Walk through the remains of the Historic Ludwig-Donau-Main-Kanal in the south of Nürnberg

After more than 3 years of living in Germany, a deeper, more personal conversation with my boss led him to give me this book. He suggested I read it to better understand Germans, and to see why I still feel like a complete outsider even though I’m doing everything I can to integrate. The book makes sense, and it explains a lot. I recommend it!

I'm a Brit living in Germany for around three and a half years. This is my Kronkorken collection! I set myself the challenge to only have one cap from each brewery (I know, there's at least one dup) and to try and make it approximately geographically accurate. The geography thing didn't really work out perfectly as some areas tended to expand quicker than others!

I know I need to spend more time in the North! Can anyone make recommendations of what I'm missing? 😅 Extra points if you can guess what city I live in...

It took quite a long time* *to receive the results, but the wait is finally over! 😅

Good luck to everyone preparing for the exam! 💪🇩🇪

#This is a Rant!
I have worked as a STEM postdoc for quite some time in German academic institutions and have had to face the brunt of the WissZeitVG with 2-3 fixed-term contracts. As a result I've had to move around the country quite a bit and honestly I am sick and tired of the eternal precarity of it all. Now again that I am re-applying for industry roles, to get out of this rigmarole, I am seeing that almost every company that I'm interested in applying to is now offering job positions limited to 12 months or so! It is frustrating to trying to get out of one exploitative and exhaustive system only to again end up in another one! What sort of a sham practice is this? First the 'high and mighty' academia and now the private sector too!

Hello everyone,

we would like to provide a short update on our previous post about Wunderflats.

A short summary: Wunderflats is a platform for booking apartments online, even without viewing the apartment before moving in. The platform claims to have verified all landlords and tenants. However, to book an apartment, you have to pay a service fee of €299 and the first month's rent in advance.

Our experience was that the platform arranged an apartment for me and my girlfriend starting from September 1st, which probably had water damage and a mold problem — and the landlord lied to us about it. We discovered the mold during our apartment viewing on August 6th, before moving in. At the viewing, the landlord was not present, but the tenant opened the door for us. After speaking with the tenant, it turned out that he is in a dire situation. He contacted Wunderflats about the mold situation multiple times, but he could not get any support from the platform and was additionally fighting with the landlord about solving the problem. He decided to move out early because it was unbearable to live there. Therefore, he was threatened by the landlord that he would lose his entire deposit if he decided to move out early. But he told us that he will move out anyway on August 26th, despite having a one-year contract, because it is unbearable to live there — and this is probably the reason we could book this apartment for September. He also warned us about taking this apartment, since he believes that the landlord is a scammer who targets foreign people like him and us. After hearing this, we took pictures, got confirmation from the tenant about the mold situation, and reported to the landlord and the platform that we wanted to cancel the booking and get a refund, and that we would not sign the rental contract with the landlord. Luckily, the booking could be cancelled, but we only received our first month's rent back; they still refused to refund our €299 service fee despite us sending all the evidence and communication with the landlord — they said their service had been fulfilled.

So we decided to share our experience online and warn others about this platform, and a reporter in Düsseldorf reached out to us saying he wanted to write an article about it. We shared our evidence with him, and he confronted the landlord and the platform about our experience. In the end, the reporter told us that the platform was willing to refund us the €299 and was sorry about our experience. The landlord, on the other hand, denies everything, as expected. According to the reporter, the article is not finished yet, but it will be released soon.

In the end, we got all our money back, but we soon discovered that this apartment is still available on the platform and is apparently being rented out again until next year. We couldn't believe that, after our experience and the tenant's experience and the press coverage, the platform didn't conduct any research to verify the situation. This raises questions about their moral values and their responsibility. We just hope that the current tenant will not experience the same thing we did.

If anyone wants the details of our experience, feel free to look at our previous post.

Hi everyone!
I moved to Germany as a student last week, and I've already noticed SO MUCH hairfall. 😭 My hair is literally all over the house floor, and I'm getting really worried.
The thing is, my hair wasn't very thick even back in my home country, and now that it's already thin, I'm scared of losing even more hair and eventually going bald. 😭 (plus I have curly hair).

