u/cinemashow

An older German couple took our reserved seats on the ICE from Köln to Frankfurt.

I don’t speak much German, but I showed the man my ticket and, in my best college-German-with-25-years-of-rust pronunciation, explained: “These are our seats.” He had placed their coats across their seats and was sitting in mine.

He responded with a long stream of German I didn’t understand, followed by the universal “go away” hand wave.

Now, I know Americans already have a reputation abroad, and I really didn’t want to be “that American” demanding seats from Großvater and Oma on a German train. My wife and I quietly moved to nearby open seats while several passengers watched the exchange with interest. Also, if you’d seen my wife’s death stare silently urging me to “just sit somewhere else,” you’d understand my tactical retreat.

The whole time, though, I was praying the actual owners of those backup seats wouldn’t show up.

Part of me also didn’t want to be the American who summoned the conductor to relocate an elderly German man like some kind of Deutsche Bahn hall monitor. The ticket checker didn’t even appear until 30 minutes into a 55-minute ride anyway.

So now I’m curious: in Germany, would I have been considered rude if I’d firmly insisted on sitting in our assigned seats? Or was Großvater the one breaking the social contract here?

Edit: Yes I was certain we had the correct car and it was first class. Yes I'm certain I had the right seats. I had to convince my wife of these certainties before she would even approach the car. And a random ICE or DB train guy with a red hat and red vest with a name tag looked at my ticket and said yes, this is your car.

I don’t speak much German but he placed his and his wife’s coats across their seats and they sat in mine. I showed him my ticket … told him these are our seats using German I got from translator…I took German language classes in college. He blathered on in German and gave me the hand wave. Most seating on German trains is assigned. So not to be the younger American asshole demanding my seat from an elderly German … my wife and I quietly took other unoccupied seats nearby as other passengers took note of the exchange. Hoping people who belonged in our seats didn’t show up. And I also didn’t want to be the American asshole who got a conductor to get Großvater to move to the proper seats.