Most Germans speak English

Difficult, if you really do have that fear. I speak German as learned at school in the early 1960s, and as last used in Germany in 1975. I know that I would not get everything right, but I know that the locals would not get annoyed by my errors.

Try not to overthink it. Don't sit and put together sentences in your mind before speaking, just blab - out with it.

Even if you don't overcome your fear of speaking German, then don't let this stop you. Speak English, and if that fails you, use gestures and lots of smiling, and you'll get a long way. My 75-year-old father, my mother, my aunt and uncle go for a week-long vacation in Germany, and of the four, only my father speaks a little German. Not only that, they don't go to the big cities, often they'll pick a picturesque town with not that many tourist. My mother and my aunt will "plant the men-folk" at a cafe and go shopping alone; two little, old Asian women getting by just fine without a word of German, besides "Danke".

Same group of old geezers have btw. also been to France, Spain, and the Czech Republic, getting by perfectly using just English.

Bottom line! I know it can be difficult to overcome that first hurdle of shyness/fear, but I promise you it'll get easier, and as a tourist, people won't care. If you're going out to eat in any of the bigger cities, you'll probably be far from the first customer that day who didn't speak perfect German, and more likely than not, although I know this can be annoying if you want to practice, they'll switch to English for you.

So no more McDonald's for you in Germany. This time it'll be Knödel, Haxen, and Bratwurst ;)

Are you afraid of making mistakes? But how else will you learn to speak it better?

Start with a situation where you only have to speak one or two sentences. Maybe ask someone for directions or something like that. Then go from there.

Like the Nike slogan... Just do it. You will learn through it and have fun! I'm sure there will be friendly people to help when if need it. Just be safe & careful & have a great trip! :)

Well there are two aspects of this story:

a) Germans are a very strict people as you have noticed in Germany. The train comes on the exact second, they do the same routines, and they beat brazil 7-1 because they are that strict. So in that case, maybe if u don't speak proper german then they could laugh at u. And ye no one wants to be made a fool. But you are not a fool.. u have learned another language which few people in this world try to do. So you should be proud.

b) Not doing things out of fear makes your life 'boring' and boredom can lead to depression. So I would suggest there are times where you can get out of ur comfort zone even if people laugh at u. U r still progressing and learning.

c) If you are to speak 'deutsch' then you must try to have confidence in urself, because confidence is half of the key to any success you do in life. If you don't envision urself doing something then you already start with a disadvantage.

Conclusion: I can't tell you wat to do. But from this info u can decide.