From reading here and elsewhere, in the US you seem to get a reasonable chance (and maybe even some recognition) for having tried to start a company (and managed to keep it alive for some time).
Here, you failed, so you will fail, so why should anyone employ you?
- failing is frowned upon in Germany
- I do not want to run that risk
- so I will not try to start a company
Thereby effectively continuing the mantra "do nothing you could fail in".
I think that entrepreneurship has got a lot to do with "acting in spite of" and would not assume the situation in the US (I don't know personally) to be like there are happy parties where people are celebrating crashed businesses...
There's probably a kernel of truth to the idea that Americans are more entrepreneurial and less judgmental than your average European, but the idea that, in Europe, failure turns you into a pariah seems like a nasty myth that becomes real simply through repeated mentions.