Blimey, there's been some crap spouted on this thread (along with much good information - thanks especially to PP who are German residents for putting things straight).
How on earth did it get around that Germany is not counting all corona-positive victims in the tally? What it's not doing as standard is giving all the deceased a postmortem test if they hadn't been tested beforehand. But lots of countries are doing the same thing - including Britain, no? And the German figure, unlike in the UK, includes deaths outside hospital. What's certainly true is that the RKI figures take a little longer to get into the system so are often a few hundred cases out because they haven't been updated yet. I use figures collated by a newspaper called Der Tagesspiegel which counts all the numbers issued by local authorities. Deaths are currently at 4642 on that site.
The one Bundesland which doesn't automatically count someone as a coronavirus victim if they have tested positive is Hamburg. But anybody there who has died after testing positive is autopsied to confirm whether covid-19 was indeed the primary cause of death. Of course this reduces the total number to have officially died of the illness, but it's certainly more accurate. But this makes a tiny difference - look at the link I gave and you can see that Hamburg has 4000 cases out of 145,000, and currently has 91 confirmed deaths.
Ultimately, in Germany we pay quite a lot for a very robust system, and that is becoming very apparent now. It is miles away from an American-style 'private insurance' system, as just about everybody gets insured (there are a few people who end up uninsured through loopholes, but it's pretty uncommon) at a rate that is dependent on their income. It is NOT true in the state-controlled system that older or ill people pay more for healthcare - the sole criterion is how much you earn and your capacity to pay. The unemployed, those unable to work through illness, in full-time education - none of them pay anything for insurance. My elder DD is nearly 22 and has never paid insurance as she has always been in education, so it's all covered by our own insurance as her parents. She will only start paying once she earns her own money (and even then the first 450 euros can be earned without paying insurance). Sure there are some systematic problems that could do with being resolved (allowing some people to opt out of the state-controlled system is an abomination, because the small percentage who are privately insured DO pay more once they become ill, and then they try to crawl back into the state system), but ultimately people largely get the treatment they need without waiting too long. And now we have 11,000 free intensive care beds, so of course anyone with breathing difficulties is going to be whizzed into hospital quickly before it gets too bad. There's actually an article in the paper today questioning whether patients in ITU are being put on ventilators too quickly!
Anyone who thinks Germans stick to rules has never been to Berlin. BUT, the rules have just been a lot clearer and easier to stick to, and I haven't noticed anyone indulging in the spying and judging and denouncing that seems to have sprung up in the UK (if MN is anything to go by). If shops are open you can use them as long as you stick to the 1.5 metres distance, and of course fewer people are allowed in at one time. If shops are allowed to sell a product, then you're allowed to buy it. No crap about is it necessary or not, no police checking bags and questioning Easter eggs. We personally use self-made masks in supermarkets even though it's not yet compulsory where we live (have just seen Bavaria has made it compulsory now in addition to Saxony and Mec-Pom), purely as a courtesy to those around us. I think people can be more relaxed with each other (not relaxed about following the rules, but about applying them calmly and with civility) because we know that our common goal is to keep Ro below 1.0 and protect older and vulnerable people, but that if a healthy person gets it nonetheless, they are very unlikely to die precisely because hospitals can cope. In the UK I suspect I would also be more uptight because it seems more of a lottery and you're constantly bombarded with messages that the system is overloaded.