Yes, I lived in Germany, it's a throwback. But your comment makes it seem as though the Euros have some bohemian progressive outlook in the issue; this is not nude sunbathing, this is smoking, it kills people for sure :).

Don’t generalise Germany to the whole of Europe. As a Swede that just came back from a visit to Germany I was actually appalled by how much you smoke there.

I'm not sure whether you can generalise over Europe that easily. There's quite the stigma on smoking in the Netherlands, which has for the largest part gained a foothold after banning smoking in working places (including cafés and bars). I haven't heard of a Dutch workplace offering special smoking rooms so far.

Can you smoke in Dutch bars? One thing that I was horrified by in the Netherlands was people smoking right at entrances to buildings. In the US, you have to be 20 ft (~6 meters) from entrances when you smoke.

Smoking in general has been prohibited for a few years. Many bars still have special smoking rooms, but they are on the verge of being prohibited as well. Smoking near entrances is, indeed, still often allowed, but that too is getting more and more pushback, and the number of places that allow it is clearly decreasing.

Point being: there's a clear stigma against smoking here, and wherever we're "behind" in terms of pushing back against smoking, we are heading in the same direction.