NOAD:
off-putting - unpleasant, disconcerting, or repellent: his scar is somewhat off-putting.

Webster's 3rd unabridged (addenda in 1981 printing):
off-putting - that puts one off: REPELLENT, DISAGREEABLE {anything new is always off-putting and upsetting—Dwight Macdonald}

Chambers:
off-putting - [colloq] 1: disconcerting; distracting. 2: unpleasant; repulsive.

Pons-Collins:
befremdlich - (geh) befremdend
befremdend - disconcerting
off-putting - (Brit) (smell, behaviour) abstoßend; (sight also, meal) wenig einladend; (thought, idea, story) wenig ermutigend; (= daunting) entmutigend; (interviewer) wenig entgegenkommend; (job) unsympathisch;
it can be rather off-putting to see how sausages are made - es kann einem den Appetit verderben /or/ die Lust am Essen nehmen, wenn man sieht, wie Wurst gemacht wird

Oxford-Duden:
off-putting - (Brit) abstoßend {Gesicht, Äußeres, Weg}; abschreckend {Umfang}; deprimierend {Anblick}
befremdlich - strange; odd

related discussion: off-putting
related discussion: abtörnend (von: abtörnen)


web examples:
• ... cheese and malt whisky, have tastes that are initially rather off-putting.
• When I'm on a page that has ads animating, I find it really off putting
• Overall, I find Apple’s “we know how you should use your computer” attitude really off-putting.
• I've really noticed how much more advertising there is on this website since the last time I posted here. It's really off putting and distracting
• I find it very off-putting when people don't look me in the eye.
• I found it wanting for a plot, and the writing style rather off-putting. I gained absolutely no pleasure from reading this book
• it could be rather off-putting for the casual reader.
• Each book presents as a long comic strip, which will probably appeal to children for whom a lengthy text is rather off-putting.
• performed with a rather off-putting matter-of-factness
• the recurring explicit violence may prove more than a little off-putting.
• These images of obesity are generally negative - violent, off-putting or grotesque.
• Distracting habits, fidgeting and facial expressions can also be off-putting.
• Nasality: One of the most off-putting, abrasive voice qualities
• written in a cutesy style that I found off-putting.
• The cutesy-pie narrator is incredibly cloying and off-putting.
• many Americans also find the idea of needing to clean someone else's toilet pretty off-putting.
• Visitors may rightly find the take-it-or-leave-it attitude off-putting and feel more inclined to dine somewhere more hospitable
• Believing that great art belongs to the public, we find Barnes's possessive attitude off-putting.
• make the Hepburn persona more accessible to those who found her superior attitude off-putting
• said British politeness was "off-putting" and Britons were reserved, uptight and snobbish.
• gives the fine-wine business an off-putting snobbishness and preciousness.
• the stench of racism on the illustration's caption was rather off putting.

There are probably at least half a dozen possible German translations; I'm just starting with these in order to get the discussion off the ground.

The bilingual dictionaries mark this BE, but if that was ever true, I don't think it is now.

The word that brought this to my mind was actually 'befremdlich'; I'm still not sure if that's another possible translation, or if it's more just in the direction of 'strange,' without any negative tinge.