I really hope that more and more people will finally figure out that they've been fooled and lured here by various media and will spread the word to counteract the city marketing, because let's face it, you meet depressed people everywhere but nothing gets out of the private lifes into the public sphere.
Vater Unser im Himmel.........I confess that when my german husband speaks german with my half-german kids for longer than an hour I start to retreat into my shell with PTSD. I become quiet, withdrawn and on occasion politely ask that english be spoken in Mummy´s presence. I can laugh now that we´re 2 years out of Deutschland, but he knows what an abyss it was for me. I should write some of my tips for a well-executed disappearing trick. We sank like an army submarine, and avoided all the interrogation and analyses from aquaintances and family. I recommend disappearing in a puff of smoke, and make sure you lose those pesky friends of the kids that want to stay in contact. Good Riddance everything Deutsch.
I am from Prague and I live in Berlin for five years. If I didn 't have a partner here, I'd be out of here long ago. Berliners are very close, aggressive and evil. I don 't understand why. Sometimes I go to one Czech shop, where people speak English too, unlike others. Do you want to come to the beer? tuzex.de/
Germans are really, really crazy people. Culture is based on making other miserable, complaining and bitching.
I am living in Berlin now and I am so depressed. I come from a Latin country and this place is completely the opposite to my city. I have never feel so lonely and anxious in my life, I feel that everything that I am is completely rejected by the city and everything that I do is wrong. I go outside and I just hate all the people and their pooping attitude. I try to avoid looking at them by carrying always a book, sometimes I just feel that I am becoming crazy and antisocial. I still need to spend one more year here and I am just worried about my health. I freaking hate the u bahn and the s bahn, since I live here I just get anxiety attacks there. Can anyone give me an advice on my situation
Same poop bro.
I came looking for a better life here. I was fooled by stupid hipster vagina articles, where was written that Berlin is the most interesting and buzzing European capital, it's never sleeps, always something interesting happens, club culture, bla bla bla. I thought like "well, I will sure make friends here!". Hahaha, oh wow, how wrong I was.
The best advice is to try to get a job as soon as possible, make some money and RUN!!!
The best advice I can give you is that you are not alone and you are not imagining it. Don't worry, you're not going crazy, you are just caught up in the reality of a people who are in denial of their past, two world wars, the great depression, a wall going up and the same wall coming down, creating sadness, fear and distrust, especially having lived with the Stasi police for so long and now having t get used to hordes of capitalists invading their communist mentality, which was never as bad as the USA anti-communist propaganda made it out to be, even if capitalism is better in many ways. They are still in culture-shock.
If anything, have pity, empathy and/or compassion for them, they are totally lost, the rest of the country is thriving, whereas in the east of Germany there is huge levels of unemployment, their rent is going up, they're caught in having no say for their future as far in immigration is concerned, they've had 70 years of post WW II guilt shoved down their throats, that's three generations now. They're isolated, lonely and depressed, who wouldn't be after all that. The best way I've found is to give them a smile when they are irritating, even if you don't get it back, keep your own head high with optimism and positivity, and who knows it might be contagious :o))))) But the main thing to remember is that you are not a lunatic, keep in contact daily with your friends and family via Skype etc, even for a few minutes and read your home cities online newspapers, every day.
It's not just the super markets. Unless your under 25 or deeply emotionally stunted then there isn't much to do to occupy your free time (drunken, drug-infused sex dens do not count). The restaurants here generally suck, and traditional German food is an insult to humanity.
The museums are, for the most part, a big joke. Public street parties are even worse (Zug der Liebe makes me want to kill myself). The weather is so terrible that 9 months out of the year you cannot even survive for periods of more than 20 minutes outdoors so forget about that. Plus, if you even wanted to go to a public park then have fun finding a spot to hang out that isn't frequented by guys (and gals) shamelessly pissing in the bushes 5ft away or gays jerking each other off in plain sight.
And then look at the job situation here: either work as a waiter or as a customer service rep or an account manager - no matter how you slice it there are no good positions available and literally zero jobs that require any semblance of creativity.
Literally the only reason anyone comes to Berlin as a tourist is because it's (at least for the time being) relatively affordable compared to other western European cities (can you even consider Berlin a western European city?). The only reason people move to Berlin is because they are lazy, unproductive members of society (students and the unemployed), mentally unstable (80% of the people you see on the subway after 8pm), nazis (venture outside of the ring and no need for further explanation) or just stupid/ignorant (all of us expats who frequent this site because we made the huge mistake of getting stranded in this BS city).
New York is a living city with functioning industries and people actually move there. Berlin is on its last leg and is propped up by the rest of the Germany. The population has stagnated for 70 years and not without reason!
