Not only are the gestures for Germany not offensive in Germany (“the fig” is known as an offencife gestere here though. Probably because of the Turkish influence), but the flag with emblem was used. The emblem is only to be used by federal agencies.
Or prior to 1990 to differentiate west and east Germany.
Also, I‘d say, depending on the context, hands in pockets might be perceived as rude, especially by older people. I‘d guess that the a-ok thing is also primarily considered rude by older people, I only really know it as a-ok.
Hands in pocket aren’t really a offensive thing in Germany and even less the A-OK gesture.
The hands in pocket is very complex though, it has to do with France occupation of the Ruhr area after WW1 and is more of a sign of rebellion. Before that it was used together with the uprising against factory owners exploitation and the start of unions. It basically means “im not working for you until you meet my demands” so not offensive in the common sense
When I was a Brit in school my teachers would often say to me ‘take your hands out of your pockets while speaking to me!’, so its more an etiquette thing rather than being rude, I’d say.
Also for some reason they took a very specific reason for the german flag calles Dienstflagge
I need to learn my flags.
Can a non US anglosphere person comment on the V gesture?
I’ve known several brits and australians and asked them about the weird little differences that would include this and I have never heard of this being used like… offensively, as in ‘I am going to win a war with you!’
I always just thought it was developed during world war two as a shorthand way of saying ‘we will win this’, not as a way to like disparage someone?
It’s understood the same as a middle finger would be, except more Britishly.
Growing up, the story was that it came from when longbows were peak weaponry and the French were chopping the fingers off of captured English archers - the V sign was saying something like “fuck you, I can still shoot you”. There’s insult/defiance/threat in there but it’s not like throwing down the gauntlet (to be clear, we don’t do that gesture any more).
See, I had heard a different version of that story which was that this is where the middle finger expression came from, that a bunch of bowmen drew with their middle finger, thus the French would chop those off, and raising a single middle finger was a sign of ‘fuck you, i can still send hate downrange’.
If you are in Britain, the places where anyone actually travels wouldn’t mind hands in pockets in the same way elbows on tables is fine. Outer suburbs and the Tory heartlands might get wound up if there isn’t a festival on but there legitimately isn’t much reason to go there outside of that.