Late 80s/early 90s living in Berlin I took a few holidays involving charter flights various destinations in the Med area and recall being very surprised the first time when on landing all the pax started to applaud. It seemed to happen on every landing, both outbound and on return, and so far as I could tell did not seem to reflect the performance of the crew (either good or bad). I was told that it was a peculiarly German thing and was certainly still going on in about 1993.