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Strange, I'm living in Germany, hailing from Baden-Württemberg and now been living in Northrhine-Westphalia for almost ten years, and I cannot remember a single restaurant that doesn't accept credit cards. And I'm paying almost everything with credit card.

Sure, the ice cream stand at the swimming pool only accepts cash, as does the local discotheque, but restaurants? Never a problem.

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Munich was much worse. 3 lunch cafes, coffee shop, bar, and one of the beer gardens. Luckily I was warned and asked the places before I went.

Even the cab to the Munch airport would only accept cash. I had to walk across the airport to get it. His payment app was “not working”.

In Stuttgart it was only the smaller places. Although we made sure find places that took corporate Amex using a website.

Your problem was most likely using an Amex. Amex is accepted nearly nowhere in Germany.

No it wasn’t. I wasn’t working when I was in Munich and not using my Amex.

As a foreigner who lived in Germany for several years until recently, my experience is also that cards were accepted at 50% of places at most - often with a minimum purchase, and usually no contactless.

By contrast, in New Zealand even most farmer’s market stalls and pop-up espresso carts presume that contactless will be the main means of payment.

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