For those of you living in Germany who have experienced something similar, please tell me which products actually worked for you!
Which shampoo and conditioner do you recommend for hairfall?
Are there any good, affordable products available at stores in Erlangen?
Could the water here be contributing to the problem? Would a shower filter help? If yes then which one?
Are there any treatments or products that helped reduce hairfall and improve hair thickness?
I'd really appreciate recommendations based on your own experience, especially if you also have thin, curly hair. Please mention the exact product names and where I can buy them in Germany.
I'm genuinely stressing about this, so any advice would mean a lot. Thank you! ❤️

My wife started her quest for driving license last year. For the simplicity, we chose to stay with automatic transmission as thats what we use for our car.

She studied for her practical exam very hard and passed in first attempt. All questions correct.
Then came 3 months of driving lessons which she was doing 2-3 times a week.

1. In August she failed her first exam. The original driving instructior was bit too strict and according to him she was not ready. She failed that exam because she was too slow on Landstrasse. We chalked that failure thinking that she really was not ready. She was learning on BMW X1

2. In September, the driving school changed the instructor and changed the car 2 Golf. I have personally met the instructor and he is a nice young gentleman. This time she failed because she went few centimeters beyond white line at a traffic light and later driving 35 in 50 zone.

3. After the second failure, I decided to do a few ride alongs to really see how she is driving. I did 3 sessions together week apart and with each session progressively getting better. Yesterday's ride along was almost flawless and we drove for 1.5 hours(which is already long and stressful for city driving)

4. Today she had the practical exam and her road test was perfect. She failed the S-Parken where she went little over pedestrian way. Immediate failure.

We are at the end of our wits and we have already invested 3k+ Euros in this. I am reaching out to community for some suggestions. From my point of view, its just an examination stress. In my ride alongs, I saw that she is driving quite well. Its getting unnecessarily stressful and so difficult to cope with when the end is so near.

I have visited 3 dentists in Germany, and all seemed to be very casual about removing all 4 of my wisdom teeth even though only one of them is affected (growing horizontally). Now I am reading about the risks of the surgery and some of them are quite serious and permanent (or at least long term). Like paralysis and numbness in the jaw or tongue. Or change in facial structure.

My doctors back home always told me to not disturb something which is not broken. Is it normal for Germans to just take out all wisdom teeth even the ones that are not affected?

I worked in Germany for almost 5 years and have a severe disability (GdB 80). I was dismissed with only a few days' notice, apparently without approval from the Integration Office.

I filed a lawsuit, and my employer offered two options:

- 4 months' gross salary – employment until January, but I must remain available to work.

- 3 months' gross salary – employment until December, with paid leave and no obligation to work.

My lawyer recommended the second option, and I initially agreed.

My ALG I has already been approved from October.

Is this a fair settlement, or should I negotiate for 4–5 months without having to return to work? Would severance pay (Abfindung) be better for my ALG I?

Hello together,

I just got the Nebenkostenabrechnung for 2025 and my heating costs seem quite high for my 66qm flat. I requested the itemized Abrechnung and it looks like the meter reading for the kitchen radiator is wrong by quite a large amount. It recorded about 70% more "units" than the next highest one, the bedroom, which is odd because I keep the kitchen one between 1 and 2 and never set it above 2 ever. I keep my flat between 18 and 19,5 all winter and only Stoßluft, never kip.

I raised this issue with the landlord and his response was just "I'm not present at the readings".

I'm new in Germany and would like advice on how to handle this. Should I take it up with the Hausverwaltung or the BFW?

Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I'm an Iranian citizen living in Italy with an Italian residence permit. I received an offer for a PhD position (employment contract, salary above the Blue Card threshold) at a university in the Nuremberg area and applied for a German national visa (EU Blue Card) through the German Embassy in Rome.

Timeline:

- December 2025: received a conditional offer (subject to committee approval and an export control check).

- April 2026: Export control check was cleared after about 4 months.

