My parents had a hornets nest at different spots on the house several times in a row (they typically don't nest in the same place). Nobody was ever stung (and I've been visiting with my two small kids). Hornets are actually fascinating to watch, they would fly into the winter garden/glass house (where we typically had breakfast in summer), catch the insects who were stuck and flying along the windows/glass ceiling and just fly out again. Super smart.

As a side note, destroying hornets nests (and wasps possibly as well) is illegal in many European countries because they are protected.

German wasps are invasive and afaik only Germany protects them under the same category as all other species of wasps, which is funny because Germany has a huge overpopulation of yellowjackets. You can still remove a nest on your property if you have a reasonable cause for doing so.

I think that some southern US households like to encourage them, as long as they aren't in an area where humans can disturb them.

They kill all kinds of nasty bugs, and are pretty standoffish (as long as you don't get near the nest).

Piss them off, however, and your life will experience whole new vistas of pain.

Right, by European standards even if you live in a detached house with a backyard, any location is probably going to be too close, as you probably don't want to be bothered when you eat outside or have people over for a barbecue.

Obviously if you live on a farm, it might be different, especially if you have fruit trees, which should keep them busy.

Around here, they usually set up, high in a tree. You often can’t see the nest, until fall.

Yellowjackets, on the other hand, dig holes; often quite near houses. They are also quite aggressive. You can easily disturb their nests.

Also, I don’t think hornet stings are as venomous as yellowjacket stings (they probably don’t need to be). Being swarmed by yellowjackets really sucks.

I’d pick hornets over yellowjackets, any day.