What do you like the most in Germany?

mmm. ala Elizabeth Barrett Browning : "Let me count the ways" :

(symbolically 7  instead of 43)

1) The innumerable shades of natural green in spring
2) True loyalty to the term "friendship" vs "bekannte"/acquaintance (contrast this to : "once-to-a-party-_-exchanged-a-business-card-_-now-call-me-a-friend" mentality)
3) Polished & Subtle humour (among everyday populace)
4) Built in passion for overall efficiency
5) Candy Coated Trash is Candy Coated Trash at all levels of society, irrespective of celebrity/simpleton X,Y or Z's uninformed opinion.
6) The common national sport of being entitled to find loops in rules rather than crudely "walking over dead bodies" opportunism (Self-centeredness in both but with a pinch of public conscience in the former)
7) Pass through the door of Praeteritus to arrive at the open arms of Posterus

I am an expat here I will say forced to be here in a leipzig  for my husband end of carriere.
I will say living in Leipzig is to be seen under two different conditions.
You are a student ad live is pretty enjoyable because of night life, tram, co renting. Or , you come as a foreign family and life is absolutely hell and need to be very simple and basic, Or you need to earn and wanted to spend lot of money to go to Opera and expensive concerts .
Don't expect being invited, leipziger  don't open their door easily you will be offered to join for something outside and you will have to pay.
People here are still under the memory of GDR. You don't show what you have, you don't share what you have its a very very cold area.
The good point is that you are only 3 hours away from apolland and atchekoslovakia, where shopping is beautiful , cheaper then agerman you and lot of things to visit in Prague .
leiozig is Far away from the sea,far away from the mountain. When we arrived some years ago prices for rent were cheap,now they have increased a lot.
I don't like the way hauswervqltung keep your kaution when you leave a flat even you clean , any little scratch due to what we call in England or in France  the time ...is a reason to not send back to you thousands of euros so make sure you take one hour when you take possession of your flat and take pictures of any little bubble of painting on the wall or little scratch on the floor because you will have to pay for it.
But to stay positive I will promote Christmas market who start around the 22 nd of November. It's absolutely marvelous ..BUT so expensive !! Prefer far away the one in the north like Hamburg.
So ai am very sorry but I have travelled and live in different countries all along my life and Ex East Germany is not somewhere to live that ai will command to anyone at all!!

I have found that when you have a friend here, unlike aquaintances, who call you a friend in England, it is a friendship for life. These friends are true friends who help you when you need them or are in trouble. In this way I have a good experience of Germans. Particularly, in East Germany, there are a lot of very sincere people. Naturally, also there are nasty people, like anywhere. German audiences are also very appreciative of good music and are very responsive with claps etc. We have very good experience with this. In England you are only a number making music. I have found that German people are very suspicious and see the negative points before the positive points in determining what decision to make, whether it`s buying a property, taking a course of lessons, or anything that needs thought. They are not so taken in or gullible about things. The bills are not so high as in England. I am a very comunicative person anyway, so I don`t really have a problem of getting on with people. I do miss the flair of UK, and the pubs, and there are many more clubs for hobbies than here.
Altogether, I have spent half of my life here, and have done better than I did in England.

Hi there,
Of course you would all like German Ordnung, unfortunately THIS doesn't exist here anymore.....Germans don't know what ftriendship is....you obviously all don't have an accent...makes you nicer to blend in here...and where you live in Germany makes a lot of difference...I find your comments very shallow or you just don't spend enough time with the German people..and yes, they are suspicious of everything...that's the anal personality...A popular term for “anal retentive personality,” a personality marked by excessive orderliness, extreme meticulousness, and often suspicion and reserve..I could not be a person who got along with everyone...uniformed friendship and the hope to be accepted and liked.....really, get a life!

I agree with your comments that the Germans like ordliness, in fact to extreme. We have lived in various towns since we have lived in Germany and everywhere the people have been different. The ossies are different to the wessies. But on the whole the Ossies seem to enjoy their lives more. I do not get on with everybody, and there are people who I avoid, but that is the same anywhere. I try to think a little positive about living here with Germans. I am just an easy going person, and that is why the Germans like me. It started with my working life here and the remarks that were made on my references that I was a pleasant person. I have also met some nasty ones and I just stay clear of them. I have given a lot of English lessons privately and through this I got to understand through the parents and children how the Germans think.
While we live here amongst the German race, one should think positively and not moan about everything and everyone. One cannot be happy like that. Life is the same anywhere and nothing to do with nationality. To get on in this country, one must be positive!!

