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Any comparison between Germany and the US is invalid before you even start. Homogeneous population,
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Homogenous population?
Really?
Get 4 old german guys in a beer hall, say an Ossie Saxon, a Bavarian, a Prussian and a Saarlander ..... they won't even agree on how to drink beer.... never mind the millions of descendants of Turkish "Guest Workers" ..... the hundreds of thousands of Balkan War refugees that never left ..... Germany was not even a country 150 years ago, but a bunch of separate Kingdoms and duchys.... until the Prussians beat them into a formidable Empire ...... when they could no longer fight each other, they went looking for trouble......
There was a very real respect (or more rightly, FEAR) of the Polizei- as was mentioned before- they do not fear accusations of "police brutality"- beating the tar out of unruly or uncooperative ...... suspects ..... seems to be part of the job. I have seen that firsthand. Germans heard of Rodney King and said, "What did he expect? He runs from the police, risking the lives of innocent people....."
I lived in Germany in the late 80's to mid-90's ...... there were plenty of regional tensions then, and I am sure such exist today......
There was a cultural "sense of order" and neatness that I noted ..... everything must be done in the proper time, by the proper person, who was properly trained, and has the proper permits from the proper "-Amt" (There seemed to be an "-Amt" for everything.) * This seemed to stifle individual initiative, but their bureaucracy was so effcient, it actually worked, if you followed all the steps you needed to do to get anything done.
Guns are not common there, and armed criminals are dealt with very harshly.
*I noted that there were almost no pick-up trucks there: Germans hired a moving company if they needed something moved, where Americans will call a buddy with a pick-up.