h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

When I was in Germany last year, I stayed with a friend of mine near Nüremberg. The toilets in his apartment had little platforms inside the bowls. I was too timid to ask him as to the reason why *then*, and none of my German friends have told me the reason why. So, I'm posing this question to my fellow Guide Researchers, especially the German ones:

Why are there little platforms inside German toilet bowls?

-KK

All the toilets I have used in Germany (mostly in Hamburg and the surrounding area) have been bog standard (if you'll excuse the pun). I've never seen any 'little platforms'. I'm intrigued!

Germans are (without wishing to generalise), obsessed with health to the point of hypochondria.
These toilets are designed so that you can inspect your stools for consistency, colour, and heaven knows what else, before you flush them away.
They are known by ex-pat Brits as "sh*t and show" toilets.

I'm sorry, you asked .

You are not sorry that I asked. And since I come from a family of hyperchondriac Austrians, I am not very surprised. - KK

Well, you got it, that's the reason...

But Germany isn't the only country where you can find those kind of toilets... I'm sure I've seen some of those toilets in the States, too...

But keep picking on the Germans, I'm enjoying it! *EG*
(Living in Germany but not being German...hehe...)

No...I don't think you've seen this type of crapper in the states. I've seen alot of toilets here but no platforms...we americans (especially us lowercase Americans) care very little about health. Just take a look at our obesity percentages. Well there was that one guy...ummm...Howard Hughs. But he was generally considered a nut obsessed with germs. I bet he wished he had a toilet with a platform and a microscope, too!

Hi!
Even being a German I can only guess about the reason for your 'platforms'. I believe they are installed in order to prevent the splashing of your stools into the water. Don't you just hate it, if your butt (but/bud ?¿?) gets wet AFTER you peed into the water?

Ohh soooooo grafic!!

Sorry. Maybe I got a little carried away. It's true, though.

Wasn't it John Major who used this example to illustrate something in a speech sometime.

There is a book by Heinrich Böll - I think it is "Gruppenbild mit Dame" - don't ask me what it's called in English, where the teacher at a girls' boarding school insists on them leaving their excrement in the loo and not flushing it away until she has inspected it.

Quite honestly I don't care what the toilet is like. And I have also, on occasions, found it useful to be able to check for blood or similar problems without having to touch anything. I mean, blood in your stool is something very serious, and if you detect it you can do something about it. And it's useful to keep an eye on your children's inner workings, too, before they are old enough to say anything themselves.


TC, who enjoys clicking at red dots and digging up old conversations when she's bored.

Just put in some toilet paper BEFORE using the toilet, preventing the splashing.

Hi TC!

What a lovely after lunch conversation...

Isn't the paper in the bog thing a very british thing? and is it why so many public loos, even in 'respectable' places, are bowlful of paper and jammed? I've always wondered why people do that....

Lunch time depends on where you live. Right over here it's xxxxting time. Well, that was not PC.

Maybe you Brits should flush the toilet from time to time.

Ok, I stop now.

This being H2G2, surely it's always lunchtime - missing presumed fed and all that? Anyway, I'm in the same time zone as the Towers, so

I hate to ask this question, but how many people look before they flush?

I always take a quick peek, (particularly at the biggest ones); feeling a bit like a three year old, sometimes: "Mummy, mummy, look, I've just done a Great Big Poo!" (not that I invite other people to check it out...)

Is this wierd of me?

No, just natural.