Excerpt from The German Shower, originally posted at The Adventures of Heidi Hefeweizen.
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Let’s talk German showers. Now, I try not to complain about the negative aspects of life abroad because I can be a bit of a wallower, and in reality, the ten months I will spend here are too short to waste sitting on the couch in sweatpants and listening to the Smiths. Plus, there are plenty of good things here that I don’t have at home. That said, bathing in Germany is the pits! Why? Let me outline it for you:
- Apparently it is not standard practice to install fans in bathrooms. In fact, I have yet to encounter a bathroom here with one. Instead, they all have windows that open. Regardless of the season, you will open your window while showering or risk having a dank, black mold-infested bathroom.
- Not only is water a precious resource, but it is expensive in Europe. When you shower here, you turn on the the water, get wet, then turn it off. Lather up, turn the water back on and rinse. (Bonus: During that time when the warm water is not running, a cold breeze is coming in through the open window.)
- Every shower I have used in Germany is either a tiled or glass stall, and there is always a squeegee hanging there. So, before you towel off, you have to squeegee your shower stall to prevent water spots. There’s nothing like doing chores in the nude first thing in the morning to get your day off to a good start!
- Once you can finally exit the shower, you will towel off with the scratchiest towel in the oddest size ever. The towels here are somewhere between a standard American hand towel and bath towel, and have been beaten into submission but a series of washings in scalding hot water, followed by air-drying.
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Oh God, My Wife Is German. 
I lived in an apartment on Beethovenstrasse in Kaiserslautern in the early 1970s. The bathtub in that apartment had a hand shower, which I preferred to filling the tub. For one thing, we had to plug 10 pfennig coins into a gas meter outside the bathroom to get gas to heat the water, so the more water one filled the tub with,. the more 10 pfennig coins one had to plug into the meter.
The American who had the apartment before us said the least one could get by with was 50 pfennigs worth of gas per bath, which seemed a bit steep for someone taking daily baths. “Most likely, though, you will need to put in more than that.”
I gradually tried showering with smaller amounts of heated water till I discovered 10 pfennigs’ worth was all I needed. I used the method described elsewhere of wetting myself down, turning off the water and soaping myself up, then finishing the shower with what was left of the water the 10 pfennigs worth of gas heated.
It actually took less than 10 pfennigs worth of gas for a decent shower, so the final heated water till it returned to ice cold was a bonus water massage.
I still use a lot less water to shower than typical American shower takers use, thanks to this practical German training! (I trust I’m adequately clean for my family and friends….! LOL!)
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I can not see much of a difference between German and American showers, both of my homes here and in Germany were newer and my German house had all the amenities that my house here has, except central air, which I love and could not do without, I am allergic to humidity. the American bath tubs suck, if you are more than 5.3 ft, in Germany a standard tub is 6 ft, which my US husband who is 6.3 ft likes when we visit Germany ,but that can be remedied here by buying a large whirlpool tub. Windows in a bath are a must, no matter were you are. and if your towel is too small , buy a Badehandtuch and don’t use a Handtuch, that’s what the odd sized things are, hand towels, ours are bigger than the American washcloth they call hand towels,lol
Yes scratchy towels are a must, I dry mine outside when the weather allows it and my American hubby got used to it after 15 years of marriage
the comment that American doors don’t keep the cold out , is not true , unless you live in a cheap rental, and the houses, including mine I know have a front hallway/foyer. ein “Flur ” is a must for every German,lol
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