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I'm leaving Berlin end of month after having been here a couple years. Came here because I had a vacation through Western Europe and spent a couple of days in Berlin and thought it was really amazing and free. Worked hard to get into a German uni and thought things were looking up in my life. A few years around Germans all day and I feel like I just cannot connect with anyone here. It feels like everyone here is just on another operating system or something and it feels like it's hopeless to keep trying. I've never felt this way before but here I am. I don't know why but I often find myself at odds with Germans over fundamental issues and it feels like they can't explain to me why I should agree with them. Now I am spending most of my time with headphones and a virtual reality headset to pretend I am not in this place surrounded by these monsters.
Anyway, I worked at a part time job in a restaurant at Eberswalder Str. and just wanted to say that the hygiene in that restaurant is really bad. Wait staff was told as a matter of business that if a customer doesn't finish a dish that we should put the leftovers back in with the rest. Even at the beginning of the coronavirus scare we were still doing that up until we had to close. I tried making official complaints to the Gesundheitsamt in Pankow but they never even responded to any of my messages.
Sorry for the post, English is not my first language.
Thanks for sharing and this is a bloody good post. I also spent time living in Prenzberg; but I soon got out as it was a total shit-hole and Germans are quite clicky and hard to connect with.....they never really let you in as people do in other countries....and all points you mentioned are so so true......its a joke. Most of the expats seem like kinda losers too .....and when you hear their stories - I just thought...man you are wasting your life away whilst knocking our home country. Im not surprised about what you said about the restaurant.....but that is just disgusting.....and the government are just useless as they always give wrong/fake information and that is even if you did get a response. What are your next plans to leave and how are you coping now? My advice is to leave....where are you from originally if you dont mind me asking?
Your post is true, scary, and sad all wrapped into one. We all are experiencing the same thing. If you are a stand up person with morals then this place isn’t for you. This place is for losers and wanna be cool posers. These weirdo expats were nothing in their home country so they come here with these loser Berliners. A lot of us have wasted our time and youth in this place. Chasing after people who didn’t deserve friendship or romantic relationships. It’s sad and it angers me to know I wasted my life here with these losers. The worst part if you are stuck here because you have no money to leave for another country. These Germans are freaking disgusting and I hate I didn’t move to another EU country before coming here. My hatred towards these people is unhealthy and endless that it scares me. I didn’t know I could feel this amount of hate. Europe is a wonderful place with wonderful cultures and people but Germany is just freaking shit. You need to know you are not alone with your feelings towards this place.
Hey Berliners, in case you didn't notice, drugs and alcoholism are so 90's.
Grow the phuck up and get healthy of body, mind and spirit. .
I have been living in Germany for couple years. I was student and has been working (IT jobs) after graduation.
I have lived various areas and cities in Germany. I have recently started with hiring process of Berlin based company. The role sounds to be okay but the vibe of company makes me worried. It feels like company is trying to show off. This role wil require me to move to Berlin. I am certainly undecided.
I know the answers you would give me but I want to find out. Is Berlin still too bad If you are solely focused on your work / job and mind your own business ?
The reason I am asking is that, the role + company could lead me to move to another country in couple of years.
"Mind my own business", good luck with that one :o) Germans will be minding your business for you.
Seriously, it's not worth two years of your precious youth in that putrid hellhole, Berlin is for losers and narcissists. They will destroy your soul. Be careful of doing Faustian deals with these devils.
Bro everyone is different. You should give it a try if your heart is telling you to do so....
Maybe you could do it like that:
Test it for couple months and then decide if you want to stay for a longer time. That would be the best decision.
I know many expats who feel great here.
And many of them who want to leave.
It all depends who YOU are as a person.
Give it a try. But be CAREFUL!
This site does not represent Berlin. Many people realized that there are only a few people posting everyday some negative shit. And you might get the feeling there are thousands of thousands people posting here frequently.
That's just not the case my man.
Lot of dumbasses here. Trump suckers, right wings and so on ..so some guys who wouldn't be comfortable anywhere in the world because they have some mentally issues like some of the Germans...
So try it for couple months and maybe you will love it like some of my friends.
Good luck
To the second commenter: what did they like about Berlin though? I see no appeal beyond quality techno music and a lax drug policy. What else do those expats without "mental issues" like here? Seriously, I'd like to understand it. Why do people from first-wird countries want to stay here? I guess some of the graffitis are cool...? Public transportation is also adequate, I guess. Mitte seems liveable. There's lots of Turkish food...? I'm trying to be charitable, but by God, I have no idea what people like here that doesn't exist in London, Paris, NY, LA, Barcelona, Rome etc. You say it all depends on what kind of a person you are - so what kind of a person do you have to be to live here?
