Well, at least thats the way I would have responded to the question when interviewed. Maybe I'm dumber or more mindless than the average german.

There were say some 100s of people called by phone, asked a lot of questions about a lot of topics, one of them is "which do you prefer: summer or winter time" - I would have said summer (without thinking to much) because I like the long summer evenings too.

That has nothing to do with misunderstanding the question.

It is of course possible that the average interviewee is well prepared or thinks long and hard before answering without letting the wording influence their answer.

But you should at least consider the possibility that also the german naming (summer/winter) could influence some people (like me) in their answers.

(I think the wording can have a big influence (maybe because of my linguistic background) but you are free to disagree)