Expat Guide to German Bureaucracy: A “To Do” List for Newcomers

Let’s assume you have found somewhere to live already. If you don’t, then I would first read this article about housing in general in Germany and this article for some tips when hunting for apartments.

German bureaucracy is a frustrating aspect of life here. There is no getting around it and some aspects of dealing with officialdom here are not as efficient as you may expect for a world-leading economic powerhouse, renowned for engineering excellence and flawless planning. Rather than complain about it, which I readily admit that I also have been known to do from time-to-time, it is better to be prepared for what is needed and to take the necessary steps in order to have everything done in time. It won’t make the system any more efficient but it will hopefully avoid any nasty, unexpected surprises for you.

Anmeldung

This should be the absolute first thing you do after moving into your apartment and taking a trip to the famous blue and yellow Swedish furniture store! Registering with the local municipality’s citizens’ office is not only a legal requirement but also gives you the piece of paperwork which you need to fulfil most of the subsequent points in this article. Anmeldung (registration) is a relatively straightforward process for EU citizens, which can usually be completed in 30 minutes if you have made an appointment online prior to your visit to avoid waiting times. Non-EU citizens (assuming you have a visa and/or a work permit) will also require a trip to the Ausländerbehörde (administrative body for foreign nationals in your place of residence). The addresses of both of these offices can be found on your municipality’s website.

Anmeldung is a legal requirement for everybody and must be completed within 14 days of moving into your new accommodation, although in reality it is difficult for the authorities to check this. Incidentally, this also applies if you are living with your partner or a subletting a room from a friend, not just for those of you who have a rental contract in your own name.

For a hassle-free experience I would highly recommend MyGermanExpert who offer forms translated into English and instructions on how to complete them. This service from them is now available for all German cities.

To successfully complete your Anmeldung you will need your passport and proof of address. This in most cases would be your rental contract but could also include a letter from your sublet or landlord, or a confirmation letter from your partner that you are living with him/her and their proof of Anmeldung. If you have moved to Germany to be with your husband, wife or child, then you will additionally need to provide your marriage certificate or child’s birth certificate.

So, now that’s taken care of and you have your bit of paper called a Meldebescheinigung (confirmation of registration), you can now attempt the other multiple wonders of German bureaucracy. Onwards…

Get health insurance

This one is probably the trickiest of all of these and requires some research ahead of the game. If you are a regular employee, then your payroll department cannot pay you without you having enrolled in a valid health insurance scheme. Unlike in the U.K., it is not a single-payer system which is automatically deducted from your salary. There is no German NHS. For Americans, the thought of “free” healthcare seems at first sight like some kind of nirvana. You have a choice regarding provider, and, depending on what you earn, also the opportunity to opt out of the public system and to take private health insurance. My previous article goes into more details around the German health system to give you a more solid understanding of how to go about this. In terms of searching, there are plenty of websites out there, one of the best I find is Check 24. It is user-friendly and allows you to filter the search easily based on what you want. Even using Google Translate or an online dictionary, you should be able to navigate it.

Find a Doctor

Now that you have health insurance, you’re ready to take a visit to the Doc. Germans use the term “Hausarzt”, literally translated as house doctor, to mean their regular General Practitioner (GP) as we would say in the U.K.. Some doctors may want to do a basic medical examination before accepting you. Whilst it doesn’t generally matter which doctor you go to for a consultation (the system is set up so as your insurance will cover you whichever doctor you visit), most Germans tend to stick with one doctor so as he/she is aware of their medical needs and can build up a rapport over time. Doctors’ surgeries in Germany are often on a floor of a normal looking house or apartment building and is not as common to find them in specialist clinics.

Open a Bank Account

DKB Bank has received a lot of good reviews, as have ING-DiBa, Comdirect and N26. If you have your heart set on a branch-based account, then Commerzbank is the most cost-effective i.e. it is free. Most, if not all, of the other brick-and-mortar banks will charge you for a regular current (U.S. checking) account, known here as a Girokonto.

You will need your passport and proof of address to open an account, and some banks will also request proof that you have a regular income, especially if it is an account which has as a prerequisite that your salary must be paid in there in order to benefit from some of the account’s perks i.e. no monthly charges. Proof of address will be your Meldebescheinigung, so it will be tricky to open a bank account if you don’t have a permanent residence in Germany or this piece of paper

Buy a German SIM card

Assuming you have brought your smartphone from your home country, all you will need is a German SIM card. Another strange and frustrating aspect of German bureaucracy is that you need to have proof of address to obtain a German SIM. Therefore without having completed your Anmeldung, the only way to obtain a SIM is to ask a friend to buy one on your behalf. There are 3 major networks in Germany: T-Mobile, Vodafone and E-Plus (now part of Telefonica, including O2). There are hundreds of operators which use these networks to offer differing packages. T-Mobile has the best overall coverage and E-Plus the worst.

Set Up Direct Debits For Rent

Many landlords will demand this and may even write it into your contract, to ensure the risk of them not getting paid on time is as low as it can be. Without a bank account, and ergo, without a valid Anmeldung, you will not be able to do this. Don’t worry too much though because if it takes a few weeks, it’s not the end of the world. You can always make a manual or cash payment until you have got this set up if it takes a while for you to get your bank account up and running.

