The Black Hole of Bureaucracy

"Pollsters at the Allenbach Institute say that as many as 90% of Germans had rows with bureaucrats..." 

One of the things that amuses me about Germany is the general bureaucracy you have to deal with just to exist here.  You have to go to the city hall every time you move to register yourself.  It took me an entire morning just to get enrolled in my university (this was with the help of my tutor.  Without her, I probably would still not be enrolled...).  At first it was frustrating, but eventually I got used to it.  Honestly, at this point I just feel thankful that I don't need to fill out a form to use the toilet.  Some Germans will tell you that there is an equally terrible bureaucratic mess in America.  But unlike in Germany, American offices are actually open most of the time.*

Originally, I thought Germans were unaware of their bureaucracy problem.  One only needs to spend 5 minutes in a crowded Deutsche Post to witness a German "getting in a row".  Perhaps this is just normal?  Like with awkward, the German language has no direct translation for the word convenient.  To a certain extent, I think it's for their own good.  Acquiring such words would be like eating fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden.  It would open their eyes and they would feel shame like we do and really, do we ENJOY feeling awkward/inconvenienced?  However, I was telling my German friend a week ago about my experiences trying to get the correct ID at work.  "It was you typical bureaucratic nightmare," I said.  "Oh, but it wouldn't be Germany without that!" my friend responded.  I then told her the statistic from the article above and she gave me a weird look.  Worried that I had offended her, I quickly explained that the article was from 2003 and perhaps the statistic has changed.  "Well, then perhaps it's gotten higher..." she responded.

Perhaps Germans are aware of this problem after all.  Just like Americans and our lack of media coverage of international news, the Germans are simply powerless to stop this problem.  All they can do is try not to turn into spaghetti.

*I will concede that trying to get any sort of visa to stay in the states is a terrible hassle and that's not even beginning to touch on getting a green card.