OP is here. Thank you all for your comments.
I have decided to let recruitment process go and want to see how It will end up. However, I have the impression that, IT scene is not good here ( as mentioned above by one of the person) as this company is looking for someone to restore a failed enterprise softaware solution. I guess, there will be a lot of work to be done to reimplement the tool. I do not think that, It would be worthy to accept this role but let's see
second commenter here. OP didnt ask me about barcelona or london..if so i would say poop on berlin. But he asked about berlin and as i said many expats like it here. What their reasons are? No clue! me and you dont like it because of our reasons and they like. everyone is different mane
If you have a really good (online and in person) community and you manage to develop deep friendships inspire of it all, you can survive. Take advantage of the 1000 courses or events to meet likeminded people. Rely on the “messenger community” meaning the clique of people who are based here but keep their sanity spending months abroad and stick to a true phisical and spiritual practiceX you can do it!! But stress and look after the conditions applying to your exit. If you work a lot on yourself, family, community and soul connections, it might make you wiser being here but you don’t want to be trapped. Stay healthy and keep exploring bro! But mind you: you need to get out of DE regularly to keep your soul awake. Best of luck!
I've come to the conclusion that all Western and southern Europeans are phucked-up. Especially the moron who keeps posting that "everyone is different man", what are you a throw back to the 90's hippy, man. Just because your are different to balanced people doesn't make your narcissistic lifestyle right in any way. My guess is you are as lost as they are, grow the phuck-up or STFU..
www.morgenpost.de/berlin/article228858285/1-Mai-Demonstration-mit-Schutzmasken.html
I get the impression some of the comments here NOT all are the same person writing over and over. The person uses the word fornicate alot to a repetitive high level and writing style seems to be the same....Its nice to see individual people writing here but if there admin has hired someone to keep writing on post - then pls dont ....as it takes away from those honest genuine opinions of people that have legitimate and real concerns.
One AfD is worth 100 AntiFa phuckwits. I remember talking to one of these clowns about his t-shirt that said "No White Pride". I asked why it is bad to be proud of your colour and he replied that "white people shouldn't be proud of being white, have caused a lot of problems in the world", I said "so have black people, have you ever studied the history of African tribal wars and slavery by blacks on other blacks", I then asked if it's OK for white homosexuals who spread AIDS through their own communities to have Pride Marches?
Antifa robots are like sheep and parrots, and by the way, they are also lemmings, following each other over the cliff to a little ghetto called Oblivion. I love my whitey colour and hetero sexual preference and offer no apologies for it.
www.reddit.com/r/germany/comments/br87x6/german_teens_allowed_to_have_their/
The amount of people in the comments talking about sex with 13 year olds is worrisome.
The thing I don't understand about Germany is the generally lax attitude towards teenage sex (letting 14 year olds have coed sleepovers, legal age at 14 and sex between for example a 14 year old and a 40 year would generally be perfectly legal, the general attitude that parents have absolutely no business whatsoever in forming a child's values/virtues, etc.) but the overprotectiveness of young adult criminals. It's unfathomable to me that you can be 23 and still prosecuted as a Heranwachsende but sex the day you turn 14 is legal in nearly all contexts. I don't see how you can hold both positions: that you're mature enough to engage in this degree of risky behaviour but simultaneously almost completely unaccountable for real-life consequences. Really hard to imagine that German parents care at all about their children.
Really weird to compare the answers above to the answers here:
www.reddit.com/r/AskEurope/comments/9htnf9/is_it_normal_for_europeans_to_see_family_members/
Basically: If you want to fornicate while living at your parents house it's okay and they must respect your privacy but at the same time it's normal in Germany to not lock the bathroom door and have people walk in on you showering and taking a dump? What the fornicate is up with Germany?
If you are new to Berlin, whatever you do, never show generosity to a German, never show appreciation or a kindness, they will find a way to turn your good heartedness into a weakness, and then they will try to exploit that so called weakness. It's a very sick society, no wonder there are so many alcoholics and homeless people.
But it's all they have ever known, so they just say "I am normal, you are the freak for being so weak".
Remember the golden rule, they will never see any form of generosity as anything more than a weakness.