Get Contents Insurance for your Apartment

Not an absolute must-have and I have to admit it took me over a year to sort this out! Good job I didn’t have much valuable in my apartment at the time. Hausratsversicherung is nonetheless recommended, especially if you live in a dodgier part of town or have a ground floor apartment. You can get this through your bank but are better off looking online through a broker such as Check 24.

Learn German Apps: 15 Great Resources To Help You

The final part of my “Learn German” series of blog posts, this one covers the final piece of the jigsaw and concentrates on Learn German Apps. If you have Podcasts, Apps and a bit of motivation along the way, the only missing ingredients are an environment in which to speak the language regularly, or as a minimum to listen to news or radio in German. Admittedly, “German for Germans” is more useful tool for intermediate and advanced learners but even for beginners, it will give you a feel for the structure and sound of the language. Even if you do not immediately notice it, subconsciously it will embed itself in your brain’s thought process and you will over time pick up words which you didn’t think you understood.

So with that said, here are the Learn German Apps with which I believe satisfies a broad spectrum of levels and needs. I have tried to pick something for both beginners and more intermediate learners, as well as a mixture of pure reference databases as well as Apps which encourage more interactive language learning rather than merely acting as a grammatical or vocabulary reference point. Let’s get started.

NOTE: The screenshots are from my App Store account in Germany. I assume that all of these are available on Android but I have not checked every one of them. Please leave a comment if any of them are not so as I can update the article. Every day is a school day. Thanks

Featured Learn German Apps

1. German Dictionary and Translator

Cost: Free

In-App Premium Features for €9.99

I am happy to promote this product because I find it such an innovative idea in such a crowded space. Of course, some of the Apps listed below do certain aspects of what this App does more comprehensively, as you might expect, but to have everything in one place is really powerful. Not to mention that all of the In-App extras in total cost less than €10. When you consider that a phrase book, dictionary and verb conjugator in a traditional bookstore will probably cost you at least double, probably triple that, and then you add in the convenience of having everything in one App on your smartphone, I really think this is a great value product. The team at VidaLingua gave me access to all of the In-App premium extras and I was really impressed. As a fluent German speaker, I tested it to see its limits and can conclude that it is very solid. I’ve used some pretty awful App dictionaries on holiday in the past and have been let down on several occasions. Unless you need a C1/C2 level dictionary (in which case, buy number 3 below – there is a reason for the cost difference), this will not let you down.

2. Phrase Mates

Cost: Free

Another great, innovative App, particularly useful to those of you who will be travelling beyond Germany, perhaps on a long weekend to a neighbouring country, and want to have useful phrases at their fingertips in more than one language. A lot of these features are only available online, so it will use up your data, but with roaming charges soon to be a thing of the past within the EU, this will become less of an impediment. A neat feature is that it allows you to request a phrase from the community of online users if it is not already in the database.

Dictionaries

3. dict cc

Cost: Free online version

In-App Purchase for offline access €9.99

This is an online dictionary which is free for the basic version but once must be online to access it. The offline version comes at a premium of €5,99 through an in-app purchase. Clearly this is not the academic reference manual that Langenscheid is. However, if you are looking for a solid dictionary and are not fussed about using data to access it if you’re not within wifi range, this is a very solid product.
 

4. German English Speaking Dictionary – Nifty Words

Cost: €2.99

I have personally used this app since 2010 and I think it’s great value at €2.99. For 90% of my needs I find that the word range covers my requirements. Very rarely do I have to refer to my big thick German dictionary on my bookshelf. If you don’t need offline access then dict cc is the best choice as a “freemium” product, otherwise I fully recommend this App as the best value-for-money product.

5. German <> English Talking Dictionary

Cost: €29.99

If you’re really serious and not just learning for a hobby, then you eventually will need something like this if you don’t have a thick, paper dictionary. Cheap it ain’t, but if you want an all-singing-all-dancing resource that you will definitely use interactively, then this is the one to go for.

Vocabulary and Declension

The bread and butter of every language. If you don’t know any nouns and adjectives then you can’t conjugate the verbs to go with them!
 

6. 6000 Words – Learn German

Cost: Free

In-App Purchases from €5.99 to €13.99

No frills or fancy stuff, this one is a pure vocabulary builder. Take it with you on your commute to work or even when you’re sitting on the loo (!)…OK, maybe that one is only for the lads…and try to learn 20 words a day. That’s 140 a week. Do it for a year, giving yourself a few skipped days here and there and hey presto! You will have learnt them all. It sounds achievable doesn’t it when you break it down?

7. Learn German Nouns – Der Die Das

Cost: Free

To native English speakers, the declension of German nouns into masculine, feminine and neuter is one of our biggest challenges. It is an aspect of our language which has almost died out. This App gives a simple, interactive platform to practice your declensions and get your der / die / das right for the most commonly used words in German.

Listening And Speaking Practice

8. German By Nemo – Free Language Learning

Cost: Free

This offers native speaker audio which enables you to perfect your pronunciation. Something which is more important than you think in Germany, where often people will stare at you blankly if you cannot pronounce something at least semi-comprehensible to them.

9. Speak & Translate – Free Voice to Text Translator

Cost: Free Online version

Offline

The great thing about this App is that it is free. The downside is that they don’t offer an offline version, even as an In-App Purchase. Which is a shame, really, because it is a really innovative product.

