...
at first I thought just my school was a scam. so I dropped out. then I realized all of berlin was a scam.
How could we have not known the truth about Berlin? Actually I had 3 people’s warnings but they were more subtle, and I thought it had more to do with their personal circumstances than with myself. But the real truth is completely awful. With so many expats coming still, how can nobody know? But maybe some people go to Berlin because they really are that trash. That kind of trash THRIVES in Berlin long term. No responsibilities, can party til you’re 90, no need to have any kind of assets or career, act like a compete nincompoop etc . Ha.
If you’re interesting and creative, you may move to Berlin. But if you are sane and not disgusting, you eventually leave.
Just got off the phone with a friend in Berlin. They haven’t had an easy time in 5 years and just need the entry level experience now that they have the job before they can leave. What is wrong with this place. “The best place” yet people only stay for entry level experience and even that takes time.
I had 8 + years experience and a midsenior level job on my CV and all I got offered was a customer service position for a crappy startup. I packed my stuff and left that joke of a city.
I'm still in Germany and although here is better than Berlin, I can't cope with the culture.
I find this country to be surprisingly backward, I never would have imagined that the richest country in Europe would be like that.
I can't wait to leave for good, shame I'm stuck here for now due to this Corona situation...
Germans:
- never self reflect. If anything goes wrong in their lives, it’s never their fault. The world is against them
- never say thank you, unless they have to because of a rule or a law
- never offer to help, unless they have to because of a rule or a law
- Don’t care about other people. Everything is always about them, them, them. They act like no one else is around
- never have empathy. Their huge ego doesn’t let them
- never treat you. Ever. Ever.
And then they wonder why 1 in 2 marriages fails. Nation of troubled single mothers and kids that have 4 fathers each
someone keeps downvoting comments here. a german is actually lurking on berlinhater and instead of self reflecting and wondering why we hate berlin, just want to do the shamless self promotion of Berlin
It's the German guy who wrote this on an earlier comment:
"That with Alcatraz was sarcasm you moronic millennials."
I honestly don't even mind hearing a German try to defend this dumb city but the adult thing to do would be to actually craft an argument instead of just nitpicking random bullshit. Oh well, he is a German after all.
everyday something goes wrong in germany. I've been trying to order boxes online for my subletter to pick up, so the rest of my things can be shipped home. First, I order the boxes. They just simply don't arrive. Then I order from another company, they arrive in the wrong size. Finally I pay 30 euro so boxes will be delivered quickly, they say "delivered", but don't say with who in the building and the tracking number didn't work. I started to get that internal panic today and It reminded me why I left. That internal panic happened almost daily there from daily mundane things, until I had an underlying level of stress and was on edge constantly. Not to mention, things not making sense and getting lectured/made fun of by Germans and other negative people.
you speak to the depths of my soul. since being here the underlying level of stress from everyday life here is building up. i can never feel in peace with me and the world around me, my soul just cannot un-stress as there are too many things going wrong in this place.
Can't count the number of times I've just said "fuck it" instead of signing up for a course, going to the doctor, purchasing something that I couldn't carry, visiting a "friend" because the entire ordeal you have to go through is just such a darn hassle.
You speak the truth!!! Every aspect of daily life just seemed so much harder here until I developed a crippling anxiety disorder and had to spend thousands at English-speaking "therapists" who were not actual medical psychiatrists because those are impossible to get here.
It all started within 3 months of moving here. I was doing an internship (unpaid, you know, it's Berlin). I asked my boss to recommend someone who I could use as a private tutor once-a-week to learn German. The person recommended someone who she knew was studying English. The person immediately told me "Oh we can do a language exchange, you do not have to pay men." She cancelled the first meeting at the last minute. Then she never showed up for anything. Since then I have been through 4 German teachers. I have also taken courses at the Volkshochschule in tandem. The private teachers never prepare. If I am lucky, they will photocopy a page from Der Spiegel and expect us to discuss this. My best teacher was actually from France. Another one was from Hungary. The native German ones are completely useless.
Everyone here looks like they smell. Oh wait, they do.
Can we talk about Germans tightness??
Bill time, no one treats each other, always separate.
Date time, each pays separately.
Toilet time, pay for it.
Want a bag for your shopping you paid for alreadyy, pay for it.