I once told a guy who I stupidly thought was a kind of friend, that I have lots of spare time and I could help him for free until his cafe business s up and running properly. I found out later that he told people I was trying to find out all his secrets so I could take over his business. There s no hope for Germans. By the way, they will never pay back what they owe you, so never be generous with money, or you will learn the hard way.
Because the sate did all heir thinking for them in the 'good old GDR days' :o) They never have an original thought, that's why they are so boring, repeating he same tripe over and over ad nauseum. Their jokes are straight out of kindergarten, you wait and wait for they punchline while they laugh uproariously. It will go something like this "a man was walking along the street and wasn't watching where he was going and slipped on a banana skin" ha ha ha ha, "that will teach him, you should always look where you are walking".
And most importantly, remember that Germans know everything about everything, so never offer your opinion, it is worthless to them. They should hire themselves out to the world as Devil's advocates.
Do not, under any circumstances, try to crack the social code in Berlin, you will definitely go crazy trying.
I don't understand why Berliners and Germans aren't criticised more on forums, blogs, reddit etc. If I were to judge German norms and mentality by what I find on the Internet, I would consider the country a utopian haven of humanism and culture - and, well, we all know the truth. Mentally challenged, unhygienic, unenthusiastic, craven creatures without a sense of humour or a touch of creativity.
The English, the Greek, the Spaniards and especially Americans get plenty of hate, most of it undeserved, yet this cesspool in the middle of Europe can get away with murder and still maintains a decent rep. Why?
People always used to female dog about Germans and I stuck up for them before I actually lived here and realised they are not worth knowing. So I think they have a reasonably bad rep. And people always think "oh Germany, it's so efficient and clean and everything works". But the question is, are the people here really sane? And the answer is no.
You hardly see any criticism of Germans because most larger online communities are moderated by ideologues who unevenly apply their own rules. Fake news and insults and and conspiracy theories are generally not allowed, unless they somehow support the idea that "social democracies" and welfare states are the way of the future.
The news corporations here are also really weird. I've tried to make a conscious effort to read more German news lately and it's incredible how much Trump is criticized for how the US is handling the coronavirus crisis but I have never seen real criticism of Germany (or even Italy or Spain) for how they're handling the crisis. I think people see lack of reporting about failures as an implicit approval of how a country is handling things. As anyone with a brain knows, Germany has its journalists on a tight leash, as it does generally with all data, and there have been no real journalistic complaints about the lack of post mortem tests done in Germany, the suspiciously low death rate, the lack of medical ventilators, the lack of proper hospital hygiene standards, etc. Watch any US press conference and listen to the questions lobbed at the US government afterwards. Then watch any German press conference and observe the meekness within the same profession. German honesty and bluntness? Must exist only at supermarket checkouts and in the subway. This kind of thing happens when a nation is convinced of its genetic superiority but can't openly state it.
The German communities on Reddit are some of the most insanely biased places I've seen on the internet, kind of like a liberal version of 4chan but with less productive autism. If you post just a few critical comments of Berlin in a row there you're banned immediately and permanently, even if you've done it in a civilized and well-intentioned manner. Try it out for yourself.
It's called centralization. The state = the people in their eyes. There was never any kind of German revolution in the proper sense of the American and French revolutions, so they have no real concept of freedom or liberty. Democracy is by default equated with liberty because that's what they've been indoctrinated with in their state ran schools, which any 2nd rate political philosopher worth their salt knows isn't true (two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner).
The algorithms reward the kind of rhetoric that portrays Europe in a positive light (well, the Europe that exists in countries like Germany and the Nordics). As some guy a few pages back wrote "progressive news goes unmolested while anything conservative is critiqued until it no longer exists".
In communities like German reddits you can sort comments by controversial and see there are plenty of people who are happy to criticise Germany but they all get downvoted or banned by the ideology-ridden mods. Germans online seem to have a warped sense of their own country and speak in normative terms in a way that makes you think they're descriptive. I used to try to gauge the German Zeitgeist by the kinds of stuff I can read online but it's hopeless as it's heavily curated.
In some isolated pockets of the Internet you'll find the kind of accurate representations of Germany that are understandable. But they're isolated. If you can get past the constant use of identity politics, here's an example:
www.exberliner.com/features/opinion/germans-why-so-rude/
RIP right to anonymity
Police arrest man who called for demonstration
14.03 h: Because he is said to have called for a demonstration against the exit restrictions on the Internet, police have arrested a man from Weinheim in Baden-Wuerttemberg. With the demonstration, where many people had gathered in public, the man had called for a criminal act according to the current regulations to contain the corona crisis, a police spokesperson explained. Without the conditions, the peaceful protest march would not have been a problem.