Grammar Exercises

Grammar is a necessary evil when learning languages. Yes, you can make a hash of your grammar and still be understood to a certain extent, but there are also instances where if you use incorrect grammar, your sentence or phrase will be nonsense. So, dull as it may seem, there are Apps which can help you and even make the learning process more enjoyable…
 

10. German Grammar Free

Cost: Free

Premium Version €4.99

Great tool for beginners for those seeking something more interactive. It consists of a series of 7 multiple choice questions and you can choose from levels 1 to 6. Even level 6 is not getting anywhere near intermediate level, so beginners who aren’t complete novices would also feel comfortable with this. From what I can tell, the only difference between the Free and Premium version is that you eliminate the rather annoying request to sign up for their Facebook group at the end of each exercise.
 

11. Deutsche Pro Grammatik

Cost: Free

Premium Version: € 2.99

A useful course and reference in basic German grammar for beginners, covering the stuff which is typically required for A1/A2 level. Unlike the App above, you do have reference tables to refer to before taking the quizzes. Because it is 100% offline, this is convenient if you want to learn somewhere without a wifi connection without using up your data. Again, as far as I can tell, the Premium version just means ad-free and no difference in the content.

Verbs

Verbs are tough in German. There are a lot of irregular verbs and many of them do not follow any logical structure. Old-fashioned as it may sound, my teacher at school forced me to commit around 50 German verbs to memory. It worked and it is necessary. If you’re going to live here, I would say you need a minimum of 100 in your “verb bank”, at least for the most common forms and tenses, if you are ever to achieve a degree of fluency. The good news is that there are some fantastic tools to help you.
 

12. German Verbs Conjugator

Cost Free

Premium Version (without ads) €0.99

All I can say is, respect to the guy who created this. It is a free App with ads and to upgrade to get rid of them is the price of a chocolate bar.  It covers a whopping 1,500 German verbs in all of the most important tenses. You will not find much better value than this in the App Store for language learning. It is a fantastic resource, especially as a quick reference guide for intermediate and advanced learners who just need to check a tense or refer to a verb table which they may have forgotten.
 

13. German Verbs Trainer

Cost: Free

Audio and Quiz as In-App Purchase for €4.99

This actually covers less verbs than the App above, however, the App has been put together much more interactively and it facilitates language learning through its audio and quiz function in a more fun way, as opposed to commit-to-memory learning. My advice would be, if you want a simple reference point or a freebie, download the German Verbs Conjugator listed above. However, if you’re looking for a true learning experience, go for the premium version of this App.
 

Generic Language Learning Apps Featuring German

14. Duolingo

Cost: Core Content Free

Duolingo is the darling of the tech start-up scene and has been featured on a few business podcasts, as well as being labelled as “Essentials” in the Apple App Store and claiming to be the most downloaded education App. The format and layout is very innovative and conducive to incentivisation, focusing on trying to get you to spend 5-10 minutes per day learning. Yes, there are In-App purchases but yet it is fundamentally a free app. A good friend of mine is a modern languages teacher at a secondary school back in the UK and he also speaks very highly of it.
 

15. Busuu

Cost: Basic Content Free

Various In-App Purchases from €6.99 to €64.99

Busuu has a social feature which allows you to get your exercises corrected by a native speaker. I had barely been online 5 minutes when i had a request from somebody in Colombia asking me for assistance with English. If you’re happy to take the time to reciprocate, this is a fantastic tool. The main drawback to Busuu is that, unlike Duolingo, the free stuff is quite limited and you need the premium version to get the most out of it. Rolling monthly subscription is €9.99, which drops substantially to €5.42 per month if you subscribe for a year and pay the €64.99 in advance. Otherwise it is a worthy competitor to Duolingo with an interactive, user-friendly interface.
 
What’s your favourite? Is there an App which you use that you can’t live without and isn’t on this list? It would be great to keep updating the content as new products get launched so as readers can keep referring to the article. Please comment and share and good luck with your learning!
 

15 Random Things About Germany Which I Love

Trying to narrow it down to 15 was a tough task. I’m guilty of sometimes having a good moan about German politics, some of the more stupid laws and the amount of parking tickets I get, which kind of detracts from the reasons why living here is great. So here we go, these are the completely random things about Germany I love, in no particular order or reason.

1. Clean, safe cities

German cities are usually bright, spotlessly clean and well-zoned. Residential areas are mostly well away from industry. There is plenty of green space and, with a few notable exceptions, very few concrete eyesores and inner-city motorways cutting off the city centres from their outlying residential areas. Parks and pavements are well-lit and one of the first things about Germany you notice is there is very little litter. There is still a sense of community, even in larger cities, with plenty of small, specialist shops. You can’t help but feel that a lot of thought has gone into urban planning. Unlike in the U.K., after WW2 a lot of German cities were painstakingly reconstructed to look how they did before their destruction in the bombing raids. Compare this with the ugly postwar reconstruction of places like Coventry and Birmingham. Violent crime and muggings in German cities are very rare and only the largest metropolises have a couple of no-go areas where you would not want to be on your own at night. In medium-sized German cities, this is virtually unheard of. Whether that will significantly change in the years to come remains to be seen.

