it pretty much appears only in the given phrase and hardly anyone uses it
but most importantly is that this phrase is about crossing the street on pedestrian crossing with traffic lights while they signal that you should wait a moment
which indeed is frowned on in Germany, depending on region quite a lot
but jaywalking also refers to you "just crossing the street" at a place where there is no pedestrian crossing. Which outside of Highways, limited-access roads and similar is quite normal.
and sure if there is a pedestrian crossing just a few meter down the road it is frowned on if you don't use it
Like legally speaking there is no direct rule weather a car has to slow down or stop when someone is crossing the road. But if not doing so would endanger anyone the car has to do it anyway. And not doing so means you are pretty much fully liable for any damages this causes (assuming they had time to react etc.). Similar going on a street in a way which forces a car to strongly break isn't legal, as abrupt breaking comes with all kinds of dangers. For many situations especially small streets, low to mid traffic situations or situations with such high traffic that they jam this works perfectly fine without needing any "official" pedestrian crossings anywhere.
There still can be "unofficial" crossing, but they mainly exist to make space at the side of the street i.e. prevent parking cars blocking pedestrians from crossing. This matters especially for people with buggies, baggage or e.g. walkers. It also helps with visibility as small people like children are easy to overlook between parking cars. But they have no special legal handling and aren't loop holes or anything either. Just the normal way pedestrian crossing had been handled in most places before care traffic became big.
Through because "people aren't always careful", "crossing streets with multiple lanes is always a bit scary" and "sometimes traffic is just too high" and similar we have pedestrian crossings with traffic lights on nearly all road crossings involving multi lane streets or streets with 50km/h speed limit. Sometimes there are also traffic lights for things which are only pedestrian crossings, normally with a button you have to press for them to signal cars to stop.
Lastly there are properly marked pedestrian crossings (zebra strips, with appropriate sign) which are special in that cars have to stop if it looks like a pedestrian _maybe_ wants to cross the street. Not just if it would be dangerous to not do so. They are basically a cheaper version of a on demand traffic lights in situations where crossing the street without one can be hard to do safely while there is very little pedestrian traffic at the same time (e.g. on a street where for a long strap is no crossing with traffic lights but sometimes people have to cross in the middle but only a few times a day). Sometimes also used in situations where theoretically not specially handling is needed but due to idk. there being a primary school nearby it's done to add a bit of additional safety.
Most people also don't know that you're not supposed to enter a crosswalk when the "DONT WALK/red person" is blinking, or the countdown timer is running. It is supposed to be treated like a yellow. Finish crossing the street, but do not enter the crosswalk. Though I suppose that stepping on the gas is how drivers treat a yellow also!
Lady in a Subaru was REALLY mad.
Germany seems very strict compared to the UK. You can be fined €10 in Germany for crossing when the red man is lit!
It's actually more like crossing in the middle instead of the corner, corners are automatically allowed even without special markings, which from other comments seems like it's either illegal or frowned upon in germany too, right?
for the rest basically if you do it "unsafely" especially if there are children it's also frowned on but otherwise very normal
some more conservative place might also frown on crossing close by a pedestrian crossing even if there is no red light at the crossing because "why are you so lazy to not walk that additional idk. 20m"
but I have yet to meet anyone who expects you to idk. walk down 100m to the next crossing and then 100m back or something like that
and all of this is for streets where there might be a traffic light, for most residential side streets people all the time cross wherever they like without giving it any thought
and in rural villages stuff like children playing on hardly used residential side streets is not really that rare (important not the "main" street passing through the village even if it's classified as a side street too.)
My assumption for the first 30+ years of my life, after watching US films was that it was something akin to walking while looking suspicious.
I find the differing conceptions of 'freedom' interesting. The US likes to think of itself as more free, but they can't even cross the road.
PS fyi, its 'great'. 'grate' sounds the same, but that means a thick metal grid, typically on the floor, or as to grate cheese.
It's also not a word in the German language at all, it's just "crossing the road". If you do it safely grate, if you don't not grate and if there are children nearby unsafe road crossing is really something you shouldn't do, especially it it's just because you are to lazy to walk a small bit more (I think crossing a road close by a pedestrian crossing while you aren't allowed to cross it is also the only way it is illegal outside of the case of "you action counting as endangering you or others" (like actually endangering not some absurd twisting of definitions)).