Dutch and german sounds to untrained ear really simulair and some people call it even the same.
so we mostly do have a clue what we say..
However, dutch people are forced to learn german at school, just like english.
Dont forget that the Netherlands is very tiny in size and it biggest neighbor is Germany so allot of procentage of our country is close to Germany,
for example i live 15 minutes away Germany.
This combined with the fact that here people are forced to learn it and that its similar langauge, its most likely that dutch people understand German people.
German have borders to 8 or 9 other country's, and the netherlands is just a tiny one of them, so its less likely that german people study dutch or live close to the border with the netherlands.
So no, its not the same.
And i dont speak german, i hate the langauge with its little confusing diffrences