Thank God I was not born in Germany, because I wouldn't know what it feels like to belong somewhere.
Germany is a place where foreigners barely have any German friends. Most real friends are, of course, other foreigners.
I know many couples and other individuals returning back to their homelands after trying to live and work in Germany. It can be depressing. People don't know how it is to live here and they start to idolize it according to its financially stability, and they're wrong.
I too am grateful I wasn't born there, seeing what several months in that place did to me and to my outlook on life. How anyone with a heart and mind can survive here in the long term is quite beyond me. I think this country is not what many imagine it to be and people tend to idolize it and put it on a pedestal, which they shouldn't.
I got a letter an official letter from an embassy of my country it was official but with very kindness and brightness by starting "Good news!We ~~~".Remind me how I got used rude,depressed people here.Few more months and I can live witht those people again!!!Germany made me to appreciate what I had before.
Aand the letter is always way to long with so much of information for no reason for nothing.Germans are obssed with writing letter for everything and poeple spend so much time for it(even Polizei Anzeige.2weeks of waiting time the criminal could run away already).So not whatever efficient.And those letters give me so much stress to open.
freaking Germany can NOT walk!
Is it me? Or are they totally regarded and never learned to walk???!!!
Gotta get ma butt outa here
Yes, it's incredibly exhausting to walk through busy areas here (Alexanderplatz, Kudamm) with all these Germans who are too stupid to understand that you walk on the right side. I was working somewhere very central for a while and it became an absolute chore to walk just 1 km here because Germans are so incapable of walking on a sidewalk with any understanding of their surroundings. I can at least have some sympathy for parents with buggies but I keep seeing people here just stand right in front of busy entrances and block the doors while they're smoking, or just leaving shops and walking straight into crowds of people without even looking. Or the idiots who just stand around on the narrow sidewalks. Or the idiots who spread out 4 or 5 people wide. Or who try to enter stores 3 people wide and just look at you while you try to push past them. You'd think that living in a city with millions of inhabitants they would inherently learn systems thinking at least enough that they can walk down a street (but you'd be completely wrong). I am convinced that Germans have a part of their brains removed at birth.
And, to be fair, you also have to look at the civil engineering of common spaces here. The Alexa shopping center is a great example. They built the floorplan so that you have streams of people walking in opposite directions crossing. Don't know if the person who planned that was trying to be a penis or was just German.
Hahahh so true.And they always block the stairs and having non stop chatting.Why stairs?????I work at a restautant of 3 stories.And so many parents let their baby(not even a kid)to play around the stairs.What if someone with a coffee or souphit by????But they dont care and just playing it as if the place were a Kindergarten.And they are tall and big.But think they are so skinny so that everyone can pass if they block the streer or Supermarket exit and etc.It is really so hard to understand.Alwyas I see 4 or 5 poeple jusy standat the last step of stairs and talking and sayng good bye more that 10 times.And yes block the entrance of restaunt too.Always stand just in forjt of ans start their non stop German chatting over and over.I don't where it comes from??????
And don't forget the people that will stand like 2cm behind you at the supermarket or push their shopping carts until they are actually touching you. Or people just walking around and purposely running into you (seems to be mostly teenager girls doing this for some reason).
The Supermarket Queue drives me insane - I am about to lose my mind - why can't these people give each other space ? I said to one who was almost on my butt in the queue : "You are not going to get out of here any sooner - now, back up or I will smack you ! " What is the matter with these people ? Also, notice them exiting the train stations - they all go through the ONE open door even though there are 4 doors unlocked and available. This means the people exiting and entering fail to use all door only the one which has been set open - gerbils!
Hahaha Ja.So funny and true.And there is no exit at the Supermarket so you musr pass the Kase to get out(when you have to go out of it without shopping).Always fat people stand in the middle.And never move.They think they are too skinny so that people can pass??????The most selfish minded people in the Europe.
Has anyone had the experience of calling someone out on their poop and being shouted at??
I am in a shock, I had an adult man throwing a tantrum at me. AT WORK.
