Do you mean 10 cent or 10%? At least in Munich it seems to be expected to tip around 10%, but I do not think it is like in the US where waiters have no actual salary. You should get the exact change back and then you decide the tip.

It doesn't really matter @TomasBy, it was 10 cents, but still, it was not the amount that shocked me, it was the attitude. So you mean that if I pay the exact amount of money, then I will not go in unpleasant situations?

You have the right to pay the exact amount and I have done so in Germany, as well as paying with bigger bills/coins and gotten the right change. I think it is more to do with being in a place where tips are more common or a waitress who is brass.

So my experience was an outlier @Willeke, and the next time I will, most likely, not be treated that way. That can serve as an answer.

It did happen to me once that we (ie not myself but another member of the party) paid the exact amount using a credit card, and the waiter asked for/demanded a tip. This was in the centre of Munich. Generally you should not have to tip, but I think not doing it may give the impression you were not completely satisfied.

Well, I mean in restaurants. If it was just one drink you bought then that waiter seems a little special.

I just want to point out that a tip by definition is not mandatory. If there is some form of payment that is required at any point for a product or service, the word "tip" is an incorrect word to use. This causes great confusion in the US where they refer to a mandatory wage supplement as a tip, as people very reasonably assume it's optional since they call it a tip. Calling it what it is, a mandatory wage supplement, would remove much of the confusion.

This behaviour of a waiter would be a reason to complain. so it might be a common practise for ripping off tourists. There were attempts to make paying easier by avoiding small coins less than 10 cents, but so that worked in other countries it never worked in germany. And legaly you have the right to get an exact change.

@BerndWilkeπφ the waiter knew that were not from around... So, good point!

" only got the decimal part of the money back" - this isn't very clear to me. Do you mean you were owed for example 3.10 change and you only got .10 back and they kept the 3.00? This is what I'd expect you to mean but a previous version of the question and some comments suggest that you actually were only short by 0.10...

@Chris oops, mistake, updated, thanks! As explained in my first comment though, .10.

Thanks for the clarification. I think this is important because .10 really isn't much of a tip so it doesn't seem like she thought "I'm owed this .10, I'll keep it!". There may have been some policy of rounding. For example I know some places that say "We'll round up your bill to the nearest whole number and donate that fraction to charity" (though the places I can think of that is opt in rather than opt out). Your question is about general tipping policy rather than what might have happened here which is why I only mention this in a comment.

@Chris, again, as my first comment highlights, its not about the amount of money that she arbitrarily kept (to herself no doubt, charity/etc. are always displayed, so that it can be advertised as well), but about the attitude! As my second job ever was a waiter, it's really hard for me to imagine doing something like that...

@gsamaras: My comment is just because I am sceptical of your motive. If you keep 0.10 and both parties think this is the tip then you as the customer won't give any more. If they had given you the 0.10 as well the chances are you would have tipped far more than 0.10. This is why I think the amount is important because I really don't think that anybody would keep a 0.10 tip when they could reasonably expect a lot more from the majority of people. Its off topic though because you're asking about whether tipping is mandatory and this specific person's motives and actions are not directly relevant

At a tourist who has no idea, and instead of explaining and introducing him to the concept, you act !#@$#$%$#.

@ESR AFAIK in the US; it is still a tip, and not "mandatory" at all. The problem is more to do with cultural norms and expectations. Part of the problem is that tips become so common that the service staff rely on them to supplement wages, and thus when they don't get tipped, they have less money than expected. I believe most places in the US still require to pay the employees minimum wage if tips are insufficient to make at least minimum wage. It's really a voluntary wage supplement that is so common people began to expect it.

@ESR You misunderstand tipping in the US. It's not mandatory in the sense that not paying it will get you in trouble with the law as not paying your bill or mandatory service fees would be.

@AzorAhai the pressures put on socially probably outweigh any potential legal ramifications that could ever be enforced, hence I do not consider myself to have misunderstood anything and I stand by my original comment.

A question asked about a drink in bavaria at this time of year reeks of oktoberfest - which appears to have its own rules anyway!

@JMac "... voluntary wage supplement that is so expected people began to think it was mandatory" FTFY