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Why do people in shops here make such a big deal when you pay for something with a 50 EUR or higher bill? They act like you're the most inconsiderate customer in the world. Well, I will correct that. Now you theoretically are able to make withdrawals at some supermarkets with your EC card. If you ask to do that then they really act pissy. Why's this never a problem in other countries, even though they're all much more advanced in cashless payments?
I would call you timid but having lived here I understand exactly what you mean. Interactions with cashiers in grocery stores are negative nearly 100% of the time. In the evenings at Edeka there are sometimes students who work there part time - they're sometimes decent and not yet so jaded. But the average overweight brute women thay man the tills are pure evil.
Anyone here managed to have a NORMAL romantic relationship with a German?
I tried and failed, they are impossible to deal with. Glad I left Germany - it really does not have ANY redeeming factors: stpid rules, stupid population. Never again!
It feels like they're all either controlling or plagued with OCD. They don't seem to understand romance. They don't seem to have any empathy. If you want or need anything it feels like you have to state it completely unambiguously and even then they seem to forget it the next day. Maybe living in such close proximity to each other makes them construct their own disparate worlds. Communication with them is exhausting and it's not due to language barriers.
Noticed today that there are signs all over the city instructing us not to go to the emergency room but instead to call some dopey German number you will never be able to remember.
"Oh sorry, I didn't notice it, my bad" How can this be a hard thing to say? Especially since it's just reality and feels good. bumping someone..Oh sorry I didn't notice you. What's all the fuzz about that being hard? How could you even not say it since it is just what happened or how could you say anything else?
Bingereading a link posted below and I think one German poster summed it up perfectly:
"Maybe we are rude.
Maybe there is no customer service.
So what?
Maybe I am rude too. But thats like it is in that country. Whats the reason? I think it’s the social system in Germany. It’s ok when you don’t care about the others because you pay for them!! Nobody here have to be homeless, nobody have to live without health insurance. All important things in live are exactly required by law. And most of the people have great respect for the law and the state."
I mean geez, they already pay their taxes. Now you want them to act like human beings? Wow, racist much?
But I'm not saying you have to be nice in a repressive way. Sometimes it feels you could express anger by being kind bc it feels sometimes someone wants you to do something noncaring..the projection thing. Other times there is a lack of a real needed social thing. I was smoking at a crossroad waiting for green light. A guy walks right into the space I was about to puff out. Maybe a bad example because I don't usually smoke at such spots :) but to make the point. He walked in as if he wanted me to do it and then I did. But it was a different expression. I put it on him for carelessly walking into it plus even seemingly wanting it so. It didn't make me naturally feel to care and for that I blamed him. I respectfully with a feel of justice puffed out, but not passive aggresively. He uttered something then but it puffed away. He felt it had no business really oh right he coughed artificially and I felt dude let it be.
Homeless woman lying in the street yesterday, half-naked (no underwear) was disturbing af.
Not uncommon in this country. Also not uncommon to see overly aggressive homeless people out and about. Saw some loser who was getting arrested yesterday at Nordsee. Took 3 police officers to restrain the face-tattooed junkie. I wonder if these people were once normal or if they became this way because of this broken up city.
www.google.de/amp/s/www.thesun.co.uk/news/8104412/london-stabbings-2019-knife-crime-statistics/amp/ - London Violence
Project Gutenberg, a non-profit webpages that offers access to books that are now in public domain, had to be blocked in Germany because a German publisher took the American website, which is hosted in America, to German court. Germany obviously thinks its laws are applicable around the world as evidenced not only by this case, but also by the famous Impressumpflicht for all German-language websites and more devious cases such as the one against Frederick Toben. Now they've expanded their legal influence throughout the megalomaniacal EU, forcing webpages across the world to implement cookie notifications and the all-to-common GDPR opt-in messages. More nefarious though are the hate speech regulations thay are being forced down social media's throats and time limits required for deletion. Twitter is basically unusable in Germany now because 15% of tweets are mysteriously "unavailable" because a single report will result in it being blocked. If you think these laws and regulations are there only to help protected classes them you're not thinking. Make no mistake: Germany's still a monster with long tentacles, only this time their conquering the world not with bombs and guns but with draconian leglislation.
