As a German living abroad and having lived in the past view years in a lot of different countries, in my opinion, Germany is way above average when it comes to cycling safety and infrastructure. Of course, there are busy roads and reckless drivers, but there are idiots all around the globe (as I said, I get around ;)).
A few points regarding that:
- Having cycling paths in the first place and an extensive cycling network is a luxury no every country has
- Germans think their roads have a bad surface - well, try riding in the UK or US. There is a reason gravel bikes are popular around there. I’ve seen roads that consisted of 50% of tarmac and 50% of potholes. That is sometimes scary and sketchy.
- There is a cycling culture in Germany and car drivers are used to seeing cyclists and (most of them) know how to handle it and follow road rules. In other countries the rule is: The bigger party (car) has the right of way
- Germany has a huge road network, therefore it’s most of the time possible to avoid busy roads (not totally, but mainly). Since you seem to be from the Starnberg area: For example Munich to Starnberg most of the cars are on the Autobahn, you can take either the “Alte Olympia Strasse” (a road next to the Autobahn) or through the car-free forest path through the Forstenrieder Wald to get there. My point being, there are so many agricultural ways and small country roads with good tarmac where you can have a pretty relaxed ride. In New Zealand for example you have one highway from A to B and you share your lane with a lot of trucks driving full speed.
My point is not that cycling in Germany is perfect (it’s not the Netherlands), but in a global context, I find the picture that get’s painted here overly negative. Sharing the road with other people always includes a risk.
Riding maybe, stopping with an expensive bike might be a different story 
(I apologize for that bad joke - couldn’t resist)