This is down to a combination of factors Ellers. The testing rate in Germany is much lower than in many other countries. Austria tests 12 times as much as Germany does (per head of population) and the UK 5 times more. So the real figure of German infected people is likely to be much higher than the official figures. There are also very big regional differences within the country - the former East Germany is now being hit much harder than other areas, Bavaria is also very high. These are the regions where the anti vax movement is strongest and where they are most influenced by conspiracy theories of one sort or the other (often having a political background). Germany has a decentralized structure which has been a problem - rules were different for every state which made it confusing as to what was allowed in NRW but not in eg. Lower Saxony. Too little clear communication, too much fake news. Different so called experts saying different things. News coming via Twitter as opposed to over official sources. Homeopathic medicine and the mainstream classical medicine are not very well integrated here with lots of distrust on both sides. The homeopathic scene is obviously sceptical about both masks and vaccinations but is strengthened by many others who are using this for political purposes - mostly from the far right. The anti vax scene is also very radical and sometimes violent here, with attacks upon medical personnel being far to common (550 physical attacks upon vaccination and test centres since the pandemic began). You have had an idea of this from a previous poster from Germany who posted on this forum - unfortunately there are many others like him. It could also be that because Germany had a very low death rate in the first stage of the pandemic, that a bit of arrogance set in at that time. At any rate during the following summer no plans were laid down for a reoccurence of the disease in autumn and winter. The present situation is grim - with the daily death totals being about the same as the UK, France, Italy and Spain combined. But even now you can drive over to the Netherlands without border controls !