Will the cigarette smoking culture in Germany ever diminish?
I think it depends on the city as well. I noticed more smokers in bigger cities like Munich and fewer in the university town of Freiburg. As for a change, I think it is coming. Italy and Ireland have already banned smoking in public and France put a similar ban in place. The Germans were working on some such ban, but it got squashed in government. I still think it will come back in some form. I certainly hope so. Once a ban goes into effect it will be interesting to see how the actual culture of smoking develops around it. I would not expect everyone to stop smoking at once; but a few winters of having to stand outside of the warm bar without a beer in the snow to smoke might turn off a bunch of people. I also expect the health system will be happy to help anyone to stop that wants it.
