Edit: for clarification, I attend a Gymnasium and am aiming for Abitur. My American dad was talking about how American schools were harder than German schools, which is why I’m curious.

I am also in 9th grade, so I cannot contribute or add much about German universities or colleges.

Editing yet again, please no unserious replies. The school shooting surviving joke is getting quite annoying and repetitive.

First I found out that Japan doesn't cover it's evil in history class at all. Then I heard Germany might cover it too much to the point of making innocent people look guilty. When I started watching videos about this, alot of Germans showed up in the comments saying at least they don't ignore every evil thing they've done like Americans do....

I'm American and was constantly disgusted by what I learned in history class.

-The slaughter of Native Americans, to the point of selling contaminated blankets

-The Chinese railroad workers

-Slavery

-The Civil War [war about slavery]

-Voter segregation

-Vietnam War

to name a few off the top of my head, does is surprise any of you that I was taught about all of this in the U.S., or did I run into an odd birds of a feather flock together situation in that comments section?

I recently learned about the German approach to secondary education where students are automatically assigned to one of three schooling tracks that place a student at a university, technical college or a trade apprenticeship.

Coming from the American system where university education is open to anyone who can afford it, this seems very strange by comparison.

I learned that there's "Durchlässigkeit" to help address this, but it's not clear how well that works to address the issue, as I lack the social experience of living in Germany (thus my question hah).

Setting aside the conversation on whether a student should have to directly pay for their secondary education (I'd rather American tax dollars pay for it, but my fellow citizens lack the empathy to support this sadly), doesn't this have the strong potential to keep students that would greatly benefit from a university level education from receiving one?

We are a foreigner couple living in Bayern with a child born in November and we have recently learned about the rule that if you are born after September 30th you will start the Grundschule the next year.

In principle this is not an issue, we don’t really care. And September 30th is as random of a date as January 1st, which is used in our country.

But we have seen there is the possibility of doing an interview for Vorzeitige Einschulung and if the Grundschule sees that the kid is fit for the first year of school he may start that year.

My question goes to the parents who enrolled early their kids or kids who were enrolled early: How was your experience? Was it a good idea? Is it something we should consider or better not to try?

Freue mich zu sehen inwieweit eure Antworten von denen der Österreicher abweichen. Ich wundere mich auch ob wir (ich bin US-Amerikaner) irgendwelche Gemeinsamkeiten haben

Hey everyone, I’m an Indian student planning to move to Germany in the future for my Master’s, and I wanted to ask something honestly because I’ve been seeing a lot of mixed opinions online recently.

How are Indians actually viewed in Germany nowadays, especially international students? I keep seeing posts and comments saying Germans dislike Indians or avoid them, and I honestly can’t tell how much of that is internet exaggeration versus reality. I know every country has good and bad people, but I still wanted real opinions from people who actually live there.

I’m someone who genuinely wants to integrate properly into the culture instead of just staying inside an international-student bubble. I’m already planning to learn German seriously before moving, and I’ve also been trying to improve myself overall — communication skills, fitness, discipline, social etiquette, independence, etc. I’m not very religious or politically extreme either; I mostly just want to focus on my career, meet good people, and build a stable life there.

So I guess my question is: what actually makes foreigners or Indian students well-liked and respected in Germany? And on the other hand, are there common things that create a bad impression that I should avoid?

Also, I’ll most likely be applying around Winter Semester 2027 for Master’s programs related to Game Development / Interactive Media at universities like Cologne Game Lab (TH Köln), TU Darmstadt, TH Augsburg, Bauhaus Weimar, Bremen, and a few others. If anyone here is studying in similar programs, I’d really appreciate hearing about your experience as well.

I’d genuinely appreciate honest answers.

I'm an American, and I always hear other Americans talking about how dangerous driving fast is. It doesn't make any sense to me how much of the Autobahn has no speed limit, yet so few car accidents compared to highways with speed limits in America.

I'm of the opinion that it's not necessarily speeding that is dangerous; it's lack of proper driver's education that's the issue. I'm not saying that you should be allowed to speed in areas with high foot traffic, residential areas, etc. I'm talking about on highways, and wide open interstates.