Assumably Germany is no exception form the global political movements that end up, inter alia, with social and demographic change nowadays. The question for all Europe apparently is the durability of the solutions it will offer across borders.

On a personal side, being stationed now for some 13 months in the Hamburg vicinity, I shall say we have no problem blending in, getting acquainted with people and making friends, including Germans (it is a fairly multicultural society though). It is probably everywhere that people maintain their social habits vis-a-vis newcomers and therefore Germans are and shall not be an exception. We find them very friendly after the initial contact returns possitive for them and they respond with allmost with the same openess once felt. Building up on previous coments herein, they know what true friendship means, by heart (surprisingly for some) as well. I felt it on my skin and it is very nice.

Kids are also well accepted in school/kindergarten which was my initial greatest fear and the educational/child care sistem functions well in both urban and rural areas which is of help at first.

So, to wrap up, I believe once German people are ready to give (and friendship is about giving as well, isn't it) they give more then in some other societies I have been living. Hope this impression will last for us as a family.

Hi everybody,

Just to inform you that i have removed some inappropriate and off topic posts from this thread.

Do note that we are here to talk about what we like the most in Germany and the reasons why you opt for this country to settle.

Thanks,

Priscilla 

Ginger, sounds like you have some real issues so maybe professional counseling is in order! And making blanket statements about all Germans and expats attitudes towards them is laughably hypocritical. What is true is that the idea of everything being orderly is no longer true. The trains often do NOT run on time and there is surprisingly a lot of garbage on the streets of most German cities compared to a couple of decades ago. But this can also be seen as the result of Germans relaxing their uptight attitudes. And making friends IS possible in Germany, it's just done differently than say in America. One rarely meets someone spontaneously in the street and strikes up a conversation that leads to a friendship. Introductions are generally a bit more formal in that people get to know each other through school, work or clubs and activities. And from my experiences it is no different in France a country supposedly full of joie de vivre. There are often expectations belonging to a group that go beyond  its stated purpose. Join a taekwondo or soccer club and one will see how often there are weekend trips to go to tournaments or camping, visiting amusement parks etc. Or the club will have a stand at the city festival or other events where it will present itself. One can be seen as unfriendly if one does not commit a part of their free time to get together with their fellow club members. Of course, the better one learns German the easier it is to communicate but that is part of being an expat rather than a tourist. But I never experienced people I had something to do with on any regular basis as being unfriendly because I wasn't German although we will all have such incidents with strangers.

Ich hab fast über all gewohnt , kann einfach sagen Mainz ist Nummer eins 

Hello everyone,

@fouadnawasrah, can you please post only in English on the anglophone Germany forum ?

This is so, so that all members can understand 

Thank you in advance,
Bhavna

I live in a very small city in Germany, and I love how quiet and safe it is. I feel at ease since I know that I can take my phone out on the street, and I won't get robbed.
Aside from that, I also love the fact that I can find a lot of products for vegan people, which are hard to find in my country, and the best part is that they are not so expensive. Groceries overall are inexpensive, compared to my country. Transportation is also great! It's cheap and trains are always on time! And last, but not least, the bread!!! Ohh... Blessed be the German bread!

I know each country can vary depending on the town/state they live in (especially regarding the people), but the town I live in truly has the nicest people.  Strangers will greet you, people invite you into their homes, many will offer help or advice, and there is this overall friendliness that I am just not used to (so naturally I LOVE it!).  Service is good, polite but not overbearing, and a thank you goes a long way.

I also love how fast it was to register at the Ausländerbehörde and how decentralized this department is.

Can you let me know where you live. I have never heard of a town where everything seems to be right. I have lived here for 30 years in different places and never found that.

catdog24 wrote:

Can you let me know where you live. I have never heard of a town where everything seems to be right. I have lived here for 30 years in different places and never found that.

catdog24, I have PM'ed you with an answer :-)