I may sound like overgeneralising but this question has been in my head for so long.
I realise a lot of restaurants (even bars) in Germany are either playing music so loud that you have to yell to talk, or people round tend to speak really loudly as if they were sharing their conversations with the entire room, or both. If it is a Brauhaus, I understand, people are drinking. But even in cafés, or other supposedly quieter places, the volume climbs up quite quickly and naturally.
Another thing is when I am abroad, this effect also happens the other way round. You would easily find out German-speaking tourists since they speak really loudly. And when you notice so, they do not seem to care about how loud they have been either.
Am I just too sensitive?
I really don’t have any idea what you’re talking about, and think you may just have… visited loud places? Yes, they exist.
Like yes, a place that has loud music running is… loud? No surprise there? Why do go there, lol?
Yes, if you’re in a bar in Berlin Mitte on a saturday night that’s just packed with drunk people… that is loud. I don’t see how that’s specific to Germany. Ever been to any pub in the UK? I usually can’t understand my neighbor there and that’s on a regular wednesday evening.
The bars I visit in Berlin don’t play music at all, and I wouldn’t know any restaurant that plays loud music. And I’m really terribly sensitive to noise.
Also Germans are known for a lot of things, but not necessarily for being loud? On the contrary, most people consider it rude. I’ve been to most of Europe and also abroad, and Germans generally are really more on the quiet part of the spectrum. Spanish expats in Berlin, e.g., literally the first thing they are being told is to stop shouting.