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10 things you should never do in Germany

Every country has its own unique cultural dos and don’ts. You won’t get a round of applause for remembering the dos, but you can get into seriously hot water for forgetting the don’ts. To help you out, here’s The Local’s guide to 10 things you should never do in Germany.

Published: 18 September 2018 08:47 CEST

10 things you should never do in Germany

Photo: mangostock/Depositphotos

Ah, cultural norms. It’s not until you know what they are that you can avoid making a huge faux pas (known as a Fehlgriff in German).

For example, you wouldn’t think twice about having a snack on the U-Bahn but in Japan eating on the move is a big no-no. Likewise, blowing your nose in public isn’t just acceptable in Germany, it’s practically encouraged. But clearing your nasal cavities whilst out and about in China would earn you some very disapproving looks.

Nervous at the prospect of committing an unforgivable social blunder? Never fear — The Local has teamed up with BDAE, an insurance provider specialising in health insurance for expats in Germany, to bring you 10 faux pas you should never commit in Deutschland.

Find out more about BDAE’s health insurance packages for expats in Germany

1. Never…wear your outdoor shoes in someone’s home

Germans aren’t the only Europeans who don’t like wearing shoes indoors. They are the only ones, however, to offer guests a pair of house shoes (Hausschuhe) to put on instead. Someone else’s slippers, anyone?

2. Never…disregard quiet hours

Germans take their shuteye seriously. So much so that there are rules in place to make sure people can rest uninterrupted. Ruhezeit, which means rest time, varies by city but generally applies to the hours between 22:00-06:00.

Fortunately, there are plenty of German pastimes which are perfect for these quiet hours. Why not invite a couple of friends over to play a game of skat, a 200-year-old German card game, or set up a tightrope in your living room and test your balance with a spot of slacklining?

3. Never…forget cash is still king

While countries like Sweden might not be far off from becoming cashless societies, Germans still favour good old-fashioned cash payments. Germany’s aversion to paying by plastic is widespread so don’t assume that everywhere will take card. In fact, assume the opposite or risk running to an ATM every time the check comes.

4. Never…forget to take out health insurance

By law, all German residents need to have either private or state health insurance. It’s not just a social norm, it’s a legal requirement. You’ll need to show proof of health insurance when you apply for your certificate of residence at your local Ausländerbehörde (Foreign National’s Authority) or at the Einwohnermeldeamt (Residence Registration Office).

BDAE offers a range of health insurances designed specifically for expats living in Germany. It won’t just come in handy when you apply for your residence certificate, the right insurance will also guarantee you’re protected if any medical issues arise.

Learn more about BDAE’s health insurance for foreign nationals in Germany

5. Never…jaywalk

You’ve looked right, you’ve looked left, there are no cars to be seen, surely it’s OK to cross the road? Think again.

This is a big nein-nein. You don’t cross the road in Germany unless you’re standing at a crosswalk and the little man is glowing green. Risk it and you could land a €5-10 ($6-12) fine as well as being reprimanded by every German standing within a 10 metre radius.

6. Never…be late!

This one deserves the exclamation mark. Germans see lateness as rude and even personally insulting. If you’re running late, send the person you’re meeting a text or give them a call to explain. If you don’t and proceed to show up late without good reason, you can wave goodbye to a repeat invitation.

7. Never…look away when saying ‘Prost!’

We get it, looking someone in the eye can be a bit awkward (Read: Painful to the point of wanting the world to swallow you up). But when clinking glasses with your German buddies, it’s customary to make eye contact. So try to lock eyes even if every fibre of your being is crying out to look absolutely anywhere else.

8. Never…throw out bottles

Germans take the battle against waste seriously (their recycling system is famously complex) and bottles are no exception. Get caught throwing your plastic bottle in a bin on the street and you risk a thorough telling off.

The German Pfand-system adds an additional deposit to the price of a bottle or can which is reimbursed to you when you return the container to a reverse vending machine. The machine then issues you with a voucher which you can redeem for cash at the till of the store where you have deposited the bottles.

9. Never…ask for a tap water

Tap water in Germany is perfectly safe to drink but that doesn’t mean you should. Ordering tap water in a restaurant is seen as stingy and such a fatal faux pas that your server may even refuse to serve it. This extends to entertaining at home, where it’s considered cheap to offer guests a glass of water that hasn’t been poured from a bottle.

10. Never…interrupt people while they’re talking

In France, where people talk practically at the same time, interrupting someone shows that you are listening and agreeing with the other person. This isn’t true in Germany, where it’s seen as rude to interrupt or speak before the verb at the end of the sentence. So unless you have a very good reason for interrupting (like ‘Fire!’ or ‘Buffalo stampede!’), wait your turn to talk.

BDAE offers a comprehensive range of health insurance packages for expats living in Germany. Find one that suits your situation so that you know you’re covered, whatever health issues you may face.

This article was produced by The Local Creative Studio and sponsored by BDAE.

10 essential tips for avoiding rental scams in Germany

When it comes to settling in Germany, one of the most stressful and difficult tasks you’re likely to face is finding a place to live.

With the country in the grip of an ever-worsening housing shortage, there aren’t enough rental properties to meet the high demand – especially in big cities like Berlin, Munich and Frankfurt – and the flats that are available can often stretch even the most healthy of budgets.

With renters desperate to find affordable homes, crafty scammers have seized the chance to place fake ads on the market, often in dream locations with lower-than-average rents.

While some of these scams may be easy to spot, others can be highly sophisticated, with fraudsters setting up professional-looking websites and even allowing hopeful tenants to view their properties in person.