Collect bottles and have to sort them yourself in piles of rubbish taking up space and smelling in your flats, then carry them to pfand (deposit) machines to get a few pennies back.
Cost of water.
Cost of electricity.
Cost of Gas.
Cost of TV license whatever it is
When you buy a property the buyer has to assume all expenses from the estate agent even though they are selling it to you.
Contracts that auto-renew TWENTY FOUR months and require you to cancel before 3 months. Your consumer rights here are abysmal.
Discounts in supermarkets equate to 20 cent off.
I went to a german friends house gathering. She charged us for the meal she made 5 euro each... it was all out of cans from the bottom shelf (ja! product from Netto). She actually made money out of us.
No one seems to give to charity... it is always the govt...
No one seems to treat anyone to a beer or a coffee.
When I moved in with a german older man he manipulated the fairy washing up liquid nozzle to not release too much liquid, no joke.
When I first moved stayed with a friend and she made me feel guilty for every minute I spent in the shower, and there was no curtain. I felt guilty every time I ran the hot tap. In fact she didn't allow me. In fairness to her the electricity bills are so high... no wonder!
Health insurance….wow.
Clothes and electronics (compared to many other western countries)
Tax.
These admin fees we seem to get lumped with for bureaucratic tasks
Nothing is free in this country, they don’t know what a freebie is.
Cost of Water. Even a glass of tap water is not considered a human right, even when somebody is paying for products/food/services. One must pay for it 80% of the time, or when given expect a sarcastic comment or attitude. Even when you order an expensive cocktail and want some water to quench your thirst… expect attitude for wanting a glass of tap water.
No one wants to share food. Me me me protestant mentality.
Lack of street lights. They call it energy saving… I call it being tight as a crabs A33
Lack of attractive fences in building gardens… all you see are those nasty cheapo green grid ones…yuk. No stone or wood or iron, nothing that costs something.
No beautiful flower beds, just weeds. No borders. No attractive paths.
Oh yeah, when you get that ‘free’ shot at the greek restaurant, it is already factored into the bill total
Order a soup in a café, pay a lot for it, then they charge you extra for bread. It.is.a.soup(!)
Spill a drink, pay for whole price again.
Tight with information: this is major. They don’t want to share info. They want to keep everything for themselves even if it won’t damage their interests. But why not help others?!
Please free to GENEROUSLY add more reasons why Germans are tight, that you can think of my fellow Berlinhaters!
Thanks for the smug comment...I haven't bought yet, but I am aware about these conditions. I like your comment about the dutch though hehe.
PS at my work they only replaced the carpet 1 sq m around where your chair moves instead of the whole carpet. Maybe they take tips from the dutch????
You forgot the most important of all. Germans never shower. They even smell on a Monday, so not on Sundays, either. Because they have to save water. Also, bathtubs take too long to become empty again. Maybe they’re designed that way to make germans too guilty for wasting water during their monthly shower?
The drains here are made so that a small compartment has to fill up and then drain front a small hole at the top. This is done to discourage "excessive" water use. I opened mine once and removed the bottom (the bottom could be unscrewed) and it flooded the guy below me's bathroom. I am not even joking.
When will the Civil War Begin in Berlin ?
Enjoy the decline :)
Germans just hate Americans because they made them surrender. And Russians. Wait, guess that doesn’t count any of the other races and nationalities they hate. Who do they even like anyway ? Do they like Nordics?
Yeah, they like Scandinavia and Benelux and that's it. But who cares really? The EU is practically over anyway since Germany is refusing to let the globalists rule of Eurobonds. The moment that happens Germany's intricate system of devaluing a German currency is going to fail making exports from Germany prohibitively expensive like the exports of any other developed country. Then it's only a matter of time before Germany is removed from the G8 and this country is just another Greece.
hi berlinhater.
A year ago I had to go to court. This was because one night I went by my German ex’s house (who I hadn’t spoken to in over a month) completely intoxicated, rang all the doorbells and his neighbour let me upstairs. I had never gone by his house before unannounced. Ok, so have you ever done something really stupid because you were drunk and expect the person to understand? So I went to his door and began repeatedly ringing the bell. Wasn’t sure if he was home. Sat down in the floor. Tried again. Then the neighbour chases me outside. 5 minutes later, a police van arrives with TEN police getting out. I thought it was for someone else so I kept walking, but no, it was for me. They told me to go home. Fine. Woke up the next day and thought how strange it was , that he wouldn’t just answer the door and tell me to leave but instead call police ?
