30F/M engineer and not German. I honestly felt like I fought my entire young adult life to build the education and the career that will be one day worth it all. I'm stuck since more than 4 years in the same job, at the same company, and as a non native German speaker, my opportunities in career development are extremely limited and I seem to fail every single interview I had for the past year (yes I am still employed but can barely suffer it; I live in one of the biggest cities of Germany, renowoned for the field I studied my degree in). In this situation, I have accepted my faith, a mediocre life, nothing exciting in the career area as 3 levels above me so called managers studied nothing and just completed an Abitur.

I have even considered switching domains (ignoring my studies) just to get out of my current toxic situation; however, that attempt was also unsuccessful.Feels worth mentioning that also my current employment company has no room for personal development and is blocking (without paying me a non-compete agreement fee) me from joining any other serious company in the field (the main reason my almost 60 applications to one very famous company get rejected since one year).

How do you all cope with the powerlessness of playing the contemporary corporate game? I feel helpless and can't find an exit. I don't feel like I should move counties once again in order to get a chance to practice my degree at a higher level. On a personal note, my life in Germany (since almost 7 years) has been just great. Thanks in advance to you all!

I’m Japanese and have been living in Germany for a few years.

A few years ago, I experienced my first German summer, and ever since then, I’ve fallen in love with Germany.
The summers here are so wonderful, comfortable, and refreshing. Japanese summers are unbearably hot!

One of the best things about living here is that there are hardly any mosquitoes! And I haven’t seen a single cockroach either.

Once you’ve experienced a European summer, it’s hard to imagine going back to Japan.

German people are kind, too. I’m still learning German, and it’s definitely a difficult language, but I really enjoy learning little by little.

The streets are beautiful, the towns are charming, and even the little shops are so cute.
I really, really love Germany! ❤️🇩🇪

A few months ago, I posted here about how our landlords wanted my wife and me to leave our apartment after just seven months because their daughter needed it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/germany/comments/1v9n4u3/landlord_wants_us_out_after_only_7_months_because/

That post received an overwhelming response, and I am really thankful to everyone who shared advice and suggestions. Since many people were interested in knowing what happened afterwards, I thought I should share an update.

We finally moved out, but unfortunately, the problems with our former landlords are still not over.

When we moved into the apartment, it was far from being in a proper condition.

The walls were quite dirty, the bathroom cabinet was so dirty that we couldn't use it properly, and the bathroom heater wasn't working during the winter.

We had to contact the homeowners and ask them to arrange cleaning and fix these issues. Even after that, not everything was properly taken care of.

We have photographs documenting the condition of the apartment when we moved in.

Despite all this, we tried to make the apartment our home. We cleaned, arranged our furniture and settled in, believing that we would be staying there for a long time because we had signed an indefinite rental contract.

And then, just seven months later, we were told to leave because their daughter needed the apartment.

After we found another apartment, we agreed to end our tenancy.

But then came another set of demands.

The landlords wanted us to repaint the apartment before handing it over.

Considering the condition in which we received the apartment, we found this quite unreasonable.

Fortunately, we had already contacted the Mieterbund (tenants' association). After the Mieterbund sent them a letter regarding our obligations, the landlords dropped their demand that we repaint the apartment.

That was a relief, but another issue was waiting for us.

When we moved in, there were already several pieces of furniture in the apartment.

We purchased only three items from the previous tenant: a sofa, a table and a bed.

Other furniture, including a shelf/table in the living room and a small table in the bedroom, was already there. Our understanding from the previous tenant was that these belonged to the homeowners.

Before moving out, the landlords suddenly demanded that we remove these items as well, claiming that they were our furniture.

We explained that these were already present in the apartment when we moved in and provided photographs as evidence.

Interestingly, after we provided the photographs, their explanation changed.

Now, instead of simply claiming that the furniture belonged to us, they are saying that these items were given to us as a gift by the previous tenant.

We never agreed to accept these items as gifts.

We also tried contacting the previous tenant to clarify the situation, but unfortunately, we have not been able to reach them.

So now we are in a situation where the landlords are claiming that we are responsible for furniture we never purchased or agreed to take ownership of.

After everything that had happened, we decided to bring a witness to the apartment handover.

We felt this was a reasonable precaution considering the ongoing disagreements.

However, the landlords were clearly unhappy about the presence of our witness.

