&gt;Or is it historical? Have well-educated Germans better internalized the lessons of German history under Nazi and communist rule?<p>I don&#x27;t think there&#x27;s any need to play amateur psychologist.  From what I can tell it&#x27;s cultural from before the great &quot;isms&quot; of the 20th century.  My (German) relatives, who arrived in the US in the 1920s, were less likely to share their business with non-family.  That&#x27;s how they were raised.