They have a right to feel smug

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)

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 clarifymi that is 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

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

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

Having 30 days of paid holiday per year is nice too.

And a 35h work week.
- that's in effect in Germany? They tried instating it here in Spain but Corruption industrial complex didn't let it through
- They try so hard to make forget WWII
"only" 20 of those by law, though. Most employers will give you more than that, but it's not guaranteed
- Depends on the amount of hours.
  In Belgium, if you work 40 hours instead of the regular 38 hours, you get 12 extra paid vacation days (ADV) on top of the 20 regular ones.
30 days of paid holiday per year is unfathomable to me. I wish we had that here.
- Working in the US with no holiday and dodgy health insurance is unfathomable to me.
- And paid sick leave.

Don't forget the mode where it's anchored only in one corner and you freak out because you feel it will fall out any moment despite you know it won't

Wait what? IS THIS A MODE AND NOT ME MESSING UP??
- Yeah! It's the "you messed up mode".
- I feel like it's a "can survive, but please fix quickly" kinda scenario.
  I have no doubt the mechanism can support it. But used regularly will likely break something (where the entire fucking window falls into your room)
- It's one of the things everyone experiences but no one talks about
Wait, it doesn't fall like that?
- No, nothing will ever happen. Don't worry

In Poland these are common too. I fail to understand why someone would not install these windows in the first place

Because my house already has windows
- Bro. You should try linux.
- We have these windows, they are 35 years old and were most certainly not the first of this kind.
Coming from someone that builds them. At least where I live the mechanism is proprietary so it may not exist for every extrusion profile. Plus for big enough doors/windows the hinges to bear the load either don't exist or get expensive quick.
- I've got an 80cm door with double pane glass (of course) and metal-pvc construction that does this. It's pretty heavy, it'd have to be a huge window to be heavier than that.
That was my thought when I was living in Denmark. Why would You have windows that open horizontally to the outside in a country where it rains almost every day, when You can have these.
- Windows that open to the outside? That's bizarre. The ones I'm used to open horizontally but towards the inside.
Bugs. Lots and lots of bugs.
- Nothing prevents one from installing a screen on those windows.
- I thought these were doors. Them being windows makes a lot more sense.

What's with all houses getting those nowadays?

We have those windows in Ireland, they are generally made and designed by Velux who are Danish.

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?

My father was a sales & marketing executive for a window company in Germany. You can prepare for a long rant whenever he sees "those dreadful sliding windows" in a TV show from the US or Great Britain. Like every time. 😅

Me, being smug about how I can have a bookshelf on both sides of the window and still open it fully without a large piece of glass protruding into the room:
- But how can you stoßlüften your room efficiently without opening the whole area of the window?

I live, laugh, and lüfte!

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).

Tbf it's more of a european thing. I'm Italian and I've installed hundreds of these.

Also... Assuming Liftup windows actually exist in America and aren't just a myth. You.should be able to do something similar by jamming something in the window rail.

Standard swing windows though... Pray.

Sash windows are the common type used for American homes, though you'll find a good mix of casements (typically the ones you have to crank to open/close).
The only deal breaker for me would be casement windows that open outwards. The area I live gets a lot of bugs in the summer, and so our windows have screens to help keep pests out while windows are open. Sash windows and casements that open inwards work fine with screens, but casements that open outwards typically don't.
- Every home I've lived in with casement windows has opened outwards, and has had screens. They work just fine. I don't know where you get the idea that screens are more challenging if the window opens outwards.
  In fact, it's probably easier to deal with the screens. If the window opens inwards, the screen is on the opposite side of the glass, so to access the screen you have to fully crank the window open. If the window opens outwards, the screen is on the inside, and it can be removed or adjusted whether the window is fully open or fully closed. The only problem I've ever had is that if the crank is in an "up" position it can get in the way if you're trying to take the screen off, but you just give it half a crank and you're set.
- We took my in-laws back to my father-in-law’s hometown in France this summer and it was kind of mind-boggling to me how most of the homes had no air conditioning but also no screens on the windows to keep bugs out.
- I'm not sure how windows are installed elsewhere. But here usually you have a good wall thickness. It's not uncommon to have aluminum/ steel shutters that swing outwards. For privacy. some form of screen for bugs. And then on the inside casement windows that swing on the inside. Either the normal kind or the tilt and turn style shown in the post (I think that's how it's said in English).
  In this case it's shutters with adjustable slats to let more or less light in. A steel "grating" (not sure how it's called in English) for safety and a twin casement window.
- I have (in New England) a few windows that open outward and screens are just mounted inside rather than outside.

I always wonder why are they associated with Germany. Aren't they the standard in most of central Europe? We've had them in Poland since the 90s.

Because they were invented in Germany. But yes, they are the standard in most of Europe now, in some countries they are known as European windows
It's like the French toilet, I mean the Danish toilet, sorry the Turkish toilet...

I mean. Yes?

The handles of the current generation German windows even have a 45 degree position; the window is then opened on a tiny slid.

I love these types of windows. Just need to add some mosquito/bug nets are you're all set.

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.

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?
- 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.
- All meals in Britain are called "dinner" somewhere in the country :)
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?

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) :/

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

Undeniably the best window design I have ever come across.

Shtatus

I was fascinated with the older windows in Denmark. It's a simple design but has so many variations Unfortunately I can't find a picture.

I have this window in my bathroom and I'm from the UK.

U might be part german though
Are you sure you have this window? Because usually UK windows open outwards, where as these windows are opening inwards. This means in Germany they can have shutters on the outside.
- Yes it opens inwards.
- They are called tilt and turns in the UK. I first fitted one in about 1995, in a conservatory. I've fitted hundreds since then.
  Very, very versatile window but they also mean you can't easily fit window blinds in the window reveal itself because the window will hit it if you want to open it all the way. Though it's ok on the tilt setting.
  Curtains are fine, but if you want blinds then you have to fit them to the walls.

So if a squirrel falls in the window while you’re gone, it’s stuck there until you open the window the right way?

It opens to the inside.
- What if the squirrel is Australian?
To answer seriously: it is a big problem that if a cat tries to jump through the window and gets stuck there then it can hurt itself badly or even die. That's why responsible cat owners use guards like these:
- Can confirm my wifes family cat does because it was stuck in the window while they were out of the house.
The Germans will never be able to tell anyone, as they cannot pronounce the word 'squirrel'
- We of course identified that issue a long time ago and set our best poets and thinkers and engineers to solve the problem. They came up with an utterly ingenious solution that is in use to this day: das Eichhörnchen.
Squirrels are OK, but yeah, it is a subject that is little spoken about in Germany that once in a while, you'll have to remove a dead cat that got stuck, if you leave them open.
Quite difficult for it to get stuck unless it gets stuck on the edges. If that happens, you can simply lift the foot of the squirrel and it will be released.
Also, I don't know the situation in Germany, but here in Romania it's pretty hard for a squirrel to even reach the top floors of my building.