WAURIKA — Those of us with some amount of Teutonic blood flowing through our veins are aware that Germany has been bountiful in its gifts to humanity.

Germany is the source of bratwurst, Black Forest cake, spaetzle, German chocolate cake and excellent beer. The Germans gave the world the harmonica, the bassoon, one form of the accordion and excellent beer.

Bach, Beethoven, Handel, Schubert, Richard Wagner and excellent beer festivals? German to the bone.

The autobahn, the Volkswagen and excellent decorated beer steins? German, German, German.

Great thinkers like Goethe, Thomas Mann, Friedrich Nietzsche, Herman Hesse and excellent brew master Gerard Heineken? All Germans.

OK, there is that little, er, peccadillo in the German character that draws them toward militarism and rigid authoritarianism. But, hey, Germans can’t just sit around drinking brewskis 24/7, right?

Germans also gave us the concept of kindergarten, which has become the foundation of public education.

Well, a couple years ago, the Germans came up with an extension of the kindergarten concept. It’s for women fed up with their partner grumbling about having to go on shopping ventures. Thanks to progressive thinking, a fraulein who wants to shop ’til she drops doesn’t have listen to a man whine, “Is it time to go, yet?” She can drop off her male at Maennergarten.

Maennergarten is a day care service for men. And guys, before you get all huffy and go into macho outrage at the notion of “hubbie kindergarten,” check out this deal.

First, Maennergarten day care isn’t held in a private home owned by someone named Bertha, with three dozen screaming, drooling, snot-nosed kids climbing all over you.

Nah. Maennergarten is held at watering holes, like a bistro in downtown Hamburg called the Nox Bar. The only screaming, drooling, snot-nosed humans present are other grown up males!

If that doesn’t catch your attention, the “day care sitter” at Nox Bar is a dude named Alexander Stein, the bar’s manager. He provides a day-long service that includes: A hot meal; televised football of both the European and American variety; access to video games; remote control car racing; 24 hour news channels; workshops in using power tools; and classes in careful driving, putting and cocktail preparation.

And to make it even more attractive, the nominal daily fee of 10 Euros ($11.80 in American greenola) includes two beers!

Gee, fellas, this is Testosterone Heaven! Forget about Iron John and half-naked guys sitting around a campfire in the woods playing drums, searching for their “inner male.” Maennergarten is real male bonding.

It’s guys doing guy things with other guys in a guy kinda place, instead of a downtrodden male, with a “forlorn puppy” look on his face, being drug from store to store in a shopping mall.

Is this cool, or what?

Of course, I’m only looking at Maennergarten from the male perspective. Because this is a fair and balanced column, I presented the concept of man day care to a woman whose opinion and insight I value above all others.

Oddly enough, my wife Karen wasn’t as giddy about Maennergarten as I. However, she did see some value in the male day care concept, especially when she noticed that a variety of seminars and workshops are part of the package.

I think I caught a sarcastic tone, but Karen said, “What about a workshop on household etiquette? Can they teach men how to turn off lights and shut doors and lift the toilet seat and not run around the house in their underwear?”

Yuk yuk, darlin’.

See, it’s that type of unprompted male bashing that gives Maennergarten the potential to be Germany’s next great gift to humanity. Think how American ingenuity could take this German concept and elevate it to an even a grander scale.

Guys, how does male day care at Hooters sound?

Yeah, I know ... where do we sign up?