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Rodney,
We spent almost 2 weeks in Germany in the summer of 2010, and we never really needed to speak significant German. Knowing basic signage is of course essentially required to get around, and knowing/using basic courtesy terms makes sense. The car we rented (2010 Audi A4 Avant with a 6spd manual) had a great navigation system that I switched to English, and that was indispensable since we did a lot of driving.
Speaking of driving...I studied extensively the German driving laws, signs, signals, etc, etc before going. I tested myself, studied some more, etc. This worked out great. One example that isn't intuitive: you're driving along on a country road with a 100kph limit; you come up a sign showing 60kph and slow down; you then come up to a sign showing 30kph and slow down and progress through a small village; now you see a sign on the outskirts of the village showing 30kph with a cross through it. What's the speed limit? Answer is 100kph.
So that's the type of thing you need to get used to in addition to strictly following the speed limits and rules of the roads...Germans don't tolerate any crap on their roads -- they'd probably flunk about 85% or more of US drivers. Example: tailgating is strictly forbidden. If you get caught tailgating (not using their specified spacing based on speed) on the Autobahn, it's an automatic 3 month suspension of your driving privilege. Same with passing on the right -- absolutely forbidden. Fortunately, there is no such thing as a left lane bandit over there. The fast lane(s) are ALWAYS vacated after they are used unless you are passing others continuously. In the unlimited sections (pay attention for "that sign"), I found other drivers displaying outstanding (shocking) levels of competence and courtesy I rarely ever see on USA roads. However, you need to be cognizant of your mirrors since even running along at 200-210kph, it was amazing at times to experience the closing rate of a car from behind.
Language-wise, it was only in the small towns and villages where we found a fair amount of people who didn't speak English. For about 3 days in the middle of our time there, we met up with Jackie who was doing a summer abroad semester and is fluent in German, so that was very nice since she could tell us stuff and communicate well with everyone. I tried to learn some German basics like you prior to leaving, but my then 51 year old brain wasn't leaping all over the opportunity. I had Latin and French in middle school and high school ages ago but no German at all.
BTW, the Porsche museum in Stuttgart is fantastic as is the Porsche factory tour -- well worth the time to go see. I went solo to the Mercedes museum (also in Stuttgart) one afternoon, and it was interesting (especially the lengthy time-line wall which covered WWII era Germany in more detail than I expected them to). The BMW museum in Munich, although very new, was somewhat of a disappointment to me. It's probably worth it if you're in Munich though. I wouldn't bother with the BMW factory tour and instead go to Spartanburg.
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Current stable:
2019 BMW M2 Competition slicktop 6MT
2011 BMW M3 sedan slicktop 6MT
2007 BMW 328i wagon (slushbox for now)
1975 CanAm 125MX2
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