Lately I paid for my meal in a restaurant in Vienna. In Austria, it is often said that one should give a tip of about 10% of the invoice amount.  Well, I wondered why… not only because the waitress was neither friendly nor polite…

Guidelines called “Knigge” tell us how to act in society in different situations. What is the origin of these “Knigge” guidelines?

And then I found this article about a German writer called Adolph Freiherr Knigge. He is best remembered for his book Über den Umgang mit Menschen (On Human Relations). Well, this book was not at all about good manners in the first place. Mistakenly, Knigge’s work was misinterpreted and is only known today as guidelines for good manners.