- April–May 2026: applied through the Consular Services Portal; after some document revisions, the appointment booking was opened for me.

- 19 May: attended the appointment, submitted my application and gave biometrics. I was told processing usually takes 2 weeks to 3 months.

- Today (28 October): 162 days later, still no decision!

The Embassy only tells me that they are waiting for responses from domestic authorities in Germany, and they can't give any estimate. They told me they have to carefully check whether the knowledge I gain through research in Germany can be used against the national security of Germany!!!!! The local immigration office in Erlangen, after checking with the Embassy, told me the same thing and advised me not to start a parallel application in Germany (under § 39 No. 6 AufenthV), because the same responses would have to be awaited anyway. My employer's HR is also trying to reach the Nuremberg and Fürth immigration offices.

I know of other Iranian applicants in Italy in similar situations: one received his visa after 14 months, and another, after 7 months without updates, moved to Germany and applied directly for the Blue Card at the local immigration office in Braunschweig under § 39 No. 6 AufenthV (as a holder of a residence permit from another EU country).

My questions:

1. Has anyone faced the same situation? Any advice?

2. Has anyone applied directly in Germany under § 39 No. 6 AufenthV while a visa application was still pending abroad? Did it speed things up, or did you still have to wait for the same security checks?

3. Does anyone have experience with the immigration offices in Nuremberg or Fürth on this?

4. Has anyone filed an Untätigkeitsklage at the Administrative Court in Berlin for a delayed visa? Did it help, and roughly how long did it take afterwards? Any lawyer recommendations?

It has now been almost a year since my offer, and it is becoming extremely hard to manage this situation. Haven't seen my wife for a year and I can't plan anything, including accommodation in Rome, which has a horrible housing market. I can't even go back to Iran, because I would be prevented from leaving the country since I haven't done the mandatory conscription service. I'm really stuck here. Any advice or experiences would be really appreciated.

Thanks!

My roommate stole my card and used it at an ATM in a gambling arcade that isn’t under video surveillance. He has a serious gambling problem. Although the police know exactly which ATM was used, he denied the act when they summoned him for questioning. Today, the police informed me that they are closing the case because there is no video footage, meaning they cannot charge him. I am extremely worried, as Advanzia is demanding that I repay the amount—this was my only hope. Please help: Has anyone else encountered a similar problem or had any experience with a situation like this?
Thank you very much in advance.

I want to study mathematics there for bachelor's degree in English. Could anyone share their experience studying there? Is it a good university?

Thanks a lot

Hi everyone,

I'm a 21-year-old from Bangladesh. I recently finished my first year of BSc in Management at National University (Dhaka). My HSC results were average (around 3.5 GPA).

I've been learning German for Ausbildung purposes and I'm at A1 level (almost done with it). I recently found out about Dual Study programs and I'm genuinely interested in doing one in Management / Business Administration.

Here's my situation:

• Age: 21
• Education: HSC (average) + 1 year completed in Management (National University, Bangladesh)
• German: A1 (working towards B2)
• Field: Management / Business
• Nationality: Bangladeshi (non-EU)

My questions:

1. How realistic is it for a non-EU applicant to actually get a company contract for a Management dual program?
2. Should I aim for Ausbildung first and then try to switch to Dual Study later, or should I go straight for Dual Study?
3. Are there any universities or companies that are more open to international applicants for Management dual programs?
4. Am I eligible for a Dual study program with my current academic profile?
5. Should I focus exclusively on an Ausbildung instead of Dual study program?

Any insights ,Experiences ,or recommendations on where to start would be super helpful!

Thanks in advance.

