Germany scorned air conditioning -- then came the heat wave

Ms. Mayer bought a portable air-conditioning unit for her office desk, setting off something of a tempest in a teapot among her colleagues.

“Everybody was curious. They would say, ‘Does it work well?’ And I said, ‘Hey, why don’t you sit in my seat and try it out,’” said Ms. Mayer, a business developer at retail startup Fit Analytics. Two co-workers bought their own.

Germans have always looked down on America’s fondness for artificially chilled air as wasteful, unnatural and wimpy. Rather than install climate control in buildings and subways, schools and offices will simply close if it gets too hot. Now, the increasing frequency of triple-digit highs have forced a national reckoning.

Germany’s Trade Association for Air Conditioning said that last summer, the second-warmest on record since 1881, yielded a 15% jump in sales to 200,000 units. That figure is expected to climb this summer, as more Germans rebel against the nation’s obsession with energy conservation.