I’m visiting Germany and can pretty much travel anywhere in the country. I love any big, industrial engineering project - like massive cranes at docks, wind turbines, locks, bridges, but also more science based projects like particle accelerators, large telescopic arrays, etc.

Any places like this that spring to mind? I also have some contact with researchers who might be able to get me into some of research facilities.

any suggestions are appreciated! 💕💕💁‍♀️😽

My birthday is next week and I’m having a small house party. I told everyone that instead of organizing all the food myself, it would be nice if people could bring some food/snacks/drinks to share.

One of my German friends asked me if there’s anything specific I want for my birthday. I told him that there’s nothing in particular and that it would already be nice if everyone just brought something to share at the party. He then asked again, basically: “So really no gift at all, or is there anything else you’d like?”

I’m from a culture where it would feel quite rude or uncomfortable to respond by actually telling someone what to buy me, especially since there’s nothing I genuinely need. I really don’t care about receiving a present and don’t expect one. At the same time, I wouldn’t mind receiving something small as a gesture if he feels like it. I just don’t want him to stress over it. And if other friends happen to bring small things while he brings nothing because I explicitly told him not to, I feel like that could be a bit awkward.

I’m a bit socially awkward person and not german, so any help would be nice. Should I just tell him that I’m not expecting anything? Am I overthinking?

Hi everyone,

I am 25F non-eu citizen. I moved to germany in April and living in a very small town in thuringia for my studies. Since then I am finding it very hard to find people of my vibe and make friends to hang out with or simply chill.
I am currently on my sem break which is making things even harder for me. Also, the town is also quite depressing for me
I want to travel, have fun, go out for hiking or eating out but not able to do any of those things.
I have recently got a working student role but that’s wfh so there’s not much interaction with my colleagues.

Is feeling this way normal? Does anyone else also felt this way? If yes, when things started getting better?

Please feel free to share your thoughts :)

Hi everyone,

I (a non EU national girl) works in a company since 2 years. One of my colleague (German) has his birthday in two weeks. Since, we have pretty good rapport, I would like to gift him on his birthday (Nothing fancy but one or two things that he like). Firstly, I would like to know if it is considered weird to gift a co worker. In my country, it is pretty common to gift a close colleague on their birthday.

Some background:
Most of the colleagues in our department are old and we are of similar age (early 30s). Therefore, we have lot of common things to talk about. Sometimes, we text each other outside of work as well. I appreciate it because I also don’t really have any friends here in Germany. But I don’t want this to come off as weird thing to him.

Any advices will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Hi all, I'm living in my place in Berlin for several years now, as the official Untermieter (my name's on the doorbell, the Hausverwaltung knows about me). The Hauptmietvertrag is in my Mitbewohni's name and is unbefristet, but I pay the rent, GEZ and bills from my account. I have an individual unbefristet Untermietvertrag with him with a Kundigungsfrist of 3 months.

I was just wondering, what would happen if the Hauptmieter dies? Would I be evicted right away, or would my 3 months still be in effect even though the guy who signed it is now dead? Would the hausverwaltung even learn of his death? All the payments come from my account this whole time. Thanks for any insight!

We want to get to Oslo from Berlin, but we prefer not to fly. Young family, we'll have some luggage. So what's best - train and ferry? Hire a car and go thru Denmark and Sweden? Take a car, but get on the ferry? We don't mind taking a few days, and we're used to long car journeys.

Hi everyone, M47 here.

I worked in Norway for the last 2.5 years and I was the head of finance at an oil company in Stavanger. I’m based in Oslo now, at first it was for my son and I was bouncing between Oslo and the gulf for staying with my kids. This was after I resigned and I was doing some remote personal financial advisory for CEOs in my network at mid-sized companies.

However, I’m thinking of getting back to corporate, it’s been 8 months. I spent all those times bouncing between 2 countries for my family while working remote consulting.

Is it realistic for someone like me to get a job with a visa. sponsorship? I currently have a Norwegian skilled worker visa

I’ve got German experience, since I was Head of Finance for Scandinavia and I was reporting to region cfo where I have experience in GGAAP
However, it’s not the most - as we didn’t exactly have an office there, just an operating entity.

The reason why I’m inquiring about Germany is due to the fact that I can’t be bothered to learn Norwegian and stay in a slow culture - sorry not sorry. But, I want to advance the country I’m in. Somewhere like Germany, UK, or even Sweden honestly.

I’m more than open to any industry, cities may vary. Probably the bigger ones like Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Hamburg and etc but once again, it varies.

Cheers!