2. Fantastic hiking and cycling infrastructure

If you’re a keen cyclist or hiker, or perhaps both, there are few places that are better for getting out at the weekend and into nature. Germany may not have the highest mountains for hiking or as dense a network of cycling paths as The Netherlands, but looking at both of them together it’s a pretty tough place to beat. The other great thing is that everything is so well signposted, especially in areas which have really made the effort to build up their tourist infrastructure. The Black Forest, for example, is so peppered with sign posts for walkers and mountain-bikers that it’s almost impossible to get lost, especially if you have a smartphone with a GPS signal and / or a decent map. The Bavarian Alps is also a hiker’s paradise with possibility to do hut-to-hut walks of several days’ duration. Long-distance cycle routes such as the Mosel cycle route, Danube cycle route and Main cycle route follow Germany’s greatest rivers, with barely a few kilometres each day on busy roads.

3. Beer

Beer, glorious beer. Sorry, I’ll try not to sound like Homer Simpson here but there are few things more delightful than a warm, summer evening sat in a Biergarten sipping on a speciality beer from a small, privately-owned brewery. Yes, we have the usual mass-produced rubbish here too but it is quite easy to get hold of the better stuff, and not that much more expensive either. Beer in fact is very cheap in specialist drinks stores, known here as Getränkemärkte, usually at around €0.70 per bottle for excellent beer. Bavaria, especially Franconia in the northern region of the state is most famous for its beer, and it is here where there are the largest concentration of what are in hipster circles now called Craft Breweries (except these ones are hundreds of years old and preceded the pasty looking, bearded chaps who think it’s cool to pay £5 for a bowl of cereal in a café). The German word is Privatbrauerei, which literally means private brewery.

4. Wine

German wine, at least internationally, is very underrated and kind of off-the-radar for all those who aren’t in the know. The German wine industry shot itself in the foot in the ’80s and early ’90s by aggressively exporting cheap, poor quality, mass produced wine (Liebfraumilch and Hock, anyone?). This reputation sadly stuck. German wine still has a stigma for being sweet and low in quality. The reality could not be more different.

The noble Riesling grape thrives on the steep slopes along the Rhine and Mosel rivers and is well suited to the climate and soil found in Germany. What’s more, German wine is great value for money too. Away from the top wineries, it is very easy to pick up a good quality wine directly from the producer for around €5 per bottle. Rieslings are usually dry of off-dry except for the more expensive, sickly sweet Eiswein dessert wines. I can also confirm that a cycle or a run through the vineyards is very good for the soul!

5. Piggy products

So maybe not one for the veggies but I have to admit, I do love my German deli products. It’s not quite on the level of Spain (mmm, jamón iberico…) but the pig reigns supreme in Germany. From Schwarzwälder Schinken (Black Forest smoked ham), to Thüringer Bratwurst (a lightly spiced, long sausage from Thuringia), all the way through to Mettwurst (a type of sausage meat which is eaten raw. Personally I find it the most disgusting thing after Grüne Soße). My favourite though has to be the wonderful Schweinshaxe (roast pork knuckle), served typically with Sauerkraut, dumplings and dark beer sauce, this is best ordered in a Brauhaus (a brewery restaurant). The perfect ending to a long day on the piste, this is a speciality of Bavaria which is where the major ski resorts are.

6. Summer festivals

Throughout late Spring and Summer in Germany, it seems like there are festivals every weekend, regardless of the area you live in. They usually revolve around a specific theme: Wine festivals, town festivals, suburb / district of a city festivals, food festivals, beer festivals, even festivals celebrating a particular fruit or vegetable. These celebrations are well organised, extremely civilised but at the same time a great party and a wonderful opportunity to experience an important local cultural celebration. It’s a time where everyone seems to crowd into the festival, enjoy life and just have a good time together, young and old. No fights, no trouble, very few idiots. The first time my Dad visited, he couldn’t understand why there wasn’t a riot.  Oh yes, and I forgot to mention that you also get to drink from real glasses rather than the government dictating to you that drinking outside = must have plastic cups. Truly wonderful.

7. Environmental awareness

I admit it, sometimes the recycling system here drives me crazy trying to figure out what needs to go where, but the intention is the right one and the Germans have being doing it this way for over 30 years. I simply produce less trash. My rubbish bin gets emptied once a week, tops. And that’s usually because it is stinking, not full. So while most developed countries are slowly reducing what gets sent to landfill and implementing policy to drive more recycling, Germany is almost 2 generations ahead. If only the Germans would drink tap water instead of consuming so much bottled water! Oh yeah, and the lobby for diesel cars it turns out wasn’t the smartest either, but hey, nobody’s perfect. And things are going in the right direction here with many cities now banning older, dirtier diesel cars from their densely populated core.

8. Skiing

There are lots of countries in Europe where you can ski, and yes, we don’t have the glitziest resorts or the best ski slopes, but this is exactly why it’s one of the things about Germany I enjoy so much. People who want a cheap skiing holiday where it’s all about boozing go to Eastern Europe. The swanky resorts which are full of the posh London set with names like Rupert and Penelope are all in Switzerland or France.

In fact, many attract more people for hiking and spa tourism in Summer than they do for Winter sports. The slopes are well prepared and the lift infrastructure is well developed, although not the same league as top Austrian resorts. Accommodation, food & drink on the slopes, as well as aprés ski are all great value, even in the Alpine resorts.

