I lived in Germany for several years and moved to the U.S. and purchased a “fixer-upper” home. On the docket for replacement were the windows. To make a long story short, the cost of replacing every window on the house with a normal American window was within ~$1k of the price of a single “German” window. The cost to replace all of the windows with the German style was nearly the total price of the home itself.
So yeah, I would love to have those windows, but they’re not made or at least readily available in US markets.
Economy of scale magic
This. I have these windows in one room in the US because I installed them myself. IDK if they are significantly cheaper in Germany, but for the price to have one professionally installed in the US I could have actually replaced the entire wall with floor to ceiling windows.
Just checked a local factory, 50x50cm is 100 € for a regular window and 200 € to open both ways (entry level PVC, not including installation).
All in all it’s not unheard of for bigger jobs to be south of 1000 €/window for professional installation, though you can get them for half that if you know the right contractors.
Now I wonder how much an American window costs over here
Your dignity
Those are just regular windows
You can do the same with American windows–spend the cost of an entire house replacing your windows.
Andersen and Pella windows.
Guys, this doesn’t exist only in Germany.
source: I live in Eastern Europe and we have such superior window design.
Können Sie gültige Ausfuhrdokumente für besagte Fenster vorweisen?
Lustig aber fick nazis
Same, this is the default in Croatia
For why these are superior:
Fully open mode = big hole for air go thru.
Slanty mode = very windy ez, rainy ez, rainy and very windy… just close window.
But, the innovation I miss more than the windows were the roller shutters.
First of all, light blocking. Forget blackout curtains or something, just roll down the shutters and no light is getting in. If you work nights or something, you can block the sun completely and sleep in the dark. Along with that, the light is being blocked while it’s still outside. Why does that matter? Light means heat. In summer you don’t want the heat inside. Block it at the shutter and it doesn’t come inside to heat the inside of the house. Compare that with blinds, curtains, etc. In that case, the light has already entered the house before it hits something and heats it up. With white curtains you’ll reflect a lot of the light back out, but you’re still heating the interior of the house. They also reduce noise, add security, protect in bad storms, etc. But, to me, blocking the light and keeping the heat out was so much more important.
Ich will zu Dort gehen
Fr though I hate my shitty apartment blinds so much. It’s midnight with the lights off and blinds closed amd I can read next to the windows
My American windows can also do this if I push hard enough.
My drunkenly installed American windows (previous owner, not me 😉) ALSO do this, but randomly throughout the house!
Some are so tight you break a sweat moving them (“locked”), some are so loose the top part falls out (angled), and some work normally (the normal one I guess)
Why is a normal window there? Or does it do something special?
They are all one window. You turn the handle in different directions to get it to do different things. The “normal” one is just shut and locked
Lemme clarify - do you mean just this (this is a normal window to me, common like sand).
These are extremely uncommon in North America, unfortunately.
Haha yeah, my b. Most windows in NA just open up and down. If you are lucky, it will have a little release for it to open inward for cleaning, but I dont think its supposed to be used in that orientation. Doesnt seem sturdy
We have those windows in Ireland, they are generally made and designed by Velux who are Danish.
this is not a German thing. they exist outside of Europe, let alone Germany, as pretty much standard. I’m actually surprised if Americans don’t have to this. although I think shouldn’t be, considering in how many ways it’s such an ass backwards country.
edit: just want to clarify that I don’t know whether Germans invented it or not; by “not a German thing” i meant it’s not exclusive to Germany.
these are far from standard for Americans. they’re luxury for sure and they’re called German windows.
Somewhat reminds me of https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/vasistas#Etymology
From where I am from, they are called Plastic Windows. Seems to be they were indeed either created or made popular by Germans.
this is funny, because I’m pretty sure most sold in Germany are made in Poland. Not that Poland invented them or anything
I live, laugh, and lüfte!
Am American.
…What?
German windows are (like a lot of things in Germany) extremely well engineered. This is a point of pride and whenever I have hosted Germans at my house (I’m Australian) they have actually brought this up with me.
It’s become a bit of a meme.
So their windows… Open?
If handle is rotated 180 degrees up from the closed state, window would tip slightly but not fall down. This allows room to ventilate while not opening window fully. Possible pros: doesn’t make room too cool, doesn’t let rain inside, presumably wouldn’t let burglars inside as tip point is too narrow to squeeze through. Maybe something more, dunno.
If handle is rotated 90 degrees, window opens as normal.
I havent met so many Americans or non-EU people in my life who have different windows in their homelands. But those who I’ve met, like our type of windows more than theirs. Also, these are sturdy AF and foolproof. Never saw one with a broken frame.
Two different directions depend on the handle orientation. The handle correlates to the pic below it.
Took me a minute.
My back door does this. No one knows how to use it besides me.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Wait, doors can do that too? I have to try this on our door (I think it’s the same model as our window), so it might work.
Yep. Had it 30 years and it confuses all that come to it for some reason. Yet it’s so simple. Handle in the middle like a regular handle opens it normally. Handle up opens it in tilt.
Yeah, my patio door did that when I lived in Switzerland. It was very confusing for visitors who moved the handle the wrong way.
Some do, have one that does it, was useful once because I locked myself out of the house and was able to reach in and open that door from the outside.
These types of window are great until you want to get AC in a rental & realize that you now need to attach 1-2 hoses to them whilst also getting a good seal. Then you’d actually prefer the American style slide-up windows (ask me how I know) :/
The only thing typically missing from these windows, are a hook or latch to prevent the windows from repeatedly opening and shutting when its windy
We have these here in the UK but the mechanism is the other way round, so that it makes to sense 👍
Do you mean it makes sense like how your school lunch ladies appear to be called dinner ladies? That kind of sense?
All meals in Britain are called “dinner” somewhere in the country :)
Maybe it makes sense like how private schools there are called “public schools” and public schools are called “private schools”. I will never understand that one.
What do you mean by the mechanism is the other way around?
1st position detent = tilt (small opening).
2nd position detent = door (big opening).I get that “horizontal handle = door” kinda makes sense… But doesn’t feel intuitive to me
It’s just in the direction you would need to apply force to open it no?
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I mean. Yes?
I am thinking of airtight windows! No other country can build such airtight and beautiful windows. - Angela Merkel in a 2004 interview, answering the question of what emotions Germany arouses in her