I am German (although an immigrant - not born here), and I have to agree with most of what has been written here. However, I got to say that all those things apply to Germany in general. I would even go so far to say that Berlin is actually BETTER in many respects than other parts of Germany. For instance, I find the service personal here on average friendlier than in the area that I am from. Also, I find that men here are a bit nicer to women than in other parts. As a woman I had experienced open hostile behavior from German men in the past for no reason. Every time I traveled I was always pleasantly surprised how positively men reacted towards me. After coming back from abroad I saw how weak and pathetic most German men actually are.
In general, I would argue that German society is degenerate. There seems to be a focus of trying to cause as much pain as possible to other people just to feel better. If you are a normal, decent person people will try to break you for no reason.
But I think this will change. Germans don't procreate anymore - German men don't seem to like women or children very much. They put most of their energy into beer drinking, watching football and being active in extremist political parties. Let's hope that more immigrants from nicer societies (and with modern values) will come here and change the country for the better.
On some level, I think they know this about themselves, because the young people are always saying how they love having a multi-kulti society, but I'm never sure if that's just because they feel they have to say that because of their Nazi past or because they are sick of their own ultra-conservative closed culture. The latter could be a result of so many Germans traveling these days and seeing people actually chilling out and being friendly instead of suspicious and untrusting, in case your neighbour belongs to the Stasi undercover force.
"sick of their own ultra-conservative closed culture"
Yeah, a country that has gay politicians, lessons on homosexuality at school, a low birthrate, and little to no religious culture sure sounds ultra-conservative.
Don't mistake Germany with Poland, bro. And by bro I mean never my bro, you f*cking fagg0t.
Yes, closed off to anything resembling balance, everything is an extreme in Berlin.How long before it's illegal here, to be heterosexual. Anyone who uses the term "bro", is worse than a fagg0t by the way, e,g. a rapper, they are the lowest of the lowest mentality on this earth. I'd rather a homosexual for a neighbour than a rapper, any day. RapCrap morons still using the word "bro" :o)))))
I lived in Berlin 10 years... I have only one friend from that entire time that I have anything more than superficial facebook with. Other places I have lived as little as 4 months and made friends for life.
Little experiment. Next time you're walking the streets because, let's face it, no one in Berlin drives a car because we are all held captive as perpetual children, glance up at the windows to the apartments around you. 90% of the windows won't have shades, blinds, curtains or any other coverings. But what's more telling is the huge percentage of people who light their rooms with single, uncovered lightbulbs. Indeed this is a transient city (or full of absolute poverty - or both).
The weird energy in the city left by all the innocent people killed here... has anyone else felt it ?
Why it is so hard to rent an apartment as a foreigner in Berlin?
I hate that everyone's idea of fun in this city is drugs and techno "sex clubs" or just drugs and sex in general. It's like everybody only talks about this - but for me it is hellishly boring. I'm pastridden, romantic and latin. To me clubbing is dancing to music that has lyrics. I never enjoyed drugs, just drinks. This city makes me feel incredibly old, as if I were in highschool again with a bunch of pretentious pricks who are struggling to be cool and blaming you for not being like them...
Techno is now the schlager music from the 80's, what a joke that people are still listening to music without real musicians playing real instruments, I suppose that says something about the Berliners, caught in a time-warp because of the Wall. And what's all this glorification of DJ's, they are guys spinning records, WTF. Techno-junkies are braindead imbeciles. Oh, did I mention the soul-less indiscriminate sex, totally devoid of love. Berlin is the Zombie capitol of the world. No soul and no heart. And for F sake, take those ugly studs and ear-hoops out, they make you look like a moron and stop getting tattoos just because everyone else has them, you are a human being god-dammit, not a sheep. Shout out with me now - "I'm mad as hell and I won't take this anymore".