9. Recreational opportunities next to major cities

Coming from the U.K., there are very few outdoors recreational opportunities in a beautiful, peaceful setting within a few train stops from major cities. One of the things about Germany which distinguishes it from the U.K. is that here it is pretty much the norm. Munich has its lakes, Frankfurt has the Main and the Taunus, Cologne has the Eifel and the Rhine. And the locals really do make the most of this, with an excellent infrastructure to support it. No need to run next to heavy traffic…hop in your car or on the bus / train and take your Sunday exercise fix along the river bank, the lake or through the vineyards.

10. Weekend trips to another country are easy

The central location in the heart of Europe allows for many easy excursions to neighbouring countries. South-West Germany offers easy access to France, Luxembourg and Switzerland. Bavaria sits on the border with Austria and some of the more rural parts of Czechia. Saxony borders the Czech region of Bohemia and offers easy day trips to Prague. The industrial far-western regions of Germany around Cologne and Düsseldorf enable a quick trip to Belgium or The Netherlands. The possibilities are endless as long as you have the time, money and energy to make lots of travel a priority! Germany has borders with nine countries, giving endless opportunities to discover something different, without the need to suffer airport hassle and the bright yellow plastic of Ryanair.

11. Integrated public transport

Public transport isn’t particularly cheap but it’s one of the things about Germany which makes life without a car manageable. It is extremely well run, clean, well-maintained, with frequent departures and efficient onward connections from the way that the timetables are integrated. You can buy a ticket on the bus and it is then valid for connecting travel on a tram or local train. It is also possible to easily take your bike with you on trains, as well as being able to buy tickets which give unlimited travel on all public transport in a specific State of Germany for a whole day, excluding InterCity train services.

12. The Bundesliga

Granted, there is not a whole load of competition to be top dog in the Bundesliga but everything else about it is magical. Almost like an advert for “make football GREAT again”. Most of the clubs are still run by the fans. Ticket prices are very affordable, meaning that Dads can still take their kids without having to remortgage their house. You can have a couple of beers in the stadium, the bus or tram to the game is included in the price of your ticket, there are very few clubs with a hooligan problem, stadiums still have standing sections and there is a very sensible 4-week Winter break from Christmas to mid-January. The only thing missing from this nirvana is a chicken balti pie at half-time.

13. Seasonal produce

This one would never have even dawned on me until I moved here but it made me realise how in Britain, we are blissfully unaware of when certain produce is in season. Every kid has visited a farm shop at some point during their childhood but we don’t tend to connect produce and its season together, which is one of the things I love about Germany! Everyone here knows that April and May is asparagus season, then come strawberries and cherries from May into June. The cherries close to my home, Frauensteiner, are the most delicious I have ever tasted. Sweet, big and succulent, I have been known to devour half a kilo snacking at my desk. Then come the berries, with blackberries typically the last of those coming in early August. Plums typically signal the departure of Summer, then as Autumn draws in, apples, pumpkins and the sweet, unfermented Federweisse grape juice (about 5% alcohol content) from the vineyards are everywhere to be seen in the markets and on roadside stands through the villages. With the onset of dark nights and the march towards Winter, goose is a speciality leading up to Christmas. You’ll never want to eat turkey again!

14. The Autobahn

This one needs no introduction. Every driver from other countries dreams of being able to put their foot down on the gas and push their car to the limit. Sounds great in theory but the reality is somewhat different. Traffic congestion and a severe lack of infrastructure spending over the past years has led to many Autobahns being prone to chronic jams and construction every 20 kilometres. Consider also that speed limits are indeed in place on busy stretches and in metropolitan areas. Nonetheless, even after taking all of this into consideration, there is nothing greater than the exhilaration of speed limit-free driving along an isolated stretch of motorway.

15. Christmas markets

Christmas is a special time in Germany. The cute, wooden huts of the Christmas markets, where the smell of roasted chestnuts is everywhere in the cold, crisp air as you make your way through the various stands. Whenever I am back in the U.K., I feel that Christmas has lost its magic. Just another opportunity for rampant consumerism to rear its ugly head and for spoilt kids to demand the latest toy or gadget. In Germany it’s different. It’s the whole ambience of the month of December and the feeling of celebrating a special time, where the old year comes to a close. Goose, Glühwein and good time spent with friends amongst the aromas of the Christmas market is a snug feeling in a foreign land. Even though religion plays absolutely no part in my life, I find myself in November looking forward to the start of Christmas market season!

What Is The Average Cost Of Living In Germany?

