Actor Matthias Koeberlin ("Die Toten vom Bodensee") thinks Austrians are funnier than Germans. "It's not a cliché. I've always experienced it that way. The Austrians are a few lengths ahead of us Germans when it comes to humor," said the 48-year-old of the German Press Agency. He appreciates that too.

"The German is often head-driven and thinks a lot. With the Austrians, more comes from the hips and from the gut. They think no less than we do, but it has a different lightness," he said. Germans tended towards melancholy. "And the Austrians laugh in the face of melancholy."

Koeberlin can be considered an expert for comparisons between the two countries. He plays the German part in the German-Austrian investigator duo in the ZDF series "Die Toten vom Bodensee". On Monday at 8:15 p.m., ZDF will show a new episode entitled "Nemesis".