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Nobody checks your ticket
German public transport runs on trust. There are no barriers on the underground, no one looks at your ticket as you board, and you simply walk on. The system is Ehrlichkeit mit Stichproben — honesty with spot checks — and the checks are carried out by plain-clothes inspectors who produce a badge mid-journey and are entirely unmoved by explanations. Traveling without a valid ticket makes you a Schwarzfahrer and costs a flat sixty euros, with no discretion. Two things catch visitors out. A paper ticket usually has to be validated in a small box on the platform or inside the tram before you travel — an unstamped ticket counts as no ticket. And city tickets come in zones, so a ticket for Berlin's AB zones will not cover you out to the airport in zone C. Buying is easy: machines take cards and most cities now have an app. The upside of the trust system is that it moves people fast, and services in a big city run every few minutes well into the night, with the U-Bahn in Berlin and Hamburg running all night at weekends.