According to the investigations, the 32-year-old had wanted to organize a peaceful protest march anonymously in an internet portal two weeks ago. He called on potential participants to bring children to protect themselves from the police. Numerous people who read the appeal informed the police.
Investigators finally tracked down the 32-year-old via the provider of the internet portal. During the apartment search on Friday, the officers had seized data carriers, three laptops, hard disks, a tablet and a smartphone, which are now to be evaluated. The 32-year-old was released after his preliminary arrest.
In Baden-Wuerttemberg, gatherings of people in public places are forbidden as soon as more than two people meet who are not part of the family. While gatherings of smaller groups are an administrative offence according to current regulations, groups of more than 15 people commit a criminal offence according to a police spokesperson.
These people have no passion, no inner drive, no curiosity to know about other ways to deal with things, no flexibility, no empathy. What kind of soul crushing education system do they have here? No wonder most of them smoke pot or do drugs to cope with this mess
I have a hard time coming to grips with this degenerate city as it is and I'm pretty libertarian. I can't imagine the amount of disgust you must feel being in this hotbed of debauchery if you have such a strong opinion about marijuana. And I'm not saying this in a judgmental way, but seriously get the hell out of Berlin as fast as possible if you are still this tender because this shitshow is going to make you regret every second you wasted here.
I hate when fellow foreigners try too convince you to learn the language and integrate. It’s like they get offended if you say something negative about this poop hole. I always tell them I’m pass the point of trying to integrate here. I can’t undo all the poop I’ve experience here. You can’t forget when someone has mentally abused you. I wish I was an idiot like the rest of them and didn’t see these Germans as weird freaking Nazis. But it’s too late to go back now after everything I know about these people. The backstabbing, mobbing at work, people pretending to like to get something out of you, the lies, the racist passive aggressive attitudes from neighbors, and just fake butt people in this city. Can’t trust male or female here in this city. Germans and the weird foreigners who come here and love it so much belong together.
If Trump is responsible for this then he just won a new supporter!
www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/medizin/coronavirus-news-am-freitag-die-wichtigsten-entwicklungen-zu-sars-cov-2-und-covid-19-a-7fb93f73-4d39-4d57-81fd-ded70c060f6d
Hypothetical scenario:
You have a friend or relative who's considering moving to Berlin. This person isn't easily persuaded by appeals to emotion or platitudes. They're willing to listen and reconsider, but want you to put your best argument forward for not moving to Berlin long-term. How do you convince them to make the right decision? What do you do to pull out all the stops?
Basically, without just saying "hurrdurr germanz r mean n sheit" what would be your actual argument(s) to someone against moving here?
Depends where your friend is from. If he's from a first world country I would pick out some economic indicators and other general metrics that show quality of life and show him a comparison to his own country. For example, if your friend were American I would compare median disposable income (especially with a breakdown by education attainment), tax and mandatory contributions as a percentage of income, average size of domicile, percentage of population living below the poverty level, survival rates of medical conditions (
colorectal cancer, breast cancer, heart attack, ischemic stroke, etc), alcohol-related death rates. For Berlin, if all of this information is even available, it should be extremely convincing. But even for Germany as a whole it paints a pretty damning picture.
one cant decide for another. let them make their mistakes!
some people do enjoy Berlin somehow (i suppose, if they are living in a parallel non-german world). so let them come and decide for themselves. you can tell about your frustrations, but dont decide for them in the end.
was referring to her:
www.instagram.com/p/B3P7-x8nGia/
People here are unbelievably flaky and always think there is something better going on. It is hard to find good down-to-earth people who can be relied on. Even if you are a very stable, social person Berlin will knock you off balance in some way and it is not something that you can imagine beforehand.
Do you know why all job descriptions are very high level in Gemany ? I really do not understand this. When you read the job desciptions here, It does not give any idea / impression what your job could be. %90 of job descriptions are something like below
We are team ducked up, looking for a football player !
What are we looking for ?
- You need to control the ball and pass to your team mate
- You are able to wear your jersey on the match day
- You have two feet to play football
Seriously, why do they post these type of job descriptions without givng any idea about the job you would posibbly do ?
news.trust.org/item/20200402160625-8y12u