 
This is one of the most frequently asked questions on expat forums for Germany, and I’ve seen different variations of it several times on Quora too. The problem is it is such a vague and woolly question when formulated in such a way. It depends where you are coming from, what type of job you do, and how expensive a lifestyle you lead. What is the average cost of living in Germany is one of those questions which is very difficult to answer well because everyone has different expectations. A student will survive on much less than a senior executive. Nonetheless, folks obviously want an answer and so I will attempt to do this the best I can. Whilst it is a subjective question, there are some important elements which can be universally applied. Major urban centres are likely to have a higher cost of living but will also generally have more employment opportunities and therefore the opportunity to maximise the potential salary you can expect to earn. So what you lose through higher living costs you (hopefully) gain back through a higher paying job. The rank of essential items is pretty much the same for everyone, so let’s start with the most important:
 

Accommodation

Let’s start with the most essential of necessities – shelter. This is the single largest outgoing for most people and therefore what is most likely to predetermine how the average cost of living in Germany will compare to where you currently live. Housing costs are very dependent upon which area of Germany you will be living in and what your standards and expectations are in terms of accommodation. Most people in Germany live in apartments and if you live in a major metropolitan area, the pressure on housing is usually quite high. Because of demand and supply you may find housing to be fairly expensive, depending on where you have come from. For this comparison I am considering rentals rather than purchasing a property and getting a mortgage.

The most expensive city in Germany for rents is Munich, followed closely by Frankfurt, and then come the other major cities where the economy is strong, such as Hamburg, Stuttgart, Cologne and Düsseldorf. Berlin, which despite being the capital, had very cheap rents in the 2000s but has now almost caught up with the first-tier German cities mentioned previously. Whilst housing may seem expensive to some people, the quality of housing generally is very high. Expect to pay around €15 per square metre in cities like Frankfurt and Munich for a well-maintained (but not brand new) apartment in a better-than-average neighbourhood. This drops to €10-€12 in the other major metropolitan areas listed, with Berlin coming in at around €8-€10. If you are living in a smaller city or a more rural location, these housing costs drop considerably and you should reckon on anything between €6 to €8 euro per square metre, depending on the quality of accommodation. Leipzig is the best value of the larger German cities with rents on average at around €6-€7 per square metre and other general expenses also coming in lower than the average cost of living in Germany. This is because it experienced a huge population exodus in the 1990s, however it has now recovered from the economic slump after reunification and is now the main up-and-coming city in Germany with inward investment from Porsche, DHL and Amazon.
 

Groceries

Next on the list of basic necessities come food and water. Standard groceries are generally very cheap in Germany compared to most other European countries. The proliferation of discounters such as Aldi and Lidl have made the food retail market in Germany a very cutthroat business. Only the Netherlands and a handful of Southern and Eastern European countries have lower average prices for a standard shopping basket. Specific grocery items which may not be readily available in every German supermarket tend to cost more than they do back in the U.K., mainly because major supermarket chains tend to stock fewer items, which means having to shop at specialist stores. A good example are items for Asian cooking such as curry, bean sprouts, specialist sauces, and more exotic vegetables. If you are single, live alone, and eat out maybe once or twice per week as well as lunch at work, you shouldn’t need more than €40 per week for groceries. You can slum it on €25 if you’re on a really tight budget.
 

Transportation

Public transportation is of average cost compared to the rest of Europe and you will pay between €60 and €90 per month for an all-inclusive monthly ticket for the main city zone that you are living in. Running a car in Germany is slightly more expensive than most European countries, mainly down to the cost of insurance and maintenance. Car mechanics are quite expensive. The cost of petrol / diesel is in line with most other European countries but comes in around double that of North America. At the time of writing it is at around €1.30 per litre but this depends on the oil price. Taxis are expensive in Germany and you will quickly run up at €10 bill even for a very short trip. Uber does not have a presence in Germany: It was banned after a court ruled it violated transport laws.
 

Utilities

Utility costs are relatively high, driven partially by the decision by the ruling government to gradually withdraw from nuclear electricity generation by 2022, following the Fukoshima disaster in 2011. Renewables are poised to take the place of nuclear but are a less reliable as a consistent source of power, which plays havoc with wholesale gas and electricity prices. What does all this mean? You should consider paying around €2.50 per square metre if you live in an apartment. This includes heating, hot water, gas or electricity (usually you will not have both), trash collection, snow removal for communal walkways on the apartment block’s land, as well as janitorial and landscaping services. Phone line and fast Internet connection together will cost around €30 per month. For a full package including cable TV expect to pay around €15 extra on top of this. In reality these days with the era of Netflix and Amazon Prime, you don’t need it unless you want to use it to learn German.
 

Spending your Disposable Income

So what about the average cost of living in Germany for all discretionary items? Meals in restaurants are generally quite good value, although are more expensive than southern European countries, except for Italy which remains an expensive southern outpost for restaurants. I find the cost of meals in independent restaurants to be lower than the U.K., and similar to the U.S. but the quality is usually higher i.e. fresher ingredients. An (optional) tip of around 10% is the norm. A fast food meal in a major chain or a noodle bar or kebab shop will cost around €7.00 to €8.00. Work on something similar for a sandwich, small salad and drink from the supermarket or bakery at lunch time. A bit more for a sit-down meal.

The price of drinks is extremely good value, especially domestically products such as wine produced in the south-west of the country and the main beer producing area of Franconia and Bavaria. Budget on average to spend around €60 for a 2-course meal for two including wine in an average restaurant. Drinks in a bar are around €3.50 to €4.00 for a half litre draft beer and around €5.00 to €6.00 for an 0.2 litre glass of good quality wine. Whites will usually be German, reds generally Italian or Spanish. A coffee will cost around €3.00 in a local coffee shop or major chain.

Cinema tickets will cost around €15.00. Gym membership, depending on what you are looking for, ranges from €25 for a bargain basement gym with lots of Russian and Turkish guys who look like gangsters, to around €75 for a premium chain such as Fitness First or David.