No digitiization, just BS dammmittttttttttttttttttttttttttttt
I'm convinced that this is just outward posturing to make people think that Germany is a backwoods country that's too inflexible to embrace digitization. From the inside, I am thoroughly convinced that nearly every single digital form of communication (and a lot of analog ones as well) are closely monitored by the authorities.
Zerstezung is real. If you don't know what it is then look it up! Do you really believe that the hundreds of thousands of former Stasi informants from the GDR just stayed unemployed for the past 30 years? Do you think Germany's brand new BND headquarters, the largest extant spying complex that we know of, isn't employing former Stasi and using underhanded methods to ruin your lives? I don't care if I sound like a conspiracy theorist. If you look around Germany there are plenty of signs that there's some conspiracy going on here. A complacent, compliant government-contolled media, high-ranking newspaper editors and their fabricated stories being exposed after literal years, the secrecy of German court documents and uneven application of the law. How about the German school shooting in the early 2000's with a lone gunman who managed to murder more people that the Columbine duo? That story is wrought with more holes than a Berlin street. Read the wikileaks on former Stasi who ended up being custodians of the former Stasi archives. This is all real and easily researched. But then they'll know.
You know what a German hates most? Well, according to a survey on disgust it was when the person before them didn't flush the toilet but then how can you explain Berlin being the capital. No, what actually disgusts them most is when they see a self-confident foreigner. There's no other explanation for this place. If you're a newcomer who's still in the meek, submissive phase of assimilation then you might still think this society is functional. If you're of the persuasion that you deserve the same quality of life that a German has then they'll trample all over you. A German compensating for his fallen master race syndrome by acting out irrationally is just fine to Germans. In their minds arrogance should be reserved only for the Herrenrasse and a foreigner should know his place, perpetually damned to service jobs or menial labor.
If you stay here you will work for naught and die penniless and most likely without anyone to even mourn the loss. Print that out and tape it to your monitor so you can read it daily. A life in Germany is a life unlived.
Bonn used to be Germany's capital. Not that it makes it better, as Bonn has quickly become a multicultural disaster.
Germans have a weird interaction with hygiene. They are obsessed with order and cleaning, but they themselves don't seem to care much about personal hygiene. Being around them in the summer is a torture. They often won't wash their hands after taking a dump. Their humor is full of references to scatological acts. Their favorite swearings are related to what comes out of your large intestine. They eat their buggers. Their porn is known worldwide for being particularly nasty. The streets of the country are full of dogshite. I've met Germans who only shower 3 times a week, even in the hot season.
Dated a German girl once who matter of factly stated that everyone eats their boogers without even showing any signs that she was in any way unsure of her statement. She was gross and when I think of the epitome of German I think of her. I hate this country.
Man, I'm so glad I moved out of Berlin and came to Poland. People here are so much nicer and kind. Not to mention more NORMAL. No freaks who think they're cool just because they're walking around with tons of metal and ink on their bodies. No open relationships here. No hipsters drinking yerba mate all the time while they listen to sh1tty techno. No passive-aggressive behavior towards foreigners. NIE WIEDER BERLIN.
There are jobs for non-Polish people. If not, then why do I get job offers all the time?
I love the Polish language and as such, I speak better Polish after merely a few months here, than German after lessons and years of bothering with that awful language.
When I first graduated from university a couple of years ago here I got several job offers from Poland and Czech Republic that I wish I had taken. Sure, the pay is bad but if my math works out correctly my standard of living wouldn't be any lower. The opposite actually, since there are fewer druggies littering the streets.
I make around 1000 euros a month after taxes and I live comfortably. Sure, I don't have kids nor a wife, but I'd rather live frugally here than earn more and feel frustrated all the time, just like I was back in Germany.
That said, salaries in Berlin are nothing to write home about.
Poland used to be a laughing stock for Germans - a poor country whose citizens would come to Germany in the hopes of finding a better life. 20 years back, no one would have given living there a second thought. Now people think it's the place to be. Shows how far Poland has come. Or rather, what a dump Berlin has become.
