It’s exciting to make air conditioning a big culture war issue, but in the case of Germany, more than being environmentalists, Germans are just really, really CHEAP (most will tell you so themselves).

You can walk into any electronics store right now and buy a mobile AC unit (for around 800-1000 EUR) Many Europeans just don’t care enough. Germans - and not the elite ones - just shrug it off.

I’ve been sleeping with a mini Muji fan on the lowest setting next to my side of the bed. I offered my (German) husband one and he just says ‘I don’t like drafts’.

As a cultural experiment I asked my husband (who is very much not an environmentalist) if we should get a mobile AC.

His response: ‘Why? To use it one week a year?’ He went on to point out it’s clumsy and annoying to use with German windows and it will just sit in the basement most of the year.

An American friend of mine checked in on her 70-something German mother-in-law who lives on the fourth floor of an assisted living home here in the city. She found her making jam(!!!!) in this heat(!!!!).

My friend insisted on getting her a FAN. Her mother-in-law resisted mightily. Friend wouldn’t back down. MIL relented and even admitted it was ‘rather pleasant’ to use the next day.

This is just a cultural attitude. Americans need to let it go!

P.S. FWIW I grew up in LA, in a 1930s bungalow during sweltering summers. It never occurred to my parents to get air conditioning. At the time, my (very American, also not enviromentalist) dad thought things like air conditioners, microwaves and dishwashers were for losers and sissies.