What surprised me even more was that they later wrote to the Mieterbund expressing their frustration about us bringing a witness.

I genuinely don't understand why having someone witness an apartment handover should be such a problem.

The landlords are still holding our entire security deposit, and the disagreement regarding the furniture remains unresolved.

We have been trying to resolve these issues through the Mieterbund, but it is honestly exhausting.

When I think about the whole experience, what frustrates me most is that we never wanted to leave this apartment in the first place.

We signed an indefinite contract, accepted an apartment that wasn't in the best condition, spent our own money making it comfortable, and tried to be responsible tenants.

Then, within seven months, we had to search for another apartment, arrange another move, spend more money and go through all the stress again.

And even after handing over the keys, the problems continue.

One thing we really regret now is not taking legal expenses insurance (Rechtsschutzversicherung) when we came to Germany.

At that time, we never imagined that we would end up in a situation where we might need legal assistance just to deal with our landlords. We thought that having a proper rental contract, paying rent on time and following the rules would be enough.

Now we realise how important legal protection can be, especially for foreigners who may not fully understand the legal system here. We also learned that such insurance generally needs to be arranged before a dispute arises, since existing disputes are usually not covered.

We came to Germany to study, work hard and build our careers. We wanted to focus on our education, research and professional future, not spend our time fighting over old furniture, apartment conditions and security deposits.

Germany is often described as a developed country with strong laws, proper systems and a civilised society. That was also one of the reasons we believed things would be handled fairly here.

But experiencing this kind of petty behaviour from our landlords has honestly been disappointing. It is difficult to understand how people can make such an issue out of a few pieces of old furniture while completely ignoring the inconvenience, stress and financial burden their decisions have caused us.

I know that not everyone in Germany behaves like this, and we have also met many genuinely kind and helpful people here. But experiences like this certainly make you question the expectations you had when you first came to this country.

We didn't come here expecting special treatment. We just expected to be treated fairly and with some basic decency.

Has anyone here gone through a similar situation where the landlord withheld your security deposit without any valid reason? The Mieterbund told us that landlords in Germany can generally retain the deposit for up to six months, so we may have to wait before taking further action. Honestly, this is extremely frustrating, especially when we have photographic evidence and written records to support our side of the story. Despite having all this evidence, we are still left waiting to get our own money back. This is our hard-earned money, and after everything we have already gone through, it feels really unfair that we have to keep fighting for something that rightfully belongs to us.

Has anyone successfully dealt with a similar situation? How long did it take you to get your deposit back?

We are still trying to resolve this situation through the Mieterbund, and I hope that someday I can share a more positive update.

I am a Filipino born in Germany in the 90s.

I had a lot of fond memories as a kid. Started school and finished 2nd grade, I remember being in the Carnival in Bonn, doing German kid stuff where you get a Schultüte on your 1st school day, having PE classes in our school gymnasium. Riding the bus alone to school as a 6-7 year old.

But because my mother was undocumented at the time and my father was the only one with a working visa, they decided for me, my brother, and my mother to come back the Philippines and continue life here.

I grew up here in the Philippines and it was hard being an 8 year old “outcast”.

After 16 years, my father became a german citizen and worked on the paperwork to bring my brother and my mother to Germany.

Now all 3 of them live in Germany and I have an established career here in the Philippines.

Christmas is a really big family thing in the Philippines and these are photos I took when I went to surprise my mother for Christmas and since Christmas is near again, I am missing my family again.

Hoping I could surprise them again soon. 🥺

I just moved here this year and I want to choose a coat that is able help me get through northern german winter here (lower saxony).

Do you recommend buying two separate coats one for wind and other for rain? Or is it better if i buy an all-in-one waterproof coat suitable for both rain and wind ?

I did found the latter (a parka) for an OK price, but it’s designed for mountains sports thus can protects against cold as low as -20 degrees, do you think that’s too much or too heavy for northern german weather in which an average temperature varies between -5 to 5 degrees ?

I originally come from a town on the Mediterranean coast where it’s mostly sunny all year round and winters temperature there usually don’t get below 8 degrees so wearing a sweater under a puffer jacket will make you warm enough but i heard winters can get rough in here so I wanna be ready.

