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LIVING IN GERMANY

12 ways to improve your life in Germany without even trying

A new year doesn't have to be all about grand plans and life-changing resolutions. With these 12 steps, you can make a big difference to the quality of your life in Germany without even trying.

Published: 14 January 2022 14:10 CET
Updated: 30 December 2023 08:16 CET

Ski tourers climb against the backdrop of the Alps on their way to the Brauneck summit. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Tobias Hase

New Year’s resolutions are all well and good, but sometimes the best laid plans can be hard to stick to once spring rolls around. So instead of overhauling your entire life, why not try making these simple changes which could make a surprising difference to your life in Germany?

1. Get a bike

Sure, if you live at the top of a mountain in the Bavarian Alps, this one may not be that appealing, but almost anywhere else in Germany it makes total sense to cycle. With extensive cycle-path systems, German cities are renowned for being well-equipped for cyclists – and if you live in Berlin, you get the added bonus of living in one of the flattest places around.

If you’ve been relying on buses and trains to get you from A to B, you’ll probably be surprised at how efficient it can be to cycle around the city instead. Say goodbye to packed-out trains, missed connections, and endless scrolling. Say hello to feeling like a superhuman and getting your daily workout done while commuting to work.

2. Ask questions

This is such a simple one, but it doesn’t come naturally to everyone. Living in a foreign country can get confusing and overwhelming – especially if you happen to have chosen one with as many rules and regulations as Germany. Give yourself a break and remember it’s okay not to know everything. Nobody will mind if you ask, and often there’s nothing a local will enjoy more than giving you the lowdown on everything you may have unwittingly been getting wrong. (I believe this is what’s known as “German small talk”.)

Showing curiosity is also a great way to get the insider scoop on the best places to go in your city or quirky German customs. The more you learn, the more at home you’ll feel, so ask away. And if you can’t find an actual local to answer your questions, ask The Local instead!

3. Meet the neighbours

Boiler broken in sub-zero temperatures again? Fallen ill while living alone? Council refusing to empty the bins again because they are “too full”? (Yes, this is an actual thing.)

Knowing the neighbours can be a life-saver in situations like this. Especially in the time of Covid, creating a small community in the building where you live is a great way to ensure there’s someone there to look out for you if you need it. But even in non-Covid times, a fluent German speaker who understands the rules and is on your side is one of the best ways to reduce stress in your life.

Elderly lady and neighbour

An elderly lady in Essen recieves a delivery of groceries from a neighbour during the pandemic. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Roland Weihrauch

So next time you meet one of the other building-dwellers at the postbox or out in the Hof, why not say hello and ask how they are? After a few conversations, you could even set up a WhatsApp group to coordinate complaints to the landlord and borrowing eggs / DIY stuff / Covid tests. Trust me, after building good relationships with your neighbours you may wonder what you ever did without them.

4. Stay informed

Since you’re reading The Local right now, chances are you’re already pretty well-informed, so we may be preaching to the converted here. But keeping on top of current affairs over your morning coffee at the end of your working day is a great way to feel more integrated in German society and stay on the right side of the ever-changing Covid rules.

Even better, you’ll finally have something to yabber about with your German work colleagues at your next Feierabendbier (after work drinks).

5. Spend time outdoors

Germans are absolutely crazy about the great outdoors, and it’s no wonder: whether it’s the sprawling lakes of Brandenburg, the soaring peaks of Bavaria or the rolling hills of Hesse, Germany has a breathtakingly beautiful natural landscape.

Snow covered mountains

A car drives through the snow-covered Ore Mountains in Saxony. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/dpa-Zentralbild | Jan Woitas

Numerous poets, painters and thinkers have taken inspiration from these scenes and concluded that nature is good for the soul. But did you also know that two hours a week in nature is strongly linked to good physical health and wellbeing as well? The benefits improve the more time you spend in the great outdoors, but it doesn’t matter whether you get your dose of nature in one go or several small bites, so just getting out for 20 minutes a day could do the trick.