I think if driving exams here actually taught you how to drive, a lot of speed limits on our highways and interstates (and some roads) could be significantly raised, if not done away with completely.

Have any of y'all ever visited America? If so, what is your opinion on driver's education in America vs Germany? What would you change about driver's education in America? What do you think about driving on the Autobahn?

So I'm currently doing my undergrad thesis on postwar education reform in West Germany, and one of the things the Americans tried to do was eliminate the multitrack school system and bring it in line with our monotrack system. Essentially so that'd there'd be the Grundschule, one secondary school, and then Uni. Obviously... this failed spectacularly. I have a friend in NRW I asked about this, and he just gave me a chart of NRW's school system and how it worked with no additional thoughts. I understand its different between Laender, and a lot has changed since 1950.

But, for pure curiosity's sake, how do you guys like it? As in, just the idea and execution of having different paths after the Grundschule to Uni, a trade school, or straight into the workforce.

(Also pls spare me critiques on/comparisons to America's current education system. I am very aware of its... many issues...)

In my country not only students have to wear a uniform but also have to cut their hair in certain way and length; much like in military. is it the same in Germany or there aren't any ruls or regulations regarding students' hairstyle?

I’m just reading about quantum mechanics right now and many names are German. The famous Einstein, Heisenberg etc. Many equations / theories are named after German scientists too. But also the institutes. I’m not German nor do i know a lot about Germany but i can’t help feeling a bit proud for and in awe of Germany. I want to read up on the history of how academia flourished there now.

Hallo! I live in the US, and am married to a German woman, and we have 2 young kids.

We've been dealing a lot with school decisions here, and of course my wife is often comparing schools and schedules and things here with what she grew up with in Germany. She would have been in primary school in Southern Germany (nearish Munich) in the late 90s to early 2000s.

School in the US have changed alot since I was in them around the same time period, and we're curious if the same is true for German schools.

For example, my wife remembers only being in schools for a few hours each day in primary, something like 8:00-12:30, and that 1.5-2 hours of that being break/recess. Also, not starting school until 6 years of age.

I'm comparison, the elementary schools where we are in the US start at 5 years old, and some offer programs for 4 year olds too. The school days are from around 7:45-2:15, and all have 30mins recess, and 30 mins lunch.

Can anyone help with what school is like for a young primary school aged child in Germany?

Info regarding daily schedule, start and end times, ages, how many/long school breaks/vacations, and how much focus is on testing for kids under 10 would all be appreciated.

Bonus points if anyone has any perspectives on what had changed in German schools since 2000ish and why.

Danke schön!

I have heard that many of my friends did not pass or barely finished their bachelor's degrees with mediocre grades. It is often said that German universities are not as academically supportive and tend to filter out the best and worst students, creating a sink-or-swim situation. I'm curious to know if this is true and whether German students also face challenges in universities. Additionally, how does the difficulty of master's programs compare to bachelor's programs?

We live in NRW. We’ve been here since 2019 but our kids (7. and 9. Klasse) have been in international school. We didn’t plan to be here so long but now want to get them integrated into the normal public school system. I wanted to do this from the beginning but was overruled by my husband who wanted their English to improve (they were born in Japan). Finally, he agrees with me but we are running into the third language problem. Kids should have chosen a third language in grade 7. Ours have been studying Japanese which of course is not offered anywhere in the public system. As a result we are getting rejected from all schools we contact.

How do I approach this? There is a Schulpflicht which also rejects online schooling. It can’t be that we are required to pay for private school in order for them to go, is there? Should I be contacting NRW directly? Board of Education? I am really lost here.

Please don’t pile one, I have been advocating for integration the whole time against my husband and it’s been a hard battle. The kids speak B2 and C1 German.

As an international parent who already has children in Kita, I feel like I missed some of the most important questions to ask before enrollment. I’m realizing how many things aren’t obvious at the beginning. On paper, many Kitas look similar, but details like nap policies, mixed-age groups, closing days, staff shortages, or how religious traditions are celebrated can make a big difference in everyday life. I’d love to know which questions are worth asking before enrollment, both to help other parents in the same situation and maybe to find a better fit for our family’s needs.

