German Stare

Submission 7,520

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About

German Stare refers to a nationality stereotype that claims Germans stare at strangers. The phenomenon was referenced in memes and video skits on social media sites like TikTok and Twitter / X, among others, predominantly in the early 2020s. Later, German Stare became a Sigma slang term within Phonk Trollge edits, effectively replacing the precursor term Sigma Stare. German Stare was referenced in slang overload sigma posts, usually combined with Those Who Know 💀 and Balkan Rage, among so-called brainrot terms.

Origin

The stereotype that German people stare excessively at others predates much of social media. For instance, on May 25th, 2006, the German news website Der Spiegel^[1] published an article on the topic, saying that foreigners and expats in the country had dubbed the phenomenon the "Germanic Stare Down."

One of the earliest pieces of internet content about the German Stare is a video posted by YouTuber^[2] Germanator on March 4th, 2015, in which he joked about the rumor by satirizing a staring German person. Over nine years, the video received over 15,100 views (shown below).

Spread

The stereotype that Germans stare continued to amass videos and posts going into the 2020s. For instance, on October 4th, 2020, the YouTube^[3] channel Easy German shared a video on the subject in which they did a man-on-the-street interview with a German man who discussed the topic with the interviewer. Over four years, the video amassed over 380,700 views (shown below).

Viral video skits about the stereotype surfaced on TikTok in the following years. For instance, on June 23rd, 2023, TikToker^[4] @nukiinhollywood posted a video, making fun of Germans staring, gaining over 2.6 million plays and 129,100 likes in a year (shown below).

A few months later, on December 29th, TikToker^[5] @bigbuffbuff posted a similar video with a POV caption about Germans staring, gaining over 3.9 million plays and 125,900 likes in 10 months (shown below).

In Sigma Memes

Sometime in late August 2024, TikTokers integrated "German Stare" into a spam comment that combined multiple Sigma brainrot terms like Winter Arc, Noradrenaline, Those Who Know 💀, Balkan Rage and others, not originally known as Sigma terms but turned Sigma through ironic reversal, like Still Water, Hawk Tuah and English or Spanish?

It's currently unknown where the original comment or post was shared that included German Stare into the copypasta.

Currently, the first known post to reference the spam comment was shared by TikToker^[6] @pangolinz_enthusiast on August 30th, 2024, who referenced other then-prevalent spam comments, like Your Cat Is Like, Oh No No No No. The video received over 838,400 plays and 143,200 likes in two months (shown below).

In the following months, the German Stare Sigma edits and memes gained more virality. For instance, on October 2nd, TikToker^[7] @packyourstuf posted a video titled "Winter Arc Rules," including one step reading, "Practice German stare in mirror." The video received over 3 million plays and 383,500 likes in six days (shown below).