Veirtel mean quarter. In this case, a quarter hour. Basically, classes at German universities (and apparently Dutch and Scandanavian as well) start fifteen minutes after the time published in the schedule. There are various explanations, but the most popular is academic laxity.
I never heard of that. I know when I was in Switzerland, things were on time. Italy was very on time as well (trains, boats, etc.) Middle eastern countries not so. Greeks, not so. The French - oy! On any given day, there could be a strike - it could last minutes, hours, days. Se la vie.