Recently The Local reported on a Polish couple who lost around €7,000 through a rental scam in Berlin. The scammers had sublet a beautiful Altbau apartment in the popular district of Neukölln and created an advert for it via a fake letting agent website, then arranged for people to use a key box to view the property while the real tenants were away.

Despite checking the contract over with legal experts from their local tenants’ association, nobody saw anything out of the ordinary – that is, until they tried to access the apartment and found a family already living there.

So, how do you protect your hard-earned savings and steer clear of scammers while looking for a new home?

Here are 10 important ways to protect yourself from rental scams.

1. Be alert to suspicious signs

The key to avoiding scammers in Germany is to be fully clued up on the warning signs. Was the listing for the property uploaded in the middle of the night, is the advert thin on details or written in bad German or English, and does the offer feel too good to be true?

Though it would be nice to believe there are still cheap flats to be found, finding an attractive property at an overly reasonable price is usually a red flag.

Hamburg

Modern apartments in Hamburg. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Daniel Bockwoldt

If someone claiming to be a landlord contacts you out of the blue, that’s also your cue to run a mile. With so many people looking for housing, most letting agents and landlords will have more than people looking to rent their properties without needing to get in touch with people themselves. Anyone who does is more than likely to be a scammer.

2. Rule out landlords who say they live abroad

One of the major warning signs to look out for is a landlord who claims to be renting the property from abroad, or who says they are out of the country for other reasons, like a last-minute business trip.

That’s usually a scammer’s way of excusing the fact that they won’t be able to meet you personally or even show you the property before you rent it.

“When the country the landlord lives in appears then I would say there’s a really big chance this is a scam,” said Kuba Rudzinski, one of the victims of the Berlin-Neukölln rental fraud.

Even if the excuse seems plausible, your best bet is to ignore anyone who tries to sell you a story about living abroad and simply move on with your house hunt.

3. Do your research online

Before committing to anything, take time to do some thorough research to scope out the property, landlord and letting agent.

Running the pictures and text used in apartment listings through a search engine like Google will help you quickly identify stock photos and text stolen from other listings. For pictures, this is known as a reverse image search.

A laptop

Photo by 2H Media on Unsplash

It’s also worth checking that any websites you’re sent to are fully functional and not copies of other letting agent sites, and that any email addresses match the website domain.

4. Visit the property and ask around

Never agree to rent a property without seeing it in person first. Arrange a viewing and take the opportunity to ask questions about the property and the neighbourhood.

Kuba also recommends speaking with the neighbours in the building to check if the property is genuinely being rented.

“Go to the place before and ask the neighbours, is this flat really for rent? Because these people generally know,” he said. “You’ll need to convince yourself to do it of course, but just ask in the building, ask on the floor where the flat is.”

5. Don’t transfer the full deposit in advance

Advance payments for anything, whether it’s furniture, a deposit or getting a chance to view the property, should be considered a major red flag.

Under German law, you are usually only expected to pay the deposit by the start of the agreed rental contract – and certainly not several months in advance.

Euro notes lie next to some house keys on a table.

Euro notes lie next to some house keys on a table. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/dpa-tmn | Andrea Warnecke

You are also legally entitled to pay your three months’ deposit in three instalments on top of your first three months’ rent after moving in, so definitely be cautious of landlords that place pressure on you to transfer a large lump sum.

If you’re really concerned, look into alternatives for paying your deposit, such as Kautionversicherung (deposit insurance) or a Mietkautionssparbuch, where you open a bank account and pledge the amount to the landlord, rather than transferring the money directly.

6. Insist on meeting the landlord or letting agent in person

If a landlord or letting agent refuses to meet you in person or insists on conducting all communication online, they’re probably not who they say they are.

Insist on meeting face-to-face to verify their identity and ensure they have a legitimate connection to the property.

7. Avoid sending documents straight away

Not all rental scams are about getting money from you directly: many scammers are simply after your personal details for the purposes of identity theft.

Be wary of providing personal documents or sensitive information before you’ve verified the legitimacy of the rental agreement, especially when it comes to things like passport scans or other forms of ID.

8. Seek legal advice from experts

If you’re unsure about any aspect of the rental agreement or if something seems suspicious, seek advice from legal experts or tenants’ associations.

However, be aware that this isn’t always a cast-iron guarantee that a tenancy is legitmate. Over the past few years, fraudsters have become increasingly sophisticated, even down to producing water-tight rental contracts for would-be tenants.

An estate agent hands over keys to an apartment. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/dpa-tmn | Christin Klose

According to civil lawyer Emilia Tintelnot, becoming a member of a tenants’ association can be a good way to get affordable legal advice, and it can also be helpful to set up legal insurance to ensure you can access help when you need it without having to pay lawyers’ fees up front.

9. Be wary of stereotypes

Avoid making assumptions based on stereotypes or preconceived notions about someone’s gender or nationality, as this may cause you to overlook things you might otherwise see as warning signs.

In Kuba’s case, the fact that the fraudsters were German made them appear more legitimate in his eyes, as Polish people tend to see Germans as law-abiding and trustworthy.

Be aware that scammers can come from any cultural background and may use a variety of tactics to deceive unsuspecting renters.

10. Keep an extensive paper trail

Document all communication, agreements, and transactions related to the rental process, including phone numbers and any bank details provided.

According to the Berlin police, this type of evidence can be crucial for an investigation if you do suspect a scammer.

While evidence can differ across cases, “pictures, contact details used by the perpetrators, original documents, bank details with payment receipts” are particularly helpful for investigators, and could help the police stop the scammers for good.

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