For those who want a bit more luxury, a cleaner will set you back about €12 per hour, as will a babysitter. A 3 or 4* hotel, including breakfast, for a weekend city-break will be anything between €80 – €125 per night, depending on location and time of year.
 

So what does all of this mean?

As I have shown, whilst the cost of living really depends a lot on your individual lifestyle, some things cost the same no matter what. You can economise on accommodation requirements and eat out less if you’re on a budget, you can easily get by without a car if you live in a major city. Groceries can be purchased at a lower cost if you’re happy to shop at discount supermarkets and not buy stuff which is more difficult to find in Germany. Clothes can be as cheap or as expensive as you want them to be.

A single person who is making EUR 2,000 per month net of taxes and social security contributions can easily afford a comfortable life here, although that said, rent will typically be your largest monthly outgoing. This could be around 40-50% of your income if you live in Munich, compared to 20-25% if you live in Leipzig. My one single biggest takeaway would be:

Everything else except for utilities you can more or less adjust to live within your means. You can for sure survive on less than this if you are happy to share accommodation or cut back on holidays, meals out and other non-essential items.

Numbeo is a great site to get a rough idea of what individual items cost and goes into more detail than I do here in terms of the range of items it compares. It also has a very cool feature which allows you to compare one city against the other. I ran the numbers for my home town in Germany and whilst I would challenge some of what it spat out, it certainly gives a good approximate snapshot (I found that reality is a little more expensive. It could just be that it’s a bit out-of-date as I’m not sure how often they update such a huge database). Expatistan is another similar site doing more or less the same thing. If you want to calculate net vs. gross salary, the simple calculator in the link form Der Spiegel will do this (in German).

Please leave comments if I’ve missed anything obvious. I am also planning another post which explores the whole gross vs. net salary calculation in more detail (like most tax-related topics in Germany, it is pretty complex and dependent upon a lot of factors!).
 

A 12-Step Guide To Surviving German Work Culture

Now, before I start this post, I have to reiterate that not all workplaces are the same and various factors can affect the culture of an office. As with in your home country, a legal or accountancy practice is probably going to be much more formal and stuffy than a design studio or a tech startup. There are, however, some aspects of German work culture that tend to be typical of most workplaces, regardless of the industry, size of company or its origin.
 

1. Taking sick leave for minor ailments is normal

Us Brits like to think of ourselves as quite a hardy bunch. We go out in t-shirts at the first sign of Spring, and more often than not, we also go into the office when we have a cold (or, ahem, if we’re nursing a hangover!). Not the Germans. The slightest hint of flu-like symptoms and they’re banging down the doctor’s door demanding a sick note for a week off work. The average German visits the doctor 18 times a year. I don’t think I’ve seen mine 18 times since I moved here 10 years ago. In fairness though, they don’t have a habit of going out for beers on a “school night” either, so it probably evens itself out.
 

2. Complaining about the office temperature is a national pastime

If the British love to make unnecessary small talk about the weather, then the Germans must be world champions for complaining about the office ambient temperature. Oh, and they all seem to be convinced that a slight draft from the open window on an otherwise pleasant Spring day is going to make them catch a cold. In the middle of Summer, when most men are sweating buckets in the office having to wear trousers and closed shoes, you can guarantee that a female member of staff in a light blouse and open shoes will berate you for wanting the air con turned up or the windows open. My survival trick was threatening to wear bathing shorts to the office the next day.
 

3. Scarves are routinely worn indoors

Following on from the above, the sensitivity to draught extends to the need to wear a scarf in an office, where typically, the temperature is around 20 degrees. You’re sat reading emails, not hiking in the Alps for crying out loud. This includes men too, which I just find odd. I guess these are the same sort of blokes who would wear gloves in the Winter playing football. These guys would be ridiculed in any British office! Whilst on the topic of clothing in general, it is also worth noting that the dress code in German workplace culture definitely tends to be less formal than in the UK, and slightly less so than in the States. Smart jeans and polo shirts are quite normal for men, and women generally don’t wear heels.
 

4. They start work really early

This tends to be more common in a manufacturing environment rather than pure service industries but there is nonetheless a culture of very early mornings in Germany. My theory on this is that it stems from them starting school at 7:30 in the morning and are thus used to getting out of bed at an ungodly hour from a very early age. A lot of Germans with families drop the kids at school on the way to work, so 7:30 starts seem fairly normal to them. I also know Germans without families who routinely start work much earlier than this. Being in the office at 6:30 here is not considered at all strange. The upside of this, if you’re a morning person, is that ergo, leaving the office at 15:00 is also not considered skiving off (well, unless you start at 9:00!). This is great on warm Summer days, as it gives the opportunity to go to the outdoor pool or the lake, or just go and relax in the park before enjoying your evening.
 

5. The workplace is more formal

In a lot of instances, German colleagues will address each other formally as Herr and Frau X, even if they have sat in the same office or along the same corridor as each other for several years. Also, they love their titles. Not as much as the Austrians and Italians do for sure, but much more so than a British or American workplace. If someone has a doctor title, he/she will most likely use it and expect to be addressed by it. Whilst this is still fairly commonplace, it is starting to become more obsolete amongst the younger generation and certainly is more rooted in traditional industries, the public sector and small to mid-size German companies. In tech, design and more hip industries, as well as in most large non-German multinational companies, they tend to instil a much flatter hierarchy and the Du and Sie (informal and formal types of “you” for those who don’t know) conundrum when accosting new colleagues has in most cases died out.
 

