According to Osho, Germans are workaholics because they are healthy, creative people who love work—so it feels joyful, nourishing, and purifying rather than tiring. He adds that human balance naturally needs about eight hours of total, intense work, which dissolves worries, brings deep, rejuvenating sleep, and fuels ongoing creativity and constructive change.
They work a lot because they enjoy creating, which keeps them healthy, calm, and sleeping well.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Why are the german people such workaholics?
It is better than being alcoholics. They are healthy people; they love work. And work is a joy if you are healthy, creative. It does not tire you; in fact, it nourishes you. Work only tires you if you don't want to do it, if you are lazy. Then the Germans would not be workaholics. But in fact, the whole world should learn from Germans to be workaholics, because it is work that can change the whole shape of things, not lazy people. I am reminded of two lazy people lying down under the shade of a tree. It was a beautiful mango tree, and the mangoes were ripe. One mango fell by the side of one man, and he said to the other, "Can you put that mango into my mouth?" The other said, "Not me. Where were you when the dog was pissing in my ear? You did…
Beloved Osho, since germans make the largest national number of your sannyasins, what is hidden in their roots that push and drag them to that controversial relationship with you?
I am a German! And soon Germany will be the first sannyas land. No politicians can prevent it, it is just destined to happen.
Osho: I am coming across some conditioning that often makes me feel tense and frustrated. It is perfection, hurry, effort, et cetera. Is this a special german conditioning? I am german!
Gyanam, now being a sannyasin, drop being German. Enough of it! You have suffered long, your parents suffered and their parents; it is time to stop this suffering. Relax a little bit -- there is no need to be perfect. If God wanted you perfect he would have created you perfect! He has created you so beautifully imperfect. It is so clear -- he never creates a perfect man, he always creates imperfect people, because only imperfect people can grow. The perfect man will be dead from his very birth, because there will be nothing to do; there will be no POSSIBILITY of growing. Growth is possible because of imperfection, and growth is the whole joy of life; it is the only ecstasy there is. And God goes on creating imperfect children, but we don't listen, we don't see that God loves imperfect people. And there is no end to…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, WHY ARE SO MANY OF YOUR SANNYASINS GERMAN? But when one is in paranoia, afraid.... The greatest fear comes when your youth starts moving in another direction; that means you are losing your grip on the future. The youth are the future, and if the youth are moving in some direction, certainly their children will move with their parents, and the old generation will be left behind in their graveyards. It is a real fear. The youth are the life of a land, and when life is slipping out of your hands, great fear arises. But nothing can prevent existence from following its fundamental laws. After Adolf Hitler, I am absolutely needed in Germany! The wound that Adolf Hitler has left behind, nobody else can heal. My love, my people and their love, can heal the wound very easily.
Question: Maneesha's question: OUR BELOVED MASTER, COULD YOU TALK ABOUT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A WORKAHOLIC AND SOMEONE WHO IS TOTAL IN THEIR WORK? Maneesha, the difference is very great. The workaholic is not total in his work. The workaholic is addicted to work, he cannot sit silently. He has to do something; whether it is needed or not, that is not the question. Now in Japan they are trying more and more for robots to work in the factories, because the robot can work twenty-four hours a day, with no strikes, no trouble with the labor unions, not constantly asking for a raise in the wages, no holidays. Robots are not religious anyway! But the workers are absolutely against it -- and the government is only asking them to take one day off in seven.