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I should preface by stating that I am no longer living in Berlin. You’ll excuse the length of this rant but I just need to vent.. I managed to escape before losing my sanity, and now I proudly live in a city somewhere in the southern hemisphere.
Berlin seems to me like the kind of place you go to to do whatever you want, as long as it is degenerate and abnormal. It’s not a place you move to if you want to make money, friends and enjoy life.
If you’re gay (or LGTWZKLP1249), a vegan hipster, a drug-addicted loser, a leftist who doesn’t want to work or generally a person who doesn’t like doing anything productive, you belong in Berlin. The aforementioned people are usually quite empty and damaged inside, so their emotional state remains unaffected by the city. If your brain is unable to entertain truly deep, alternative thoughts, you are welcome in Berlin. If you’re an angry, frustrated racist person who blames foreigners for everything wrong in his life, you’re ironically also welcome in Berlin.
If you want to become the ugliest, most despicable version of yourself, move to Berlin. Get face tattoos, tunnels, nose rings, dye your hair red or blue, develop an addiction to that awful-tasting Berliner Pilsener, shower once a week, listen to pooping techno…that’s what people believe can be considered “alternative lifestyle”. Being an emasculated tree hugger who drinks Club Mate all the time, is vegan, left-wing, “tolerant” and is proud of being a cuckold stuck in an open-relationship is not being alternative, it is the rule in this godforsaken city.
If anything, being conservative and normal here is being alternative and counter-culture. Getting a job, going to church, being committed to another person in a monogamous relationship, being polite, kind, virtuous, traditional, respectful and well-mannered is what will set you apart from the average Berliner, and they’ll hate you for it.
People here want to drag you down to their level. The whole city is like a giant crab bucket.
But of course, these people like to talk about “freedom”. They’re “free” only because there is a nanny state that caters to your needs, so it’s fine to be in your late 20’s or even late 30’s or even late 40’s and still be dependant on social welfare for everything. They don’t know what it is like to pay for school and university or for healthcare. These “free” Berliners are also dependant on their cigarettes, cheap beer, schnapps, and anti-depression meds. That’s not freedom.
There is no real freedom in Germany, because a nation that is so dependant on rules and “Ordnung” is void of the freedom of thought required to guarantee real freedom. Germans hate Americans because they know within themselves they can never reach, much less surpass the success of the USA, a success that is most likely the result of a mix of freedom of thought and a constant strive to innovate.
Good luck with your innovative ideas, and free-thinking spirit in Germany.
Some of you think that the unfriendliness, rudeness, lack of polite manners and in general awful behaviour is a Berliner problem, but I dare to say it’s in general a German one. German behaviour is for the most part childish. Yes, “childish” is the word that can best describe the way a lot of German adults behave. Throwing temper tantrums for petty reasons (“NEIN, NEIN, NEIN! DAS GEHT SO NICHT! ) is the kind of thing you’d expect a spoilt, badly raised child to do.
I am 29 and child-free. Several frustrated expats on this website are tied to the city due to the fact that they made the mistake of dating a German woman, and even worse: impregnating her. It never occurred to me to date a German woman. Most of the ones I saw in Berlin were either:
-Overweight
-Downright ugly as per own personal choice: unnecessary accesoires such as piercings, tattoos and tunnels.
-Single mothers (never date one, really)
-Too dumb to be alive
-Not feminine
-Had an awful attitude
The only good-looking ones had unrealistic standards, and were caked up most of the time. No, thanks. I’ve had better when I was travelling across the Eastern side of the world.
It’s no wonder Germany has such a low birthrate. Most men are passive-aggressive, emasculated vegetarians who absolutely lack charm and a confident sense of masculinity. Most women are passive-aggressive, repulsive career-obsessed creatures who lack charm and real femininity.
The German obsession with cleanliness (Sauberkeit) is also something I never understood, but even more puzzling is the fact that a lot of the people who have been to Germany (and not just the ones on Berlinhater.de) complain about the Germans lack of personal hygiene and body odor.
By the way, currywurst with fries is not a delicacy. It’s just a stupid sausage swimming in ketchup with some curry on top and fries to go along with it. If that’s the signature “dish” of your city and you’re proud of it, you should consider suicide. But living in Berlin is just a very slow, ineffective way to kill oneself, anyway.
These days, muslims are the public enemy number 1 in Germany yet, ironically enough, some of the few normal, friendly people I met in Berlin were muslims. You can’t blame them for not wanting to integrate into modern German “culture”, which is a bad copy of the American pop culture: being a single mom, having body modifications, being miserable and a slave to whatever TV tells you to do. If I were condemned to live in Germany, I’d probably just hang out with non-Germans. Or I'd kill myself in the end.
The two years I spent in Berlin felt like an eternity and trust me, it was enough. I felt such a relief as I was sitting on the plane on the way home. I felt truly free once I landed on American soil. I saw people genuinely laughing, being polite, being alive. I almost broke down after embracing family members. My body and my soul had forgotten what it is like to feel the warmth of another human being, warmth that is genuine.
Germans think that their rudeness, lack of manners and politeness is just them being “direct” and “straight to the point”. Maybe one day they’ll realize that you can be direct without offending other people. It’s not just one or two expats or tourists who complain about that awful behaviour. It’s almost everyone. That says something.
Fuck Berlin. And fornicate you if you think it’s the best city in the world.