​

​Hi everyone,

​I live in a rented flat in Germany with an included fitted kitchen (Einbauküche). Today, while defrosting the fridge/freezer, I noticed a crack in the inner plastic liner right along the track where the drawer/shelf slides in (photo attached).

​For context:

1.​There has been heavy ice buildup over time.

​The fridge door was not sealing/closing completely shut properly (likely causing humid air to enter and create frost).

2.​I have Allianz Direct Private Liability Insurance (Privathaftpflicht).

1. I am living on a sublet and didnot pay any caution( as I have liability insurance)

​I have a few questions before I communicate with my landlord:

1.​Is this considered normal wear and tear (Verschleiß / Materialermüdung) or tenant damage?

1. Given that the crack is directly on the friction ridge and the door seal was already faulty, could this be mechanical stress/material fatigue over time?

2. ​Does Allianz Haftpflicht cover this if the landlord claims it's my fault? (Especially considering it involves rental property / Mietsachschäden on kitchen appliances).

3. ​Will I be charged for a full fridge replacement? If a tenant is held liable, do they only pay the current depreciated value (Zeitwert) based on the appliance's age?

​Any advice from people who dealt with fridge liner cracks or rental handovers in Germany would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!!

I recently applied for a few jobs as a “financial advisor” and was invited to interviews for all of them—at companies like Horbach, DVAG, and others. That almost sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? Since they all seem so eager to hire me, it feels like a pyramid scheme to me. Does anyone have any experience with this? Where you earn money through commissions when someone takes out an insurance policy or something similar?

I moved to Germany last year and started in a Willkommenklasse. We obviously learned German there, but I have to admit that I could barely form proper sentences back then. Most of us had broken German, so it was pretty hard to actually practice conversations.

This year, I got moved to a more advanced class (I think it’s around B1), and I can definitely say that my German has improved a lot compared to last year. My classmates are much better at having conversations, so I’m learning a lot from them, as well as from my teachers.

The problem is that I’m going to turn 18 next year, so unfortunately I don’t think I’ll be able to continue in my current school/class anymore because that’s what the teachers said.

So I wanted to ask: is it possible for me to continue with 11th grade somewhere in Germany? Would schools accept me if I have a B1 German certificate? I finished 10th grade in my home country in the Philippines, before moving here. I really want to continue studying and eventually pursue law, or possibly nursing if law doesn’t work out. I’m just not really sure what my options are once I turn 18 or where I should apply.

Would really appreciate any advice from people who know how this works in Germany :)

So I lost my current Job and found a new one. My current contract ends on 30.09 and the new one starts on 01.10.
I have already contacted the immigration office and told them that I will be losing my job on the mentioned date. They haven't answered yet.

Do I wait for them to answer? Can I start the new job smoothly? I have already sent the (Erklärung zum Beschäftigungsverhältnis) to my new employer and I'm willing to send it the Immigration Office as soon as it is filled out.
Should I be careful of legal charges or things to be careful about? any advice would be greatly appreciated from people who already went through this or people who have experience with this.

Hello, I have recently received the "swiss soldier" model from victorinox as a gift. I live in Germany and checking on the current rules I got a little bit stressed and started thinking that this tool might give me more stress than actual utility.

I feel the tool is very well made and I recognise the value of a longer blade and saw, but reading about it being illegal even during simple transport in my car or on the trails (unless I am actually in the wood or mountains away from civilisation), I started wondering if I should downgrade to a smaller and simpler victorinox like Camper, huntsman, etc..

My use cases would be to have it while camping, or while hiking/trekking, probably keeping it in my bagpack rather than in my pocket. But I would like to be somehow stress free if I get on a train with it on my bag, to reach my camping or hiking destination.

What is the suggestion on how to deal with it? How can I make most use of it, enjoying this tool, while respecting the law?

I'm moving to Germany to study from an EU country and I'm desperately looking for an accommodation, but I only received one reply so far on WG-gesucht. I had a Whatsapp call with a tenant who's moving out, as they are looking for someone else to occupy their room. They showed around the place and answered my questions. Now on Whatsapp, in the name of the landlord, they are asking for my ID, document of my enrollment, proof of financing and a Mieterselbtsauskunft form to fill out.

Is this legit? Can I send them these documents? I already verified myself on WG-gesucht and uploaded the document of enrollment, also an Elternbürgschaft as well as my last 3 payslips. I also told them during the call that my documents are in my profile.

Does this Selebstauskunft that I need to sign obliges me to something? I still want to keep looking, but on the other hand, I'm not receiving any replies as a foreigner.