OP here, in response to giving more details. It was something that he said he would've done twice and because he seems to think that he is a man of his word, the second time I reminded him that this was not consistent in a calm and collected way. We were by the coffee machine, in the middle of an open space office and he raised his voice becoming very defensive! I told him to calm down and he did it again, I said that was embarrassing and if he could please stop... at the end he just stormed out leaving me there speechless!
Always OP, I quote "Most emotionally immature people I've encountered". It seems to me sometimes that they are all big children. They don't know how to interact and lose their s h i t very easily. Also defensiveness and throwing temper tantrums really leave me flabbergasted... as adults, I find this pathetic tbh
Why some Germans are lacking respects to the hard work of the others?
It might look like a small thing from outside, but I put fair amount of work for it. When I got pissed off about their attitude, they start get angry and make me feel that I’m the one “taking too personally”. Come on, I had it enough!
Do they learn the concept of appreciation and respect to the others? Or am I the one who is wrong?
They say Germans only criticize and that you should consider lack of criticism as praise. Seems utterly backwards and at odds with everything BF Skinner and other 20th century psychologists taught us. Maybe Germans still consider that "Judenwissenschaft" since it wasn't a German-language scientist.
I don't know, but I do know a study was done that shows east Germans are much more likely to cheat than west Germans (cheat at some kind of game involving money and dice, not cheat in relationships though it wouldn't really surprise me all that much if that were the case).
Just heard my neighbor groaning and burping thru the wall.
You know Germans are broken up when people from different nationalities believe them to be unworthy of trust, friendship and love.
Right now on a vacation and returning in 10 days or so, already feeling nervous and tense about dealing with these retarded germans lol.
Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that Germans in Berlin always have stock answers, it's almost like they have a central administrator telling them what to say through an earpiece. I never varies. If you challenge them on feminist propaganda, drug selling Africans, the global warming apocalypse scare-mongering scam, and even Brexit etc etc, they all have the same rote arguments. When the new airport is open, they will be flooded with Chinese, lets see how they handle that, in fact, they will probably get along fine wth each other ;o)))
I have seen it in Germans everywhere, never mind Berlin. If you challenge them on any of the topics mentioned, an error screen will appear on their face. This may or may not be followed by adolescent screeching. It is both hilarious and disturbing. Btw I spent some time in China and never had an issue with people there. Then again people often behave differently when abroad.
Read a survey recently, probably from Forsa (which I guess is perhaps the least unbiased research institute in Germany but still) that said something like 64% of Germans feel they have to be careful with what they say in public. I doubt Germans actually believe what they are saying themselves, which would explain why they usually can't really justify their positions beyond getting angry. I think real personal growth is possible only when you realize that throwing a tantrum isn't a valid argument for any position and can work your explain your reasoning for your beliefs in full sentences.
It all leads back to dictator Kaiser Wilhelm, without him, there would be no first world war leading to reparations, thus no need for Hitler to save the people from abject poverty that the demand for reparations created. Thank god the West has no more royals in power. I love capitalism, free markets and democracy.
Other cities like Munich or Bremen are much more beautiful.
I didn't quite get to Bremen but I thought that Munich, Hamburg and Cologne were magnificent, or at least magnificent looking. I wondered how it would be to live in those places, having spent most of my time in Eastern Germany. I wonder, would the people in these cities be a bit nicer maybe?
Hahahaha ja but they have so many things to do.Sitting there ans complain everything.I wonder so many time seriouls this all lazy jobless forever Harz4 think the money comes from the heaven or there are money trees????This lazy drunken angry drug addicted so many job less people made me to feel so stupid to pay tax.Being 10 to 15 years Uni student too.If they study hard and make something it is ok but most of them just having party,drubg and keep extending child life....
You only have one life to live. Don't spend it with humorless ugly zombies. Get out of your comfort zone and leave this rotten country. I did and I thought I would not make it and it worked.
I live in Spain now. Jesus. People here are like a french perfume while Germans were like the end of the dirtiest toilette in Mozambique.
Believe me. Leave it!
True that. I thought that going back to my own country would be a mistake but it was the best thing I could have done. There are places in Germany that are worth seeing and the country itself does have some redeeming qualities to it, but it ain't a happy place to live. I was actually warned by a German living in my hometown that I probably wouldn't like it here. I should have listened to her. Oh well!
