Most Dutch people do understand German, as 71% of the Dutch people claim to speak German to a certain extend. This is because German is taught at school in the Netherlands. As well because Dutch and German are both originated from the West Germanic language, which gives them quite some similarities.

Can German and Dutch understand each other?

Dutch and German are two Germanic languages that are relatively close linguistically. ... Studies have found, however, that Dutch speakers can understand roughly 50% of written German. The Dutch do, however often learn German as a second language.

Is it easy for Dutch to learn German?

In short: yes. Dutch is very similar to German and if you speak German as you're sure to spot the similarities as soon as you start learning. Lots of words are the exact same in German as they are in Dutch, and others only have slight differences.