All right, let's talk about stereotypes. Just play along for a moment.

What do you imagine when you think about Italy? The leaning tower of Pisa? Gondolas in Venice? Red wine? Fashion?

How about France? The Eiffel Tower? Berets? Baguettes? Cheese? The Louvre? Maybe even a guillotine? 

Germany? Lederhosen? Beer? Brats? Engineering?

Out of all German stereotypes, the abundance of capable engineers, all with impeccable precision, seems to rank near the top. No, seriously, even more than the yodeling, the Oktoberfest, or the Berlin Wall. Engineering as in cars, in buildings, or any machines. Lately, Germany's reputation - and stereotype - has taken a hit. We could mention the disasters connected to VW and their pollution tests. Same with Daimler, which got hit with a 1.5 billion dollar penalty over its emission scandals. 

But no, let's move on to buildings. Cars, while still very much the talk of town these days, are dwarfed by architectural and engineering gems, led by three prominent examples.

1. There's the new airport in the nation's capital, Berlin-Brandenburg, or BER, for short, that is scheduled to open. Enough about Frankfurt and its huge volume, or Munich's new airport that has set a new standard for air travel in Germany. Berlin would have its own, better airport, verdammt, or at least that was the plan. Construction on BER started in 2006 and was scheduled to open in 2011. Here it doesn't take an engineer to do the math. That's a nine-year delay. Nine as in nein, year after year after year. What happened? Poor construction, even poorer engineering and planning, bad management, and even charges of bribery. BER has now become a running joke in Germany. If something is a perpetual disaster, then it has become the Berlin airport of cars, projects, governments, football teams, take your pick. Der Postillon, Germany's very able answer to America's The Onion, introduced a Lego playset for BER, which would feature construction workers with only left hands (in English, that would be all thumbs), and a set that would never have all of the pieces in the box because it can't be finished.

2. Say hello to Stuttgart 21, featuring a new railway station in Stuttgart, plus miles and miles of new railway that would connect all of Europe in blissful harmony. Construction started in 2010, was scheduled to be completed in 2019, and now is not expected to open until at least 2025. The problem? Unstable grounds, cost overruns by the billions, and a resistant populace that has never quit protesting against the project. It's one thing for people to get pepper-sprayed over COVID-19 or racism, but over a railroad project? Only in Germany.

3. And then there's Hamburg and the Elbphilharmonie (Elbe Philharmonic) concert hall that opened in early 2017. The first stone for the Elbphilharmonie was laid in 2007, with an estimated completion date of 2010. The estimated cost was 250 million dollars. The actual costs, in the end, were closer to 900 million...and the concert hall opened seven years too late, of course. So much for German punctuality. The Elbphilharmonie today resembles a series of waves in the harbor quarters of the city, and, by every evaluation, reported modest cost overruns and delays compared to the other projects mentioned above. If it weren't for Berlin, Hamburg would have a running, or sitting, joke of its own.

In the end, tourists will marvel at these modern projects, and the stereotype of the efficient German engineer will be reprised. The Germans, though, especially those involved, will bicker about these projects until their dying breath. Or at least contemplate outsourcing major projects like these in the future.