I intended not to ask in r/tumunich but general opinions from German.

Background: non-EU, Bachelor graduate in EE, 31-year-old, 4-yr work exp, German B2, no rich parents.

Currently I would like to study a master's program about renewable energy or electromobility. With the aid of DAAD I found quite a lot of options. Most of the programs are free, but some are not. TUM offers the most expensive courses, which cost 6k Euro per semester.

I know that TUM is a prestige university and the admission is competitive. But in your opinion, is the prestige worth 24k Euro? I see this is a bit dumb, given that there are more economic options, to pay that 24k and living in Munich, where is the most expensive city in Germany. How do you think?

Added: Okay TUM has been removed from my list. I hope you are not the applicants this year (just kidding).

Reading so much about the housing crisis in Germany but I have been surfing websites like WG Gesucht, immowelt, etc and I am seeing hundreds of rooms available for rent. So, what is the deal here? Am I missing something?

And I also tried to contact some of them just to take a virtual tour since I haven't even received my acceptance yet. To my surprise, 3-4 people did respond, and we did a house tour on WhatsApp video too. They have sent me list of docs and stuff.

So can someone explain to me if I am doing something wrong or am I just a bit lucky??

I’m from the US and met a German couple a few years ago and the topic of education came up. They mentioned that Americans (or anyone for that matter) can go to Germany for free (I know it’s not really free) university.

But my question is how does doing that benefit Germany? Especially since immigrants aren’t paying taxes for it and can leave after getting their degree.

I'm studying my bachelor in Germany in game arts. Many universities dedicate a semester to doing an internship, and I did that as well. It was a great experience overall, but I noticed that the company *only\* hires interns every time just to keep the costs at a minimum. I'm talking about more than 30 interns in 2 years, and it's a pretty small indie game studio.

I know they are also getting funded by Germany (like millions of euros). I assume the government pays these to create more jobs for this industry, but how can something like this be legal? Like, why is nobody stopping this? It feels so ridiculous that many studios turned this into a slavery system. Many young people have no better option (like me), and they start working as an intern, hoping that they might get hired and this is the hard reality. I'm also checking all of the open positions, and even other studios only hire interns most of the time..

I'm asking because I'm a non-German but how can I report this or would anyone even care?

I failed my driving license practicals twice,

For 1st attempt instructor told me that I am driving too slow 24-25Kmph in 30 zone.

For 2nd attempt instructor told me that I am driving too fast 54-55KMPH in 50 zone.

I am totally confused because in my first attempt there were so many cars parked both the sides and I was scared that someone might come up suddenly so I was driving every slow.

And for 2nd attempt, instructor told me to driving at 50KMPH and I had to overtake one car to maintain this speed and that other car may also travelling at 48-50KMPH. So I had to accelerate to overtake and maintain 50KMPH.

I feel very upset and disappointed.

Is it same for everyone or because the instructions are not foreigners friendly?

Can anyone please advice me to get things correct.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

I read this comment under a Facebook post and I am posting it here verbatim. I have been here for 1.5 years and just want to get the opinion of Germans. The guy who wrote this comment grew up in Germany as a Muslim of South Asian background. Reading this definitely scared me as it appears that high schools in Germany are racist and teachers can effectively block you from a good future by giving you bad grades intentionally.

the second generation doesn't make it. You can analyse it yourself. Look how successful kids of your friends are. Most of them will be put in real schule or hauptschule. The few who still make it to Gymnasium. They are downgraded back to Realschule after a few years. Only a small portion gets Abitur and a very tiny portion gets the Abitur with good grades.The German culture especially at schools associates less intelligence with colored people. So since the teachers control your life and future. They can give you the grade whatever they want. It doesn't matter what you got in your exams. School is hell. Especially if its a pure gymnasium. To show you how powerful a teacher can be. If you get 100% in a maths exam the teacher has the power to reduce it to 50% and they do it.

