The episode was one of the most popular of the series in Germany when it was first shown there in 1993.
When Manuel attempts to put out a fire in the kitchen, firemen were on standby to put out the flames. However in the next shot where Manuel walks out to alert Basil of the fire, two chemicals were added to his arm, to create smoke. During rehearsal and filming these chemicals soaked into his clothing causing him second degree chemical burns on his arm and back.
In 2008, John Cleese confirmed that he had been learning German for a while and described himself as "speaking simple German fluently now". Referring to this episode, he explained "Everybody thinks that was a joke about the Germans but they missed it. It was a joke about British attitudes to the war and the fact that some people were still hanging on to that rubbish".
When Basil is impersonating Adolf Hitler, he shouts the German sentence: 'Ich kann mit einem Eierlöffel Fledermäuse toten!" This means: 'I can kill bats with an egg spoon.' According to John Cleese, he once met two ladies, one of whom only spoke German with the other asking him if he could say something in German. Cleese spoke the nonsensical sentence again, to which the German speaking lady replied: "Wirklich?" ("Really?")
In the German dubbed version of the episode "The Germans", the dialog spoken by the German tourists was spoken in English.