Whenever I land at TXL or SXF in Berlin there's a sense of liberty. They are both very primitive airports, but I literally feel the absence of Stasi there, at least for now. People in Berlin have quite an intimate and visceral relationship with surveillance due to their recent past, so you can feel the counter forces of that in the atmosphere.
Yeah, Berlin is much more relaxed. Usually they just wave you through, and last time I entered the border guard gave me some friendly advice about renewing my passport and other documents.
Landing cards have been a thing since the 1970s; as far as I'm aware, it's only ever been EEA citizens exempted.
As far as I'm aware, questioning has got stricter progressively over the past several decades.
Canada was the absolute WORST I've ever dealt with though. Every single time, they treat me like I'm a criminal.
One friend of mine was returning from a conference in San Francisco. The border guard had difficulty believing that she didn't buy anything - as if SF is the shopping capital of the world or something.
The most invasive experience I've had with an airport was TLV. Though it was helped by the fact that I knew they were going to be thorough, they had plenty of staff, and the staff all seemed very well trained. However, I've heard that it can be a lot worse if you provide the wrong answers or aren't a white American traveling on business.
Other airports like FRA or AMS have been relatively pleasant.
They sure like their explosives/drug swab sticks though (no idea which of it is they always say diff stuff)
The only countries where I got treated in an appropriate, respectful manner at airports were Japan (both entry and exit as a foreign citizen) and Germany. UK (Heathrow) and VAE just had idiots and bullies for security and were my worst experiences. Which I'm assuming is entirely intentional. Going for the headphones even is really a bit stark I'd say.
Needlessly to say, I don't fly to or via these countries whenever I can avoid it at a good price.