Can anyone explain German toilets to me?

[Recursion]

Seriously, these things are uncool. They're like a flat shelf instead of a bowl. Who thinks that up?

[csziggy]

1. Here is on attempt to explain them

http://asecular.com/~scott/misc/toilet.htm

I think I will avoid visiting Germany or if I do, not stay long enough to need to use one of their toilets.

[riderinthestorm]

7. That explanation needs its own OP. I'm still laughing!

[pipi_k]

8. Or...

refrain from eating solid foods, if you get my drift...

anyway, totally hilarious explanation.

And sitzpinkel....funny as hell. If we ever get the chance to change our user names again, I'm going with sitzpinkel

[abbeyco]

11. Post of the day!

And I'm going to use sitzpinkel whenever possible to confound those who are not friends.

[pipi_k]

14. If I were brave enough...

I would wander around in public muttering "sitzpinkel" to myself over and over again.

[lastlib]

22. How long will it be until we get to modify a thread title with 'sitzpinkel'??

[calimary]

35. That could become the all-purpose word of the year!

Sitzpinkel!

The one toilet memory I have from Germany was when I went on this Armed Forces Entertainment tour with the band. When we got to the Germany part, there were these toilets in the ladies' rooms whose seats rotated. They were oval-shaped, and when they rotated, for the unprepared and uninitiated (like me), it looked, at first, as though the damn thing was actually changing shape. I couldn't figure it out, couldn't figure out how to flush - or where to flush, or how to stop it, or whether to stop it. And it made me laugh out loud. I didn't know what else to do. So I started laughing at it. The bus driver later told me he heard all this laughing outside the bathroom door and wondered what was so funny in there.

[Sekhmets Daughter]

9. Sitzpinkel!

[nolabear]

20. Oh, the dreaded Sitzpinkel Rule!!!

[MrScorpio]

2. Don't remind me

It was a good thing that we had American toilets on base.

[MicaelS]

23. So what happened when you went off base..

And encountered one of these toilets? Details, please.

[MrScorpio]

24. Disgust, mostly…

And lots of courtesy flushes.

[MicaelS]

25. I can believe lots of both.

Where were you stationed in Germany? I know you have said before you were in service a long time and have been to a number of countries.

[MrScorpio]

29. I was at Spangdahlem AB from '94-'98.

And while I was there went to quite a few place in Europe.

It was a great time

[MicaelS]

30. Never heard of that one, had to Google it.

Well glad you had a great time.

[Moondog]

3. Ah, the dreaded inspection platform.

Remarkable, aren't they?

[BootinUp]

4. Lets see...Germans are known for their engineering

perhaps they didn't want to spend to much time designing a toilet as it would take time away from other endeavors?

[SwissTony]

5. It provides "atmosphere", if you know what I mean.

They used to be quite common here in Holland. Fortunately, they seem have disappeared.

And, no, I can't explain them to you.

[GoneOffShore]

6. Is it the same in Switzerland? Please tell me no.

[harmonicon]

21. Not that I've noticed.

I've been here for a month now and haven't seen a German-style toilet yet, but I don't get out a lot.

[Duer 157099]

10. Seriously?

All these posts and not one photo? This thread truly is worthless without a photo!

God help me I just Googled and didn't find what apparently is being discussed, because I couldn't stay on the images page long enough to sort through them...

[Aristus]

12. A little unusual, but a small price to pay for living in Germany.

I wish I was there right now. Beautiful country, great people, susbstanially fewer Freepers and gun massacres...

[Ron Obvious]

13. I don't know what's so awful about them.

I believe they came into vogue when people had to inspect their bodily waste for worms. They also allow you to spot many other potential medical issues, such as blood and off-colour urine.

Americans seem to be so sensitive to natural functions of the body.

[pipi_k]

15. Other reasons for inspection...

my (now deceased) son-in-law accidentally swallowed one of the teeth from his upper dentures when it came loose one day.

I'm sure he would have appreciated the design aspects of this, as he had to fish his turds out of the bowl with a slotted spoon and put them on a quadruple folded sheet of newspaper, then slice and dice said turd with a metal ruler, looking for the wayward tooth, which he found.

I never did ask, but I'm assuming he cleaned it off and brought it to the dentist for replacement in his denture.

[Ron Obvious]

28. Eeeeeewwwww! n/t

[Duer 157099]

16. OK now I get it

Having just rewatched "Trainspotting" for the umpteenth time, now I get it.

[sinkingfeeling]

17. Is this what you mean?

[Kali]

18. oh gott!

did not like!

[benld74]

19. Netherlands toilets are made the same!

Our nephew happened to pitch for a bball team in the Netherlands 2 years ago. His parents flew out to watch them in their playoffs. His mother thought they were the 'most disgusting thing she had ever saw'. His dad explained them.
Last year he pitched for a team in Germany. Mom didn't go to their playoffs. Dad did. He said, those darn toilets keep showing up wherever I go!'

[applegrove]

26. I did a bus tour of Europe and found their bathroom technology much less

robust than what we have in North America.

[HeiressofBickworth]

27. I lived in Germany for 2 years

and we had one of those "inspection" style toilets. Disgusting to say the least. It's been over 40 years ago and I still remember the damned toilet.

[mrmpa]

31. Try taking a crap in Greece.................

you're not allowed to put the used toilet paper in the toilet. It has to be put in a can. The sewers in Greece can't handle the paper.

[nickinSTL]

32. uh...I really have to say I never had a problem with them

I lived in Germany for...15 years or so, and I had to scroll down to where there's a pic before I could even figure out what the issue was that was being discussed.

Never, ever had a problem with that style of toilet.

Heck, I kind of prefer it in some ways...when you take a crap, you're not getting liquid splashing up on your ass, for one thing.

Can't say I ever really had any trouble flushing, either...once in a while it'd help if you dropped a little tp behind the solids to help them down...that's about the extent of it.

What's the big deal?

[Major Nikon]

33. That's not the worst thing about them

It seems that every one has a different way to actuate the flusher. So you've just dropped a log on the "shelf" in a public toilet, and you realize what a great idea the "pool" was to keep the smell down. Meanwhile you are trying to figure out what you need to push, pull, yank or kick to get the damn thing to flush, and the guy next door is banging on the wall and shouting something in German which you can only imagine is a plea for a courtesy flush.

[Munificence]

34. Those Toilets

Those toilets were not that prominent in Germany, however I did see a few "here and there". What I found odd that in every public "men's room" there were no urinals for the most part.....you simply had a tiled wall with a trough. So you stood shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the guys in there and pee'd on the wall....it then ran down the wall into a trough that was maybe 6" below the floor level.

Ran into the bidet some in Spain and France and could never get used to it.

[DFW]

36. That was the old style.

The intent, believe it or not, was so that you could examine what you left behind for any abnormalities that indicated a medical condition that needed attention.

[darkangel218]

37. I grew up in Europe, im used to them.

The key is flush before you look.




They're all over Europe, not just Germany.

[Paulie]

38. Ran into these in Poland as well

Holiday Inn in Krakow had regular ones thank goodness!