Same here, a German girl from Gorlitz warned me about Berlin when I first started living there and I thought she was crazy. I'm also now back home (Australia) and loving it more than ever, friendly, hospitable, helpful, generous and supportive people everywhere. More expensive, but you earn a lot more, real wages, instead of subsistence intern slavery. I feel sorry for Germans, they have no idea what real life is like, with trust and spontaneity, they are paranoid and measly. .
Yes so true!!!!When I visited Australia people smiled at me and tried to help many things and wished me a nice stay.Here even for a holiday people always give a dirty look(come on.I spend money here and go back.Why treat as if I were a bagger and judges me that I am so desprate to stay in Germany l???)I dont think Hiltler would have had a power if it were not Germany..
Thank you for this site. It’s been refreshing to read that I’m not the only one. For your information, I don’t even live in Berlin, but in some other region of Germany. And while I like the beautiful nature, I find that etwas stimmt nicht with the Germans. I look German, but that doesn’t mean they’re actually good to me; they treat me nicely only when they have to. They take every opportunity to speak bad about foreigners, even when I’m around. They just speak about any foreigners but me. I’m sure they talk about me as well when I’m not around. Strange, strange bunch. Been living here for 10 months, have zero friends. I respect Germans just like anyone else, but they’re weird.
You're definitely not alone. I had been to Germany before (holiday in 2015) and was fond of Germans...until I tried actually living there. I too could pass for a German and my language skills were slowly improving (A2 level) before I decided to leave but that didn't seem to count for much. I got sick of dealing with bureaucrats, having to fill out forms to get anything done, and constantly being surrounded by people who seem hate their lives. I also got sick of listening to Germans talk s##t about other countries and their politics whilst acting as if they were perfect themselves. I got sick of people who actually thought that they knew everything (whilst actually not knowing very much). I got sick of them behaving like spoiled children when I dared to disagree with what they were saying or did something that they saw as not in 'Ordnung'. In the end I realised that I didn't even like these people and that any interaction with these people would likely result in my being disappointed, angry and second-guessing myself. I too thought they were a bunch of uptight weirdos. I spent most of my final months here in my apartment eating s##tloads of ice cream and pizza and watching stuff on youtube in order to cope with the way I was feeling and the sheer amount of negative energy here. I did actually make some friends here but none of them were actually German. They mostly came from other places like Syria, Iran and the US/UK.
Germans are terrible communicators. I cannot count the times that poor communication here has wasted a lot of my time and money. I don't know if it is a result of the German language making them think using the fewest amount of words possible is a virtue, but it feels like people here think they have to pay for each syllable they utter. I remember many times when I wanted to do something completely normal like use a loyalty card, reserve a table or buy something and having the service person simply shake their head. No explanation, no apology, not even a clear description of what they are saying no to. And it's not because they assume I don't know German because each time I was speaking it to them just fine.
Even at jobs I have had here the managers have generally been horrible at communicating. Annual evaluations here seem to be the exception rather than the rule and, even if you have them, they're pretty much useless because people here are afraid of confrontation. The only intelligent, structured evalution I ever had here was in an American company (and even then my manager had literally saved ALL of his feedback from half a year to dump on me there - absolutely no ad hoc feedback).
When I visit home I am delighted that people understand the function of communication: to resolve information asymmetries. They will explain a situation to me and why it has occurred. In Germany they always offer no explanation or simply lie (problems here always seem to be caused by a new IT system that has been installed, a problem with Datenschutz or because someone is on vacation). Germans simply cannot operate outside of very specific and standardized processes.
If any German reads this, PLEASE for the love of God learn to communicate. Trust me, both sides are happier when problems are resolved.
But I aam pretty sure that they can communicate but they just don't want to.Because lack of empathy and too much ego they don't want to listen and just do whatever they want to do.It makes me wonder all the time that what happened to them.
Hi OC, I lived in Germany for some time and can understand where you are coming from. The lack of communication skills and the competence of those I was dealing with made my visa application process a nightmare, and far longer than really necessary. And that was just the beginning!
Berlin no-go crime zones: Gorlitzer park, Kotbusser tor. Go there ideally after 6pm (still day right ;) ) And spend there at least 10 minutes.