Fast forward two weeks, get a letter in the mail. He writes this story saying that I was stalking him, that I had made up a relationship in my head, and that everyday he thought I was outside of his house with a knife, waiting to murder him. He says I busted through the front door on the street (?!?!) and that I was scratching at the door with a knife.
The weirdest part was, I couldn’t tell if he had lost his mind because of his extreme drug use over ten years In berghain, or not, because in court (yes, I had to go to a German court, hire a lawyer and a translator)he was denying he said certain things he had written in the restraining order application. He also showed up to court wearing sandals, which my German lawyer thought was strange. At one point he began yelling at her because she “didn’t understand I was trying to murder him”. Needless to say the judge told him these were serious accusations and the charges got dropped . But the worst part of all this? His friend who I met him through, who is also German, turned on me (the auslander) blocked me everywhere and called me “abusive”. And that he was “nice”, and that I “needed serious help”. And never spoke to me again or wNted to hear my side of the story even when I approached them. And my two other German friends, completely unrelated to these people? Never saw them again either.
Just trying to understand, germans stick together by default if they’re friends, ok, this was a traumatic situation for me, and a waste of my time and money. But what the fuck, I mean seriously. Calling the police stopping by is firstly an overreaction, you don’t do that. You make yourself known or say “you’re drunk, go home”. But not even that. To lie and make up all these random accusations is just too crazy. But also, I could never tell if he just lost his mind. Thoughts ?
I’d also like to thank berlinhater for making me realize that this wasn’t just an isolated situation (I was very traumatized by this and by abandonment of my friend and called by them “an abuser”) but now I realize so many Germans operate this way, that it’s a good thing I left.
But the weirdest part of it all. He tried to work out a compromise that we would talk after six months with the court. I told the judge I never wanted to speak to him again. So he just made the restraining order mutual, that if he talked to me I could call the police. I have never met so many crazy people as I did in Berlin.
I would like to add something to this discussion that i've noticed and is related. In Berlin the general "distance" between people is bigger than elsewhere. What i mean by this is that there is a general acceptance that everyone should just get on with their poop by themselves and you can only approach people very slowly. So just normal behaviour like going round to see how someone is would be seen as massively clingly. There is this vibe of pretending you have no emotions and pretending you have this great cool life going on. But at the end of the day we are all just human beings and noone can go it all alone.
And in the context of this post i think that a behaviour that could be seen as a little overemotional and which shows you care a lot about someone in another town or country would be interpreted in berlin as hysterical and stalkerish for these reasons. There is just this general unspoken "Abstand" that is hard to get over. And i dont know where it comes from. Maybe just the fact that almost every microinteraction you have with service staff and people on public transport is brief and frosty. And these build up until their is an unbridgable gulf between people that is palpable.
you should call the police on someone for stopping by? sorry, but I don't understand. If someone stopped by my house because they were so drunk they couldn't walk properly (which never happened before) and I broke up on alright terms with them, I would just tell them to go home. And even if I called the police, I wouldn't make up some kind of strange story saying the person invented the relationship, was stalking me, and that was plotting to kill me with a knife, nor would I yell this in court repeatedly.
because the police just let me go. but he didn't stop at that, no, he had to invent some kind of crazy story to try to get a restraining order to punish me. meanwhile that was the first time I stopped by ever unannounced, even when we were dating, and it was only because I was drunk and I missed him. that's just an extreme thing to do. also, I never went back after he called the police, nor did I try to talk to him again, because I was shocked.
my understanding is stalking is repeated unwanted contacts with someone. not one thing out of the blue. and if the police are called and the person doesn't contact you or go back, its even stranger to then go online and fill out a form making up a crazy story trying to punish the person.
I don't know if he lost his mind or was trying to punish me, I cant figure it out. that's why I made the post on berlinhater.
and yes I agree that in berlin there is the thing of being alone and in a superficial place and getting on by yourself, but then why is everyone so unhappy and lonely. I didn't think I was doing anything wrong, but I was severely "punished" by just doing something impulsive when drunk. but at least it showed me what kind of cold person I was dealing with, who would do something like that.
OP, I understand that you're hurting and you're trying to find an explanation but being German and in Berlin, as someone above said, has nothing to do with this all.