What the hell is with every single contractual obligation in this country being subject to a termination period of at least three months? Why are security deposits so ridiculously expensive? Why do I have to repaint my entire apartment white before moving out? Why are houses in this country unjustifiably and prohibitively expensive? What bonzo concocted the idiotic Pfand system, fully expecting people to maintain piles of trash in their shoe box-sized apartments so that they can routinely return it to shops in the hope that a machine costing more than 10k EUR will accept it so the empty, worthless bottles can be picked up by large trucks so that they can be recycled when another infrastructure for this already exists and works just fine (recycling trucks). Why are traffic lights not in the center of intersections so you can actually see them when you are the first car? Why are 80-90% of the restaurants in Berlin incapable of creating an inviting ambiance? Why are Germany unable to create any kind of enjoyable experiences and traditions that extend beyond Einschulung? Why are people twice as likely in Germany to die of an alcohol-related death than in the United States? Why are you more likely to live below the poverty level in Germany than you would be in the US? Why has the percentage of people here living below the poverty line increased by 10 percentage points in the last two decades? Why are you more likely to die of cancer in Germany than in the US? Why is the gross death rate in Germany much, much higher than in the US? Why are Germans so passive aggressive with anything relating to nudity, nature and health? Why is every single job in this city as bland as the landscape, weather and colorscape here? Why do middle-aged men still ride their bikes to work? Why do I encounter public urination every single time I spend more than half an hour outside of my apartment? Why does this city claim to be open and tolerant while being home to more than half of all reported crimes against homosexuals? Why does the city spend money on marketing campaigns with slogans like "Berlin is when you wear your Rolex 'down there'"? Why do all spas in this city/country require co-ed nudity? Why are Germans so vehemently opposed to any form of accountability, protesting any time video surveillance is set up? Why are the police so reluctant to do anything about antifa and the thugs in Rigaerstrasse? Why does every job here require three years of training? Why is a median German income 20% lower than an American median income? Why are fewer Germans in possession of a (free) college degree compared to Americans? How can an entire nation be incapable of small talk? Why are people here so bossy?
Why doesn't anyone here ever smile?
Great post. Let's all help this warrior continue this excellent comment concept:
Why do Germans avoid showering daily? Why does the German music scene seems to be dominated by pooping carbon copies of American gangsta rap? Why is Berlin so full of tattooed up, pierced subhumans? Why are Germans unable to speak without references to feces? How can it be that most Germans don't own the place they live in? Why doesn't anybody drive huge-ass cars like Americans do? Why are Germans so butthurt about Americans being better than them in every single regard? Why do left-wing Germans pretend to be open-minded and tolerant but never so much as have one single foreign friend? Why can't Germans survive without weed, coke, heroin or pooping alcohol? Why are German women so adamant about looking as ugly as possible? Why do they think they live in a democracy if they aren't even allowed to choose their own chancellor?
German Nazi Scum from Hennigsdorf and Brandenburg should all Burn in hell.I hope the muslims beat the poop out of all German Nazi Scum.
Let me educate you.
When the Muslims take over and start telling your wife what she will wear and what times of day you will go to the mosque and cutting out your daughter's c-litoris, you will be praying for some Neo-nazis to come to save you from these Muslim zealots. Stop being a sheep and going along with the CAPITALIST, neo-nazis in disguise, ordering you to think what they want you to think and to accept as many cheap labour migrants as they want you to accept. Wake the F up.
It's been 6 months since I left Berlin.
People - you can't imagine how good it is be out. I still think of Berlin from time to time and think "How could I have spent 3 years there? Why did I waste 3 years? What's WRONG with those people?"
It's easy to start to think that you're crazy, crazy for expecting help, kindness, or a smile from a stranger. It's easy to become a berliner.
But then you leave and people smile to you, help you out, hug you, shake your hand, pat you on the back, encourage you, give you feedback or advice or hints, invite you over for birthdays or other celebrations, drop by with some good beer and hell, just have a good time.
Then you know you were right all along.
Also, it's funny, but a friend came to Berlin just as I was leaving. He thought I was too negative etc. Now, 7 months later, he's escaping that place because he's had enough of the scowling, bitching, complaining, criticizing, besserweiser, etc.
Only one way to survive in Berlin, NEVER, EVER, expect anything from anyone, and I mean ANYTHING..
To all newcomers, you will think everyone here is crazy and that Berlin is the best place on the planet, while you're on holidays :o) we'll see you here within a year :o( First you'll think you're imagining things, and then later you'll think "it must be me, it couldn't possibly be then whole city". When this happens, get out, straight away, don't try to get things into balance, it will only drive you more around the bend.
I often feel like I dreamt the last 5 years, 7 weeks to go and I'm free. I have GOOD friends all over the world, but in 5 years here, but I've only met one person I can rely on, maybe.
I have stayed in Berlin 5 years as well,, totally agreed the above opinions.
But How makes people so cold in Berlin ? its the vibes ? or Germans?
I still cannot find why.. after 5 years , no friends stays contact with me, actually even I could not make real friends there .
Strangers yelling at children for unforgivable sins like not being on the bikepath, or sitting quietly at a bus stop. fornicate these guys and their desire to stamp the joy out of all they see
Arab Migrant ghetto kids,they are a Bunch of Filthy Bastards and son of a bitches.
This City is a freaking Horrorshow.