6. Find German things you like

Are German grammar books making you want to move to Spain instead? We don’t blame you. The good news is, pouring over endless textbooks may not even be the most effective way to learn German. A better method is what’s known as immersion learning, which is exactly what it sounds like and is how we learn languages as children.

Now, nothing is going to beat speaking and listening with a real native speaker, but the next best thing is finding German culture you enjoy and diving right in. Whether it’s trashy TV, cheesy pop music or point-and-click adventure games, there are no “guilty pleasures” here. If anyone asks, you’re improving your German.

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7. Visit a sauna

If the long, hard winters are getting you down, a trip to the sauna could be just the thing you need to rejuvenate yourself. It’s a great way to escape the cold for a few hours and sweat out all those toxins you guzzled over Christmas, while also embracing the German attitude of not really caring if anyone sees you naked.

In the month of punishment diets and guilt over piling on the pounds, a little bit of Freikörperkultur (FKK – free body culture or naturism) could be just the thing you need to feel comfortable in your own skin again.

8. Switch banks

With eye-watering ATM charges and punitive account fees, banks in Germany can be the complete opposite of consumer-friendly. But studies suggest we’re more likely to get divorced from our partner than switch banks in our lifetime – probably because it’s perceived as difficult.

This is a shame, because the process has become incredibly simple in recent years, and many banks offer attractive bonuses to try and lure new customers.

Cash machine

A customer makes a withdrawal at an ATM. Cash withdrawal fees can be a major downside of many German bank accounts. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/dpa-tmn | Benjamin Nolte

If you’re stuck with a bank that charges you to use most ATMs, ING-Diba and DKB could be a cheaper route. Alternatively, the mobile bank N26 is designed to be easy and bureaucracy-free for foreigners, but there are plenty of options to explore.

9. Try something new

From sampling local food to trying your hand at ice dipping, living in a foreign country is a great opportunity to step out of your comfort zone and try something new.

Who knows? You may find your new favourite dish or a hobby you never knew you would love – and at the very least, you could make some new friends.

10. Eat seasonally

In our modern, globalised world, it’s easy to get out of step with the seasons and find ourselves stuck in a rut with our eating habits. One of the great things about Germany is how much of a big deal people make about seasonal produce – just visit any local restaurant during Spargelzeit if you don’t believe me.

By trying to stick to local, seasonal produce, you not only help the environment but you also support your local community. And there’s something lovely about feeling in touch with the changing seasons and having an excuse to switch up your diet and experiment with new dishes every few months.

You can find calendars telling you what fruit and veg is in season on this incredibly helpful website (in German).

11. Wear practical clothes

There’s a reason Germans are generally known as practical dressers rather than fashionistas: having an active lifestyle in unpredictable weather generally calls for practical clothes. Whether you’re out in the Ore Mountains in the pouring rain or running to meet a friend for coffee in the snow, there are some absolute wardrobe essentials you can’t do without if you live here.

Practical clothing

A man walks with his dog in the snow and fog in Bavaria. Germans are well known for having practical clothes in every type of weather – and German dogs are no exception. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Lennart Preiss

This winter, think like a German and stock up on high-quality gloves, sturdy boots and a warm coat. As the Norwegians love to say (but it could just as well be a German phrase): “There’s no such thing as bad weather – only bad clothing.”

12. Set reminders

We’re sure it won’t come as a surprise to you that living in Germany involves a lot of bureaucracy on top of the general hectic pace of modern life. You may think you have the memory of Rain Man, but even he would struggle to remember all the tax deadlines, visa appointments and general admin that daily life in Germany can require.

Our advice? Set reminders for key dates, appointments and deadlines on your phone. We’re not promising that you’ll complete avoid any angry bureaucratic letters of doom, but for the most part, it should help you keep on top of things.

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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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