I think it's worth adding the fact, that not only the Deutsche Bahn has been privatized, but also the Deutsche Bundespost (mail service/telecommunication) has been privatized and split into Deutsche Post and Deutsche Telekom coming from the same policy.
As far as I know this all boils down to the fact, that the European Union (or better it's predecessor) wanted to get rid of state monopolies. It did work out for the "Deutsche Post" (more or less) and very good for "Deutsche Telekom".
But "Deutsche Bahn" was a failure coming from that policy.
It actually happened to me once, when I was in London dining in a restaurant. I wanted to pay in cash that I withdrew in Scotland and the lady did decline the money I gave her.
Pretty wild for me as a German doing a little trip through the UK.
I don't see the relevance of the account age as long as the person is engaging in a healthy discussion.
However, I have noticed that in other comment sections, such as those on „Der Spiegel“, some people attempt to dismiss the opinions of users with recently created accounts as well.
I once was assigned to a project at Volkswagen and had the opportunity to eat at their canteen.
First of all, the quality of the canteen at Volkswagen is top notch, every day you could a wide variety of meals, a lot of different vegetables and salads.
The only meal that was the same every day was the Currywurst made with the original Volkswagen sausage and fries.
They even sold them prepackaged at the canteen. With Volkswagen branding.
Texas alone is twice the size of Germany - which is really crazy.