moved to the U.S., and a certain very famous German carmaker decided to open a plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee—where we were living. Suddenly, people there were asking: has anyone worked with Germans? And someone said, well, there’s this guy with the unpronounceable name… And that’s how it all started. Then came a call from Wolfsburg, and the rest is history.

Sigrid
What do you do when people bring up Hitler? How do you start those conversations?

Christian
That’s never actually happened to me.

Sigrid
That’s great to hear. Because I get a lot of those Mexico-related questions that are… less than nuanced.

Christian
For Germans in the U.S., the stereotypes tend to be more positive. But conversations with Jewish Americans are different. They can be very educational for me.

Sigrid
I didn’t want to bring in politics, but has anything changed in your Jewish-American circles since last year?

Christian
Not personally. We have a strong circle of Jewish friends. My wife, who’s blond and German, once coached a rabbi. She told him, „I can’t coach you—I’m German.“ And he said, „That’s exactly why I want you.“ All these German hang-ups I had about Jewish-German relations—they got obliterated by those relationships. What has changed, post-October 7th, is the public expression of Jewishness. Anti-Semitic incidents have risen, in Germany and the U.S. That’s hard for me to accept as a German.

Sigrid
It is. That’s something we have to keep talking about. And speaking of difficult conversations, what advice do you have for internationals arriving in Germany?

Christian
We train a lot of expats going to Germany. My go-to advice? Forgive them and forgive yourself. Forgiveness prevents resentment. Be vulnerable and humble. You’re entering a culture you don’t understand yet. Many people move abroad because they’re good at something. That success mindset can clash with cultural humility. So be okay with saying: I don’t know how this works, can you help me? That honesty goes a long way.

Sigrid
But Germans aren’t known for being open when a stranger approaches them…

Christian
True. But if you approach with humility, not just curiosity, it’s different. You might get a gruff answer. Forgive that, too. Ask someone else. As the newcomer, it’s your job to build the bridge. The Willkommenskultur is a nice idea, but you shouldn’t expect it. You can’t control others‘ behavior—only your own. If someone is unpleasant, you find a way to move forward anyway.

Sigrid
I love that. We should definitely make a quote out of that! It’s all about forgiveness, vulnerability, and expecting to mess up.

Christian
None of us are perfect. Though some Germans might believe we could be, someday. But dear fellow Germans: even when you think you’ve reached perfection, guess what? There’s always a level above that.

In the final part of the conversation, Christian reflects on the changing perception of his own cultural identity.

Sigrid
So now, Christian, what feels „typically German“ to you now that you’re living in the U.S.?

Christian
There’s a metaphor we use in this industry: the fish that can’t see the water. Culture hides more than it reveals—especially from its own members. Living outside Germany, I see my own freaky Germanness more clearly. One trait I don’t miss is the Besserwisserei—this compulsive need to be right. Another is the socially sanctioned way of complaining. Germans complain openly, hoping it will improve things. And then there’s the belief in rules—not because we love them, but because we collectively agreed they exist, and everyone must follow them. Even after two decades in the U.S., when someone breaks a rule on the road, it still drives me crazy. That’s my inner German flaring up.

Sigrid
We’ve talked about all of that in this show—sometimes joking, sometimes seriously. But I love how you frame it. And we’re definitely having you back as our go-to expert for our „Ask a German“ segment!

Christian
Thank you! If anyone wants to reach out, they can find me at theculturemastery.com or on LinkedIn under Christian Höferle. Yes, with an Umlaut. I didn’t pick the name, it runs in the family.

Sigrid
Perfect. Thank you so much, Christian!