I personally struggled a lot at school. Teachers are basically dictators. My sister struggled a lot. E.g in case of my sister she said as a Muslim she doesn't wanna go on Klassenfahrt. The teacher didn't like it and became her enemy and made sure she doesn't get any good grade to go to med school. They made her life hell. Luckily to go to med school you have to get good grades in the TMS. Its a state test it counts 50%. In this test no one knows your name. No one knows if you wear hijab. You are just a number. So she was in top 5% of whole Germany. Which allowed her to go med school. At Unis the life is much better because profs are not racist and they don't have the power to control your future. The school atmosphere is so harsh that most colored kids gets demotivated and just give up. It is one of the reason why yoh don't see many successful 2/3 generation people.

The bulk went to school in Pakistan studied there did master here doesn't speak german got a job as software engineer. The bulk doesn't understand the problems their kids will go through. Most of their kids will not successful. Because they have to go through the school system. Many desi parents still force their kids to get Fachabitur which is low level Abitur and they study history, social sciences or at Fachhochschule to please the parents. In the most of them drop out.

I will be honest, reading that a high school teacher can just slash a student's grade in Germany out of no where is scary. The guy who made this comment is now in the UK after growing up in Germany. He basically wants people of immigrant background to not have kids here as there is widespread racial discrimination in schools as compared to the UK.

How true is the guy's comment? I would especially love to hear from Germans who grew up here and have a migration background.

Hallo! Ich schreibe gerade eine Geschichte, die in Deutschland stattfindet (wahrscheinlich in Thüringen), und ich möchte sicherstellen, dass die Details realistisch sind. Ich hoffe, ihr könnt mir ein bisschen helfen – besonders mit Fragen über Schule, Praktika und Kinderheime.

1. Wäre es in Bundesländern wie Thüringen realistisch, die Abi (z.B. auf Gymnasium) mit 19 Jahren abzuschließen?

2. Schule und Nebenjobauswahl - die Figur kam mit Eltern von Lettland nach Deutschland wenn sie 5-6 Jahre alt war und ist verwaist in ihre 9 Jahren. Sie ist klug aber sie hat schwache Support in Kinderheim und ist Asperger. Hat es sowieso Sinn dass sie Gymnasium besucht? Also sie hat Nebenjob wo sie um Kinder in Kidszentrum kümmert. Weil deutsche Schule öfter Praktika haben, ist es möglich dass diese Nebenjob auch als Praktika funktioniert?

3. Wie funktionieren Heime in Thüringen? Weil Figur ist verweist und keine Verwandte hat. So ich vermute Figur musste in Heim landen. Kann man davon kids adoptieren? Also Figur kümmert um jungere Kids da. Gibts eine Chance, dass sie nach der Abi Kids nimmt um mit sie separat aus dem Heim leben? Weil Heimleiter agresiv ist.

I've heard of "Kita" but can someone actually give me some more detailed info?

Like at what age a child will start going to some type of school? Do we have to teach her anything at home before that or will she start learning immediately from school at an early age?

Also how does homework and stuff work? Since German is a foreign language to both me and my wife (we are learning) how would we help our child with their homework?

Just for background, both me and my wife are skilled workers who are here in Germany with a legal visa. We plan to live here for a long time.

Moin/Servus/Grüß Gott,

I'm doing an Ausbildung right now, and am in the middle of testing. I've never been graded on the German scale before, and I'm not sure what percentage of 100 is the cutoff for earning a "1" grade. I tried googling it but it's kind of a confusing question to formulate.

No wait, nevermind, after writing that last sentence I tried again and figured it out. This is the result I'm getting. Is it correct?

91-100% = 1-, 1, 1+

Is there a further typical breakdown? 91-94 1-, 97+ a 1+, something like that?

It's not super important, but now I'm curious.

I’m doing a medical Ausbildung. We have an allotted amount of hours we are allowed to miss aka sick days because there is a *minimum* amount of hours we need to have in order to be allowed to take our exams. However, what I know about Germany is that sick employees are heavily protected and it is expected/acceptable that when you are sick, you simply stay home. I’m not sure I understand the how this works harmoniously. Your health is respected and you are encouraged/required to stay home in order to not get others sick (especially in a medical setting!) but if you overstep the amount of hours of sick leave in the 3 years of Ausbildung, you cannot take the exam?

Note: I get sick often and am concerned about how much absence time I’ll have in my third year.