As opposed to Germans who are standoffish and aloof and lukewarm at best to your face but rude and stupid behind your back? Who cares what the kinds of social awkwardness would consider a cultural failing? Maybe they can go back to labeling everything they don't like Judenkultur or Judenwissenschaft or Judenverhalten and pretend that that's an actual critique.
Just read this post elsewhere online and it's so true:
"How relieved I am to read that so many other people find the Germans rude and unpleasant! What terrible experiences I have had in Germany (lived there for 2 years). When I came back to my home country I had to have lots of help and counselling to recover and I still have nightmares about it now, seven years later. You may speak the language fluently, be nice and helpful to everyone, go out of your way to learn their customs and what is acceptable, be the absolute model foreigner…and in return they harass you, push you, try to deceive you, pay you less salary than a German, cold-shoulder you, slag off your country, glare at you, shout at you, look down their noses at you, laugh at you behind your back, object to you having a boyfriend whose skin colour is different to you…the list goes on and on and on…In my last week I finally made two lovely German friends who don’t like their compatriotes very much. I am sorry for them that they are the only exceptions, for they surely don’t belong in that horrible country. Before I went to Germany I felt fine. To survive in that country you have to become very hard indeed and the emotional damage that my experiences in Germany have caused to me will, I think, be with me for the rest of my life."
Actually that whole page is amazing to read people share their stories on this
www.true-germany.com/common-prejudices/germans-are-rude-and-%E2%80%9Eoberlehrerhaft%E2%80%9C
Sorry, BH snipped the post. That's the page above if you need some perspective.
"After living in Germany ten years all I can say is GOD BLESS AMERICA, LAND OF THE FREE AND HOME OF THE BRAVE.
It took 10 years of hell in Doucheland to realize what a great country USA is and how genuinely friendly and helpful Americans are. I am so proud to be an American and these days I’m taking regular extended breaks back in the states so I can experience real civility and kindness on a daily basis as much as my limited time in the states allows."
Found this on that page. I'm American myself, been in Berlin a comparable amount of time and feel exactly the same as that guy. When I moved here I was jaded and disillusioned by the US. A few years in this idiot have opened my eyes. Say what you want about America and its politics, but at least it isn't Germany.
A little over 2 years here for me. Enough. I'm leaving before it turns me into an irredeemable miserable human being. I think that is the point of Germany, to turn everyone into miserable, life hating pieces of shit. The only thing I will ever thank this place for is reminding me how amazing my home countries both are. I love how everyone here likes to hate on North America, I'll take it over this poop hole any day.
To the person above who refers to Germany as "Doucheland", were you the person who wrote a scathing yet entertaining blog about your life in this country? You wrote about nosy neighbors, shoddy appliances, poorly stocked supermarkets, the Germans' archaic and outdated procedures, and poor customer service standards. In that blog, you also wrote about how great it felt to back in California after living in that dark hell hole of a country.
just returned a rental car to the airport. guy checking it in felt he needed to comment on the discarded bottles in yue back seat and the crumbs my daughter left from her cookies. He said it looked like a garbage dump... I wanted to pumch him... who the $%^# does he think he is? it is a ficking rental car! and he is a low level shirhead
Slave labor. I have lived here for about 7 years and had at least 3 jobs where Germans started screaming at me for absolutely no reason. One CEO called to scream at me on a Saturday for something that had to do with IT--I did not work or manage the IT department at all. It was like Gobbels in the propapganda speeches from the 1930s and 40s. The dude had zero idea how his company worked. Which is why it was yet another failing Berlin Startup. I quit 4 weeks later. I cannot recommend this city at all.
Had an account management job for a while at a mediocre, failing startup (it still exists somehow but I honestly cannot imagine how that's possible since then, when they were doing about 6-8x the amount of sales they couldn't get profitable) and one of the country managers called me on a Saturday because of an IT problem as well. Of course yelling and threatening. That company was so retarded and corrupt. Had a summer party there once where they were bragging about how they used to party so hard at the beginning (luckily I started much later) and about how once a neighbor complained their employees were pissing in the courtyard (with a video of it! - neighbors must have NOT been Germans). Prepubescent city full of immature addicts and unstable cretins.