There's never one side of the story but I'll assume your version is the true one. Just move on, it didn't work out. Don't fixate with things that are unrelated and don't capitalise on his being German in this case, it's just a reaction he had, that's it.
His friends chose to stick by his side. Why do you care? They were not your friends.
Just let go and move on.
I was only posting it because it was one of the weirdest thing that happened in berlin, and seemed abnormal and cold for someone to do, as well as the reaction from the Germans around me. I haven't had people react that way before and just cut me off and get angry, for something so trivial such as stopping by a persons house. but because I've seen some other people writing here and I felt I understood why it happened now. I believe it was specific to berlin but anyway ill stop postig thanks for listening
Alcatraz isn’t open . Have you even been to the Bay Area? And what is so strange about going by someone’s house once unannounced ? I thought people on berlinhater were often able to think critically, instead they think someone calling cops and then writing a fake letter to them which resulted in me having to court is completely a normal thing to do . Maybe you have been in Berlin too long yourself.
Don't worry about the one weird guy here who keeps saying it's your fault - he always goes crazy when someone mentions that liberal lefty types are capable of anything despicable. Just read a few pages and you'll see how any post containing any criticism of lefties mysteriously garners tons of downvotes - more votes in fact than any other post in a given thread.
Anyway, if the Berlin police rolled in every time someone was a drunken nuisance then half the city would have been arrested by now. Obviously we don't know the full story but it sounds pretty German to me to be afraid to actually speak to someone. Ever see how weakly people in shops ask for help? "Ummm, e-excuse me, c-could you please maybe, when you get a chance, help me to perhaps find the beer?" Also seems to be common here to immediately call the cops on your neighbors if they're making too much noise rather than just ringing their bell and telling them to cool it.
Anyway, if I had to guess I would say he had his new gf at his place at the time and she was mad so he had to make up some kind of story to her about why you were there. He probably settled on the irrational stalker thing and she kept pushing him to take legal action. Probably massively whipped by a real Teutonian bride. On the other hand, maybe he really is losing his mind from all the casual sex in Berghain and an untreated syphilis/AIDS illness. Either way he sounds like a huge faggot.
"Honey you would go to Alcatraz for a year if you did that in SF - so get over "it was so weird"...."
This is the kind of weird horseshit that Germans always counter with. Over-the-top comparisons to America with some kind of extreme and bizarre false dichotomy. Wonder if the guy who posted it got lost here on his way to r/Berlin where all the true retards reside.
Nice reading comprehension, faggot.
OP specifically said "I should add this moron is a typical moron who is “left wing” activist but also against gentrification (against foreigners), yet calls POLICE . Hypocrites !"
Berlin probably is the perfect place for someone with an IQ below 90 such as yourself.
I'm the Op here and I don't really understand the majority of these comments. I think I've said what I need to say. If y'all think calling police on a person you know and making up an attempted murder story is a perfectly normal thing to do, I suggest you stay in Berlin and spare the rest of the world …
And no, he was there by himself I think. I considered the other girlfriend thing, but the way he acted with the yelling in court about a knife (he also showed up wearing birkenstocks) and all that, the judge asked him if he saw me with a knife and he said no, and he didn't see me anywhere, he just "thought" I was outside every night waiting for him for a knife.
that's really not normal. It's my crazy berlin story. anyway bye
PS: the other commenter who said something about Germans posting things on here re:alcatraz just confirmed for me what I was thinking. that this way he behaved was very German. Because where I am from you would never do that to someone you know. it just wouldn't happen and would be seen as "intense" and overkill to pursue something like that.
and I am not a danger to anyone. I'm a small woman weighing 115 lb and I don't even know how to fight, nor did I ever fight him. anyway he just got a mutual agreement, so he couldn't approach me. but the weirdest thing was how he asked in court for us to be able to talk after six months time, minutes after he accused me of trying to murder him. I saw him a few times after that. once was on the street and once was he was standing behind me in berghain. I didn't even make eye contact in court with him. nothing about this culture makes sense to me. why the fornicate would I ever want to talk to someone after they did something like that to me. crazy
We all have to leave this shithole. They will make the taxes even hight than now because of corona next year. It's so clear.
Let's face the truth, highest electricity prices, highest taxes, high rent for poop Appartments, and next year even more of all that.
Man leave the fucckk outta here