There are not many vegans in Göttingen, and I find it interesting that the only vegan restaurant here uses the English language on its signs, and identifies itself with a (broadly western) set of human-rights ideals; it would be easy to imagine some other world in which veganism (in Europe) was packaged in terms of Chinese cultural ideals, or some Prakritic tradition from India.
However, in terms of what is available at the grocery-store, the situation is better for vegans than almost anywhere in the U.S. and Canada. I suspect this is, partly, just because the market for the lactose-intolerant is so well-established here (many of the soy products are for them more than they are for "us", as vegans). The other aspect is simply that the Germans care about fruit and vegetables year round (what's available here, in winter, is better than what I could get when I was living in France).
