Nice question, had to think a bit for this one. Also not quite sure about your "conservative" - I have a rough idea, though. ;)
1) The differences among German dialects are greater than those among English ones. Bavarian and Low German differ so much in vocabulary and pronunciation that a speaker of the former may in some cases not understand a speaker of the latter. I find that in the English language the variations among dialects (British, American, Australian, Indian etc.) are less pronounced. In my opinion, this attributes a greater flexibility to German in its adaption by local groups of native speakers.
2) Medical terms. English mostly draws on Latin / Greek in order to label diseases, and if you don't know either language, you have to guess or look up what the doctor said :D. In German, we usually have an equivalent "common sense" name for every "scientific" name, e.g. Pneumonie / Lungenentzündung, Appendizitis / Blinddarmentzündung, Bandscheibenvorfall / "Rücken".