This country definitely killed my sex drive. The women are not even act or look feminine in this country. The majority of them have the same appearance
How they look is not so important..The thing what really sad is they dont know how to build friendship or relationship.Dispose anything like a plastic bag.Even for their own kids people abandon them so easily when they found a new partner.But even this relationship doea not have any empathy,trust or care.Not only sex drive it is hard to have the feeling of love.I think German men and women are good looking but once you talked to them you will realised that there is nothing inside.The self centered people want only casual sex partner for the time being until they find the nex sex parter.
For me this city is just plain ugly and boring without a shred of atmosphere or energy... but this seems obvious. My main confusion (and concern) is why so many people say it is amazing...how???? In what way is it amazing? Why do people say this?? I really just want to know! How is having graffiti and abandoned buildings enough to make it cool?
This is my third (and last) time to Berlin, I keep coming back after hearing people rave about it sure that I've missed something and Berlin's "awesomeness" will dawn on me...nope. It's still a piece of shit.
Before I die I just want to understand why people say it is amazing....
no worries, you are in the right place, you are not alone! Communist nostalgia, dirty and filthy premises, occupied buildings, fairly bad restaurants and lots, lots of trouble people who have been functional drug addicts or/and alcoholics for a while. I am temporarily in Berlin and miss Britain very much (as much as my native country - nothing to do with any ex-communist country). Can you imagine retiring in Berlin? ahah
Berlin definitely has a very different vibe in the summer than it does in the winter. And in the summer it does have something about it with everyone just drinking outside. There is quite a relaxed atmosphere with noone judging you for what you wear or where you live or what car you have etc. It is very multicultural and alternative lifestyles are not frowned upon. But the downside of the city is the long grey cold winter, the dirtyness, the bad attitude of the locals, the fact that most people who come here are not going to stay so its impossible to settle down with anyone, the fact that nothing feels stable or real and people are just interested in being cool and having a good time but not in actually connecting with you as a person.
I don't mean this as a snarky reply, but what is this "no one judges you in Berlin" business about? Where do people who consider this to be uniquely Berlin come from? I'm from a much, much more conservative part of the world than Berlin but the people there judge me much less. The only place in the entire world I have randomly been insulted on the street for something I was wearing was in Berlin. If you're talking about interacting with the people who live here then I must again disagree. A lot of Germans in Berlin treat foreigners like some kind of otherworldly species and will openly mock your accent and caricaturize your nationality - or they will simply ignore you completely. I don't find anything about Berliners to be accepting at all. I think people may be misinterpreting actual apathy and avoidance for lack of judgement. I honestly feel like Berlin causes autism.
I agree 100%.Here people judge you.But with another criterias.The Berliner must be Artist.Vegan(I myself am a vegetarian.But I hate these arrogant vegans and vegetarians in Berl)must be bisexual and in open relationship and not work hard because working hard and paying tax is something only stupid Capitalist do because they are idiot and greedy.You must have half broken bike and wear second hand clothing and not taking shower.These people in Berlin have even more strict rules how to live and behave.Only immature young people feel that this is a city of freedom.Neverland Berlin with full of Drug addicted,Alcohol addicted,Casual sex addicted angry fake Peterpans.
No these comments about berliners being apathetic and berlin causing autism are absolutely spot on. I was trying to point out what the positives may be but then in the second half where I talk about the downside I complained about the lack of connection with people here and the bad attitude they have. This includes what you say about xenophobia and a lack of openness for foreigners. I have never been insulted as many times in my life as in Berlin. But you can't take it personally and just have to see it as their loss and inability to see anything outside of their small restricted world.
"A lot of Germans in Berlin treat foreigners like some kind of otherworldly species and will openly mock your accent and caricaturize your nationality - or they will simply ignore you completely"
Germans all over Germany do that. Why do you think Germany has such a big problem integrating nationalities that have been living there for decades?
Yes while they also have very strong accent always mocking accents.Very funny..They act as if they are perfect.And when they travel to another countries they are really stingy and stay at very very cheap backpackers in a slum area and eat at cheap imbis.Then they think that is all of the country and said all those countries are underdeveloped and people are poor.And when they back to Germany they judge all Auslander as according to their own little little experiences.