6. Open plan offices are much less common

Germans like their privacy and one of the ways this is exemplified in the German work culture is that you don’t come across as many open plan / cubicle type office spaces as you see back home. The upside of this is you’ll get more work done, as you’re much less likely to be disturbed by a colleague passing by on his way back from the coffee machine or to be distracted by other people’s phone conversations. The obvious downside is that it makes the workplace feel much less sociable.
 

7. The office is for work, not to make small talk

Following on from point 6, Germans tend to knuckle down and get their work done when they are in the office. Statistically they are much more productive during their working day than the average British person. On average the Germans work 1.5 hours per week less than the British. However, productivity per capita is higher. It is too easy and simplistic to say that this is uniquely down to them not spending work time on Facebook or chatting to colleagues about last night’s TV. Nevertheless, there is more than a grain of truth in the assertion that by not spending time on small talk next to the kitchenette, more actual work tends to get done. The flip side of this is that German workplaces can often seem quite stiff, humourless places.
 

8. Don’t expect to be invited for an after-work beer

Socialising with colleagues outside of work is the exception rather then the norm in Germany. There is a very distinct split between professional and social relationships, which at first may seem cold to an outsider. In reality it’s not, rather it reflects a subtle cultural difference that Germans tend to have fewer but closer friendships and don’t pursue as many looser acquaintances as Brits and Americans tend to.

I see the merits of this to some extent, in the sense that introverts and private individuals do not feel forced to partake in work socials, which are usually arranged in the evenings. I can’t help but thinking though that a couple of drinks with colleagues in your team, even your boss, often goes a long way to smoothen the on-boarding process. The “watch out for colleague X from department Y, he can be a stubborn little shit” or “the VP’s Assistant is the Sales Director’s girlfriend” kind of conversations tend to happen outside of work but are nonetheless important to understand what alliances and politics are the driving forces in the office.
 

9. Kiss goodbye to reading emails on holiday and at weekends

Linked to the above, this is another example of how Germans like to draw a firm line between work and play. Now I’m not saying you’ll never, ever get a phone call when you’re on the beach, especially if you are in a senior position. However, free time and vacation is respected by employers, colleagues and bosses alike in Germany and you are perfectly within your rights to put on your out-of-office that email is not being read and don’t call my mobile phone unless it is urgent. Some large German companies, for example Daimler, even have formal HR policies which say that all email received during vacation time can be deleted or filed unread. I love that attitude and am firmly of the belief that nothing is that urgent that it can’t wait until Monday morning or when you return. If a manager thinks you are so indispensable that his or her department can’t function properly without you there, something is seriously wrong with their leadership or team structure.
 

10. German efficiency is a myth

Well, kind of. Let me put the record straight. German companies are extremely efficient at manufacturing, and also excel at planning and logistics. On the other hand, they seem to be champions at creating work for work’s sake when it comes to any sort of administrative task. Support functions such as HR and IT departments from my personal experience are notoriously bureaucratic and inefficient. Many internal procedures and processes are paper-based and admin heavy. Need to take a fleet car to go and see a vendor? You’ll probably have to take a slip of paper for someone or other to sign. Want to book holiday time? Again, probably paper based. Your payslip? Probably still sent in the post each month. The canteen? Probably still staffed by company employees rather than a specialist catering provider. Which, when you consider how lean German companies are when it comes to manufacturing, just makes the mind boggle. There is more than a grain of truth in the saying, “if you want to experience German efficiency, go to Switzerland”!
 

11. Be Punctual

10 years on and I am still hopeless at getting to meetings on time. So much so that I set my watch 10 minutes fast but it still doesn’t help. It’s one part of my Englishness which will never die. In a British company, the early birds will get to a meeting on the hour, chat about football, have a bit of friendly banter, talk about what they did at the weekend, have a moan with each other about their kids, wives, husbands, the weather, politics etc and then about 10 past probably start the meeting. The Italians will only start turning up at around quarter-past. And then they all have to get coffee and talk loudly for a while before commencing. The Germans, on the other hand, are all there 5 minutes early, sat in silence except for asking each other if they would like coffee, and slowly becoming impatient and agitated if the meeting does not start dead on the hour.
 

12. Flexible, agile career paths are less common

In Anglo-American firms, it is quite common for employee career development to be centred around gaining as much experience as quickly as possible, through holding different positions in various departments throughout the organisation. German work culture differs in that professional development tends to centre around somebody becoming a subject matter expert in one particular area. Indeed, it is not uncommon for staff to have been in the same job for 10 years or more and to further their career through academic qualifications in that field. This reflects the more conservative German work culture in general and has both its advantages and disadvantages, namely the strong subject matter expertise versus less “outsider” penetration to a given department or function and the associated willingness to think outside the box and to question long-standing norms.

So, this was more focussed on the day-to-day rather than the actual laws and structure of German businesses. Perhaps an idea for another post will be to cover this at some point in the future. Do leave a comment if you would like to see other aspects of German workplaces and business covered.