I appreciate your advice!!
Thanks in advance

Hi Everyone,

I am currently locked in an ongoing legal dispute with my employer (Kündigungsschutzklage) after receiving a termination notice. My goal right now is to maintain active, valid employment status until I secure my Permanent Residency (Niederlassungserlaubnis) or land a new job.

​My main questions for anyone who has been through this:

​Has anyone actually fought their case all the way to a court judgment (Urteil) and received formal reinstatement (Weiterbeschäftigung)?

​What was the workplace environment like after returning, and did the employer attempt to settle or buy you out right after?

​How did the Ausländerbehörde handle your residence permit / PR status while the labor court lawsuit was active or after reinstatement was ordered?

​Any personal experiences, timeline details, or tips on navigating both the Labor Court (Arbeitsgericht) and the Ausländerbehörde simultaneously would be greatly appreciated!

I am looking for some show to learn german, i have some basic understanding of german language and i can understand some videos in german but i have to use subtitles in german to understand what words are being pronounced, I have ADHD and that is why it is really hard for me to learn the language with traditional way.

I want something where my mind can engage and at the same time i can train my brain to understand German.

I can't post it there but it's of historical interest.

Hello everyone,
I had an accident two months ago with a Bolt rental car. The other driver changed lanes without signaling or checking his shoulder and hit the middle of my car. To me it was clearly his fault, but when police arrived, they said they couldn't decide whose fault it was because of conflicting stories.
I informed Bolt, and they said their insurance would wait for the police report. A month later, instead of a full report, I received a small fine (€35) saying I was responsible.

I wanted to pay it and move on, but I was worried that paying would be treated as an admission of guilt by Bolt's insurance and make me pay for all the car damage. I asked Bolt if paying would be used against me, but they said they couldn't advise me and just asked for my decision and proof afterwards.
Because of this, I sent an appeal to the police. I explained that I couldn't accept the fine because it was a rental car and accepting fault would put me in trouble with insurance, and I asked again for the report.

A month later, their response came: the fine increased to €235, along with a report concluding that I changed lanes and caused the accident.

Is this fair? I clearly wanted to pay the fine but didn’t want paying it to be used against me by the insurance. I will pay this fine but is there anything I can do to lower this fine?

I have plans of moving to Germany in fall of 2028. I'm a dual citizen and have family in a small town in Southern Germany. My kids are about to leave home ,they are young adults and I've been unhappy in a long term relationship but waiting for the kids to leave to end it . I'm a successful hairstylist in LA and am going to give that up . I'm so scared to have to start again in Germany with hair and how thats going to work, but I also feel this pull to go home to where I was born. I have been re learning German for 5 years and its been difficult but im at around B1 ( please don't tell me how slow i am at learning ). I guess I'm just scared mainly about being able to financially support myself there .

hello! im doing research on hallucinations and i cannot find any research papers etc on this.

I am a bit confused on why there is no punishment for flouting this rule and the courts give no reason for this.

If anyone can help thank you very much!

So, one time I accidentally said “Noah’s Arsch” instead of “Arche Noah”. The person looked like they were trying to figure out what on earth I was talking about, and I could tell they were about to burst out laughing. But I kept a straight face and corrected myself like nothing had happened. 😂

Have you ever had a similar experience?

Hello all,

I would like to know if this letter is a scam or not. I want to be cautious before i take any action on it. Thank you for your help in advance.

hi everyone, i recently came to germany to study and i was born and raised in a tropical country so ive never felt temperatures this cold before. starting late september ive been having really bad lower back pain which i think is from the temperature? my heater is already on to the highest setting and im still cold :( what else can i do to keep warm and decrease my back pain? is it worth investing in one of those electric heated blanket that you can wrap around your back/stomach?

Is this cheese actually sold in stores in Germany? I've been looking for it for the past week in multiple grocery stores but can't find it

I‘ve been living in my apartment since April 2018. I’m planning to move out in March 2027, so nearly nine years. When I moved in, I paid a cash security deposit of €2000 (which I thought was questionable because my Kaltmiete was €600 and that was more than 3x but I paid it anyway). I got a receipt scribbled on a scrap of paper.

My rental contract says the apartment was last renovated in 1988 (!). But my landlord made me anxious because my son’s dog, who is here quite often, made tiny, shallow scratches on the parquet flooring, and when my landlord saw that, he said, “oh, that will be expensive!”

