Day three dawned at an early hour, and I quickly got dressed and headed down for breakfast. At breakfast, I observed that the plates were noticeably smaller than typical American plates. For some reason I had failed to notice yesterday, but today it caught my eye. It seems to be that almost everything is smaller in Germany, although in the case of the plate it may be a good thing, since you are not able to take too much food as easily. Since Germany is simply a smaller country in general, it makes sense that things are smaller, but as an American, this is quite noticeable. After breakfast, we boarded our bus and headed towards Hirschvogel in Denklingen. As we drove south, the Alps became visible in the distance, which got me excited for the day ahead.

We arrived at Hirschvogel later in the morning, and our host gave us an overview of the company while focusing on innovation management. There were a number of interesting things about the presentation. First, by using my German knowledge, I was able to pick up on that fact that some of his English speech used German word order and style. This certainly makes sense, since he is a native German speaker and thus has German tendencies, but I was pleased that I was able to actually notice these tendencies within his English speech, because it shows me that my German skills and knowledge are improving. I also found his opinions on some industry trends and political and economic events intriguing. He made a compelling argument about the detriments of the steel and aluminum tariffs; he felt that electric vehicles are still a long way off from dominating the market; and he speculated that ride sharing might actually increase the demand for cars, since many cars will be needed to get people their rides quickly. I very much agree that electric vehicles are a ways off yet, since the charging infrastructure, price point, and production scale are not quite there yet, and I think that his outlook on ride sharing has a good deal of merit, since people today are generally less willing to wait for things.

After the presentation, we toured the numerous production halls on the property. We saw manual and automatic cold, warm and hot forging presses in action. Although it was tough for me as a business student to understand the very technical details of the processes, I still found it fascinating. I was especially surprised how many presses they had, since they cost a lot of money and Hirschvogel is just a family business. That they have such extensive production capabilities is a testament to the quality of their products and management. I also noticed that workers were smoking on the job, and they wore no hardhats. It is commonplace for American factory workers to wear hardhats, especially in heavy industrial settings like Hirschvogel’s forging, and yet they were absent here. Perhaps they have less detailed safety regulations than the US, or maybe they have better preventative procedures in place to prevent accidents and injuries. Smoking on the job is also virtually non-existent in the US, and the prevalence of smoking in Germany is in stark contrast to the US.

Once the tour concluded, we went to Hirschvogel’s cafeteria for lunch. I had sausage, Spätzle and some vegetables. It was pretty good food for a cafeteria setting. A brief question and answer session followed lunch, and after that we headed south towards Oberammergau and the Alps. The wooden buildings in the town were quite beautiful, and although the main street was rather touristy, the trinkets in the shops were generally very high quality, unique, hand-made items. My fellow Americans and I particularly enjoyed looking at the Christmas shops and cuckoo clocks. I found the store owners to be quite friendly, and they all spoke good English too.

After our time in the town, we headed up the ski lift to get a view of the Alps near the southern border of Germany. On the ride up, I defined a German word for some other American students, and Sonja, who was on the lift as well, expressed surprise that I spoke German. We then had a nice conversation in German about my German studies and my previous trip to the country. I am finding that Germans are usually surprised and excited that an American speaks their language, because it is apparently rather uncommon. It feels good to have that intercultural connection through their language, and I find that it makes the cultural experience much richer.

At the top of the mountain, we were greeted by a stunning view of the German Alps and the surrounding landscape. I have seen many mountains in the western US and Canada, and I felt that these were just as beautiful as the best views in the continental US. I was also pleasantly surprised to see that the Zugspitze, the highest mountain in Germany, was visible among the mountains, since I had heard of it previously and wanted to see it. The day was perfect, with clear skies and mild temperatures, and we got some good group pictures in front of the stunning snow-capped mountains. One small thing I noticed was that crosses topped a number of mountains around Oberammergau. Such overtly religious symbols are not too common in the US, which highlights the difference in how religion is treated in the two countries. In Germany, there is a very strong Christian tradition, with Catholicism especially strong in Bavaria, and so religion is more public than here in the US, where church and state are strongly separated. For example, the dominant political party in Bavaria, called the Christian Social Union, references religion in its name, which would never happen with a US political party. While not a huge difference, especially given the decline of religion in Germany, it is still something worth noting.

Once our time on the mountain was up, we headed back down and rode back to Augsburg. After we got back, I and a few other guys went out to get Döners for dinner, since I recommended that they try them. The Döner is a Turkish dish, and since Turks are the largest minority in Germany, Döner shops are commonplace in German towns and cities. The other guys really enjoyed them, and I was glad to see my recommendation work out well. They also appreciated my German-speaking ability, since Turks generally speak English very poorly, and it felt good to put my German to use in a practical way. We then found a small ice cream shop and each got a cone. German ice cream is delicious, and this particular shop did not disappoint. Once we finished our cones, we headed back to the hotel, ending what I thought was the best day of the trip so far. I was very impressed by the scale of Hirschvogel, given that it is family-owned; the Alps were stunning; and I finished the day off with my favorite German street food, the Döner. Today is going to be hard to top, but I am excited for our next company visit at Continental tomorrow and a return to Regensburg after my time there three summers ago.