Completely agree with this. I lived in the Caribbean for a little while before moving to Berlin... people were happy, laughing, smiling, dancing, each person had their own personality and were not carbon copies of one another, many of them not having much wealth at least by western standards, yet I believe they were far "richer" than so many in Germany. Germany is a wealthy country but the people are unhappy, cold and emotionally/mentally "poor", they have no personality, are copies of one another, and go as far as to be hostile to people who are happy or have a personality.
Great summary, AngryAnon. Agree with you all the way. I'm still in Berlin, but not for long.
I can't stress how right you are about the friendliness of "auslanders" in Germany. The best and warmest interactions with other humans that I've had have been with Turks, Vietnamese, Poles, and some other expats. These people smile, joke - and if we can't communicate due to a language barrier - they quickly try to use gestures or pen and paper to figure things out (compare that to a regular German who either starts ignoring you are starts saying the same thing by LOUDER).
Also, same thing happened to me when I went to the UK and US on a short visit, except that I got hit with it even at the airport - people were smiling at me, joking, asking me if I'm visiting relatives... just so warm and human.
So I think you are a free person? Who forced you to live two years in a city you hate? What about staying in your own country? What I dont like in Berlin are people like YOU!
" I almost broke down after embracing family members. My body and my soul had forgotten what it is like to feel the warmth of another human being, warmth that is genuine." Of course you will not find the warmth of your family outside your family. Ridiculous to expect this in a foreign country.
Why is it so hard to communicate here?
I've started speaking in the simplest possible terms and I still often get nowhere. For example, I went to the info desk at the hauptbahnoff and asked the lady if a certain train leaves from platform 11 or 13 and the lady answered... "that train is often late".
Can you see any connection between my question and the answer? I don't. Is this malice? Is this some weird rule that I don't know about? This is just one example, but this happens all the time: I'll contact my HR dept. (which is 100% German) and ask something like "How can I see payroll history?" and they'll reply "Yes, it's possible". What?
Are you asking in English or German? I hate this city at least as much as anyone else on this website, but I can't confirm that I have had the problem described above. I actually have found the opposite to be true: people will answer the exact question you ask even if it is obvious that additional information would be helpful.
I've been in Berlin almost a year now, and refrained from making generalisations about Germans during that whole time. But now I have to just admit it, because in the case of Germany, generalisations are often very accurate because there are so few exceptions to the rule (this is a rule based society & culture, and very little individualism (there are subcultures that may look non-conformist in Berlin but within these subcultures they have the same exact collectivist German mentality). Germans are the most sheep-like collectivist most boring people on earth. They are so herd-like it's both disturbing and maddening at the same time. I understand all humans and cultures are prone to groupthink but in Germany its on another level. So far I've found every single German to fit this sheep stereotype except for a few who have lived abroad for a substantial time. It's like a person can never develop a real personality, their own viewpoints/opinions or values while living in this extreme groupthink country.
For a long time I thought I was the only one to notice this. I thought that something must be wrong with me. But then I found this site and found out that I'm not the only one. Made me feel much better.
Sadly, you are entirely correct. It's almost scary that, during a conversation, you can exchange one German for another and you won't notice any interruption - they're THAT similar and conformist.
I have to say that it's a bit scary.
OP here, yes I've had the same experience. At first I thought it was me and that I was being prejudiced. But after some time and after meeting non-Germans and seeing the differences, it became very clear that this generalisation is almost always true. Yes it is scary how conformist & collectivist Germans are. You really can replace one with another and it makes no difference.
Humor the Germans. Develop your own "honne" and "tatemae". Laugh to yourself when the locals "school" you on the proper way to do things. Feign interest when they explain some irrelevant nugget of information about their culture. Maintain your distance at all times. Consume only foreign television, film and news media. When the locals grate too much, just ignore them. A city that shuns any need for human connections has one up side: you won't have to rely on any human in any situation. Burn bridges. Rinse and repeat.
Is there anything that you can do about these motherfuckers not delivering your package? You stay at home, nobody rings and later you get a notice that you have to pick up your package by yourself. Tired of this shit.
Nope. The worst thing is when they leave a notice saying that the package can be picked up at some shop on DAY, but when you go there on that DAY they don't have the package. So you go there a few times over a few days and it's still not there. Then, like 5 days later, it's there. Why give people misinformation?
Also, I work from home so I'm there to accept any packages all day every day. You can't imagine how often I get "attempted delivery, recipient not at home" messages. Lazy assholes.
I'm self-employed. I work from home and I'm in IT.
Some friends that came over met my neighbors and overheard "... that drug dealer is having more and more suspicious people over, we must notify the police".
Ah, nothing like friendly german neighbors, eh?
I hate this place because the people here are ultraconservative no matter where they stand politically. Unless you conform 100% to their norms, you're the worst thing ever.
Do you think Berlin is a boring City ? The people here do always the same.
Mon-Fri = Work/School
Weekend = Go to clubs/get drunk/take drugs
and repeat....
Why the hell do you have to pay for using the bathroom when they don't even having warm water?
Ich hasse u.a. dass es in Adlershof immer so blöd viel Arbeit gibt und dass der Tegel nicht immer ordentlich hoch ist... Und dass ich gerade nicht bei meiner großen Liebe in Dahlem bin! Argh, zum Ausrasten...!
The fact that it's home to 8 of my Ex-boyfriends and two bad one night stands
The factthat I have loved this place for so long, and it never even complained I wouldn't marry her.
The fact that Rail&Fresh will never be fresh
Ich hasse alle, die Berlin hassen!