It’s my understanding that parquet has a life span of 10-15 years, so I don’t see how I would have to pay anything for a 39 year old floor.

I also don’t want to be responsible for painting either, as there are vaulted ceilings which would be impossible for me to paint.

I really like my landlord and get along great with him, but am worried about getting back my €2000. And would I get interest?

We did not do a protocol when I moved in.

Also, should I get a Rechtschutzversicherung or join a Mieterverein before I give my three months notice?

Thanks in advance!

I have a 500Mbps plan with PYUR (cable), and the contract guarantees 200Mbps at minimum. However, I am NEVER able to get more than 20-40Mbps. Aside from that, not only is the internet bad when it's there, but on most evenings it's not working at all. I am an IT professional so I've verified everything, connection with an ethernet cable, close/near the router, restarting it, etc. At best I get it working when I restart for a 10-20 minutes and then it goes out again.

I called the customer service many times, twice I stayed in the phone for an hour waiting for someone to pick up, they never pick up. My building recommended them.

What can I do in this situation, change to what? I work from home often and this is unacceptable for me. I am about to run out of my 50GB plan from hotspotting on my phone, too.

It is actually this bad, I am nit exaggarating. I have been tracking it with speedtests since the beginning of the month. I didn't work from home before and didn't notice it was this bad as I wasn't home as much.

So I bought tickets for a concert in Berlin on September 5. The concert was supposed to take place on November 12.

Four days later, on September 9, the concert was cancelled.

Annoying, but shit happens. I figured I'd just get my money back and move on.

Well, not with Eventim apparently.

I paid €51.12. They refunded me €42.09.

I contacted customer support (which was also not easy but that's for another post) asking where the rest of my money was. They explained that they don't refund fees because, according to them, those cover services they've already provided.

Seriously? The concert was cancelled. Why should I be paying anything?

After pushing back and mentioning a court ruling against Eventim regarding these fees, they suddenly agreed to refund another €2.91. Of course, they called it a "gesture of goodwill" and made sure to mention they weren't acknowledging any legal obligation.

I checked again. Still missing €6.12.

So I emailed them AGAIN.

And guess what? They agreed to refund another fee. Again, out of the kindness of their hearts, apparently.

At this point, I've exchanged more emails with Eventim than I have with some of my relatives this year.

And I'm still not getting the full amount back.

Look, I know it's only a few euros. I really don't care about the amount. It's the principle.

Why do I have to chase a company for MY money when the event THEY sold me tickets for gets cancelled?

And why does every single fee magically become refundable the moment you complain enough?

I can't help wondering how much money Eventim makes from people who just accept the first partial refund and don't bother fighting over a few euros.

The whole thing feels deliberately exhausting.

And one thing is certain: I'm never buying tickets through Eventim again. I'd rather miss a concert than deal with this nonsense again. They've managed to turn a simple refund into a customer service nightmare, all over a few euros.

I’m currently applying for a German national visa for vocational training (betriebliche Ausbildung) under §16a AufenthG.

I have already signed an Ausbildung contract. My training starts on August 1, 2027, and I expect to enter Germany sometime in June or July 2027.

I have received confirmation that my German statutory health insurance (GKV) will start on August 1, 2027.

Therefore, I only need temporary health insurance to cover the gap between my entry into Germany and the start of my statutory insurance. I am not looking for private insurance to cover the entire three-year Ausbildung.

I’m currently comparing these options, but I’m also open to other suggestions.:

Feather Expat Health

MAWISTA — but I’m not sure whether MAWISTA Visum or Expatcare would be the more appropriate tariff for my situation.

I would really appreciate advice from anyone who has gone through a similar process.

Has anyone successfully used Feather Expat Health or MAWISTA for a German national visa for vocational training (§16a AufenthG)?

Which policy would be more suitable for temporary coverage until statutory insurance begins?

Were there any issues with waiting periods, particularly when entering Germany for the first time?

Does the policy cover you even though you intend to live in Germany long-term for your Ausbildung?

I want to avoid buying a policy that looks suitable online but is rejected by the German consulate because of its terms or exclusions.

Thanks a lot for your help!

So I recently lost my job and Agentur für Arbeit wants me to take a language course. I spend most of the week at my girlfriend’s, who lives in a neighbouring city. Both cities have VHS. Can I take the course in my girlfriend’s city instead of the one I’m registered in?