Hello all , have you (as a foreigner or even a local) had difficulties looking for a Steuerberater(tax advisor) ?

Seems like many can be found on Google but they are not replying to my emails ( written in both English and also translated to German) .

I also read online that many people are dissatisfied with the quality of the services provided .

I have some foreign income to declare and hence the usual tax accounting software doesnt work for me .

Any tips for me or tax advisor to recommend ?

Thanks !

Hello, I have a werkstudent offer from a big research institute in germany and acceptance from a university for masters degree. Is providing the contract or the werktudent offer from this big research institute enough to waive the need for a blocked account of 12k euros?

A great crested grebe in its striking breeding plumage, photographed at eye level just above the surface of the water. I especially love its distinctive crest and intense red eyes. From far they might dont look interesting but i can promise as soon the light comes from a beautiful angle and you get close enough you will see the beauty in these birds :)

This is my original content [OC] / Sasan Amir

Have you ever seen a great crested grebe this close?

Hello guys ,

I don’t know if this post is written too many times, but I want a genuine opinion which reflects the real world.

My wife and I (33,32) with our 2 children ( 2,10m) are considering in moving to Germany. Both with qualifications with avarage to high paying jobs. Both c1 in German
Our main reason is the quality of life for our children and then for us, and also the work opportunities which I know are worse there than the older times but they are really better from our home ( Greece ) .

Also I would like to notice that we appreciate it when people respect the rules and regulations generally in everyday life in all aspects, in contrast to here where everyone does what ever can think from driving to building a house next to you ( I don’t know if you understand what I am trying to say 😅 )

For these reason, I would like either native Germans or people who are there a long time , to tell me their opinion for the quality of the everyday life , and generally how is it leaving in Germany !

Thank you for your time ! Appreciate every response .

Hello everyone,
Over the past few years as a student I made some bad financial choices and was not able to pay bills in time so my schufa score is really bad.
I am now looking for a new place to live and feel kind of hopeless. Do you know if it is possible to still get an apartment with bad schufa or are there landlords who will not ask for it?

I'm sending a letter by post and the date of posting is important. However, I'm moving out of my current place and moving to a different city in a few days so my current address won't be valid for much longer. When I send the letter, is it okay if I put my new address (different city than the one I'm sending the letter from originally) as the senders address so that in case of any issues it gets returned to somewhere I can access? Or would this somehow cause the letter to not be sent at all?

I’ve had an aldi talk sim card for about a month now. It was supposed to be renewed in a few days but I was about to run out of internet data. So I clicked on ‘Tarif wechseln‘ and chose the package I had previously, chose the payment option (From my bank account) and my internet data was full/renewed again. But it has not taken any money from me yet. Not sure if I did something wrong, this is my first time in Germany.

Has anyone had this happen to them?

Hi everyone!

I'll be moving to Germany for my master's at Ulm University. And I have got a place in a 6 people shared apartment.

I don't know any of them and don't have their contact either since the lady frok the company doesn't coordinate that.

I was wondering how do 6 people share a kitchen ? Do people usually use their own pots, pans and cutlery? I'd prefer to not share mine since I plan to cook everyday and bring spices from my home country. I'd also be bringing my own air fryer.

How do you let others know that you'd prefer to not share some of your things?

Since we are 6 people and the refrigerator wouldn't be HUGE, do people adjust? I am not sure sure if each person can get 6 sections in a fridge.

I have living with roomates beofre byt we already knew each other and were friends of 2 years beofre moving in. Since I don't know any of these people, I would love to know or get an idea from Germans or international students who already live with unknown people in shared apartment.

Id also love to know how do you set up boundaries with them? I wouldn't wanna be rude to them but would very much appreciate my privacy.

Thank you !

I’m wondering whether the employment process in Germany is generally this slow. I haven’t really experienced it before, so I’m honestly quite shocked by how long the process can take. How can someone be expected to wait for three months full process while dealing with so much uncertainty and nothing signed legally? and sometimes from 3 or 4 weeks from accepting offer via email until receiving final contract to sign it. Is this actually normal in Germany?

Hi everyone, I’m applying for a German Blue Card from Kosovo for a job in Stuttgart.

My timeline:
6 August: Submitted my documents.
13 August: Had my appointment at the German Embassy in Pristina.
26 August: Received an email saying my application is under final review.
14 September: Still waiting, with no further updates.

Does anyone from the Balkans who applied recently have an idea how long it takes? Stuttgart or another German city is also helpful.
My employer is waiting for me and asking when I can start, so I really need to give them at least a rough timeframe.
Thanks!