It's only backwards for the last 2-digit numbers. Once you go into the hundreds and beyond, it's read from left to right. I think most Germans probably don't even realize it. They just recall all 2-digit numbers from memory.
In French, to an outsider, quatre-vingt-dix-neuf (99) literally sounds like 4 * 20 + 10 + 9... But most french people will think of 'quatre-vingt-dix' as a single word (90) not thinking of quatre (4), vingt (20) and dix (10) as 3 different words. This is especially true because a lot of French words and names have a hyphen in them so French people see the hyphen more as an integral part of the word rather than a separator.
I guess my knowledge of German is still too basic. I know in the hundreds it goes left to right so I assumed that it would continue until infinity. That is extremely confusing.
French and English are very simple and consistent by comparison; you just need to memorize the first 10 to 20 numbers, every 10th number from 0 until 100, every thousandth number from 0 until infinity (or however high you want to know). All the other numbers can be derived using the same simple rules.
In French, to an outsider, quatre-vingt-dix-neuf (99) literally sounds like 4 * 20 + 10 + 9... But most french people will think of 'quatre-vingt-dix' as a single word (90) not thinking of quatre (4), vingt (20) and dix (10) as 3 different words. This is especially true because a lot of French words and names have a hyphen in them so French people see the hyphen more as an integral part of the word rather than a separator.