The Townhall of Hamburg at night shot with a drone. The Citylights and the blue sky turns the scenery into a magical moment

About a month and a half ago, I ordered three items from Levi’s worth around €250, but the package never arrived.
I contacted DHL, and they informed me that the package had been successfully delivered. I live in an apartment building with around 30 families, so I asked some of my neighbours whether anyone had received my package by mistake, but nobody had it.
After investigating the case for about a month, Levi’s informed me that they would neither issue a refund nor send a replacement. In their latest email, they wrote:
*“The carrier has confirmed that the parcel has been delivered to the address indicated on the order.
Please be advised that, based on our investigation, we have reasons to believe that your request is fraudulent. Therefore, we cannot proceed with reimbursement and reserve our rights; we have also informed the competent authorities.”*
I honestly cannot believe this kind of behaviour. Not only are they refusing to refund me or send a replacement for €250 worth of items that I never received, but they are also directly suggesting that I am committing fraud.
I have been left with no package, no refund, and no replacement. I find it unacceptable that a company can treat a customer this way simply because the carrier marked a package as delivered.
I paid using Klarna, and I would really appreciate any advice on what I should do next.
Has anyone experienced a similar situation with Levi’s or another online retailer? How did you resolve it, especially when the delivery company claims the package was delivered but you never received it?
I am particularly interested in hearing from anyone who has dealt with a similar situation in Germany.

I have recently (few minutes back) posted about the same question but as the post was used with the help of AI for sugar coating the words, I'm posting again with my own words and invested time.

Back to some important reminders again,

* 41.8°C recorded temperature - Möckern-Drewitz, Saxony-Anhalt, on 27 June.
* Only 171 liters of precipitation per square meter
* 29.4°C overnight minimum
* Around 16,000 estimated heat-related deaths in Germany through calendar week 36 of 2026

Sources:

• https://www.wetterdienst.de/Deutschlandwetter/Thema_des_Tages/6684/deutschlandwetter-im-sommer-2026
• https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/dwd-sommer-bilanz-100.html
• https://www.rki.de/DE/Themen/Gesundheit-und-Gesellschaft/Gesundheitliche-Einflussfaktoren-A-Z/H/Hitze/Bericht_Hitzemortalitaet.html

I'll try to remind myself and people who care about nature, co-existing lives with US that we should take some steps towards this to make at least next generation not suffer. It's easy to say that global Temperature is been changing since decades and will be continue to do so but it is not normally growing.

I always try to avoid using Car (to be honest doesn't own one even though I can) and prefer to use public transport even when it's painful sometimes or use my bike to commute to office and I'm sure many of us do that. Hope this thinking at least follow by rich people for whom this state of urgency never exists and probably never will.

Of course this is an Irony that, I myself are using Reddit to post this and being a part of something I don't want to.

I hope we do our best to not let future generation, our seniors and other animals to go through this insanity every year.

I'm looking for a new position as experienced software developer and I'm getting some replies referring to employment through a company with assignment to the client. This would be a new kind of work model for me, so would like to know more. I don't immediately like the idea. Would appreciate if you could enlighten me on what to expect from that. Thanks in advance.

Hello German friends

I’m from Belgium, and during a recent holiday in Berlin, I had the brilliant idea of sending my souvenirs home by post to avoid paying for extra Ryanair baggage. Well, let’s just say things didn’t quite go according to plan.

Long story short, after a series of unfortunate events, my parcel is now stuck with DHL, and I’m struggling to get the issue resolved.

I’ve tried contacting DHL customer support by phone, but unfortunately, my German isn’t good enough to communicate clearly with their staff.
I was wondering if anyone here would be kind enough to give them a call on my behalf and help me sort this out.

I’d really appreciate the help!

Thanks in advance! 🙏

Hello, i will be moving soon to Germany and i have heard that people are comlaining on the internet in Germany. Are they complaining on the internet on streets and roads (i saw that mobile internet is kinda garbage) or they are complaining even on home internet ? I am playing games with friends from time to time and i wouldnt want that experience to be garbage :)

Hello! hope everyone is doing well.

So I'm a non-German person in IT who already has a masters in computer networks and looking to get into a Cybersecurity masters in Germany.

I don't speak the language yet but I'm pretty good at picking up languages and am planning to learn it once I decide that Germany is a possibility. (I don't plan to go immediately, I want to take a few years to get everything ready)

I don't know much about the acceptance rates in Germany and what my best options would be. So if anyone has that knowledge, I'd love to know.