How friendly are Germans toward people of colour?

Hello,
I think that germans are more open minded today.
But unfortunatly, you will always find people who hate foreigners, like skin heads and neo nazis espacially in ex-East Germany

Sad indeed, which cities would you say are the safest for coloured people? And where should I stay away from?

Hi sweetmeself,

Firstly, I haven't been to the Eastern part of the country at all, so someone else will have to advise you on that one.

I'm from a small town called Gengenbach (there's a web site ;-) ) near the French and Swiss border myself and I always got the impression that foreign students were integrated quite well here. People see them as exotic and interesting and try to get to know them, I think. Of course, I can't say from their perspective. To my knowledge, it is a safe and friendly place, but it is also very small and might get boring quite quickly if you don't have a car (there are a lot of great places to visit nearby, including Basel in Switzerland, Strasbourg in France etc...)
As for safety, it's very hard to say, as you can be lucky and unlucky in the smallest and the biggest of places, but as a general rule I would probably choose medium-sized university towns over other places. Check out, for example, Freiburg, Heidelberg, Münster (all around 100.000 inhabitants).
If you like big cities, Berlin, Hamburg and Munich and in-betweenish Cologne have something for everyone, but each has its very unique character. In these places, you just have to learn which areas to avoid, especially after dark  (which goes for everyone, especially women, all over the world). But each of these cities has beautiful international, exciting areas. Best ask the locals, though ;-)
Very small places in rural areas can be quite difficult, close-knit communities for all outsiders (including Germans that are not from there in the 27th generation), but I would think also very much for people that are different in any way, including people of coulour.
Personally, I would definitely avoid Frankfurt and Hannover. Possibly also what they call the Ruhrpott (i.e. the former minig area by the Rhine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruhr), but people from there might see it differently, and I admit that this advice is largely due to my own prejudices ;-).
Another sad truth, albeit positive for you, is that people seem to be friendlier and more open towards foreigners that do not belong to the big immigrant communities.

Berlin is cool, Germans are more cool than most, because of what happened back in WW2, they tend to over-compensate, but generally they are pretty open minded. I have Mexican friends here, their biggest problem is the winter cold!!!

Hi BlackForest!  I am very excited cause I'll be studying in Gengenbach next Oct.  Could you give me any advise about Gengenbach,  accomodations, etc,  I would really appreciate it
Greetings !

BlackForestJules wrote:

Hi sweetmeself,

Firstly, I haven't been to the Eastern part of the country at all, so someone else will have to advise you on that one.

I'm from a small town called Gengenbach (there's a web site ;-) ) near the French and Swiss border myself and I always got the impression that foreign students were integrated quite well here. People see them as exotic and interesting and try to get to know them, I think. Of course, I can't say from their perspective. To my knowledge, it is a safe and friendly place, but it is also very small and might get boring quite quickly if you don't have a car (there are a lot of great places to visit nearby, including Basel in Switzerland, Strasbourg in France etc...)
As for safety, it's very hard to say, as you can be lucky and unlucky in the smallest and the biggest of places, but as a general rule I would probably choose medium-sized university towns over other places. Check out, for example, Freiburg, Heidelberg, Münster (all around 100.000 inhabitants).
If you like big cities, Berlin, Hamburg and Munich and in-betweenish Cologne have something for everyone, but each has its very unique character. In these places, you just have to learn which areas to avoid, especially after dark  (which goes for everyone, especially women, all over the world). But each of these cities has beautiful international, exciting areas. Best ask the locals, though ;-)
Very small places in rural areas can be quite difficult, close-knit communities for all outsiders (including Germans that are not from there in the 27th generation), but I would think also very much for people that are different in any way, including people of coulour.
Personally, I would definitely avoid Frankfurt and Hannover. Possibly also what they call the Ruhrpott (i.e. the former minig area by the Rhine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruhr), but people from there might see it differently, and I admit that this advice is largely due to my own prejudices ;-).
Another sad truth, albeit positive for you, is that people seem to be friendlier and more open towards foreigners that do not belong to the big immigrant communities.

Hi playasand!

Why don't you start a new topic on the forum? It would have been better as the last post is dated 2010.

Harmonie.